Blummenfelt completed the course with a time of 7:21:12, finishing the swim in 39:41, the bike in 4:02:40 and the run in an impressive 2:35:24.
The result is the fastest time ever recorded at a full Ironman event, beating the 7:27:53 registered by Jan Frodeno in his Tri Battle Royale with Lionel Sanders earlier this year. However, there are suggestions that the record time may not be counted due to the swim taking place with a down current.
Crikey, I’d have thought the heat/humidity there may have mitigated any poss advantage of a favourable sw1m current, and its only on the smallest portion of the event too. Minimal?
He also lucked out with conditions: it was unusually still on the Island (usually very windy - disc wheels banned like Kona), and there was some rain on the run.
But an impressive debut. Let’s see Jan’s response to the Norwegians next year……
I feel he will skip St G as there’s some legitimacy question to it not being Kona, the business model tells me it’s not a good investment. Focus on Kona where I suspect Iden and/or Blu may not attend as their eye returns to 2024…business sense for all of them perhaps if not quite sporting.
Think Iden has all but ruled out Kona as he wants to defend his 70.3 Title.
Have to be honest, I’d be very surprised if Jan passes up St G. The winner will be crowned World Champion, regardless of it not being Kona. Let’s say it’s Iden, and as stated he then doesn’t race Kona. A Kona win and everyone’ will be saying ‘yeah but you didn’t beat Iden’.
Winning both is a legacy defining GOAT kind of thing to do. Only reason I can see him not doing both is if he concludes his body can’t take 2 World Championship level full distance races in a year, in which case he will obviously prioritise Kona.
Same in reverse too in that scenario - people will say SG winner didn’t beat Jan, and they haventt won in Kona.
Its in the champions interests to beat the other one/win both and get that legacy. Of course that risks “losing” (if second in the world in current crop can be described so harshly).
Why do you say that? Times and world records are all a part of sports like this, even if there ate question marks in tri due to the variability and legitimacy of course measurement.
Mark Allen made an interesting comparison of the 3 - Iden’s Florida with a ‘long swim, Jan’s’ customised course and Blum’s ‘short’ swim. All of them pitch in to about 7.28-7.30.
It wasn’t that long ago that a sub 8 was a decent performance. Wasn’t it a big ‘thing’ went Brent McMahon went sub 8 on debut (where is he now?!). Now, that isn’t going to cut it in the slightest. The bar has properly been raised.
I don’t think the Norwegians care for who was there/who wasn’t. What country the race was in. They want to win the big races that they have chosen to prioritise. They’ll not care what’ people’ say. At the end of the day you can only race what’s in front of you. If the others were injured for example, that’s no slight on the winner it’s just total ‘what if’, done for column inches.
Because it undermines the actual race, and encourages people to obsess over times which in turn drives people toward unhealthy behaviours; drugs, diets, cheating, risky equipment etc.
Well you said that it undermines the race. So what should he have done - not run as fast as he thought was humanly possible?
I totally get that the fixed speed attempts aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. But how pushing human performance from a timed perspective is any different to burying yourself in a 1 on 1 battle at the front, i have no idea.
Alas, i doubt we’ll agree on this topic, so i’ll just leave it there.
Yes, I think Crowie best personifies your perspective in Ironman. He was a great athlete, but not overly obsessed with times. I think Mark Allen and Dave Scott were generally the same; all about the competition.
I wish there was some way of normalising all of these records for course, super shoes, aero developments, springier running tracks etc. It would be great to be able to definitively say, this time in 1984 was equivalent to this time on 2021 but there are too many imponderables for it ever to be reliable.
E.g. Like when someone talks about £30k in 1886 and say that’s equivalent to £X million in today’s money.