IM Texas

Updates:

• April 26th: There were a few athletes missing at the Pro Meeting. Some have confirmed previous withdrawals (these athletes are crossed out), some might still check in later (these have a question mark next to their names).
  If all of the athletes that signed in are going to start the race (and only those), it would mean that there are 26 male and 14 female Pros. This would result in 4 male and 2 female Kona slots. (For the slot assignment to change, at least six male Pros would have to not start – quite unlikely.)
• April 22th: A few more withdrawals on the latest start list (Clemente Alonso and Reece Barclay).
• April 13th: Both Jan van Berkel (focuses on IM Switzerland in July) and Kristy Jahn (currently focused on running) won’t be racing in Texas.

Previous Winners

Year	Male Winner	Time	Female Winner	Time
2011	Eneko Llanos (ESP)	08:08:20	Catriona Morrison (GBR)	08:57:51
2012	Jordan Rapp (USA)	08:10:44	Mary Beth Ellis (USA)	08:54:58
2013	Paul Amey (GBR)	08:25:06	Rachel Joyce (GBR)	08:49:14
2014	Bevan Docherty (NZL)	08:09:37	Kelly Williamson (USA)	08:54:42
2015	Matt Hanson (USA)	08:07:03	Angela Naeth (CAN)	08:55:19
2016	Patrick Lange (GER)	07:13:13	Julia Gajer (GER)	08:11:01
2017	Matt Hanson (USA)	07:52:44	Jodie Robertson (USA)	08:56:32
2018	Matt Hanson (USA)	07:39:25	Melissa Hauschildt (AUS)	08:31:05

Last Race Results

You can find the full results from last year’s race here and a longer discussion of the validity of the performances here.

Male Top 3

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time
1	Matt Hanson	USA	00:52:31	04:07:27	02:34:39	07:39:25
2	Ivan Tutukin	RUS	00:49:30	04:10:21	02:35:19	07:39:57
3	Will Clarke	GBR	00:49:49	04:09:58	02:40:43	07:45:22

Female Top 3

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time
1	Melissa Hauschildt	AUS	00:59:07	04:29:55	02:57:07	08:31:05
2	Jodie Robertson	USA	01:00:42	04:27:30	03:08:52	08:43:16
3	Lesley Smith	USA	00:57:50	04:39:56	02:58:47	08:43:51

Course Records

Leg	Gender	Record	Athlete	Date
Total	overall	07:52:44	Matt Hanson	2017-04-22
Swim	overall	00:46:20	John Flanagan	2011-05-21
Bike	overall	04:01:14	Andrew Starykowicz	2017-04-22
Run	overall	02:41:38	Matt Hanson	2014-05-17
Total	female	08:49:14	Rachel Joyce	2013-05-18
Swim	female	00:48:52	Lauren Brandon	2017-04-22
Bike	female	04:40:39	Corinne Abraham	2015-05-16
Run	female	02:51:46	Caitlin Snow	2012-05-19

As noted above, I don’t consider last year’s results eligible for course records. Otherwise Matt Hanson would “improve” on his overall and run records (to 7:39:25 and 2:34:39) and Andrew Starykowicz on his bike record (to 3:54:59). We’d also have new course records on the female side: Lauren Brandon would still have the swim record (but with a 48:19), the bike record would go to Jen Annett (4:25:10) and the overall course record would be by Mel Hauschildt (8:31:05).

Course Rating

The Course Rating for IM Texas is 15:30.

Race Adjustments for IM Texas

Year	Adjustment	Swim Adj.	Bike Adj.	Run Adj.	# of Finishers	Rating	Swim Rating	Bike Rating	Run Rating
2011	11:41	-02:25	17:43	-03:37	41	11:41	-02:25	17:43	-03:37
2012	14:01	-01:15	13:04	02:13	27	12:51	-01:50	15:24	-00:42
2013	07:02	-02:12	11:26	-02:12	30 of 46	10:55	-01:58	14:05	-01:12
2014	17:00	00:27	14:38	01:55	44 of 55	12:26	-01:21	14:13	-00:25
2015	09:29	-01:44	17:12	-05:58	33 of 52	11:50	-01:26	14:49	-01:32
2017	18:46	-01:34	17:56	02:25	42 of 56	13:00	-01:27	15:20	-00:53
(2018)	30:35	-01:51	31:35	00:51	54 of 62	15:30	-01:31	17:39	-00:38

Estimated Time Plan

The following table shows the time plan for the race start and the estimated times for the first athlete in the transition zones or across the finish line. The estimates are based on the start time and my time estimates, these times can change based on how fast or slow the race ends up:

What	Est. Racetime	Est. Local Time
Male Pro Start		06:25
Female Pro Start (tentative)		06:30
Age Group Start		06:40
First Male in T1	00:48:56	07:13
First Female in T1	00:54:43	07:24
First Male in T2	04:57:43	11:22
First Female in T2	05:29:34	11:59
Male Winner	07:57:30	2:22pm
Female Winner	08:28:42	2:58pm

The Woodlands is on Central Daylight Time, 5 hours ahead of UTC. Here are the conversions to a few other time zones:

• + 15 hours: Melbourne (AEST), race starts 9:25pm
• +6 hours: United Kingdom (BST), race starts at 12:25pm
• +7 hours: Central Europe (CEST), race starts at 1:25pm
• +1 hour: US East Coast (EDT), race starts at 7:25am
• -2 hours: US West Coast (PDT), race starts at 4:25am

The race will be available on Ironman NOW through Facebook Watch.

Kona slots and Prize Money

IM Texas has 2m+2f +2u Pro Kona slot(s). It has a total prize purse of 150.000 US$, paying 10 deep. With the current number of Pros (37 males and 17 females), it’s most likely that both “floating slots” will get assigned to the male Pros, but that will be decided based on the number of Pros starting the race.

Male Race Participants

The strength of the field is 56% of a typical Kona field.

#	Bib	Name	Nat	Expected	Rating	ESwim	EBike	ET2	ERun	Consistency	Overall
1	10	Patrik Nilsson	SWE	07:57:30	08:20:04	00:48:56	04:16:10	05:10:06	02:47:24	36% +15% -49% (12)	17
2	1	Matt Hanson (KQ)	USA	07:58:11	08:28:12	00:52:41	04:18:17	05:15:58	02:42:13	19% +25% -56% (14)	40
3	3	Will Clarke	GBR	08:02:20	08:32:21	00:49:43	04:21:35	05:16:18	02:46:02	20% +32% -48% (8)	59
4	8	Joe Skipper	GBR	08:03:11	08:25:45	00:53:17	04:14:50	05:13:07	02:50:04	63% +8% -29% (23)	32
5	7	Michael Weiss (KQ)	AUT	08:04:39	08:23:08	00:55:43	04:09:46	05:10:29	02:54:10	91% +2% -7% (25)	25
6	9	Jan van Berkel	SUI	08:07:01	08:25:40	00:49:53	04:21:36	05:16:30	02:50:31	78% +10% -12% (19)	31
7	40	Andrew Starykowicz (KQ)	USA	08:07:36	08:30:08	00:49:54	04:02:50	04:57:43	03:09:53	10% +51% -38% (12)	50
8	12	Clemente Alonso McKernan (KQ)	ESP	08:09:16	08:22:18	00:49:52	04:21:52	05:16:43	02:52:33	56% +3% -41% (18)	23
9	4	Matthew Russell	USA	08:10:10	08:29:32	00:55:22	04:15:43	05:16:06	02:54:04	43% +29% -28% (48)	48
10	11	David Plese	SLO	08:11:58	08:26:56	00:54:10	04:18:13	05:17:23	02:54:35	88% +4% -8% (28)	34
11	6	Kyle Buckingham	ZAF	08:14:16	08:27:33	00:50:49	04:20:46	05:16:36	02:57:40	66% +6% -28% (18)	38
12	31	Philipp Koutny ?	SUI	08:17:22	08:35:30	00:51:44	04:21:41	05:18:24	02:58:58	41% +25% -34% (12)	65
13	19	Gergo Badar	HUN	08:18:37	08:46:18	00:53:42	04:31:42	05:30:24	02:48:13	n/a (1 IM Pro race)	(102)
14	28	Nicholas Granet	FRA	08:19:27	08:58:59	00:49:57	04:26:47	05:21:45	02:57:42	24% +76% -0% (2)	(148)
15	17	Jonathan Shearon ?	USA	08:24:09	08:45:57	00:55:43	04:22:04	05:22:46	03:01:23	68% +14% -19% (23)	101
16	18	Trevor Delsaut	FRA	08:26:30	08:54:13	00:53:45	04:30:16	05:29:01	02:57:29	24% +13% -63% (30)	134
17	16	Pedro Gomes ?	POR	08:28:51	08:55:50	00:53:37	04:32:31	05:31:08	02:57:43	45% +0% -55% (34)	140
18	38	Alexander Schilling	GER	08:29:08	08:47:47	00:49:38	04:29:17	05:23:55	03:05:13	100% +0% -0% (3)	(108)
19	39	Raul Tejada	GTM	08:32:06	08:56:45	00:54:18	04:33:38	05:32:57	02:59:09	100% +0% -0% (2)	(143)
20	20	Reece Barclay	GBR	08:32:48	08:56:08	00:49:30	04:35:22	05:29:51	03:02:57	74% +0% -26% (3)	(143)
21	29	David Hanko	HUN	08:33:21	09:02:21	00:50:19	04:34:40	05:29:59	03:03:22	47% +53% -0% (2)	(160)
22	25	Clay Emge	USA	08:33:50	09:17:00	00:56:08	04:35:41	05:36:49	02:57:01	31% +0% -69% (3)	(203)
23	23	Gregory Close ?	USA	08:34:01	09:13:31	00:58:52	04:28:04	05:31:55	03:02:06	12% +22% -66% (13)	(192)
24	35	Sebastian Najmowicz	POL	08:34:44	08:57:46	00:50:19	04:32:09	05:27:28	03:07:16	n/a (1 IM Pro race)	(146)
25	30	Allan Hovda	NOR	08:44:14	09:11:55	00:59:39	04:32:38	05:37:17	03:06:57	69% +31% -0% (7)	185
26	21	Blake Becker	USA	08:45:13	09:11:59	00:58:46	04:34:19	05:38:05	03:07:08	1% +61% -38% (23)	187
27	32	Colin Laughery	USA	08:47:47	09:21:47	00:56:39	04:34:14	05:35:53	03:11:54	59% +22% -19% (10)	(216)
28	34	Urs Mueller	SUI	08:49:13	09:10:52	00:54:13	04:34:24	05:33:36	03:15:37	66% +9% -25% (11)	183
29	15	Balazs Csoke	HUN	08:49:44	09:11:20	00:49:30	04:42:49	05:37:19	03:12:25	56% +5% -39% (32)	184
30	36	Ohad Sinai	ISR	09:32:01	10:00:19	01:03:02	04:50:37	05:58:39	03:33:22	49% +51% -0% (3)	258
	14	Mauricio Mendez Cruz	MEX	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (1 IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	22	Alexander Berggren ?	SWE	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	24	Pete Dyson ?	GBR	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (1 IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	26	Martin Fredriksson ?	SWE	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	27	Pablo Gomez	COL	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	33	Yorlliry Moreno	VEN	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	37	Sam Proctor	GBR	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)

Female Race Participants

The strength of the field is 19% of a typical Kona field.

#	Bib	Name	Nat	Expected	Rating	ESwim	EBike	ET2	ERun	Consistency	Overall
1	45	Daniela Ryf (AQ)	SUI	08:28:42	08:35:25	00:54:43	04:29:51	05:29:34	02:59:08	76% +18% -6% (14)	1
2	46	Jocelyn McCauley (KQ)	USA	08:58:45	09:21:47	00:55:16	04:47:38	05:47:53	03:10:52	23% +39% -38% (12)	21
3	49	Lesley Smith	USA	09:01:40	09:22:28	00:57:54	04:55:37	05:58:31	03:03:09	62% +0% -38% (3)	23
4	51	Kirsty Jahn	CAN	09:03:50	09:32:19	00:59:10	04:50:49	05:54:59	03:08:51	43% +21% -37% (6)	44
5	48	Kimberley Morrison	GBR	09:07:49	09:31:28	00:56:04	04:39:39	05:40:43	03:27:06	100% +0% -0% (2)	43
6	54	Dimity-Lee Duke	AUS	09:20:30	09:36:29	01:01:22	04:54:40	06:01:02	03:19:28	74% +6% -20% (17)	47
7	47	Jennie Hansen	USA	09:25:17	09:46:16	01:05:28	04:59:59	06:10:27	03:14:50	77% +0% -23% (14)	60
8	53	Natasha Van der Merwe	USA	09:35:16	10:05:47	01:04:59	04:59:49	06:09:49	03:25:27	38% +49% -13% (13)	91
9	58	Jessica Jones	USA	09:39:11	10:04:36	00:58:22	05:06:12	06:09:34	03:29:37	100% +0% -0% (2)	(89)
10	60	Ashley Paulson ?	USA	09:43:37	10:08:31	01:14:54	05:12:04	06:31:58	03:11:39	82% +11% -8% (10)	94
11	61	Caroline St-Pierre	CAN	09:49:43	10:10:21	00:59:12	05:20:07	06:24:19	03:25:24	88% +0% -12% (6)	98
12	56	Anne Basso	FRA	09:52:25	10:21:04	00:59:12	05:11:53	06:16:05	03:36:20	36% +3% -61% (21)	114
13	55	Palmira Alvarez	MEX	09:59:37	10:24:16	01:10:40	05:07:12	06:22:52	03:36:45	89% +11% -0% (7)	117
	50	Jeanni Seymour	ZAF	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	52	Sarah Lewis	GBR	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	57	Hilary Fenton	USA	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)
	59	Sarah Karpinski	USA	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	n/a (no IM Pro race)	(n/a)

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

• Matt Hanson: 40% (1-1)
• Patrik Nilsson: 11% (8-1)
• Joe Skipper: 11% (8-1)
• Michael Weiss: 8% (11-1)
• Jan van Berkel: 8% (11-1)
• Andrew Starykowicz: 7% (13-1)
• Will Clarke: 7% (14-1)
• Matthew Russell: 6% (15-1)

Female Race Participants

• Daniela Ryf: 81% (1-1)
• Jocelyn McCauley: 8% (12-1)
• Lesley Smith: 5% (20-1)
• Kirsty Jahn: 4% (26-1)
• Kimberley Morrison: 2% (39-1)

Updates:

• March 25th: Added Lucy Charles-Barclay, Jennie Hansen, Sarah Lewis, Jocelyn McCauley, Ashley Paulson (WPRO) and Clemente Alonso McKernan, Reece Barclay, Will Clarke, Gregory Close, Nils Frommhold, Nicholas Granet, Yorlliry Moreno, Sebastian Najmowicz, David Plese, Matthew Russell, Ohad Sinai, Joe Skipper, Andrew Starykowicz, and Michael Weiss (MPRO). Some of these are probably only on the list as a back up for IM South Africa.
• March 6th: Added Palmira Alvarez, Daniela Ryf, Jeanni Seymour, Lesley Smith, Natasha Van der Merwe (WPRO) and Balazs Csoke, Clay Emge, Pedro Gomes, Alexander Schilling, Jonathan Shearon (MPRO)
• Linsey Corbin has indicated that she won’t be racing Texas, also Kirsty Jahn announced a move to running. Both are probably not racing and I have crossed them out in the list.

Kona Slots and Prize Money

IM Texas has 2m+2f +2u Pro Kona slots. It has a total prize purse of 150.000 US$, paying 10 deep.

Male Race Participants

Name	Nation
Clemente Alonso McKernan (KQ)	ESP
Reece Barclay	GBR
Blake Becker	USA
Alexander Berggren	SWE
Will Clarke	GBR
Gregory Close	USA
Balazs Csoke	HUN
Trevor Delsaut	FRA
Pete Dyson	GBR
Clay Emge	USA
Martin Fredriksson	SWE
Nils Frommhold	GER
Pedro Gomes	POR
Pablo Gomez	COL
Nicholas Granet	FRA
Matt Hanson (KQ)	USA
Allan Hovda	NOR
Colin Laughery	USA
Yorlliry Moreno	VEN
Urs Mueller	SUI
Sebastian Najmowicz	POL
David Plese	SLO
Sam Proctor	GBR
Matthew Russell	USA
Alexander Schilling	GER
Jonathan Shearon	USA
Ohad Sinai	ISR
Joe Skipper	GBR
Andrew Starykowicz (KQ)	USA
Michael Weiss (KQ)	AUT

Female Race Participants

Name	Nation
Palmira Alvarez	MEX
Anne Basso	FRA
Lucy Charles-Barclay (AQ)	GBR
Linsey Corbin (KQ)	USA
Dimity-Lee Duke	AUS
Hilary Fenton	USA
Jennie Hansen	USA
Kirsty Jahn	CAN
Jessica Jones	USA
Sarah Karpinski	USA
Sarah Lewis	GBR
Nicole Luse	USA
Jocelyn McCauley (KQ)	USA
Kimberley Morrison	GBR
Angela Naeth	CAN
Ashley Paulson	USA
Daniela Ryf (AQ)	SUI
Jeanni Seymour	ZAF
Lesley Smith	USA
Caroline St-Pierre	CAN
Natasha Van der Merwe	USA
Annah Watkinson	ZAF

When discussing the performances from Ironman Texas, most of the discussion is focused on two extremes: On one side, the position by Ironman seems to be “most everything went right, so the results are legit”. On the other hand, a lot of people argue that the results are invalid, creating an empty feeling by the athletes who did well in Texas.

I want to argue for a middle position – to me, the results shouldn’t be accepted as valid records while at the same time I want to point out some of the amazing performances we have seen in Texas.

No Records in Texas

There were a lot of issues with the Texas race this year, among them:

• The bike courses short (by Ironman’s own admission), although there is some discussion as to the extent. The general consensus seems to be that the course was close to 110 miles (one example is the GPS data in the Slowtwitch post on Texas). This puts it short of the 112 miles of an Ironman-distance bike leg, but is well within the length of some other courses.
• There were a lot of reports of blatant drafting, both in the Pro fields and among agegroupers.
• All non-competitors (including the draft marshals) were pulled from the bike course for “safety reasons”.

By analyzing the results and comparing the Texas times to other performances, there are a number of observations that show how unusually quick the Texas times have been:

• On average, the Pro athletes in Texas posted bike times that are about 12.2% quicker (or more than 30 minutes for a 4:30 bike ride) compared to their times on an average course, the largest number I have observed in analyzing Ironman-distance races since 2005. The closest bike adjustments are just over 9% (Barcelona 2015, Florida 2013). Just for comparison, the largest adjustment for Challenge Roth (often the “poster child” for a short course) is 5.9% (2009 and 2011).
• If we accept the bike times, this would mean that 9 of the 10 fastest female bike times were set in the 2018 Texas race. The only non-Texas time would be Daniela Ryf’s 4:31 from Roth 2016.
• If we accept the overall times, this would mean that there were 9 national records set in Texas this year. Last year’s race was already quick but only created to four new records.

To me, all this is a clear indication that the data from IM Texas 2018 is far outside of the normal parameters. As a consequence, I will not use them to rate the athletes that raced in Texas and will also not use them for future predictions.

Of course, the data cannot show the reason why the results are off. One can only speculate – were there favorable weather conditions (apparently yes, but  it’s hard to imagine improving times by more than a few minutes), was the course short (apparently not by much, at least not shorter than other races that did not produce abnormal data), was there drafting (apparently yes, but of course not uniformly – at least we can be sure that Starky didn’t draft any competitor when he rode his 3:55 bike split), was there a draft by camera motor cycle (unlikely as there wasn’t much coverage of the race and all motos were pulled from the course), etc. Even athletes riding legally will still get a good benefit when they are 12 meters behind a large drafting peloton. Speculating about what has caused a fast time is exactly what I don’t want to do. It’s also impossible to decide on an athlete-by-athlete basis to accept or not accept a performance without a lot more data then what is made available. Of course, this also means that the performance of some athletes get rejected even if they were not impacted by the factors above (or not quite as much) .. and of course I also understand the athlete’s frustration about this.

Still, the Texas times should not be accepted as records. To me, records are like a rubber band – you can stretch it a bit, but when you put too much weight on it, it will break. Following the fastest times across different races and courses was always fun, even if any list of “fastest times” immediately created a lot of “yeah, buts …”. We are now in a place where “raw records” don’t really make much sense.

For a list of fastest times to start making sense again, a few things have to happen:

• Certify course lengths.
  This would be an excellent project for the ITU and Ironman to tackle. Define a protocol for how to properly measure (incl. what is called “short course prevention” for road race measurements), set up an organization for measuring courses, pre-measure courses and release these measurements before a race. Then define acceptable parameters for “a full Ironman-distance race”, such as will short courses be accepted and some triathlon-specific issues such as currents in the swim.
• Define minimum officiating standards.
  A lot of the standards are already in place, but often not fully enforced. I can’t see how you can have a record when there are no draft marshals.
• Give the women a better chance not to be impacted by the agegroup race.
  A ten-minute gap between the Pro women and the fast agegroupers is not sufficient, especially if the Pro swim is without a wetsuit and the agegroup race is wetsuit-legal. Mel Hauschildt wrote on her blog: When the AG men overtake the Pro women, “the women’s race gets put on hold, the safety car comes out and brings the field back together until they’re free to race again a couple hours later.”

Defining the rules on when a race circumstances are acceptable as a record would be a great sign of a further maturing sport. In the absence of these rules, any comparisons between different courses purely on finish time is pretty meaningless and I’m struggling with whether it makes sense to put together any record-lists for now.

Great Performances in Texas

Even if I have argued above that the Texas times are not acceptable as records, there were still a number of great performances in that race. Based on my analysis of race data I have also built an adjustment model that compares results from different courses or races on the same course but different years. These adjustments (creating a course-independent “normalized time”) is not transparent enough to be used as a basis for a “world records list”, but even if the Texas data is likely outside the limits of the model, it still gives a reasonable indication of how the Texas performances compare to performances on other courses.

Here are a few great performances that should get more attention.

Matt Hanson Runs a 2:34 Marathon

When Matt crossed the finish line in first place with a 2:34:39 marathon, I found it hard to believe that the course was accurate – it was almost eight minutes quicker than last year’s winning marathon and seven minutes quicker than his own course record. In addition, by all accounts Matt was working hard on the bike, first being forced to close a gap of three minutes after the swim until the first turnaround and then pushing the pace in the chase group. With the data from the other competitors and GPS data, it seems clear that the course was the same as in previous years and relatively accurate. In my race database (going back to 2005) I could only find 11 sub-2:40 marathons, with the fastest being a 2:37 by Bart Aernouts from IM France 2013 on a course that was likely to be a bit short. (There is also Peter Reid’s 2:35:21 run split at IM Austria 1999, which was short by at least 1.5k.) When looking at the normalized time of Matt’s run, my analysis lists only two better run performances: Patrick Lange’s Kona runs from 2016 and 2017 that were faster by 38 and 44 seconds. I can’t wait to see what happens in Kona when Matt figures out how to run well in Kona!

Mel Hauschildt Wins Her Third Regional Championship on Different Courses

When Mel is healthy and able to train consistently, she is almost impossible to beat. Since stepping up to Ironman racing in 2014, she has won six Ironman races and is unbeaten in any Ironman she raced outside of Kona (DNF in 2016 and a 14th in 2017 when she didn’t have much time to prepare after two surgeries). As is typical for her, Mel lost some time in the Texas swim, she had to make up three minutes to most of her competitors. It took her about 90k to close that gap and usually she’s riding even better in the second half of the bike. In her blog Mel describes how frustrating it was to her to work hard only to be overtaken by agegroup men being able to slingshot behind her and forcing her to sit up to move to a legal distance .. only to have the process repeated again and again. But then Mel was able to show her strong run, took the lead after the first of three run loops and won with a gap of more than 12 minutes. Texas was the third Regional Championship she raced in, and it was also the third she was able to win. Matt Hanson also has three Regional Championship wins as well, but while Matt’s were all in Texas, Mel’s wins were on three different courses: Melbourne 2015, Frankfurt 2016 and now Texas 2018. This shows that Mel can race well on almost any course. If her prep for Kona goes well, we’ll see her mix up the field in Kona – to me she’s a strong podium contender.

Andy Starykowicz Posts a 3:55 Bike Split

The “headline performance” in Texas that caught the most attention was Andy Starykowicz’s blazing fast 3:54:59 bike split – the first sub-4 bike ride in any Ironman race. He was probably the athlete that had the least benefit from the issues discussed in the section above, after all there is no draft at the front of the race. Andy exited the swim with the front group and quickly rode away from the rest of the field. In T2 he had a lead of more than 14 minutes to the chase group. His bike time was more than eight minutes quicker than Johannes Ackerman’s (who tried to go with him but had to let go after the half-way mark) and more than eleven minutes quicker than anyone else in the field. He was clearly riding a step above everyone else in the field. Regardless of whether you accept his bike split as a world record or not, sponsors should be happy to pay out the bonuses to Andy – it’s not his fault that the race had a few issues, and he delivered what he set out to do. After his amazing bike split, Andy also posted one of his best run splits – he ran a 3:00:57 (his best run split is a 2:58 from Florida 2013) and finished in eighth place, securing his Kona slot. He’ll be one more strong bike rider in the Kona field – and I’m sure that he’ll join forces with Cam Wurf to lower the 2018 Kona race even further than what we’ve seen last October. With their bike strength and the progress on the run both Andy and Cam are working for, they will be making Kona even more exciting.

Lauren Brandon Has the Fastest Swim Overall

In all the coverage of the Texas race, the female swim was only a side note. But Lauren Brandon managed something that is rarely seen: Her 48:19 was the fastest swim split overall! (The fastest male was Sean Donnelly with a 49:06, he DNF’d.) She also put more than five minutes into Meredith Kessler and eight minutes into the rest of the female field. With her swim she set a new course record (improving on her own time from last year) and also swam faster than she and Lucy Charles did in Hawaii last October (also a non-wetsuit swim). Comparing swim times across races is tricky because the conditions can vary quite a lot, but Lauren’s swim is one of the best swim performances we have ever seen by a female Pro. If the conditions are right, I’m sure she and Lucy Charles will attack the swim course record in Kona.

Great Returns From Injury by Will Clarke and Matt Russell

Some of the most satisfying results came from athletes that raced Texas after being seriously injured. Will Clarke was qualified for Kona but had to decline his slot after he crashed on the bike and hurt his shoulder. It has taken him some time to regain decent mobility in the shoulder again and his prep races at 70.3 Dubai and Challenge Roma did not quite go according to plan. But he was in great shape for Texas and a third-best run split allowed him to claim the final step on the podium. He’s now in a good position to qualify for Kona 2018.

Another athlete I was very happy to see race in Texas was Matt Russell. Matt was hit by a car during the race in Kona and almost got killed when he lost a lot of blood. After a few days in the hospital he needed some time to recover but by now he seems to have made a full recovery. He posted the third-best bike split making up the time he lost in the swim to the front group, but he wasn’t yet able to deliver his typical 2:50-ish run split in Texas. A 3:02 run saw him fall back to 14th place. It’ll be tough for him to qualify for Kona, but typically he’s been doing five to seven IMs per year – hopefully he’ll be able to continue to race often and well!

Course Conditions

As you can see from a quick glimpse at the results, this year’s IM Texas was super-fast. This first impression is also supported by my analysis of athlete’s performances, cross-referencing their times from other courses to IM Texas. Compared to previous editions, the results of Pro athletes this year have been about 12 minutes faster on average than last year. The swim and bike have been pretty normal for IM Texas. Even with Matt Hanson’s winning marathon time of 2:34:39, the run course was on the same course as in previous years, the times may even have been slightly slower.

The discussion on various social media is focused on the bike times. (The bike leg is where the times were much faster than in previous years.) Part of it was from a shortened course, as acknowledged by Ironman Texas on their Facebook page:

I’m not sure if this FB post is telling the whole story of the bike course length: By a number of accounts the course was short last year, and the course maps showed that it was shortened even more for this year. However, it is nice that Ironman acknowledges the course was short and not eligible for any records. I will also consider the IM Texas results “invalid” and will not use them for fastest times or performances. (The comparisons between expected and actual times in the tables below are my best effort of analyzing the race.)

But even the shortened bike course is not telling the real story of the fast bike times at IM Texas. By almost all accounts from the race, there was rampant drafting going on during the bike leg, both in the Pro and agegroup ranks. Here are just a few observations from social media about the race:

• In the briefing, the Pros were told that there likely wouldn’t be any draft marshaling in the second loop of the bike (Tweet by Ray Botelho).
• Because of the crowding on the bike course, marshalls were pulled off the course during the race (Tweet by Tim Vibrock).
• The main part of the bike course is an out-and-back on the three-lane Hardy Road. One lane is supposed to be for the out-leg, one for the back-leg and the third lane (the shoulder lane) for marshalls. Apparently this breaks down as soon as the bulk of AGs enters the road, and it’s no longer safe for officials to use the third lane (series of tweets by Kirk Noyes).
• At least one Pro, Dimity-Lee Duke, abandoned the race when she didn’t want to join in the drafting going on (see her Instagram post).

While there were some crazy fast times on the bike (such as Andy Starykowicz’s 3:55, more than 8 minutes faster than anyone else in the field, or Jen Annett’s 4:25 followed by 4:27s and a 4:29) and also on the run (not only Matt Hanson’s 2:34:39, two sub-3 runs in the female field by Mel Hauschildt and Lesley Smith and also a number of what would have been PRs), the shortened bike course and the drafting make any “what would have been” a pure guessing game.

All in all, it was disappointing to see a Regional Championship provide such a frustrating race for most everyone involved. Of course there is a personal responsibility not to draft, but when there is no effort in enforcing the drafting rules and packs are forming, no one is held to a standard that is expected of Pro athletes (and age groupers as well).

The race organizers worked hard to come up with a course that’s acceptable to all communities involved. But Ironman could always be trusted to provide a good, reliable racing experience, and this year’s IM Texas fell short of that standard. I hope that the organizers will address the issues for future races in Texas.

Male Race Results

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	(Diff to exp.)	Prize Money	KPR Points
1	Matt Hanson	USA	00:52:31	04:07:27	02:34:39	07:39:25	-26:33	US$ 30,000	4000
2	Ivan Tutukin	RUS	00:49:30	04:10:21	02:35:19	07:39:57	-19:10	US$ 15,000	3400
3	Will Clarke	GBR	00:49:49	04:09:58	02:40:43	07:45:22	-18:43	US$ 8,000	2890
4	Tim Van Berkel	AUS				07:47:43	-08:17	US$ 6,500	2455
5	Jan van Berkel	SUI	00:49:28	04:10:14	02:44:17	07:48:40	-16:21	US$ 5,000	2090
6	Brent McMahon	CAN	00:49:26	04:10:26	02:44:52	07:49:49	02:26	US$ 3,500	1670
7	Ruedi Wild	SUI	00:49:22	04:10:22	02:45:00	07:50:19	-08:32	US$ 2,500	1335
8	Andrew Starykowicz	USA	00:49:27	03:54:59	03:00:57	07:50:56	-15:27	US$ 2,000	1070
9	Frederik Van Lierde	BEL	00:49:25	04:10:29	02:48:32	07:53:43	-01:29	US$ 1,500	855
10	Johann Ackermann	GER	00:49:15	04:03:19	02:59:38	07:57:02	-14:07	US$ 1,000	685
11	Jeremy Jurkiewicz	FRA			02:55:00	07:58:45	-11:23		515
12	David Plese	SLO	00:54:09	04:13:36	02:47:07	08:00:33	-06:03		385
13	Paul Matthews	AUS	00:49:23	04:10:48	03:01:35	08:06:14	03:57		290
14	Matthew Russell	USA	00:54:07	04:05:56	03:02:38	08:07:42	03:55		215
15	Matic Modic	SLO	00:56:44	04:14:15	02:53:05	08:09:39	-09:08		160
16	Samuel Huerzeler	SUI	00:54:47	04:11:48	02:58:13	08:10:43	-06:22		120
17	Kristian Hoegenhaug	DEN	00:54:55	04:11:31	02:59:33	08:11:49	16:25		90
18	Daniil Sapunov	UKR	00:49:31	04:15:36	03:01:58	08:12:48	-02:55		70
19	Justin Daerr	USA	00:52:21	04:19:46	03:01:43	08:19:07	06:50		50
20	Jesse Vondracek	USA	00:52:41	04:17:55	03:04:10	08:20:21	-15:42		40
21	Sebastian Najmowicz	POL	00:49:33	04:20:47	03:05:55	08:21:51	n/a		25
22	Alexander Chikin	RUS	00:56:16	04:19:42	03:03:07	08:25:22	-12:53		25
23	Blake Becker	USA	00:58:52	04:21:52	03:02:17	08:28:17	-21:44		25
24	Seppe Odeyn	BEL	01:09:15	04:21:15	02:53:41	08:30:07	-07:46		25
25	James Capparell	USA	00:49:32	04:21:43	03:15:45	08:32:24	-00:54		25
26	Jozsef Major	HUN	00:59:12	04:27:30	03:02:51	08:37:28	20:47		25
27	Raymond Botelho	USA	00:58:57	04:20:20	03:17:31	08:43:03	-07:33		25
28	Jordan Monnink	CAN	00:56:53	04:33:08	03:06:53	08:43:40	06:41		25
29	James Lubinski	USA	01:07:13	04:24:34	03:09:21	08:47:01	03:34		25
30	Mike Schifferle	SUI	01:03:43	04:26:35	03:18:31	08:58:03	17:22		25
31	Peter Kotland	CZE	00:59:00	04:34:34	03:24:48	09:05:49	-09:12		20
32	Per Bittner	GER	00:54:47	04:33:03	03:41:52	09:15:13	1:08:13		20
33	Tripp Hipple	USA	00:53:42	04:18:37	03:56:42	09:15:16	58:44		20
34	Max Biessmann	USA	00:52:25	04:25:18	03:53:10	09:16:20	-23:30		20
35	Ohad Sinai	ISR	01:05:52	04:28:26	03:46:25	09:27:14	-04:17		20
36	Christopher Stock	USA	01:09:25	04:31:12	03:59:04	09:50:11	n/a		20
37	Ignacio Rubio Gomez	ESP	00:59:20	04:42:53	05:15:08	11:06:53	25:48		20
	Michael Fox	AUS	00:49:08	04:10:54		DNF
	Sean Donnelly	GER	00:49:06	04:15:29		DNF
	Mikolaj Luft	POL	00:53:52	04:16:51		DNF
	Trevor Delsaut	FRA	00:54:52	04:48:43		DNF

Tim Berkel lost hos timing chip in the swim and his maraton time in the results (2:51) does not correspond to how the race developed. By his own data he swam in the 49-minute group, rode a 4:10 (coming off the bike in 4th place) and then ran a 2:43. Jeremy Jurkiewicz probably also had issues with his chip, I’m not sure how accurate his marathon time is.

Female Race Results

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	(Diff to exp.)	Prize Money	KPR Points
1	Melissa Hauschildt	AUS	00:59:07	04:29:55	02:57:07	08:31:05	-17:16	US$ 30,000	4000
2	Jodie Robertson	USA	01:00:42	04:27:30	03:08:52	08:43:16	-14:10	US$ 15,000	3400
3	Lesley Smith	USA	00:57:50	04:39:56	02:58:47	08:43:51	-23:04	US$ 8,000	2890
4	Michelle Vesterby	DEN	00:56:05	04:33:11	03:11:20	08:45:47	-04:10	US$ 6,500	2455
5	Sara Svensk	SWE	00:59:33	04:32:33	03:09:53	08:46:49	-19:54	US$ 5,000	2090
6	Meredith Kessler	USA	00:53:47	04:34:32	03:13:27	08:47:44	03:37	US$ 3,500	1670
7	Jen Annett	CAN	01:02:23	04:25:10	03:16:52	08:49:27	-12:11	US$ 2,500	1335
8	Kimberley Morrison	GBR	00:56:23	04:27:45	03:21:54	08:50:59	-13:47	US$ 2,000	1070
9	Tine Deckers	BEL	00:59:29	04:35:01	03:17:18	08:57:34	02:50	US$ 1,500	855
10	Darbi Roberts	USA	00:56:19	04:41:32	03:15:27	08:59:03	-19:31	US$ 1,000	685
11	Caroline Gregory	USA	00:59:31	04:43:00	03:17:18	09:05:06	-1:00:29		515
12	Helena Kotopulu	CZE	01:12:20	04:45:39	03:09:55	09:15:02	-08:51		385
13	Lauren Brandon	USA	00:48:19	04:38:15	03:48:20	09:20:16	19:18		290
14	Kelly Fillnow	USA	01:07:56	04:46:43	03:20:33	09:21:26	-04:56		215
15	Robyn Hardage	CAN	01:03:18	04:50:34	03:22:02	09:22:13	-14:54		160
16	Amanda Wendorff	USA	01:02:26	04:34:46	03:56:19	09:39:51	09:49		120
17	Kimberly Goodell	USA	01:03:46	04:52:41	03:40:03	09:43:13	07:45		90
	Jocelyn McCauley	USA	00:56:51	04:32:12		DNF
	Dimity-Lee Duke	AUS	00:59:39			DNF
	Helena Herrero Gomez	ESP	01:03:45			DNF
	Ashley Paulson	USA	01:19:00			DNF

Kona Qualifying Implications

Here are the top men and their Kona qualifying chances:

• Automatic Qualifier: Matt Hanson, Frederik Van Lierde (validated his AQ as former Kona champion)
• Safe: Tim Van Berkel, Ivan Tutukin and Andy Starykowicz
• On the Bubble: Brent McMahon, Jan Van Berkel
• Close (but more points needed): Ruedi Wild, Will Clarke, Jeremy Jurkiewicz

And a look at the females and their race to Kona:

• Automatic Qualifier: Mel Hauschildt
• Safe: Lesley Smith
• On the Bubble: Tine Deckers
• Close (but more points needed): Jodie Robertson, Michelle Vesterby