6:55AM: Welcome to Silverman coverage in Slowdef. It's WINDY here in Las Vegas, as 300+ athletes and as many as 5 competitive teams vie for the win and, more importantly, $100,000 in prize money for the first team to break 8 hours.
Headlining the field is the team featuring Tyler Hamilton, the once-darling of the cycling community who's since fallen into disfavor over a positive test for blood doping. His sponsor is, aptly enough, athleteslawyer.com, the firm owned by Howard Jacobs, who is the lawyer for athletes finding themselves under a drug cloud (think of very prominent cyclists and track & field athletes).
Hamilton's runner is Kenyan Ernest Kimeli, a 2:11 marathoner but more often a top half-marathoner, running generally in the 62-minute range.
Hamilton is the focus and, let's be honest, this is why triathletes are interested. It's not Hamilton in particular, it could be anybody, just so it's a bike racer of international caliber, because this is where triathlete-meets-cyclist over 112 timed-race miles. It's Tyler against Bjorn Anderson and the Swedish Doodes, featuring bikini model hunk Jonas Colting in the swim and triathlete turned runner Patrik Tjardal in the run.
The swim is now underway -- more on the top swim field in a minute.
6:50AM: Dave Scott and our chief spotter, Mark Montgomery, are sitting on the beach as the sun comes up over the painted desert, wishing they had beers. "It's way worse than Kona," says Monty, referring to a vicious sidewind that'll hammer the swimmers in both directions. He's talking about this year's Kona, when the side currents made the swim historically slow.
The top swimmers here will be John Kenny, Mark Warkentin and Scott Kaufman. The latter is on Hamilton's team. Warkentin is on Inside Out Sports' team and Kenny is on a late entry, which we'll talk about.
The interesting news is that at least in the early going, Jonas Colting is hanging nicely. Perhaps it's because he's used to both wetsuit and open-water swimming.
6:50AM: Warkentin was a swimmer for USC, four years an All-American who graduated in 2002. He's been named to this year's U.S. Open Water national team (I didn't know they had that). He's the national 25k champion and, yes, that's 25k worth of swimming. So we know he can go the distance.
John Kenny is part of that U.S. open water swim milieu, as is Kaufman, but the latter has been a recent pool speedburner as well, posting sub-4-minute times over 400m long course within the past couple of years. One cannot easily imagine Swedish Doode Colting hanging with this group, but we'll soon see.
7:20AM: The swimmers are coming in. Dave Scott swam this last year, it was glassy, and he swam 50-flat. It's nasty out there today, and these guys appear to be flying. The times for the first three are 44:50, 44:55, and 45:15, and it appears to be Warkentin for the win, with Kaufman and then Kenny the third among them.
The fourth place swimmer, who was going it alone and without a kayaker, missed a buoy and had to backtrack, losing some minutes. We don't yet know who that was, but it very well might've been Jonas Colting.
7:25AM: This is not a Wild West free for all. The organizers bused in Charlie Crawford, the Wyatt Earp of triathlon. It's 10 meters, and it's the stagger rule. I certainly hope this doesn't cause a bullspit (pardon my cowboy talk) penalty. The stagger rule is certain to cause the occasional bit of confusion among the non-triathlon crowd, and Charlie pointed out in the pre-race meeting that the "stagger" is in effect past 10 meters, that is, if you're directly behind another cyclist a half-mile in front of you, you're liable to get popped. But the course is not closed. So... obey traffic rules? (Stay as far to the right as is practical). Or, obey race rules? I hope this isn't a recipe for disaster.
Also, the drug police are here. The top swimmers, cyclists and runners will be tested, as well as the top team.
7:30AM: Yes, it was Jonas Colting who took the bad turn. He's out of the water in 54-flat, so his teammate Bjorn Anderson has a 9-minute gap to make up. Monty relates that there were plenty of colorful words coming out of the Swede's mouth as he exited the water, and that, "his English is fine."
7:32AM: Slowtwitch.com has completed the Silverman Pro Relay bike Survey. Out of the five competitive teams, four of the cyclists were riding Cervelo P3Cs. That renders irrelevant what the other guy was riding. And yes, Tyler is atop one of them.
7:40AM: We're going to try to get an early split on the bike. But we need to warn you, our spotters are out in no-wheres-ville, where cell and 2-way radio coverage is exceedingly spotty. But Monty's on his green BMW 1100cc crotchrocket, and renewed cell coverage is only a speeding ticket away. That's the price we pay to bring you the best coverage possible.
7:50AM: Warkentin, first out of the water, is on the Inside Out Sports team. Eric Bean is the cyclist. Eric is a triathlete of reasonable skill, and is one of the smarter guys on the multisport circuit, by the way, serving on USAT's board and with a head on his shoulders. This team would've been better, however, had Chris Lieto been on it. But he chose Clearwater instead of coming here, perhaps a questionable move in light of his 8th place, but that's in hindsight.
Everton Morais is the runner, a Brazilian speedster no-doubt dug up by Inside Out's owner Cid Cardoso, Jr. Cid maintains a close connection to his birth country, and Morais is another half-marathon specialist who can and does race toe-to-toe wtih the Kenyans.
8:03AM: Tyler has gotten himself to the front. We're 12 miles into the bike and the overall race time for Tyler's team is 1:15:05. Behind him @2:35 is a Colombian cyclist, more on him later. But it looks like he's dropped that 2 minutes and change just over the first 12 miles. Eric Bean is @3 minutes flat, so he looks to be keeping close with second place.
Bjorn has come through at 1:26 flat, so he's also losing a bit of time to Tyler Hamilton in the early going.
8:16AM: The team in second place is, as earlier stated, comprised of John Kenny swimming lead-off. Kenny, from Atlantic City, NJ, is also a triathlete, and is a regular posted on Slowtwitch.com. Great swim for him. To give you an idea of his ability, Kenny placed 11th overall in the L.A. Triathlon two months ago. The race was won by Greg Bennett, who swam 20:42. Second and third were Craig Alexander and Stephen Hackett, who swam 20:49 and 20:31 respectively. Kenny swam 19:19.
Hernan Dario Munoz is a former winner of the Tour de Langkawi (2002) and has been a professional road racer for quite awhile. The next year in Malaysia he was 2nd overall, 9sec behind Discovery's Tom Danielson. He's a fixture on the Latin American racing scene. This year he was 1sec out of the overall win at the Vuelta a Guatemala, 5th on GC in the Vuelta a Chihuahua.
The team's runner is Mike Booth, the coach of Endurance Matters. He's got a marathon PR of 2:23:39, and has recently won the St. George Marathon (UT), so he's familiar with this sort of Southwest running.
8:25AM: At 22 miles Tyler has come through with exactly 4min on Dario, so he's regularly putting 1min every 5 miles on him. Bean remains just 20sec back of the Colombian, and Monty says the South American bike racer, "... looks uncomfortable riding in the aero position. He's out of the saddle a lot, and just can't seem to find a rhythm over this rolling terrain. But Bean is just keeping his 10 meters, losing a little on the climbs, then getting it back, and is stuck in the aero bars."
8:27AM: Bjorn sighting: he's 11:40 back of Tyler Hamilton. That means his lost 2min over the first 12 miles, and another 40sec over the last 10 miles. Monty says Tyler also is alternating in and out of the aero position and, as anyone who's ever ridden with Bjorn knows, this guy is glued to the aero position.
8:30AM: It's not hot today. The sun's out, but it's coolish. It's windy, but that's often the case in the early mornings in the Southwestern desert. The wind can taper off as the day progresses. But this wind favors the fellow who can ride aero over the long haul.
8:40AM: By the way, it's proper to mention that the Kenny/Dario/Booth team is the Powercranks team. We'll start to do that thing they do in cycling, where we list the team in parentheses after the name of the guy. So, recapping, it's Hamilton (Athlete's Lawyer) in front, with Dario (Powercranks) second, followed closely by Eric Bean (Inside Out Sports), and then charging from behind is Swedish Doode Bjorn Anderson (R&A/FIT Multisports). As for that last team, R&A is of course R&A Cycles in Brooklyn, and we are honored to mention that 3 out of these 4 teams are sponsored by Slowtwitch partners (Powercranks, Inside Out Sports and R&A Cycles).
8:42AM: It's a mini-disaster for the Swedish Doode! Equipment-lightning strikes Bjorn Anderson (R&A/FIT Multisports) again, in the form of a loosened or broken aero bar clamp. He's riding with one aero bar attached and the other sort of hanging by its ligaments (that is, its cables). Monty jettisoned his journalistic dispassion to ride up to the next aid station and lay out a set of Allen wrenches for the Swede's use. But Anderson eschewed the idea, riding on with one good extension. It's shades of Wildflowers past, when the big Swede broke a stem one mile into the ride.
8:49AM: R&A/FIT Multisports is having a rough time in the early going. First, Jonas Colting swims 200m (he estimates) after missing a buoy, then must backtrack. He says it cost him 5min in total. Then Anderson has an equipment malfunction. "Dang," as they say in Scandinavia.
8:58AM: Cell coverage is getting spotty as heck, but we've found a place at 42 miles we can get some coverage -- we'll have a split in a moment. In the meantime, Anderson (R&A/FIT Multisports) is not giving up. He's going to ride it hard with one aero bar extension.
9:18AM: Okay, it's mile-42, and Hamilton (Athlete's Lawyer) leads Dario (Powercranks) by 6:55, continuing to pull away. Meanwhile Bean (Inside Out Sports), hangs tough, riding just :55 behind the Colombian cycling specialist. And in arrears Anderson (R&A/FIT Multisports) rides along with one aero bar attached, slowly making up time on everyone save Hamilton. He's 14:50 behind overall, but just 8min-even out of 2nd place.
9:30AM: More on the sponsor of Hamilton's team, athleteslawyer.com. The attorney here is Howard Jacobs, and though he's been called "drug testing's Johnny Cochran" he's not at all the typical high-profile, low-ethics caricature of an attorney. In former times he took the other side in the dispute -- his friend ex-pro triathlete (4th in Kona) Mark Sisson, the architect of triathlon's first anti-doping code 15 years ago, hired Jacobs to prosecute Spencer Smith on behalf of the ITU. Smith won those hearings, and in any case Jacobs is much better known now for defending athletes under a drug cloud.
Jacobs is a former distance runner-turned-triathlete, even having raced formerly in the pro wave, so he has some roots in multisport. He is rather quiet and unassuming, and by all accounts is very well-liked and appreciated by his clients. He still regularly bikes and runs from his home close to SoCal's San Gabriel Mountains. He's married with two children.
His most recent high-profile client is Floyd Landis. He husbanded the Marion Jones T/E ratio case through to its conclusion (the B sample was negative). He also represented Tim Montgomery, former world record holder in the 100m dash.
9:45AM: Since 3 out of the first 4 teams are Slowtwitch partners, I think this puts enormous pressure on Howard Jacobs to fall over the cliff he's no-doubt teetering on already, and join the family. Howard? Are you out there? ;-)
10:15AM: They're riding on the dark side of the moon right now. No cell coverage. Monty's no doubt stopping at every hilltop, looking for a signal, but we knew it was going to be like this. So we're going to play some Percy Faith to keep you company. We'll start with A Summer Place (or, as the Scandianvians put it, A Bummer Place).
10:29AM: Okay, we've got an update, Tyler just passed 76 miles into the race, and we'll have a split pretty soon. But here's what happened at 56 miles...
Hamilton (Athlete's Lawyer) came through this lollipop course in exactly 4:45 pace. He was riding at 98rpm, and Monty says to tell the Forum members, "His seat's too high." Except it's not a joke, he appears to be riding in typical triathlon style. I wonder if he can swim and run? He's going to have a pretty good tailwind following him home, thinks Monty.
Dario (Powercranks) is 9:20 behind him. Bean (Inside Out Sports) is having a very impressive ride, sticking hard to Dario, behind by just 30sec. Anderson (R&A/FIT Multisports) is 18min behind Hamilton, which puts him at 9min behind Dario. Basically, to this point 2nd, 3rd and 4th are riding the same bike splits.
Monty reports that Bjorn is able to ride reasonably okay except in the bumpy sections. Part of the road on the lollipop's loop is quite bumpy, and there's a dirt section. But he'll have been off that by now. Let's see what his split is at mile-76.
10:36AM: Hamilton (Athlete's Lawyer) came through in an elapsed race time of 3:55, rounding to the nearest minute. That means he rode the last 20 miles in 47 minutes. That's about 25.5mph, if we did our quickie math correctly. It's a good tailwind says Monty, who clocked Bjorn riding a moderate (pedaling) downhill @50mph.
10:42AM: Small victory for triathletes! Eric Bean (Inside Out Sports) has taken 2nd place, and is putting the hammer down! He's on the near side of 12 minutes behind Tyler, but has put 1:20 on the Colombian Dario! I guess Cid Cardoso knew what he was doing by placing Eric Bean on his team.
10:46AM: Monty says Dario (Powercranks) just isn't comfortable on his aero bars. And, if it makes any difference, he's the only one of the top contenders not on a Cervelo.
10:47AM: Anderson (R&A/FIT Multisports) is on smooth roads, and he's making the most of it. He now trails Bean (Inside Out Sports) by 7:50, and Dario (Powercranks) by 6:20, which seems to indicate even one aero bar extension is better than none, which is what Dario seems to effectively have at this point in the race.
11:07AM: If Hamilton (Athlete's Lawyer) is getting a push from the winds on the way home, he might go 4:40. He, Bean (Inside Out Sports) and Dario (Powercranks) started within 20sec of each other, and Bean is just 12min behind. Perhaps Bean might go 4:52 to 4:55, with Dario just under 5hr. Keep in mind Bean lost 10min over the first 2hr, but only 2min over the last one hour.
11:15AM: Hamilton just passed what we think is mile-95 in what we think is 3:52 of elapsed bike split time. That would pencil out to be about a 4:42 split if he rides 25mph through the rest of the ride.
Is Bean now just cutting his losses, or has he opened his can of ass-whoop on the field? We'll know in a matter of minutes. If he's inside of 12 minutes off the lead, he's starting to real it back.
11:24AM: So much for Bean reeling Hamilton in. He's 14:30 back at mile-95. The course has now migrated to a bike path, very narrow and, sez Monty, "... really twisty, with these ascents and descents approaching 20 percent. I can just imagine little kids trying to do this."
11:27AM: Here comes the Colombian, Dario (Powercranks). He's exactly 3min behind Bean, so the triathlete is putting some time on one bike racer, and losing time on the other. "This is Tyler's race, this section here," Monty says, "It's a bike handler's course, this part. Even Bean was out of the saddle, straining in his smallest gear to get up these little climbs on the bike path."
11:39AM: Do not expect a split on The Bear (R&A/FIT Multisports) at mile-95. Monty's racing to the finish to get the splits off the bike. Then it's onto the run, where the outsole of the Swede's shoe is going to delaminate and fall off at mile-9 or so.
11:44AM: So, what about the $100k? Let's see. The swim took 45min for Team Athlete's Lawyer. The bike, we don't know, but let's say 4:45, giving a couple extra minutes for the twisty, hilly bike path part. That's 5:30, leaving 2:30 for the runner. That would be Ernest Kimeli, who certainly has the credentials, as a 1:02 half-marathon runner in recent times. But what about out here? It's not going to be a hot day, but we'll have to see what the winds will do. No lead pack. No rabbit. No pacer. Certainly it's within the realm of possibiity, but it's not in the bag.
11:55AM: We should be within 5 minutes of seeing Tyler Hamilton (Athlete's Lawyer) finish his bike leg. These are critical minutes and seconds, as his runner Ernest Kimeli will need every bit of spare change Hamilton can put in the bank.
11:57AM: Our mistake, Hamilton is in! He's in at 5:19 of elapsed time, which means he rode a 4:34, and his runner needs only run a 2:40 to collect a hundred thousand clams.
12:01PM: Hamilton (Athlete's Lawyer) apparently crossed the dismount line while un-dis-mounted. But, USA Triathlon is not enforcing dismount line infractions starting earlier this year. So, no 4min penalty for his team. The race organizers would technically have the right to enforce this themselves and, yes, this 4min penalty for crossing the dismount line was forewarned by Crawford in the pre-race meeting, but do not look for that to happen.
12:04PM: The course must have been blistering fast on the return. Monty apprised us of as much, specifically noting the favoring the wind on the way back to the barn.
12:08PM: Wait! The other teams are hollering, and it seems they are going to assess a 4min penalty! Eric Bean (Inside Out Sports) just came out, 15:50 down. One thing about triathletes, they know a dismount line when they see one (well, most of the time). So, Bean's runner, Everton Morais, must bring back 12 minutes to win the race, and more importantly he must bring home a 2:25 to win the cash.
12:11PM: It seems what the other teams are saying is that, hey, this thing was specifically announced at the pre-race meeting. On the other hand, Tyler missed it by 10 feet. The race organizers were going to just move the line to where Tyler dismounted. But, the cover up is worse than the crime, and they're just going to throw the book at Athlete's Lawyer. Of course, maybe Howard Jacobs could appeal it to CAS ;-)
12:13PM: Hernan Dario Munoz (Powercranks) is in. He's 5:10 down on Eric Bean. That's a little bit of a spanking, and it probably goes to show you the benefit you get by riding comfortably in the aero position. One assumes that Dario is a good time trialist, judging from his high overall placings in stage races. But you can't fake the aero position for 112 moderately hilly miles.
12:16PM: Bjorn's in. Team R&A/FIT Multisports makes the tag 5:10 behind the Powercranks team, which means Bjorn Anderson made up about 4 minutes on Dario, but actually lost a minute on Bean. Monty reckons Bjorn must have really suffered in the last part of the ride, not through fatigue, but in trying to shift over a part of the course that required a lot of shifting. Not to mention trying to ride with one aero bar even when he didn't need to shift. Kudos to The Bear for sucking it up. Now if his runner can only turn in a PR marathon time, and the other two teams are unable to successfully pass six drug tests (not a slam dunk in this day and age), they can win the 100 large.
12:28PM: Bjorn's aerobar: it was not a Profile Design, which is what Bjorn has ridden in recent years (phew, goes Profile). It was another kind, a one-off, and I'm still trying to run that down. In any case, it was not a break. There was an expander bolt that just got loose. Sounds like a good case for blue Loctite. Then the extension basically fell off and dangled, hanging by the cables. Bjorn had two armrests, but one extension. He had to grab down and find the dangling shifter every time he needed to shift between the chainrings.
12:35PM: The penalty: it seems they're going to grab the runner and stop him on the course, and make him serve his 4min there. That's a tricky decision. That method of serving the penalty is not in the rules, nor in the pre-race discussions. Wouldn't it be more fair to stop him 10 feet from the finish, and make him serve it there, so as not to break his rhythm? That's above my pay grade, and I'm glad the decision is not mine.
12:38PM: We're still trying to "run down" this penalty issue. It's a two-loop run, with the loops being entirely different (and not necessarily equal in length). Perhaps they'll make the runner stop after loop-one, which terminates near the finish line. We'll advise.
12:55PM: The runner, Kimeli, has served the 4min penalty. Upon further review, this was done by the books. It's a USAT race, and pros serve the penalty on the course, and when you can't immediately serve the penalty (for any of a variety of reasons) you serve it immediately upon the soonest practical opportunity. This must be the first time in triathlon history that a World-class African runner has ever served a USAT-levied penalty ;-)
12:59PM: Charlie Crawford, head ref today, and the head of all USAT commissaires, extolled the event. "It deserves 800 more people," he said. He also remarked about how clean the riding was. And about Eric Bean's ride. "Bean, the consummate pro that he is, understood the stagger rule, and rode his ride perfectly," said Crawford. "He got dropped by the Colombian on the dirt section, but caught back up and took him over the last half. Great ride by Eric."
1:08PM: Ernest Kimeli has just run a 1:13 half, and the 4min penalty is part of that. So, he ran a 1:08, elapsed time. Or to put it another way, he's run two 10k races in about 32min each, separated by a 4min rest period.
1:12PM: On paper, the next runner, Everton Morais, ought to amble along to the halfway point about 12 minutes behind Kimeli, since he started the run 16 minutes behind. That is, if he is running Kimeli's pace (remember Kimeli's 4min penalty served on the course). Personally, methinks Kimeli is running a bit on the quick side, relative to what he should be running. If I'm the Inside Out team, I'm looking for evidence of smoke rising off Kimeli's head. We'll see.
1:17PM: Everton Morais is, perhaps, on a training run. He just came through running his first half in 1:16:50. The race time, since the start this morning, is 6:51:45. He'd need to run a 1:08:14 to break the 8hr barrier. He might have realized at some point he wasn't going to get there, and throttled back the machine. Not so Ernest Kimeli.
1:19PM: That's the one problem with this sort of event. It's compelling in many ways, but if you're the marathoner and you see there's no way to get to your payday -- and if you see it early on in the run -- there's no incentive to put the pedal to the metal. You might as well lace up your training flats and make this your long day, since there are other paydays sitting out there for you in your imminent future.
1:26PM: Okay, for those who are wondering who's who among the sponsors of this event, we've already mentioned (and linked to) Athlete's Lawyer. Then there is Powercranks, and R&A Cycles, who sponsors the Swedish Doodes, the crowd favorite even if they do have more than their share of bad luck. Powercranks are fathered by Frank Day, who was an original Ironman, back when there were only 16 of them in 1978. That's a lot like being one of the 12 disciples, if you're a triathlete. R&A Cycles is quietly the largest customer worldwide for a lot of brands, and I believe Cervelo is one such vendor. I think HED is another. At one point Kestrel was another. No-doubt there are several more. Speaking of Cervelo, I understand that this company, and Blue Seventy, were also sponsors of the Swedish Doodes team, but that's secondhand. I'll try to run that down.
1:41PM: The third leg of Team Powercranks, handled by 2:23 marathoner Mike Booth, came through in a total race time of 6:58:40, which is 7min down on Morais (Inside Out Sports). Then came the Patrik Tjardal (R&A/FIT Multisports), another 7:20 down on Booth. In the case of Tjardal, it was precisely what I somewhat whimsically wrote about above. Apparently he told Jonas Colting at the start that he was putting on his training flats and was going to treat this as his long run (so he apparently said in Swedish, with Colting translating for Monty -- we told you Colting spoke English well).
1:49PM: Commenting on my quip that Frank Day is akin to, "... one of the 12 disciples," a Slowtwitch reader asks on the forum, "Then who is Jesus?" I promised him that I'd ask Monty, who ought to know.
1:53PM: Interestingly, Monty came up with the same answer as did I. When asked, he said, immediately and with no prompting or coaching from me, "Tom Warren. Tom Warren is Jesus. No doubt." This is the Tom Warren who used to own Tug's Tavern on San Diego's Mission Bay, and who put on a triathlon as early as 1974. He is also a former Ironman Hawaii winner. Maybe we can round up Dave Scott, and see if he, along with Monty and I (who can make a case for being the "Three Wise Men") would concur.
2:09PM: Alrighty then, it's 21min until Team Athlete's Lawyer turns into a trio of pumpkins. Where is that Kenyan speedster? We don't frankly know. Monty just talked to Tyler Hamilton, who reports that his teammate Kimeli "has been slowing down." But we should know within the next 10min whether that's a good slowing down, or a bad slowing down.
2:15PM: Ernest Kimeli (Athlete's Lawyer) ran a 1:13 flat for his first half, and that included his 4-minute stand-down, or, stand-still as it were. Let' say he ran another 1:14, not including any stops. That would put him at 2:28 for the marathon, penalty inclusive. If he comes in two minutes from now, that's exactly what he ran. If it takes him longer than that, then some folks are going to start sweating, because that means he might've run out a little eagerly.
2:16PM: In Kimeli's favor, it's stayed cool, like in the 60s. But it's been hilly. He's not here yet. Did the hills take their toll? Did 4min standing take it's toll? Did running 2:18-flat pace for the first half take it's toll?
2:20PM: There are 10 minutes left, and $100,000 on the line. No Kimeli.
2:22PM: Kimeli (Athlete's Lawyer) completely stopped on the course. Meltdown. He's back running, and is at 24 miles, so say the reports we're getting. It looks like he's not going to make the 10 hours. Or, he'll miss it by less than a 4min gap.
2:25PM: Kimeli (Athlete's Lawyer) could've waltzed through this thing, had he run a cooler pace. But he ran an honest marathon, and it appears to have cost him, and his team, big money. There appears no reasonable chance he'll get to the line. But our reports might be wrong. There is still 5 minutes to go.
2:27PM: My understanding is that the prize purse was backed by an insurance policy. If I'm that underwriter, the price of that policy goes way up next year, notwithstanding the imminent apparent failure to perform this race sub-8hr.
2:29PM: On minute to go. The word is, Kimeii (Athlete's Lawyer) may in fact DNF. He's not going to get there in 8hr, and it appears even the 4min penalty would not have made the difference.
2:30PM: Eight hours, come and gone. No payout. May we revisit my statement just above, when I reference the 4min. Yes, the extra 4min would not have made the difference, it seems. However, it's interesting to speculate whether having to stand on the course for 4min might have made a difference. I'm not speaking so much of the physiological issues, but of the psychological. One wonders at what pace Kimeli might've resumed his marathon, after standing. In any case, Kimeli went through the first half surprisingly, and needlessly, fast. That said, what goes through someone's mind when he's forced to stand for one... two... three... seconds, with the count eventually reaching 238... 239... 240... "Okay, you can run again."
2:40PM: It's 8:10 into the race. Nobody has come across the line yet. The rumor is that Kimeli might've sprained his ankle. Still, another story, sweared to by some but seems urban mythical, is that he went through mile-1 in 4:19 and mile-2 in 4:20. Yes, the first two miles are downhill somewhat, but an 8:39? That explains a lot. But it's the fog of war, and we'll try to post-mortem this thing as we find out more.
2:42PM: It's official. All things equal, the Normanator would've beaten these teams all by himself, and Macca would've as well. Of course, all things are not equal. Very hilly here, and windy on the bike. But, it's 60s and dry. Who's to say what's the tougher course between this year's Kona and this year's Silverman?
2:49PM: Brazilian Everton Morais (Inside Out Sports) has just finished first for his team, in 8:17:15. He passed Ernest Kimeli (Athlete's Lawyer) in the chute, and the latter finished in 8:17:40. Kimeli ran in with his sweats on. "He looks like death warmed over," Monty said of Kimeli. "You don't look like that from spraining an ankle." But that's just our impression, not having engaged in further investigation.
2:50PM: The rumor is, the prize purse is doubled to $200,000 for next year. Is 8hr still the magic barrier? We'll inquire.
3:00PM: Dave Scott thinks it was a fast day today. He thinks this really is a course on which it's hard to break 8hr. Still, if the Lottery goes up to $200k, and after this year's demonstration that a 2:40 marathon can get the thing done, we'll get 2:08 marathoners coming out of the woodwork for this thing, not to mention your garden-variety Cancellaras and Backstedts and whatnot.
3:05PM: One feels for Kimeli. I do not know the man, but I cannot help but wonder what the experience must've been like. Did he do the math in his head, or did he just come to run? Did anyone tell him, "Hey, run a 2:35 and we've got this thing in the bag."? Were there any teammates or handlers who might've told him after watching his early pace, "Hey, bud, what's the rush? Slow it down!" That's the value of being a multisporter, of course, once you finish your ride you understand the run well enough to give counsel to your teammate, once you see him performing in a potentially unwise fashion.
3:09PM: Back to the race. Patrik Tjardal (R&A/FIT Multisports) comes across in third, in 8:39, overtaking Mike Booth of Powercranks somewhere out on the course.
3:10PM: That's a wrap for us. Goodbye from the sunny Southwest, where everything that happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas including, at least this year, your $100,000. Remember to be well, have fun, train hard, use Loctite and run and even pace.
