Race Conditions
IM Wales 2013 highlighted the fact that Wales is the slowest of the current IM-distance courses. I calculated an adjustment of -30:06, leading to a new course rating of -20:21. The bike was just a little bit slower than last year (-27:31 adjustment vs. -22:18), the main difference to last year was the run which was very fast last year (adjustment of 21:07), and “normal” this year (-2:01). There was some talk about the run course being “intentionally short” in order to compensate for the long run from the swim exit to T1. Based on the times, I would say that the run course had pretty much the right length this year.
Male Race Results
Scott Neyedli won another Ironman (this time as a “working athlete”). He was in the front group after the swim, then pulled away on the bike (posting the best bike split at 5:11) and also had a very fast run. His victory was never in doubt during the run. Marek Jaskolka was able to hold on to his good position after the swim and came in second with a solid bike and run. The third spot on the podium was taken by Michael Goehner, who had to make up a lot of time on the run.
Rank | Name | Nation | Swim | Bike | Run | Time | Diff to expected |
1 | Scott Neyedli | GBR | 00:47:13 | 05:11:26 | 03:02:35 | 09:09:10 | -10:48 |
2 | Marek Jaskolka | POL | 00:47:05 | 05:16:02 | 03:07:22 | 09:18:16 | -00:07 |
3 | Michael Goehner | GER | 00:52:07 | 05:16:10 | 03:02:05 | 09:19:01 | 07:18 |
4 | Markus Thomschke | GER | 00:51:11 | 05:17:29 | 03:06:47 | 09:23:57 | -05:43 |
5 | Harry Wiltshire | GBR | 00:47:01 | 05:19:02 | 03:15:54 | 09:29:08 | -36:03 |
6 | Henrik Oftedal | NOR | 00:59:19 | 05:22:15 | 03:05:50 | 09:36:10 | -25:33 |
7 | Xavier Diepart | BEL | 00:54:01 | 05:27:16 | 03:08:46 | 09:38:35 | -00:08 |
8 | James Brown | GBR | 01:00:50 | 05:31:07 | 03:13:46 | 09:53:31 | -02:29 |
9 | Morten Truelsen | DEN | 00:59:48 | 05:21:24 | 03:27:48 | 09:57:20 | 00:21 |
10 | Ludovic Le Guellec | FRA | 00:59:01 | 05:59:20 | 03:35:13 | 10:43:15 | 07:32 |
11 | Martin Cain | GBR | 01:00:39 | 06:08:42 | 04:10:35 | 11:32:07 | 12:24 |
12 | Florian Kratz | GER | 01:04:36 | 06:42:27 | 04:11:35 | 12:11:10 | 43:14 |
13 | Olivier Cardoen | BEL | 00:53:50 | 05:19:15 | 06:11:22 | 12:33:02 | 32:44 |
Female Race Results
After winning in the UK, Lucy Gossage also won the “other” British Ironman. She took control of the race on the bike and never was in any danger. Last year’s winner Regula Rohrbach tried to stay with her as long as possible but didn’t stand a chance on the run. Katja Konschak had the best run, but was too far back after the bike for a better spot.
Julia Gajer struggled a bit on her “first” Ironman race. Before, she raced Challenge Roth three times under 9 hours, but moving from one of the fastest courses (Roth with an adjustment of 18:29) to the slowest (IM Wales at -20:21) proved to be a challenge for her. (It just goes to show what a large influence the course plays). Update: As Jo Carritt indicated in her comment on this post, my initial comment was unfair to Julia. I’ve confirmed that Julia had two flats, couldn’t fix the second one and had to wait for tech support. By then she was freezing cold and probably had to fight to even finish. I hope she’ll have better luck in her next race and that she’s going to be able to race at her Roth level!
Rank | Name | Nation | Swim | Bike | Run | Time | Diff to expected |
1 | Lucy Gossage | GBR | 00:56:59 | 05:31:36 | 03:15:02 | 09:51:21 | -05:25 |
2 | Regula Rohrbach | SUI | 00:56:01 | 05:36:54 | 03:35:44 | 10:18:00 | -03:50 |
3 | Katja Konschak | GER | 00:51:09 | 06:02:30 | 03:12:39 | 10:24:05 | -01:18 |
4 | Julia Gajer | GER | 00:52:05 | 06:16:41 | 03:18:25 | 10:35:56 | 48:11 |
5 | Joanna Carritt | GBR | 00:59:07 | 06:07:13 | 03:28:55 | 10:45:40 | -09:10 |
6 | Katharina Grohmann | GER | 01:10:14 | 06:14:26 | 03:13:41 | 10:48:22 | 09:43 |
7 | Amy Forshaw | GBR | 01:03:46 | 06:23:28 | 03:41:58 | 11:21:25 | 20:58 |
8 | Bethan Fowler | GBR | 01:04:21 | 06:30:20 | 04:10:58 | 11:56:11 | 01:12 |
9 | Zsuzsanna Harsanyi | HUN | 01:02:01 | 06:56:15 | 03:49:15 | 11:59:54 | 17:20 |
you are correct – this edition of the race included a full length (actually, about 0.5km over) marathon whereas it was measured ~2km short in previous years.
the “mile dash” through transition adds 6-8 min onto T1 and therefor overall finish times, but this is not very much longer than T1 in NewZealand or Lanzarote (to name two other long transitions that I know of)
Julia Gayer suffered at least one puncture during the race – i don’t think it’s fair to say that she “struggled with the challenging course” – just had some bad luck
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