Have been doing research into the odd nooks and crannies of triathlon. Current topic: Women who have won open races outright. I know of three - can any of you point me to others?
The three I know:
On August 12, 1989, Sally Law won the Springfield Sprint Triathlon (Springfield, IL) over a field of about 300 men and women. 1/2-mile swim, 15-mile bike, 3-mile run. 40th (or so) after the swim, moved up to 5th at T2, passed the remaining four men by mile two and won by 35 seconds.
July 19, 2008, Heather Gollnick won the Cardinal Harbour Triathlon (half in Louisville, KY) in time of 4:46:45. 75 total finishers. Note: Another woman (Christina Stiles) was second o/a; nearest male was Adam Jackson, third in 5:07:27.
As I recall, Paula Newby-Fraser won a triathlon in North Dakota, sometime in the late 1980’s. Can’t yet find any information about the race, including race name, date, and number of participants (but if it was a normal race in ND, the field was small - perhaps in the 30’s or 40’s).
Thanks - but running races will have to wait their turn. I know a few of them off the top of my head (at least one in the Western States 100), but the size of the database would make this a much more daunting task.
Any size, any place, tri or du. Note: The more details, the better (or easier) it will be for me to pin down. Name and year of race. Name of winner - and even better, how would I find her now. And so on.
Not an outright win, but how about Susan Williams finishing 3rd 9 days ago at Savageman behind Bjorn Andersson and Josh Beck. I believe there were 4 ladies in the top 10, including former Canadian National Team Roadie Lynne Bessette and Tara Norton
Yes, impressive - but I’m afraid that if I expand the category to “close calls”, I’ll be chasing leads for a long, long time. Note: My wife actually finished second overall in a 1994 race - to ME!! Say, I wonder how many married couples have finished one-two in an open race? And if there have been others, I’ll bet we were the oldest (93 years combined). Caveat: the race had only 70 finishers.
The plan has always been a book - but that’s been “the plan” at least since we sold the magazine in 1993. Maybe still in this lifetime. Premise is a much more locally focused history of the sport.
Think former American pro Deirdre Tennant won the Lanikai triathlon outright on Oahu around 2003… and she may have won a couple of swim-run aquathons in Hawaii between 1999 and 2004 as well. That girl could swim! Top ten Kona pro finisher in 2001 I believe, second U.S. woman behind Gina Kehr if I remember correctly.
She made up the 6 minute wave difference and passed me about 15 minutes into my race.
Won by over a minute over the top male. Interestingly the first person across the line was the second male beause the male winner was in the second wave (and won by 0.13 seconds). Who says aero benefits don’t count.
Not to diminish Kara’s accomplishment - - but no pro male runners were invited. The rock n’ roll series pays huge appearance fees on top of the prize money and my impression was that race was a marketing ploy for Kara’s amazing talent… and a few top local men chickened out because they didn’t want to risk getting chicked…but mainly, no top male runners were invited.
