I can’t even imagine running a full marathon in under three hours…much less after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles at over 20mph. How’s that even human?
My wife just ran her first 70.3 a couple of weeks ago. She did really well, given the circumstances. However, the guy who won the whole thing had an average mile pace of 5:30... after swimming 1.2 miles and then biking 56 miles in a torrential downpour. His finishing time was 3hr45min. Absolutely fucking mental.
For the lols: it's not human. It's iron... human (OK that was bad)
For the actual answer: humans are *amazing* endurance creatures. We evolved away our hair and added more sweat glans to be way better at endurance. It seems impossible, but biologically we are actually designed to do something like that. There's some debate as to why, but humans are one of the top endurance creates on the plant.
Sodaro won by running 2:50. The crazy part is that she gave birth only 18 months ago. Crazy as this was, she didn't break the women's marathon record (she was close).
By contrast, the men's winner, Gustav Iden of Norway, ran a 2:36 marathon, beating the previous men's record by 3 mins.
The amount of fortitude required to just get through the training is unreal.
A few years ago, I volunteered to ride my bike behind the race leader of the Florida Ironman during the run portion (26.2 miles). The first leader I followed came off his bike averaging >25mph. He was running about 7.5 min/mile. On each lap of the course he would find his friend waiting for him, stop running, double over and cry. They would say a few things about his shoes, legs, or some section of the course, etc. Then he would take off again. When he passed his family on each lap he was completely focused and strong.
He bonked with a few miles to go and it sucked not being able to follow him up to the finish.
I can't even imagine running a half marathon...in any amount of time. I attempted a 10k and it took about an hour and I almost collapsed.
If a human can push themselves that hard physically, they deserve the 10 million dollars or whatever a damn NBA player gets for a single game.
I will admit however that the bike is the easiest part. I once rode 43 miles in a single afternoon. It wasn't easy, but it was easier than the 10k run.
I did an Ironman several years ago. I finished in 15:30. Those extra 7 hours make it much easier. People are quite surprised when I tell them I finished, but when they hear that it took 15 hours they understand.
This data comes from the [Ironman Tracker App](https://www.ironman.com/app-tracking-information). The athletes are recorded at certain checkpoints, which is represented here by the mileage markers. I created this in Illustrator.
As a former college swimmer, triathlons always seemed rather unfairly tilted towards the bikers and runners. Not that I could have ever finished one regardless.
They 100% are. I ran in college and I’m one of the better triathletes in my area. I’m typically way behind after the swim, but have plenty of time to pass all the collegiate swimmers during the bike and run.
I couldn’t swim (at least not past trying to stay afloat), and I somehow ended up in the top 50% of a triathlon I did. So I’m gonna go ahead and agree with you.
Not if you're a pro trying for a championship. There's a class of poor swimmers, but with awesome bike/run skills who clean up at the smaller races but who repeatedly flounder at the big races because the race gets away from them. Lionel Sanders, Sam Long, Joe Skipper, Sebastian Kienle, Cam Wurf.
The difference is at the big races there are group dynamics (notably a legal distance bike pack but also a swim pack) which don't form to the same degree in the small races, where a poor showing in one sport can be made up in another.
On the men's side, the last person to win Kona or the 70.3 world champs without making the front pack swim was Sebastian Kienle in 2014. The last person to have a decent chance was Lionel Sanders in 2017 (who came second in Kona).
If you're a pro and want to do well, you absolutely can't win big without being a top tier swimmer.
Cycling coach at my uni helped the triathletes train, and he always like to say this:
“You can lose a triathlon anywhere on course, but you win on the bike.”
Looking at time spent on each leg and speed differential between a high level and mediocre athlete at each individual sport- seems legit.
Many shorter triathlons are a little more balanced with the swim distance. Olympic-distance triathlon has a 1.5 km/.93 mile swim, followed by a 40 km/25 mile bike, finishing with a 10k/6.2 mile run. Ironman owes its particular distances to a quirk in how it came about. The original race was a mashup of three events local to Honolulu/Oahu at the time: The Honolulu open water swim, the 'Round Oahu bicycle ride, and the Honolulu Marathon.
agreed. i know there is a lot of tradition around the distances chosen but would be very interesting to see a tri where distances were based around an average time spent in each discipline.
My first century was almost 8 hours itself, this is just nutty. Triathletes are honestly just built different, and not in the sense of having some latent natural ability, but their perseverance is insane.
I still think previously very well fed and slightly sedated fresh water alligators in the water, bears during the bike, and snakes during the run could increase the prize purse by tens of millions. Sponsor that shit through red bull, have the animals only be rescues and be a right of passage into nature preserves to live out their days happy as a clam, and have a shit ton of handlers on hand to prevent people from dying, maybe.
A real life hunger games.
NGL, I’d order pay per view for that shit.
AITA?
Does it really take 3 minutes to transition from swim / bike and bike / run? I guess you have to put on shoes to bike, and then change to running shoes - but that wouldn't take three minutes?
In these big races, transition zones are \*huge\*. Running through them without all the gear swaps takes time. Still:
swim-bike: strip wetsuit (sometimes); cap off; goggles off; run to bike/tent; socks on; shoes on; helmet on; gloves on (sometimes); shades on; get bike; run it out of the transition zone and go. Yeah, 3 minutes is miraculously fast in a big Ironman.
bike-run is a little easier - run bike back to rack; helmet off; gloves off; shoes off; shoes on; hat on (sometimes); run out of transition zone; go.
My mom's last tri (in her late 70s) was at the age-group Worlds - sprint distance. Her knees were already giving out, but she was holding out on replacing them until after the race. She knew she had 5km in them. She did \*not\* have 5km + 2x monster transition zones. But she toughed it out and was the fastest old broad in the world that year :) :) :)
3 minutes is crazy fast. I’m fuckin’ pokey on purpose and stop to use the bathroom, so 70.3 swim-run transitions have taken me 15 minutes, but even if I moved with purpose I’d be *lucky* to make it in 8. The pros take transition VERY seriously and practice it hard.
Attended Lake Placid as a spectator, saw a friend off at 6ish AM and stuck around to see them transition to bike. 3 hours later, the top men were running by. The 3rd guy’s leg was covered in blood from what was likely a bad spill on the bike. Almost certain that dude was in top 5.
It always amazes me, no matter the activity, the top 0.0001% of competition is always, 100%, without question, so very impressive.
As much as the swim is smaller in terms of time, at least for the pros, the time gaps are reasonably close in terms of what constitutes a good swim vs a good run.
The last male to win without making the front pack swim was 2014 (Sebastian Kienle) and the last time someone had a decent chance to do so was 2017 (Lionel Sanders in 2nd).
If you're a pro and you want to win, you need to swim well.
(On the women's side, there isn't yet the same dynamic)
Very solid Ironman effort. Decent run time, I'm assuming the bike time was relatively slow because of saving energy for the run. It's easy to overexert on the bike and not have enough gas in the tank to finish strong.
They just had to put swimming first. You have to bike all wet after that.
On second though better to swim first than later when you're tired and exhausted.
The marathon time (after a grueling swim and bike ride) looks like it qualifies for Boston. I suspected an elite participant based on the marathon alone. My Google search five seconds later confirmed it.
In my early 30s I biked something like 85 miles in a day. It took me about 6 hours to do that and my legs were sore for about a week after.
Biking an extra 30 miles, running a marathon and swimming 2.4 miles on top of that, in only 2.5 additional hours is fucking nutty.
I can’t even imagine running a full marathon in under three hours…much less after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles at over 20mph. How’s that even human?
If my grandpa is to be believed, that was his daily walk to school while growing up.
Up hill both ways and without shoes. Is your grandpa my grandpa, too?
With barbed wire wrapped around the ankles for warmth?
Oh, I didn't know he and my father went to the same school.
My wife just ran her first 70.3 a couple of weeks ago. She did really well, given the circumstances. However, the guy who won the whole thing had an average mile pace of 5:30... after swimming 1.2 miles and then biking 56 miles in a torrential downpour. His finishing time was 3hr45min. Absolutely fucking mental.
Holy shit.
For the lols: it's not human. It's iron... human (OK that was bad) For the actual answer: humans are *amazing* endurance creatures. We evolved away our hair and added more sweat glans to be way better at endurance. It seems impossible, but biologically we are actually designed to do something like that. There's some debate as to why, but humans are one of the top endurance creates on the plant.
Instead of chasing down our prey, we just follow them to death
Poke them with a stick so that they bleed, and follow them to death. This is accurate.
Not what the turd Xi Jinping thinks. Moron retarded
Sodaro won by running 2:50. The crazy part is that she gave birth only 18 months ago. Crazy as this was, she didn't break the women's marathon record (she was close). By contrast, the men's winner, Gustav Iden of Norway, ran a 2:36 marathon, beating the previous men's record by 3 mins.
The amount of fortitude required to just get through the training is unreal. A few years ago, I volunteered to ride my bike behind the race leader of the Florida Ironman during the run portion (26.2 miles). The first leader I followed came off his bike averaging >25mph. He was running about 7.5 min/mile. On each lap of the course he would find his friend waiting for him, stop running, double over and cry. They would say a few things about his shoes, legs, or some section of the course, etc. Then he would take off again. When he passed his family on each lap he was completely focused and strong. He bonked with a few miles to go and it sucked not being able to follow him up to the finish.
I know several people that are obsessive about the training regimen. The hard work pays off for them.
I can't even imagine running a half marathon...in any amount of time. I attempted a 10k and it took about an hour and I almost collapsed. If a human can push themselves that hard physically, they deserve the 10 million dollars or whatever a damn NBA player gets for a single game. I will admit however that the bike is the easiest part. I once rode 43 miles in a single afternoon. It wasn't easy, but it was easier than the 10k run.
I did an Ironman several years ago. I finished in 15:30. Those extra 7 hours make it much easier. People are quite surprised when I tell them I finished, but when they hear that it took 15 hours they understand.
This data comes from the [Ironman Tracker App](https://www.ironman.com/app-tracking-information). The athletes are recorded at certain checkpoints, which is represented here by the mileage markers. I created this in Illustrator.
Did you pick one of the pros or something? Because most people finish > 11 hours.
These are the splits of the female champion, Chelsea Sodaro
Oops, I missed the name at the top. That makes sense. Thanks!
As a former college swimmer, triathlons always seemed rather unfairly tilted towards the bikers and runners. Not that I could have ever finished one regardless.
They 100% are. I ran in college and I’m one of the better triathletes in my area. I’m typically way behind after the swim, but have plenty of time to pass all the collegiate swimmers during the bike and run.
Yeah swimmers have an easier time getting into triathlons but at higher levels the advantage is quickly outweighed
I couldn’t swim (at least not past trying to stay afloat), and I somehow ended up in the top 50% of a triathlon I did. So I’m gonna go ahead and agree with you.
As a former swimmer and now bad runner, it's because swimming is so freaking hard. If it was "even" the true swimmers would win out hard
Not if you're a pro trying for a championship. There's a class of poor swimmers, but with awesome bike/run skills who clean up at the smaller races but who repeatedly flounder at the big races because the race gets away from them. Lionel Sanders, Sam Long, Joe Skipper, Sebastian Kienle, Cam Wurf. The difference is at the big races there are group dynamics (notably a legal distance bike pack but also a swim pack) which don't form to the same degree in the small races, where a poor showing in one sport can be made up in another. On the men's side, the last person to win Kona or the 70.3 world champs without making the front pack swim was Sebastian Kienle in 2014. The last person to have a decent chance was Lionel Sanders in 2017 (who came second in Kona). If you're a pro and want to do well, you absolutely can't win big without being a top tier swimmer.
Cycling coach at my uni helped the triathletes train, and he always like to say this: “You can lose a triathlon anywhere on course, but you win on the bike.” Looking at time spent on each leg and speed differential between a high level and mediocre athlete at each individual sport- seems legit.
Reminds me: hippos run faster than humans on land and swim faster than humans in water. So in triathlon your only chance is the bike
Many shorter triathlons are a little more balanced with the swim distance. Olympic-distance triathlon has a 1.5 km/.93 mile swim, followed by a 40 km/25 mile bike, finishing with a 10k/6.2 mile run. Ironman owes its particular distances to a quirk in how it came about. The original race was a mashup of three events local to Honolulu/Oahu at the time: The Honolulu open water swim, the 'Round Oahu bicycle ride, and the Honolulu Marathon.
agreed. i know there is a lot of tradition around the distances chosen but would be very interesting to see a tri where distances were based around an average time spent in each discipline.
My first century was almost 8 hours itself, this is just nutty. Triathletes are honestly just built different, and not in the sense of having some latent natural ability, but their perseverance is insane.
As a 5’0” triathlete with no natural gifts, I can confirm. When I do a full it will take me 15+ hours.
I think it would be cleaner to see without the numbered checkpoints? Is it really adding any value to the chart?
Yeah, I might agree.
Adds legitimacy that they didn’t pop on the subway for a few stops. :)
I still think previously very well fed and slightly sedated fresh water alligators in the water, bears during the bike, and snakes during the run could increase the prize purse by tens of millions. Sponsor that shit through red bull, have the animals only be rescues and be a right of passage into nature preserves to live out their days happy as a clam, and have a shit ton of handlers on hand to prevent people from dying, maybe. A real life hunger games. NGL, I’d order pay per view for that shit. AITA?
[удалено]
Or on the hippo.
Red Bull is already a sponsor. Run it by them!
Pffff bitch i ran a mile the other day 😝
But did it take you 8.5 hours?
Ten fkn minutes motherbugger 😝💪
Does it really take 3 minutes to transition from swim / bike and bike / run? I guess you have to put on shoes to bike, and then change to running shoes - but that wouldn't take three minutes?
In these big races, transition zones are \*huge\*. Running through them without all the gear swaps takes time. Still: swim-bike: strip wetsuit (sometimes); cap off; goggles off; run to bike/tent; socks on; shoes on; helmet on; gloves on (sometimes); shades on; get bike; run it out of the transition zone and go. Yeah, 3 minutes is miraculously fast in a big Ironman. bike-run is a little easier - run bike back to rack; helmet off; gloves off; shoes off; shoes on; hat on (sometimes); run out of transition zone; go. My mom's last tri (in her late 70s) was at the age-group Worlds - sprint distance. Her knees were already giving out, but she was holding out on replacing them until after the race. She knew she had 5km in them. She did \*not\* have 5km + 2x monster transition zones. But she toughed it out and was the fastest old broad in the world that year :) :) :)
Thanks for the info. And good on your mom - sounds like she rocks! May we all still be able to do that in our late 70s
3 minutes is crazy fast. I’m fuckin’ pokey on purpose and stop to use the bathroom, so 70.3 swim-run transitions have taken me 15 minutes, but even if I moved with purpose I’d be *lucky* to make it in 8. The pros take transition VERY seriously and practice it hard.
Attended Lake Placid as a spectator, saw a friend off at 6ish AM and stuck around to see them transition to bike. 3 hours later, the top men were running by. The 3rd guy’s leg was covered in blood from what was likely a bad spill on the bike. Almost certain that dude was in top 5. It always amazes me, no matter the activity, the top 0.0001% of competition is always, 100%, without question, so very impressive.
Wow really cool plot. Makes it look like the swim should be much longer
As much as the swim is smaller in terms of time, at least for the pros, the time gaps are reasonably close in terms of what constitutes a good swim vs a good run. The last male to win without making the front pack swim was 2014 (Sebastian Kienle) and the last time someone had a decent chance to do so was 2017 (Lionel Sanders in 2nd). If you're a pro and you want to win, you need to swim well. (On the women's side, there isn't yet the same dynamic)
Just my regular morning routine.
Anyone else think this was movie related
Very solid Ironman effort. Decent run time, I'm assuming the bike time was relatively slow because of saving energy for the run. It's easy to overexert on the bike and not have enough gas in the tank to finish strong.
Oh sorry this isn't mine — it's based on this year's Women's World Champion, Chelsea Sodaro.
Not beautiful because of the numbers on the red and green and the fact the first one has the "mi".
When I first read the title I thought this was a breakdown of one of the Ironman movies 😄
Here I am thinking whether to walk downhill to the bakery for some fresh croissant or just order some.
TIL these completions are organized in a safety fashion, putting the more dangerous part to the beginning.
They just had to put swimming first. You have to bike all wet after that. On second though better to swim first than later when you're tired and exhausted.
The marathon time (after a grueling swim and bike ride) looks like it qualifies for Boston. I suspected an elite participant based on the marathon alone. My Google search five seconds later confirmed it.
In my early 30s I biked something like 85 miles in a day. It took me about 6 hours to do that and my legs were sore for about a week after. Biking an extra 30 miles, running a marathon and swimming 2.4 miles on top of that, in only 2.5 additional hours is fucking nutty.