6:25AM: Good morning! Welcome to Kona coverage in Slowdef. We're a little slow to get going, partly due to the long line for wake-up juice at Lava Java, from which we're reporting, partly due to a long day and evening counting bikes -- as we've been doing the day before the Ironman fir 15 years now.
It's a gray day today, and Lord knows it would be nice if it stayed that way. But that's wishful thinking. The wind is calm, and we'd be looking at sub-8 hours if it stayed like this all day long. But it never does.
We'll report regularly on the weather and a whole lot more as the day progresses, and part of that whole lot more is the bike survey. We'll leak it out, bit by bit, as the race and the clock progress.
6:45AM: The pros are off! There's a little chop in the water, nothing much. one expect Dede Griesbauer, Linda Gallo, maybe Joanna Zeiger, wll be moving to the front of the women's field. Is there a 47-minute swimmer among the men? We'll see.
7:00AM: The thundering heard lumbers off, helicopter overhead to get that great NBC shot.
7:04AM: Now, as for yesterday. How about looking at saddles? Selle Italia is the leader here at this race, with its SLR and SLR T1 leading the charge. They have 580 saddles in the field. But they had 716 here last year. Who's taking a chunk out of this dominent brand? Partly it's the OE saddles that are co-branded (Felt, Cervelo, etc.), and just stay on the bike once the bike is purchased. But, there's Fizik, which has 380 saddles in the race, a big jump up. Selle San Marco, still riding the success of its Aspide and Triathgel Azoto, is third with 227. Terry has a big following with the women, and is fourth at 135. Specialized has 86 Body Geometries in the field, and Profile Design has 39 TriStrykes (only 39 souls are enjoying the comfort ofmy favorite tri saddle). There were 22 Koobis, 17 each Blackwell and Bontrager, and about 100 co-branded saddles.
7:20AM: Not much going on we can report during the swim, so maybe we'll comment more in the equipment used on the bike. As Tom Demerly just pointed out on our Forum, tons of aero helmets. We didn't count helmets, but we did notice the proliferation of this helmet style, which is kind of funny when you consider that venting is at a premium here. I heard Chris McCormack will be wearing a standard, vented helmet, after experimenting with aero helmets for this course. Also, we noticed that the VisionTech pursuit bar -- the flattish aero one -- is quite popular. While people may or may not have chosen Vision's clip-on, they often purchased this base bar on which to bolt their Profiles, Ovals, whatever.
7:30AM: The cloud cover is breaking up. Oh darny. Still, it's going to be nice on the bike for 50 miles anyway, assuming no big wind kicks up out on the course. Earlier in the week there was a vicious head wind on the return, but of course that meant a free ride on the way out. Bad Kona luck might mean no wind on the way out, and that wind kicking up only when they're on the return leg.
7:34AM: Profile leads the aero bar count by a sizeable margin, 678 to 372 over second place Syntace. This is a huge turnaround versus the earlier part of the decade. In 2001 and 2002 Profile had 38.5% and 41% of the field in its bars respectively. In 2003 its overall share dipped to 39%, but it still inched closer to the leader in each of those three years, Syntace. Its overall share decreased because of all the other brands coming into the market. Now Profile leads its next competitor, Syntace, by almost double, but its overall share of the bars in the race probably hasn't grown any, because of the proliferation of the other brands.
7:35AM: The first pros are in! We don't have a time on the first to exit the water, best to find that out over at Ironman.com's live coverage. It seems a very slow day in the water for the men, however. Perhaps that chop did have an effect. We'll get an early report on who's in the front group, and post it here.
7:35AM: Normann has gotten a bit of advice over the last couple of years as to his swim, and the tactics employed in his training. Obviously with the advent of Faris Al Sultan, Normann needed to think about a better swim, and he seems to have had a great one today. That'll put pressure on the rest of the field.
7:50AM: I've got Olaf Sabatschus sitting next to me, and I'm going to last year's IM Brasil champ some questions.
Me: I think Normann had a very good swim.
Olaf: That's amazing, he must have improved his swim, I'm not too fast and last year Normann was only a :30 up on me. By the way, Normann is my race favorite. I think he improved his mental approach a lot. I think he's mentally stronger.
More with Olaf in a minute. It seems the first AGers just came out of the water, numbers 1364 and 1371. Fernanda Keller just came out (15 minutes behind the AGer in actual time) and now Natascha is out. Wow. Very slow swim by them, in 1:08. Can that be right? One almost wonders if the chop or currents can account for this. After all these years I can't imagine the buoys being misplaced.
7:50AM: In the first few miles of the bike ride, we have Luc Van Lierde is well in the lead, by about :20. Luke Bell is in second, Eneko Llanos, Macca, Stefan Vuckovic, Pete Jacobs, Faris, Cam Brown (with a very good swim), and some others, including Spencer.
Linda Gallo, Michellie, Dede Griesbauer, Joanna Zeiger form the first group of women. That's playing out true to form at this point.
8:15AM: More with Olaf...
Me: Olaf, you're here in the Island to meet with athletes about getting these racers, and their federations, to agree on a set of athlete-driven global rules, and also to get the federations to do out of competition drug testing, right?
Olaf: It all started last December, the German long distance athletes were invited by the Deutsche Triathlon Union to a meeting. Most countries, including ours [Germany] have few resources for long course athletes. But the DTU started this, and we thought that's a good step. Because of that meeting -- and the president of our anti-doping agency was there -- perhaps the athletes can get together and influence things a bit. We thought also we could discuss the drafting here as well. Many have tried, to no avail. But we figured if we got the pros together internationally, maybe we could get something to happen.
Me: Okay, so that's drafting. But there are other things you're working on?
Olaf: Yeah, there are a lot of things we can work on, like insurance, and prize money. I was talking to the Ukranians yesterday, they haven't got their prize money three months after an Ironman race. But right now I think the most important thing is to get every long distance athlete into the test pool in their countries, and right now that's not the case.
8:25AM: Olaf tells me that this anti-doping move in big in Europe, not only with the athletes but the with RDs. There is a foundation, the German Triathlon Foundation, with founding members Quelle Challenge Roth and IM Frankfurt. $25,000 has been thrown in the pot to start by these organizers to help fund getting athletes into the out-of-competition test pool. They have a new elite license in Germany, it cost E250 to join, and that money goes into the pool for out of competition testing. This license is now mandatory for racing pro in Germany.
8:30AM: What's Olaf's crusade all about? Of course there is testing at the long course events, but where you really catch the athletes is in out of competition testing. The problem is, the national federations, and national anti-doping agencies, are centered around Olympic style racing. So only the Olympic athletes are in the out of competition testing pool. Olaf's organization, which includes 130 long course athlete signatories from all countries, are invested in the work to get the national federations to test long coursers out of competition. The website Olaf created is triathlon-professionals.org.
8:35AM: Olaf's website contains a voting utility, where the pro athletes only can vote. You have to hold a pro license to register, and votes are held from time to time. It's by private ballot. But the voting itself is transparent and available for all to see. For example, a vote was held on drafting rules, specifically whether 10 meters in between bikes (back to front) ought to be the rule at longer distance races worldwide. Olaf says 90% of the pros voted in favor of this. There are 130 athletes on the voting list and who've registered. Most of this race's favorites are signed up, and Karen Smyers and Lori Bowden added their names this week. Faris, Cam Brown, Ain Alar Juhanson, Alex Taubert, Andrea Breder, Dede Griesbauer, Drs. Tom Evans and Joanna Zeiger, Chris Lieto, Lori Bowden, Luc Van Lierde, Cam Widoff, are some of the members racing toda. Normann is not a member, as of yet. Gordo Byrn is. Peter Reid was in, prior to his retirement. Simon Lessing is also a member.
8:40AM: What one very important and influential race organizer said to Olaf, with regard to his athlete group: "Athletes are replaceable." Clearly not all the race organizers have gotten the memo on this.
8:45AM: Our forum regular Paulo just showed up to Lava Java, asking if he's banned from Slowtwitch since he acknowledges Olaf's presense and not mine. Typical. After his coffee and your general farting around online (fomenting forum angst no doubt) he's going to spot for us at T2.
8:50AM: Spencer was in 4th place going up Kuakini Highway, and on the return, only 2 miles later, was 6 minutes down. Something happened on the short out and back. Yes, they WERE enforcing drafting AND giving penalties on this early part of the course, but they're not standing people down for the whole penalty time increment, so it must have been a mechanical.
8:55AM: Four weeks prior to the race all the Kona-qualified pros got an email saying everyone needs a CPSC sticker on his helmet. But wait! The CPSC is a US-based organization. What about all the athletes from oversees? USAT says no exception, it's an insurance issue. But there are 1100 foreign athletes in the race, most of whom have non-CPSC helmets. One week ago, somehow the CPSC requirement was lifted for this race. How did that happen? We don't know, but we're going to find out.
9:15AM: Meanwhile, back on the course... Normann has leveraged his good swim to a front-running position on the course. He's riding away, and Faris cannot stop the bleeding. Normann had an incredible Lake Henshaw ride two weeks ago, averaging an astounding 24mph on that hilly 93-mile grind through San Diego's mountain country that Jurgen Zack popularized over the past 15 years. After hearing about that session I switched my prediction to Normann. But, only a few days later Spencer Smith did the same ride, by himself, almost as fast. So, I expected Spencer and Normann to ride off together down the Queen K Highway. But Spence had his bout of bad luck, as previously reported.
9:20AM: At Kawaihae, Normann's lead has increased to 4:08. Faris leads the chase group, which takes 22 seconds to pass. It includes Luke Bell, Macca, Van Hoenacker, Chris Lieto, Cam Brown, Eneko Llanos and Tom Evans.
Thomas Hellriegel is on the gas pedal, 6:34 pedal, but by himself. 7:05 down is a group containing Rutger Beke, Van Lierde, Mike Lovato, Norbert Langbrandtner, Christoph Mauch, Pete Jacobs, Cam Widoff, Filip Kristl. This group is huge, Chaboud, Marcel Zamora, Stephan Vuckovich, Victor Zmetsev, Raynard Tissink, Hubert Hammerl, Oscar Galindez, are the highlights, but we're sure we missed some.
9:30AM: Faris has been averageing 300 watts throughout this ride, and has recently spiked it up to 315 at times. He's leading this pack. In the pack is Cam Brown who's keeping pace but only producing about 225 watts on average to keep pace. Luke Bell is also in this group and is up to 280 watts, on average, but just produced at 346-watt spike. Clearly, Brown has figured out a way to ride very economically. Is it his Scott Plasma? Is it a very tight position that punches a small hole in the wind? Perhaps the SRM data is one indicator of why this Kiwi runs so fast off the bike.
9:35AM: There is no wind at Kawaihae, according to our reports, and the temp is still quite mild. No hard heat beating down yet. It often rains on the course near the turnaround. Maybe the athletes will catch a drizzle to cool them. Women should be approaching Kawaihae soon.
9:45AM: Michellie leads by 3 minutes over Joanna Zeiger, who is 1 minute ahead of Dede Griesbauer. 5:30 back of Michellie is Gina Kehr, followed by Belinda Granger 7:30 behind, and just behind her was Lisbeth Kristensen.
9:50AM: Jo Lawn is 10:30 back, followed by Mel Ashton, Karen Hollaway, and Heather Fuhr (the first of the uber runners). Then 11:00 back was Katja Schumacher, 12:30 back was Desiree Ficker, followed by uber biker Karen Thurig, then at 13:30 Lisa Bentley, followed by Natascha at 14 minutes who, though down quite a ways, looks very good. Kate Major followed at 15 minutes down, and Wingnut's in there with Major.
9:52AM: It ought to be noted that, while the rest of the field appears to be losing ground to Michellie, Natascha's relatively poor swim means she's pretty much just keeping her time gap relative to Michellie as they exited the water.
10:07AM: Visiontech had 26 aero bars in this race only 3 years ago. Today they have 275 bars here, witih 550 elbows laying in their armrests (at least they'd better be, especially this early in the bike ride). Oval, Hed and Easton have 77, 66 and 62 bars on the race respectively. Three years ago they had 15, 30 and 0 bars in the race respectively. All other brands total 136, and 13 racers have no aero bars today. 72 percent of all the aero bars are carbon, and the remaining 28% are aluminum.
10:20AM: Cadences are still high, with Faris and Cam Brown riding about 90rpm. Luke Bell is a bit slower at 85rpm. Look for averages to be in the mid 80s at the end of the race. These fellas were probably spinning close to 100rpm early on, but they'll be lucky to hold 80rpm over te last 10 miles. That's just the way cadences go in this race, and over long timed efforts in general.
10:35AM: Heather Fuhr has abandoned. She seemed to me to be having a good race. Cam Brown's pulse is sitting at 140bpm. Mark Allen's target pulse for his IM races during the bike ride was 155bpm. This race is not near over.
10:35AM: Faris' power is still sitting up in 290w range. Cam Brown's pulse is still low, but his power has increased to about 250w, while Luke Bell's power has dropped to about 235w. Wanna take a guess as to where they each now sit in the "legal peloton?" Leads one to wonder whether Olaf Sabatschus and his group contending for a 10m back-to-front draft zone have a good case.
10:45AM: Normann reached the Kawaihae turn 6 minutes in front of Chris Lieto, who is no man's land. Minutes before 3rd place.
10:50AM: Power numbers look stupid, with Faris' power dropping by 50 watts, and Brown and Bell below 200w. Before you cry error, imagine what happens to power on the descent from Hawi, which is where these numbers are coming from. Wait and see what happens to the data after the Kawaihae turn.
10:50AM: 8:30 down on Normann is Faris, leading a group containing Llanos, Bell, Macca, Brown, Vanhoenacker, and Tom Evans. No one in sight behind.
10:55AM: Profile's bar total climbed to 678 from 599 last year. Suntace fell from 526 to 372 in one year. vision gains from 156 to 275 but, let's be honest, half of that is because it's a fabulous bar, the other half is that it's the OE bar on Cervelo (more on that story later). Of Oval, Hed and Easton, Oval makes the most improvement.
11:05AM: Rutger Beke is the next one by, at 12:15 back of Normann. A very large truck, no two of them, semis, are parked at the stop sign getting ready to make the right hand turn. Everybody's yelling. Luc Van Lierde and Thomas Hellriegel have to ride on the shoulder, through spectators, to get around them. A woman in a wheelchair had to be "helped" out of the way to make room for these former Kona winners. Oh well. At 13 down is Timo Bracht, Uwe Widmann, Patrick Vernay, Pete Jacobs, Stefan Vuckovick (2000 Olympic Silver Medalist), and Victor Zyemtsev. Then Mike Lovato is @14:15 by himself, and @15:15 is another large group: Oscar Galindez, Tissink, Bert Jammaer, Widoff, Martin Matula, Andrew Johns (another ITUer), Francisco Pontano, Hubert Hammerl, Frank Vytrisal, and Markus Fachbach. Notably, Ken Glah comes by @21 minutes down, a very good ride for the old male pro with better hair than any of the females. Jo Lawn, tho racing well, can't keep food down, according to our spotters.
11:20AM: It seems like everyone's power jumped on the climb to Hawi. Faris was at 340w, Luke at 320w, Cam Brown at 265w. Really small watts continue for Cam, even weight-adjusted.
11:22AM: Michellie is crumbling. Dede Griesbauer is 2:45 back of Michellie Jones, and @3:40 is Belinda Granger, Lisbeth Kristensen 5sec behind that. At 5:20 is Joanna Zeiger. Karin Thurig @5:40, and Desiree Ficker @6min.
11:30AM: Power over the most recent half hour have been about 270w for Faris, 250w for Luke Bell, and right around 200w for Cam Brown. That just seems ridiculously low for Cam. Can this really be a true reading? If so, he's riding AGer watts, and I mean just enough to climb up onto the 35-39 podium. But of course he's lighter than your average bear, but not Welchy light.
11:37AM: At 9:30 is Gina Kehr, @10:00 is a mini group containing Jo Lawn, Melissa Ashton, oldie von moldie Karen Smyers (woo hoo!), Katja Schumacker, Kate Allen, Karen Holloway. Then @10:56 is Natascha, and @11:40 is Kate Major.
11:43AM: More power to you... Through the first 100 miles of this bike ride, Faris Al Sultan has been averaging 276w. Luke Bell has been at 267w. Cam Brown? 216 watts, if you can believe that. Why is this perhaps a true reading? His heart is now beating at about 130bpm. Cam Brown is riding about 5rpm faster over the course of the ride than Luke or Faris. The SRM seems to count coasting as a cadence of zero, showing a bit of a false-low cadence average. Cam is riding at 90rpm, but has a race average of 85rpm. Wait, he's now riding 53rpm. He obviously coasted for awhile during the last data collection period.
11:55AM: Maybe Cam Brown just has the fastest wheels. Which begs the question, which aero wheels are people choosing at this year's Hawaiian Ironman? Since you asked, there are 1316 Zipp wheels in this race. Xentis was second with 283, and Hed is just behind with 260. Mavic is next with 200, tho it must be acknowledged that we only counted aero wheels. Mavic certainly had a lot of standard OEM or general road rims in the event, but we didn't count non-aero wheels. We did, however, count Mavic's Ksyrium wheels, and there were 154 on top of the aero wheels mentioned. Corima had 98, Bontrager 86, Reynolds 49, Rolf 48, Campy 37, Shimano 25.
12 NOON: Hydration and electrolytes: let's talk Saltstick(dot com), a little item made by pro triathlete and Amgen biochemist Jonathan Toker. This is a nify little unit not unlike a Pez dispenser that you stick into the proximal end of your aero bar (bar-end shifters are stuck into the distal end). Jonathan not only makes the dispenser, but the salt tabs that go in the dispenser. As I spied the bikes coming through the line yesterday, I believe I noticed Saltsticks on bikes used by Stormin' Normann, Macca, Luke Bell, Tom Evans (the doctor who ought to know about these things). Saltstick tabs include sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium + vitamin D, replaced in a way the body can absorb it, in saturations the body needs. If you want to know if an athlete is using a Saltstick, look for the red or yellow dot sticking out the back fo the aero bar extension.
12:10PM: Pardon the delay, but Normann just came flying by Lava Java. I thought I'd go out and click a pic, and see how he looked. Pretty danged smooth. We have a clock on this, we'll check the interval and report back.
12:15PM: Very cool day so far. Overcast. Quite nice, really. Just a smokin' fast day so far, excepting the swim. Cam Brown averaged 140bpm for his heart rate. I've never heard of anything that low in this race. One has to imagine that Macca was playing it cool as well, we'll see. Considering the makeup of that pack, you have to think that either Faris or Brown were "controlling" the pack, the way Mark Allen used to. Everyone always knew that "the race" was taking place in whatever pack Mark was riding. Who's the new center of gravity for this race? Faris, it appears. But it still seems Brown is the guy to watch out of that pack, based on that unbelievably low HR.
12:20PM: Lieto, at "first" Lava Java passing, 8:15 down.
12:25PM: Macca comes thru @10 minutes flat. Then, Cam Brown either getting dropped, or running sanely, with Luke Bell on his shoulder. They were perhaps 30 seconds back. Tom Evans was up there as well, and perhaps Vanhoenacker. Faris trailed everyone in that group, running slow and heavy.
12:28PM: Widoff and Rutger Beke came winging by not far behind.
12:30PM: It's starting to sprinkle. I've never seen the run conditions any better than this. It's perfect weather but, really, it's perfect Macca weather. I'm sorryk, 10 minutes may not be enough to stave off the Aussie, not to mention speedsters like Brown and Vanhoenacker. This race is far from won, notwithstanding Normann's good form to this point.
12:33PM: If the half-mile road markers are accurately measured, Normann just ran his last half-mile in 3:06. That seems about right for a mid-2:40s marathon. It seems everyone is running fast. Perhaps they're running up to the weather's limit -- making hay while the sun shines, as it were, but more accurately as the sun doesn't shine.
12:40PM: While we enjoy a momentary lull in the action, I thought I'd bring up something that noticed yesterday. Standing behind the barricades, looking over at the bikes entering the corral, I noticed Paui Kiuru. He looks very fit, very sharp, and his here on his own dime, just spectating. No media pass, no VIP pass, just here watching. How cool is our sport? (Google him if you don't know who he is.) In that same vein, Peter Reid is here, also on his own dime, and has registered as a volunteer. He'll be handing out things in the Energy Lab. What a great sport we have.
12:58PM: Lisbeth Kristensen is :44 down on Michellie a mile into the run.
1:01PM: Normann just came ambling past Lava Java at mile, oh, 8 or so. Maybe it's me, but I think he's running noticeably slower than he was when I saw him on mile-1.
1:01PM: Three women ran by together, Belinda Granger and Karen Thurig among them, I think Dede Griesbauer was one of them as well. Less than a minute back was -- look out -- Natascha. First two AGers appear to be Sven Hungerbuehler Christian Brader.
1:14PM: Here's Macca, winging by 9:15 down. And Faris has definitely found his legs, next at 10:30, followed by Luke Bell, Vanhoenecker, and then Cam Brown. Macca's make up a minute over 8 miles, not near enough, but we're about ready to enter the Lava fields which, like Double Jeopardy, is where the scores can really change.
1:14PM: The Count, by bike brands:
| 1 |
CERVELO |
263 |
| 2 |
TREK |
128 |
| 3 |
QUINTANAROO |
122 |
| 4 |
KESTREL |
84 |
| 5 |
KUOTA |
76 |
| 6 |
CANNONDALE |
75 |
| 7 |
LITESPEED |
70 |
| 8 |
SCOTT |
66 |
| 9 |
SPECIALIZED |
59 |
| 10 |
GIANT |
58 |
| 11 |
FELT |
40 |
| 12 |
GURU |
38 |
| 13 |
LOOK |
38 |
| 14 |
ORBEA |
35 |
| 15 |
SOFTRIDE |
23 |
1:16PM: 9 miles, Macca @8:57. He's picking up 15 seconds a mile, perhaps 20. He stopped on Palani to give his baby a hug. That's confidence. Faris is next @10:12, with those long, loping strides. Luke Bell is @11:17, and Eneko Llanos, whom it seems we've missed the last couple of updates, is @11:35. Vanhoenecker is 11:50 down, with Cam Brown on his shoulder.
1:30PM: Cervelo becomes the first company ever to have more than 200 bikes represented here. Of course, part of that is due to much larger starting numbers. But Cervelo didn't just hit 200, it smashed the barrier, with 263 bikes compared to just 195 last year (or perhaps as many as 198, as we had two totals last year and had a 3-bike descrepancy). Trek falls from 166 to 128, and that is a hard fall. QR gains, going from 90 and 5th place last year to 122 and 3rd place. Unless Trek gets going, QR probably vaults to #2 next year. But all is not good news for American Bicycle Group, as Litespeed loses 45 bikes from the year before. Kestrel also loses some ground, subtracting 20 bikes from '05.
1:40PM: Back at mile-9 at 13:18 was Chris Lieto, Rutger Beke @16:00, Victor Zyemtsev one more minute back. At 18:30 is Timo Bracht, Patrick Vernay just behind, @19:50 Chaboud, then Cam Widoff.
1:48PM: We're getting close to the Energy Lab. Must be close to mile-15 or so, and we just got this update from Paul Thomas: Macca is 7:40 back and closing. Normann's last mile was 6:48. It aint over yet.
1:53PM: Kuota jumps 10 bikes, to 76, and its going to jump a bunch more, especially if Normann holds on and wins this thing. Even if he doesn't, 4:18 is 4:18, isn't it? Cannondale drops 13 bikes and Giant drops 10. But Giant is poised for a comeback, with its new Trinity Alliance.
2:00PM: It's mile-8 and Michellie is still winning this thing. She's one tough chick. We've got a clock on it.
2:05PM: Well, Michellie may be in all kinds of trouble, but it's the right kind of trouble. Lisbeth Kristensen is now 5:06 behind, and looking no better, really. We've heard that Karin Thurig has dropped out. So has Raynard Tissink, by the way. It's 7:30 back of Michellie at mile-8 and we're still waiting for the 3rd woman.
2:05PM: It's Natascha at 8:23 and at 9 minutes it's Kate Major and antoher unidentified (by me) woman. At 10 minutes it's Lisa Bentley, who appears not to be running 3-flat (you can't run that every year).
2:08PM: Karen Smyers passes mile-9 down by 14 minutes. We don't see Joanna Zeiger, and Jo Lawn came through only a minute or so earlier. I have a feeling Karen my win a pretty high place through attrition. Lisbeth just lost about a minute over the last mile. Michellie just has to hang tough and not crumble to take her first win. We're hearing Normann is now just 5 minutes up. We're waiting for a split at mile-20.
2:13PM: It's mile-20 and the lead is 4:20! Macca is smelling the barn, and it's going to be tight.
2:13PM: Natascha is 8:38 behind at mile-9. Desire Ficker was at 8:42, and that's the one we missed at mile-8. Gina Kehr, Dede Griesbauer, Belinda Granger, Kate Allen, all within a coupla minutes, and then Jo Lawn at 12 minutes. There seems to be a difference of opinion on Lisa Bentley, whether she's running that very fast split she tends to run, or not. I keep hearing, "she's on fire." So, maybe she's running that 3-flat after all.
2:39PM: We have a report from someone working in the penalty tent (ironclm, in fact) that the tent was packed. And, this is just the test to house those getting penalties from mile-85 on. They needed several tents and they were all overflowing. If they're going to be that populated I think i'm going to see if I can sponsor one of them next year.
2:40PM: It's 3 miles to go in the men's race, and Stormin' Normann is perilously clinging to a 2:20 lead!
2:41PM: We're going to follow this baby in. Macca's charging. He can see Normann. He's running out of real estate, but it's real estate he knows. A good runner can gauge what it takes to reel in a fish. If Macca's got anything in the tank, he's going to try to mount a charge pretty soon.
2:46PM: Two miles to go. They'll be going uphill now, and this is just where Mark made his move to win his first IM over the legendary Dave Scott.
2:49PM: I've got a spotter at the to of Palani, where you make the right hand turn off the Queen K. This is when you know you've got it one, most of the time. But there have been some legendary meltdowns in the last mile of this race, so nothing's certain. Normann's not here yet. We'll try to get a clock on the differential at this turn.
2:50PM: They've both gone past the corner, and have descended Palani. "It's going to go down to the wire," said our spotter, but no differential yet.
2:52PM: There's 1 minute difference, and there's one mile to go!
2:53PM: It seems Normann has it. He's turned the corner onto Alii. He's running strong, and there's just not enough room for Macca to make up the gap!
2:56PM: Normann Stadler takes it! The time is quick, very quick considering it's the slowest swim conditions in recent decades. They're going to be celebrating at Casa de Kuota tonight!
2:59PM: Great race by both Normann Stadler and Chris McCormack. It must be said that Macca has solved Kona. He didn't win, but he easily might've. One for the ages. Also, the third straight year a German has won, and the third straight year it's been won in German style, that is, from the front, and on the bike.
3:15PM: Men's wrap-up...
1. 8:11:56 Normann Stadler GER (54:05 4:18:23 2:55:03)
2. 8:13:07 Chris McCormack AUS (53:51 4:29:24 2:46:02)
3. 8:19:04 Faris Al-Sultan GER ( 53:36 4:29:37 2:50:44)
4. 8:21:04 Rutger Beke BEL (54:35 4:33:33 2:48:16)
3:23PM: Flash! THE Sergio is onto Palani, currently in 20th or thereabouts, with a good shot at running down Mike Lovato and "some French dude."
3:33PM: Michellie continues to lead the women's race, and has pulled through her bad patch on the bike quite nicely. She's 8 minutes and more ahead. It helps to be a solid runner. Speaking of solid runners, Desiree Ficker, Gina Kehr, and Lisa Bentley all fit the bill, and are all within 20sec of each other.
3:42PM: Are you ready for this? Our reports tell us THE Sergio ran a 2:43! He ran so fast, he outran his aura, which finished 8 places behind!
3:59PM: Michellie's going to take it. She's going to have at least 7 or 8 minutes when she arrives into town. We're going to try to get a split with 2 miles to go, and see exactly where Desiree, Gina and Lisa are relative to each other.
3:59PM: Desiree Ficker is in 2nd, clear of the other two, and Lisa and Gina are shoulder to shoulder. We're not moving our headquarters to the finish, to watch this sprint, and then we're onto the Scott party. This means we're likely signing off for the day, unless we find a wifi somewhere and get the urge to log on.
