You d leave him in the swim and jog past him on the run…?!
Fair chance he’s up for fastest bike in your local sprint tri ?!
Search sub7sub8 on YouTube, looks like it’ll be on there.
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I remember Macca saying this would be the format when this was first getting announced. This way, the 8hr and 7hr time limits hit at exactly the same moment. If any of them are close, regardless of gender, they’ll all be approaching the finish line at about the same time
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Me? All links to view and times are in that tri247 link 
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Probably see the women finish first
I was confused as I thought it was today. Having not worked in a fortnight and with the long BH I have no idea what day it is at the mo! 
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So… do we think any of them will do it!?
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No.
I think they’ll all crack, mentally.
7-8 hours is way different to sub2.
I know Skipper can sit on a bike in a TT for 12 hours, but swimming and running, too?
Hmm.
It’s an insane length of time “just because” 
Right?
There’s no “race” to be had, no prizes for the victor.
Just a footnote in the history books.
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Blu will stroll it. He knows what he’s doing, if his prep says he can do it, then he can. Skip will overbike trying to catch the swim deficit and then put pressure on Blu’s run. Will hobble home after the limit.
No idea on Spirig, she’s a machine but untested at this distance and just announced her retirement, so either one last hooray or going through the motions for the cash.
Kat seems confident. Sure she will get to the run with a shout, then it will depend on her legs on the day.
Sure it’s meaningless, but in the scheme of things, how meaningful is plodding around any IM bar maybe the WC. If you do IM for a living I don’t see motivation as your limiting factor.
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I wouldn’t like to call it.
I guess the main sum is, does drafting reduce the bike split by 30-45 minutes? If it does, then I cant see why it shouldn’t be game on.
Both Blu and Skipper are class acts and I think could do it.
However… who knows how they will feel on the day, and what role the weather/ mechanicals/ chance might play.
Like at Kona: probably 10 pros could win each year, but on the day usually only one or two have the legs to be in contention and number 10 may end up half an hour back. To go sub 7 tomorrow, they are going to need to bring their best legs.
I don’t think a 2.20-2.25 marathon is likely though. If it was, why have we not seen one already in some IM somewhere? (AFAIK we have not). That sounds like a recipe for meltdown somewhere in the second half.
But if either man can get out on the run course after between 4h20 and 4h25 (just writing that feels crazy) then they have 2h35 - 2h40 to bring it home & at that point I’d probably say, yeah, they’ll probably do it.
There you go, that’s my annual bit of Tri punditry, bet it’s completely wrong 
Sorry I have ignored the ladies - same principles though
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I see they have 7:21 as the WR. Wasn’t that course short and not recognised?
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@Jorgan and @fruit_thief
Check this out
Tørsten tries to go through all of those “short course, swim assisted” anomalies here;
https://www.trirating.com/ironman-distance-records/
@jorgan - The 7:21 isn’t short. The swim is massively current assisted. Like 10 minutes quicker 
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Yeah that was it; I knew it was swim related.
I think Frodeno’s 7:35 in Roth still kind of feels like the ‘old school’ benchmark.
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So the bike is fully draft legal for this, not just an IM pace line?
Most probably don’t know. But Dave Scott went 8:01 in the 80s!
Given the technology back then, that’s one of the greatest singular efforts.
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That was IM Japan 1989 wasn’t it? WR at the time I think. Then 8.10 in kona ironwar same year?
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Ledge.
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