Race Conditions

This was the first year that an Ironman was held in Boulder – and probably the last one with a professional field. Overall, it was a relatively slow course (adjustment of 0:17), between IM Lake Placid (a bit slower at -2:22) and Coeur d’Alene (a bit faster at 1:56). The bike seemed to be pretty fast, while the run was a lot slower – not too many fast runs, and only one sub-3h run.

Male Race Results

Richie Cunningham was leading the race for a long time, but Justin Daerr’s 2:56 run carried the day:

Female Race Results

Danielle Kehoe had the best run of the day to take her first Ironman win. She overtook Laura Bennett who couldn’t hold on to the lead in her first Ironman but finished second:

Update (July 31st): Rebekah Keat confirmed she is not starting at IM Boulder.

Update (August 1st): Kyle Buckingham also won’t be starting.

This is the first race on this course – therefore there are no previous results to build a course rating and predicted times from.

KPR points and Prize Money

IM Boulder has 2000 KPR points for the winner. It has a total prize purse of 75k$.

Male Race Participants

Female Race Participants

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

After winning in Lake Placid, it’s very unlikely that we’ll see Kyle Buckingham on the start line. (He has in fact confirmed he won’t start.)  This makes Justin Daerr the clear favorite:

• Justin Daerr: 45% (1-1)
• Kyle Buckingham: 20% (4-1)
• Scott Defilippis: 13% (7-1)
• Richie Cunningham: 9% (10-1)
• Joe Umphenour: 8% (12-1)
• Jared Milam: 4% (26-1)

Female Race Participants

Rebekah Keat is the strongest and most experienced athlete on the start list: With Rebekah Keat not starting, Carrie Lester is the clear favorite for the race:

• Rebekah Keat: 66% (1-1)
• Carrie Lester: 58% (1-1) 20% (4-1)
• Uli Bromme: 29% (2-1) 10% (9-1)
• Christine Hammond: 6% (15-1)
• Olesya Prystayko: 3% (28-1)
• Danielle Kehoe: 2% (50-1)

Race Conditions

Conditions in Whistler were slightly faster than last year, an adjustment of 7:00 leads to a new course rating of 5:07. (Statistically it was a bit weird: Each leg was slower than last year, but overall it was faster. This is caused by they way I discard outliers, it means that when athletes had a good leg, they were way faster than expected, and most other athletes were just slightly slower.)

Male Race Results

Marino won the race in convincing fashion, being close to the front on the swim, then pulling away on the bike and securing his Kona spot on the run. For a long time, Paul Ambrose held on to the 2nd place he would have needed to qualify, then fell back to fourth and eventually battled back into third. Second place was taken by Jeff Symonds with a great 2:40 run, while last year’s winner Trevor Wurtele had great start of the day but struggled to hold on to his great position on the run fading to fourth.

Female Race Results

The women’s race was quite a nail biter: The Top 4 came off the bike within two minutes. Bree Wee was statistically the worst runner of the front pack, but needed a win to get enough points for Kona. With her known fightings spirit, she gave it everything and was elated to take the win. Karen Thibodeau and Mackenzie Madison finished on the podium, leaving only fourth place to Jackie Arendt.

Race Conditions

As usual, Lake Placid was a pretty slow course: This year the adjustment was -0:04, leading to a new course rating of -2:22. The swim and bike were especially slow (probably because of the rainy weather), it was partly compensated by a slightly faster than normal run. 

Male Race Results

Kyle Buckingham took control of the race early on the bike and never let up. Even if he was slightly slower than his earlier results would have indicated, he won in a very convincing fashion and secured a Kona spot. Behind him, Balasz Csoke took second with a good performance across the board, and Jonathan Shearon finished third.

Raymond Botelho took the men’s 7th and „winning“ the prize for #IMLP7th. 

Female Race Results

Amber Ferreira swam faster than all other finishers, then followed that up with strong bike and run performances and took the win. Kim Schwabenbauer and Lisa Roberts took spots on the podium, also securing their Kona slots. 

The winner of the women’s #IMLP7th was Rachel Jastrebsky.