October 2019

Kona Kings & Queens is a collaboration project with sports photographer James Mitchell to highlight some of the Pros racing in Kona. James supplies his awesome pictures (for more check his Instagram account), I add some data and commentary.

So far, Carrie has had a stellar 2019 season. She was disappointed when her 2nd place at Arizona with an 8:44 wasn’t good enough for Kona qualifying, but she got her slot without a problem with a win at IM France in June and then also set a new course record at IM Mont Tremblant in August. Look for her to work hard on the bike to start the run in a good position – and if she can improve her marathon time (so far her best Kona run is a 3:15 from 2016), she might have her career-best Kona finish.

This is an excerpt from my “Kona 2019 Rating Report”. You can download your copy here.

Kona Kings & Queens is a collaboration project with sports photographer James Mitchell to highlight some of the Pros racing in Kona. James supplies his awesome pictures (for more check his Instagram account), I add some data and commentary.

Coming off a great fifth place in Kona 2018, Braden’s 2019 season has been a bit up and down. A third place at IM New Zealand in March wasn’t enough to grab a Kona slot, so he had to race IM Cairns in June even though he had already committed to race Challenge Roth in July. He defended his Asia/Pacific Regional Championship title in Cairns, winning by almost twenty minutes, but then was maybe a bit tired to race well in Roth just four weeks after Cairns. The wheels came off in the last part of the bike, and GI issues forced him to end his race after the first half of the run.
While disappointed with that result, his physical recovery has been relatively smooth: “When you don’t run that marathon on tired legs and just do the 20km at a steady pace, the impact physically isn’t significant. It just feels like it’s been a big training day.” He quickly focused on his Kona build, ending with an all-around solid win at 70.3 Sunshine Coast (4 seconds off the fastest swim, 7 seconds off the fastest bike, fastest run by almost two minutes).
It’ll be interesting to see how Braden is going to race with the experience he gained in his last Kona races and if he will be able to finish even higher up. If everything goes well, he should be in a good position at the start of the run, much like in 2018. If he is then able to run sub-2:50, he would be a strong contender for a podium finish.

This is an excerpt from my “Kona 2019 Rating Report”. The Report also has a detailed description of the 2018 race from Braden’s perspective. You can download your copy here.

Kona Kings & Queens is a collaboration project with sports photographer James Mitchell to highlight some of the Pros racing in Kona. James supplies his awesome pictures (for more check his Instagram account), I add some data and commentary.

Kim is one of the strongest Ironman athletes on the bike, and when things go well she’s able to quickly overcome her swim deficit. In Texas she was able to make up more than four minutes to Daniela Ryf and Jocelyn McCauley and was the first female on the run. In Kona she’s probably hoping for tough conditions with lots of wind in order to maximize her bike strength. Which position in the strong and deep Kona field will she have when she reaches T2 in her debut race on the Big Island?

This is an excerpt from my “Kona 2019 Rating Report”. You can download your copy here.

Kona Kings & Queens is a collaboration project with sports photographer James Mitchell to highlight some of the Pros racing in Kona. James supplies his awesome pictures (for more check his Instagram account), I add some data and commentary.

Josh continues to be the best swimmer on the Ironman distance, and he’s likely going to be the T1 leader in Kona for the third year in a row. A lot of the dynamic in the early part of the race will depend on his pace at the start of the swim: Will he swim away from everyone else in the field as in 2017 (maybe even going for a course record this year?), or will he start at a more moderate pace which resulted in a much bigger lead group in 2018? Maybe he will find “a middle ground” that helps to quickly create a small lead group of athletes who are then able to build a nice gap to the chase group. This would be great for the faster swimmers such as Jan Frodeno or Tim O’Donnell but might create problems for the others who then will either have to work harder on their own or lose more time than they would like to.

Once on the bike, Josh has been riding well in Kona and was able to stay with the faster bike riders at least until Hawi. Maybe that was a bit too hard for him, he lost a lot of time in the second half of the bike and also didn’t have a good run: In 2017 he finished 29th after a 3:25 marathon, in 2018 he DNF’d. With his additional experience in long-distance racing and in Kona, he’ll be looking to have a better result this year.

In his 2019 Ironman races he was able to run sub-3 marathons and I’m sure that’s his target for Kona as well. It’ll be interesting to see what pacing strategy he’s going to choose for his 2019 Kona race.

This is an excerpt from my “Kona 2019 Rating Report”. You can download your copy here.