Race

Race Conditions

Challenge Cairns is a new Ironman-distance race which is part of the Challenge family. They had a pretty impressive lineup, and almost all the names from the Pro start list actually made it. (The notable exception was Cam Brown – I’m not aware of any injuries he has, so I’m not sure what the story is.)

We’ve had a reasonable number of rated athletes, so the adjustment (and course rating) of 12:30 is pretty solid. This means that Cairns is a pretty fast course (similar to Arizona or Texas) but not crazy fast such as Challenge Roth.

Male Results

Chris McCormack was the big favorite, and he didn’t disappoint with a 13 minute winning margin:

Rank	Name	Nation	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Chris McCormack	AUS	08:15:56	08:09:02
2	Matt White	AUS	08:28:36	08:54:46
3	Tim Berkel	AUS	08:29:20	08:34:47
4	Jamie Whyte	NZL	08:35:07	08:48:26
5	Clayton Fettell		08:36:14	n/a
6	David Dellow		08:41:39	n/a
7	Jonathan Hotchkiss		08:42:49	n/a
8	Chris Dmitrieff	AUS	09:17:03	09:09:42
9	Graham O’Grady		13:25:55	n/a

Expected time is based on athlete’s rating (prior to race) and race conditions.

He did go a bit slower than expected based on his rating, but with his recent focus on Olympic distance racing, that was probably not realistic. (This also means that Andreas Raelert is now the #1 rated athlete by a solid margin.) His 2:51 marathon was still quite impressive. Matty White had another great race and took the second spot, Tim Berkel and Jamie Whyte also improved their ratings. Clayton Fettell had a good first IM distance race – it’ll be interesting to see him improve on his 3:11 marathon. 

Female Results

On the women’s side, the pre-race favorite also won the race:

Rank	Name	Nation	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Rebekah Keat	AUS	09:26:31	09:17:07
2	Michelle Mitchell	AUS	09:30:41	09:42:14
3	Carrie Lester	AUS	09:34:56	09:34:06
4	Candice Hammond		09:43:03	n/a
5	Belinda Granger	AUS	09:44:41	09:32:31
6	Christie Sym	AUS	09:49:09	09:55:52
7	Lisa Ribes		09:52:41	n/a
8	Simone Maier		10:05:37	n/a

Expected time is based on athlete’s rating (prior to race) and race conditions.

However, Rebekah Keat was a bit slower than expected – but still managed to win, but only with a four minute margin to Michelle Mitchell who continues to improve her rating and has now climbed to #35 in the women’s rankings. Carrie Lester almost hit exactly her predicted time. Belinda Granger continues her rating slip, since winning IM Canada in 2008 she has not managed to hit her predicted times. However, with 22 races in my database she is one of the most prolific racers (only surpassed by Petr Vabrousek and Hillary Biscay).

Race Conditions

The conditions is Brasil seemed to be very good this year. The race adjustment was 28:19 which is among the fastest I’ve seen so far. It was almost 12 minutes faster than the old course rating for IM Brasil, resulting in faster times than originally predicted.

Male Results

The close fight between the two three time winners Eduardo Sturla and Oscar Galindez didn’t last for much longer than the bike, as Oscar had to pull out of the race. However, Guilherme Manocchio pushed Sturla almost to the finish, at one time he almost closed up, but then Sturla managed to hold on for the win:

Rank	Name	Nation	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Eduardo Sturla	ARG	08:13:12	08:16:12
2	Guilherme Manocchio	BRA	08:15:30	08:32:03
3	Ezequiel Morales	ARG	08:19:49	08:25:44
4	Santiago Ascenco	BRA	08:24:24	08:17:19
5	Chris McDonald	AUS	08:24:34	08:26:10
6	Keegan Williams	NZL	08:37:20	08:47:57
7	Ivan Albano	BRA	08:48:57	08:45:13
8	Luiz Francisco Ferreira	BRA	08:51:14	n/a
9	Lucas Cocha	ARG	08:51:41	09:40:00
10	Mike Schifferle	SWI	08:53:07	08:53:11
11	Antonio Filho	BRA	08:56:26	08:58:04
12	Kelmerson Henri Buck	BRA	09:06:20	n/a
13	Bonieck Clemente	BRA	09:13:50	09:01:00
14	Christian Emiliano Carletto		09:28:54	09:25:50
15	Santiago Amigo	ARG	09:40:11	n/a
16	Richard Wygand	BRA	10:37:08	10:29:20

Expected time is based on athlete’s rating (prior to race) and race conditions.

Ezequil Morales rounded out the podium. There are a lot of relatively unknown but good athletes in South America, so that the better known pros such as Chris McDonald and Keegan Williams didn’t really have a chance for a podium, even as they had pretty good races.

Female Results

Even though Amy Marsh finished a bit slower than the conditions would have allowed, she won the female race in a very convincing fashion:

Rank	Name	Nation	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Amy Marsh	USA	09:07:49	09:04:49
2	Lucie Zelenkova	ZAF	09:14:23	09:18:59
3	Ariane Monticeli	BRA	09:17:25	09:32:43
4	Hillary Biscay	USA	09:33:14	09:47:51
5	Fernanda Keller	BRA	09:48:03	09:45:21
6	Mariana Andrade	BRA	09:49:41	10:26:35
7	Maria Omar	BRA	09:51:19	09:52:20
8	Kelzie Beebe	USA	10:01:52	n/a
9	Silvia Fusco	BRA	10:18:38	10:08:40
10	Alessandra Carvalho	BRA	10:19:49	11:36:57
11	Amanda Balding	USA	10:37:24	10:39:21
12	Mariana Guimaraes	BRA	11:41:05	n/a
13	Ana Lidia Borba	BRA	12:03:10	09:35:44

Expected time is based on athlete’s rating (prior to race) and race conditions.

After Amy Marsh Lucie Zelenkova and Ariane Monticelli were the expected second  and third finishers. It was good to see Hillary Biscay having one of her better races in the last few years, and Fernanda Keller finishing a strong fifth – at age 47!! I wish I was ever going to be as fast as she is now!

Race Conditions

The conditions in Lanzarote were pretty good – at least for the Lanzarote standards. The adjustment for this year was zero, and Lanzarote continues to be the slowest IM course in my database with a course rating of negative 2 minutes (i.e. it is about 2 minutes slower than IM Hawaii).

Male Results

The race was won by Timo Bracht in a pretty convincing fashion, but it was enough to come in close to the time he was expected to do:

Rank	Name	Nation	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Timo Bracht	GER	08:30:34	08:30:53
2	Konstantin Bachor	GER	08:44:05	09:17:21
3	Esben Hovgaard	DNK	08:54:37	08:48:48
4	Joel Jameson		09:01:48	n/a
5	Nicholas Peter Munoz	ESP	09:02:44	09:39:15
6	Gregorio Morales	ESP	09:03:45	09:14:45
7	Christian Nitschke		09:05:34	n/a
8	Rafael Wyss	SWI	09:05:41	09:32:48
9	Aleksandar Markovic	DNK	09:17:28	09:13:00
10	Bo Ballegaard	DNK	09:25:35	09:16:35
11	Dirk Wijnalda	NLD	09:30:25	09:13:56
12	Damien Landon	FRA	09:48:51	09:46:10
13	Fernando Cuenllas		09:59:58	n/a
14	Ivan Tejero Vazquez		10:35:24	10:33:58
15	Jerzy Kasemier	NLD	10:40:15	09:54:35

Expected time is based on athlete’s rating (prior to race) and race conditions.

A couple of people had really good results, most notably Konstantin Bachor who came in second. Relatively unknown Esben Hovgaard came in quite close to his first, great result from IM Florida and rounded out the podium.

Female Results

On the female side, late entries Rachel Joyce and Natascha Badmann snagged the first two spots:

Rank	Name	Nation	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Rachel Joyce	GBR	09:28:12	09:40:37
2	Natascha Badmann	SWI	09:43:39	09:28:18
3	Karina Ottosen	DNK	10:10:14	10:04:14
4	Heidi Jesberger	GER	10:28:32	10:16:35
5	Emma Smith		10:31:07	n/a
6	Nicole Woysch	GER	10:52:01	10:36:17
7	Joanna Carritt	GBR	11:09:59	10:32:50
8	Esther DeVries		11:16:33	n/a

Expected time is based on athlete’s rating (prior to race) and race conditions.

Rachel posted a great result, and her rating leaves her just a few minutes outside the TOP10. It was also good to see Natascha Badmann posting a result after her last race from 2007 and a few DNFs in between.

Race Conditions

This year was the first time that an Ironman was held in Texas. Even with the hot and humid weather the course turned out to be pretty quick, with an adjustment of 15:34. Only IM Florida (about 100 seconds) an Challenge Roth (a bit more than 5 minutes) are quicker courses.

Male Results

Tim O’Donnell had a great first IM race, and it took an excellent performance by Eneko Llanos who won the race. Luke Bell (coming in third) was also in the mix for quite a while and seemed to be really happy with his performance.

Rank	Name	Nation	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Eneko Llanos	ESP	08:08:20	08:13:43
2	Timothy ODonnell	USA	08:09:50	n/a
3	Luke Bell	AUS	08:12:22	08:41:56
4	Jan Raphael	GER	08:20:41	08:34:59
5	Jozsef Major	HUN	08:24:17	08:36:35
6	Axel Zeebroek	BEL	08:28:07	08:51:23
7	Justin Daerr	USA	08:29:44	08:45:30
8	Patrick Evoe	USA	08:32:29	09:06:58
9	Petr Vabrousek	CZE	08:37:59	08:46:04
10	Torsten Abel	GER	08:38:40	08:44:02
11	Mike Neill	CAN	08:39:40	08:46:28
12	Sergio Marques	PRT	08:48:57	08:52:51
13	Luke McKenzie	AUS	08:52:07	08:34:03
14	Matthew Russell	USA	09:03:06	09:13:00
15	Michael Lovato	USA	09:03:49	08:43:51
16	Raul Furtado		09:09:39	09:07:49
17	Brad Seng	USA	09:15:13	09:02:47
18	Sebastian Pedraza	ITA	09:16:38	08:56:44
19	Allan Villanueva		09:26:46	n/a
20	Hirotsugu Kuwabara		09:55:29	n/a
21	John Flanagan	USA	10:02:23	09:46:28
22	Steven Osborne	GBR	10:02:23	09:54:28
23	Jerome Bresson	CAN	10:02:23	09:45:26
24	Daniel Schmoll		13:07:28	09:03:29

Expected time is based on athlete’s rating (prior to race) and race conditions.

A couple of highly rated athletes had to drop out (e.g Chris Lieto) or didn’t even start (haven’t seen a mention of Rutger Beke). As usual, the first half of the field had good races, while the second half was struggling – even some big names such as Luke McKenzie and Michael Lovato.

Female Results

Cat Morrison posted a great result – except for Chrissie Wellington’s time in South Africa it was the fastest IM time this year. Her 8:57 (adjusted to 9:13) lead to her new rating of 9:33 which also allowed her to move into the TTR Top 10.

Rank	Name	Nation	Actual Time	Expected Time
1	Catriona Morrison	GBR	08:57:51	09:24:23
2	Kelly Williamson	USA	09:07:54	09:36:38
3	Sofie Goos	BEL	09:12:53	09:34:04
4	Tyler Stewart	USA	09:13:13	09:30:40
5	Tine Deckers	BEL	09:19:27	09:33:01
6	Kim Loeffler	USA	09:20:04	09:36:40
7	Desiree Ficker	USA	09:24:09	10:19:44
8	Jacqui Gordon	USA	09:27:20	10:03:30
9	Joanna Lawn	NZL	09:32:19	09:15:56
10	Lauren Harrison	USA	09:46:22	09:55:54
11	Michaela Giger	SWI	09:58:43	10:19:06
12	Maki Nishiuchi	JPN	10:06:29	10:06:38
13	Sharon Schmidt-Mongrain		10:09:03	n/a
14	Miranda Alldritt	CAN	10:19:12	10:48:13
15	Dede Griesbauer	USA	10:28:23	09:35:57
16	Caroline Smith		10:35:06	n/a
17	Jocelyn Wong	USA	10:50:50	10:24:01

Expected time is based on athlete’s rating (prior to race) and race conditions.

Almost the full women’s field managed to post faster times than predicted – maybe they were aided just a little bit by the large men’s field? The ratings before the race were close enough and the race proved to be about as exciting as I was hoping for. Desiree Ficker managed to turn in a solid time after a string of DNFs and not so good result – and she still only managed to come in 7th!

I’m sure that Joanna Lawn and Dede Griesbauer were not happy with the way their races turned out. Pre race favorite Jo Lawn was about 15 minutes slower than predicted and was beaten by eight women racers. Dede Griesbauer was almost one hour slower than her rating would have predicted – I’m afraid she’ll have problems to qualify for Kona this year.