Ironman Canada 2017 (Whistler) – Analyzing Results

Race Conditions

The times at IM Canada have been quite slow this year: Apart from 2015 when unexpected, cold rain impacted a lot of the Pros, the conditions were the slowest in Whistler so far. Nonetheless the positioning of the race (it was the last race before the first Kona cutoff) led to a strong field and a number of new course records. The top three bike times were faster than the 2013 record by Uli Brömme (5:13),  the new record is Rachel McBride’s 5:06:41. While Uli still holds the run course record (3:06) she also lost the overall record (was 9:28). Again, the top three finishers were able to break her time, Linsey Corbin holds the new course record with her time of 9:17:12.

Female Race Results

The first two legs were dominated by Rachel McBride who posted both the fastest swim and bike times. In T2 she was leading by almost seven minutes. But then the faster runners showed their strengths: Linsey Corbin ran the day’s fastest marathon (3:08) and took the lead shortly before the half marathon mark. Linsey eventually won by more than seven minutes over Jen Annett who outran Rachel by eleven minutes. Rachel nonetheless had a solid day and was happy to hang on for third place.

Rachel Joyce needed a third place for a secure Kona slot, she was struggling a bit all day (probably not yet fully recovered from her win at IM Whistler less than two months ago) and couldn’t close the gap to the podium. Rachel finished fourth and has to hope for a number of rolldowns if she wants to make it to Kona.

Linsey was already safe for Kona before the race – she has gained some confidence for October. Rachel and the other potential Kona qualifiers Danielle Mack and Leslie Miller couldn’t score enough points to climb into the Top 28 points slots, so a bit surprisingly no additional Canada racers were able to grab a slot.