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.

Susie has been up and down in Kona: She has two sixth places in 2015 and 2017, but also two disappointments with a DNF in 2016 and a 26th in 2018. Based on this series, she’s due for another Kona Top 10 this year. Her win at IM Hamburg has shown that she’s ready to hard work on the bike and is then still able to run well. A similar performance in Kona would see her in a great T2 position, ready to fight for a good Kona result on the run.

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.

Andi raced his first long-distance race at the end of the 2017 season and has quickly found his stride. In 2018 he was second at Challenge Roth, then he finished 13th in Kona, leading the chase group for most of the bike leg. He played a big role in Patrick Lange’s race as well – his strong effort on the bike helped Patrick to reach T2 is a great position to defend his title.

This season also went well for Andi: He was able to secure an early slot with a sixth place at IM South Africa. This opened up his summer calendar and he was able to once again race Challenge Roth. This year he and Andi Boecherer kept Cam Wurf from taking the lead on the bike, and after a solid 2:51 marathon Andi became the first Franconian athlete to win in Roth.

Andi is a solid Top 10 contender for Kona, however he had a bike crash when he was racing 70.3 Worlds in Nice. He’s already back on his bike and in his final Kona prep in Gran Canaria. Fingers crossed that he’ll be on the Kona start line fit and healthy – then you can expect him to play an even bigger role in this year’s race!

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.

Even though Jocelyn had qualified with a course-record win in New Zealand in March, she decided to race IM Texas just eight weeks later. And what a race it was: Jocelyn helped create one of the closest Ironman races that also included Daniela Ryf.

Jocelyn swam six seconds slower than Daniela, but then refused to let Daniela ride away on the bike. When super-biker Kim Morrison joined them after closing a four-minute swim gap, the lead group of three stayed together for the rest of the bike leg. Jocelyn even was audacious enough to take a turn at the front for the last 15k and was the first to reach T2. This was the first time ever that Daniela was not the T2 leader in one of her Ironman races, and only the second time that Daniela didn’t post the fastest bike split. (The other race was Dani’s very first IM in Zürich 2014 when Iron legend Natascha Badmann was a few minutes quicker on the bike.)

But the fun wasn’t over in T2: Jocelyn quickly took the lead and was able to build a gap of two minutes after 12k. Her lead stayed the same until 25k before Daniela rallied and slowly started to cut down on Jocelyn’s lead. Still, it took her until 36k before she was able to wrestle the lead from Jocelyn. In the end, Daniela won by less than two minutes.

Will we see a repeat of Jocelyn’s plan in Kona? She should be a bit ahead of Daniela after the swim, so let’s see if she’s going to stick to Daniela when she moves ahead. But even if Dani is way stronger on the bike than in Texas and Jocelyn isn’t able to follow her, I expect Jocelyn to race strong on the bike. When she was tenth in Kona 2017, she finished with a 3:16 marathon. This year, both her marathons were under three hours. I’m sure Jocelyn will do her part to make the female Kona 2019 race very interesting!

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.

Last year’s seventh place in Kona was a huge step forward in Joe’s racing and probably an even better performance than his sub-8 finish in Roth 2016. As is typical for him he lost some time in the swim and in the first half of the bike. But then he was part of a strong second bike group with Bart Aernouts and Matt Russell that was able to make up time to the race favorites. He also paced well on Ali’i, running an even marathon and moving ahead of athletes struggling in the second half of the run. He’s still looking for a good 2019 result – after a 4th in Texas he had a DNF in Germany (struggling with an injury) and a DQ in Wales when he threw away his tube after fixing a flat. He did some of his heat prep with Patrick Lange in Texas – maybe he was able to glean some of Patrick’s secrets for a fast Kona run?

(Correction: Not sure where I got the idea that Joe was prepping in Texas. Joe himself pointed out to me that he was training on Maui and doing a few sessions with Sebastian Kienle. I’m sure Sebi had some good ideas for racing well in Kona!)

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.

As a weaker swimmer, Sarah is forced to play catch up all day. In smaller fields she’s working hard on the bike to quickly put herself back in contention for the win, but she also knows where to put in the effort for a good result in Kona. It’s unlikely we’ll see her in the picture in the live coverage and you’ll have to watch the tracker for her progress through the field. If she’s able to unleash another super-fast run after a solid swim and bike, she’ll have the Top 10 in her sights. Maybe she can even improve on her seventh places from 2015 and ’16?

Thorsten: In almost all your races, you start “from behind” after the swim. How do you approach the Kona swim?

Sarah: To be honest, my swim is what it is. I have worked for YEARS to try to improve it and I just don’t seem to be able to get much better. I feel like I have the potential to make that sub-1 hour pack, but I won’t go into the race counting on that as I’ve learned too many times that I just can’t rely on my swim. If I happen to have a great one, it will be icing on the cake, and I know we will have a strategy for that, but I’m prepared for whatever comes my way in terms of swim performance.

T: In most races you’re usually one of the fastest bikers and can quickly erase part of your swim deficit. With the deeper field and resulting groups in Kona, do you have to be more patient?

S: I definitely think coming out of the water behind puts me at a disadvantage on the bike … but also in some ways an advantage. I think the groups ride HARD and aggressively and that is why you see so many people crumble on the run. By not being in the group, I think it makes it much harder to make up time, but I also think it allows me to follow my own race plane and sets me up well for the run. I wouldn’t say I hold back on the bike, I just think when you are riding solo vs. in a pack (even at legal distances) it is hard to bridge up in a race like Kona. I’m hoping for some wind this year though as I do think the windier it gets the more it can break up groups, which helps me.

T: You’ve been running extremely well this year with a 2:53 and a 2:56, so what do you see as possible in Kona? And what will that mean in the end?

S: “Well under 3” is definitely the plan for Kona :-). This year is really the first year where I let myself just go for it on the run and its really given me the confidence to put myself out there and take chances. This year there are SO MANY strong female runners. I think we could see as many as ten women run under 3, which is unprecedented. It’s awesome. But because of that, I think it is hard for me to predict how I will end up. I showed myself in Brazil earlier this year that if I have a cracker of a day I can be in the mix. But there are so many talented women. My goal is to run my fastest and best marathon ever. If I do that, I will definitely move up. It’s just so hard to know where that will put me. I think it could be as high as Top 3, or it could be like last year where I ran sub 3 and finished 11th. I think this year versus past years I am not going into the race with a placing in mind or as my goal. I’m going in really just wanting to have my best ever performance in Kona and potentially ever. That is my goal. And if I do that – we’ll see where it puts me 🙂

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