Kona 2009

tunney

I'm getting extremely excited about this race this year. Any predictions on 1/2/3 ?

I'm going with Crowie/Lanos/Macca in the mens, and Chrissie/Keats/Van Vlerken in the womens. Don't think Chrissie will be as dominant this year.

MrCreosote

Men I'd say McCormack to win, Alexander and (hopefully) Cam Brown on the podium,

Women Chrissie Wellington all the way, without puncture this year. Would love to see Gina Ferguson from NZ on the podium, but she's had a tough few months.

christeb

What is the coverage like online, can we watch it live anywhere? I would say it's an extremely inspiring event to see live, its a pity we won't see the Thunderbear (Thorbjorn Sindballe) this year, especially on the bike.

wizwill

Dont think you can go far wrong with macca/crowie/lanos in the men. Would love to see macca win but really couldnt call the finishing order. Outside bets bozzone and potts.

Dont think chrissie's had her best year this year but if she avoids injury and mechanical problems she should take it very easily.

tunney

Changed my mind. Rasmus Henning(?) to take it out. Going to have to wT h it online.

Hope the Irish lads have good races. Liam and Mark deserve a good day out.

Bambaata

anyone get any online coverage?

wizwill

tunney wrote: »

Changed my mind. Rasmus Henning(?) to take it out. Going to have to wT h it online.

Hope the Irish lads have good races. Liam and Mark deserve a good day out.

If i was forced to call it i would say macca. Dont know much about the irish lads heading over, i wish the the best, i imagine the heat will be tough.

http://www.tri247.com/article_5920_Rasmus+Henning+fractures+hand+-+but+still+aims+to+compete+at+Kona.html?region_id=&category=

tunney

wizwill wrote: »

If i was forced to call it i would say macca. Dont know much about the irish lads heading over, i wish the the best, i imagine the heat will be tough.

http://www.tri247.com/article_5920_Rasmus+Henning+fractures+hand+-+but+still+aims+to+compete+at+Kona.html?region_id=&category=

Bugger going back back to my original predictions.

Only know of the Irish going over. The mental effort involved of continuing on with their training after their qualifcation races was huge. Respect where respect is due.

Woddle

christeb wrote: »

I would say it's an extremely inspiring event to see live?.

Not just live, the NBC coverage does nearly have you in floods of tears. I have 04-08 at home and watched some of them before Berlin to get in the zone.
Is it on the net to watch or do I have to wait till xmas for the NBC coverage?

tunney

Woddle wrote: »

Not just live, the NBC coverage does nearly have you in floods of tears. I have 04-08 at home and watched some of them before Berlin to get in the zone.
Is it on the net to watch or do I have to wait till xmas for the NBC coverage?

Its on the Net. I'm told.

NBC coverage in brief:
"Jessica is a 52 year old mom of 24 children. She was diagnosed with cancer in '07, after being told of her diagnosis she was hit by a car in the hospital car park. Jessica was born with only one kidney but she has bravely fought back to get here, now as night falls she is starting the run and will be bravel fighting against the clock to finish before the cut off time. Oh, and Chrissie and Crowie won the race earlier today."

jcunniffe

tunney wrote: »

NBC coverage in brief:
"Jessica is a 52 year old mom of 24 children. She was diagnosed with cancer in '07, after being told of her diagnosis she was hit by a car in the hospital car park. Jessica was born with only one kidney but she has bravely fought back to get here, now as night falls she is starting the run and will be bravel fighting against the clock to finish before the cut off time. Oh, and Chrissie and Crowie won the race earlier today."

Now Dave, be nice to the good people at NBC. They're only trying to sell some advertising;)

tunney

jcunniffe wrote: »

Now Dave, be nice to the good people at NBC. They're only trying to sell some advertising;)

LOL
It may not be my preferred way to cover Kona but you are right it does generate huge interest in America they way that they cover it. They know the target market and it obviously works.

wizwill

tunney wrote: »

LOL
It may not be my preferred way to cover Kona but you are right it does generate huge interest in America they way that they cover it. They know the target market and it obviously works.

Fair enough, but I have to say the story of rick and dick Hoyt is truely inspiring, (Ironman regularly trot it out)

here are there pb times, (father pushing disabled son in specially designed trollie)

Best End Times
2:40:47 Marathon
56:21 15K
1:21:12 Half Marathon
40:27 7.1 Miler
13:43:37 Ironman Triathlon
35:48 10K
2:01:54 18.6 Miler
27:17 5 Miler
59:01 10 Miler
17:40 5K
2:10:45 20 Miler


http://www.teamhoyt.com/index.html

wizwill

tunney wrote: »

The mental effort involved of continuing on with their training after their qualifcation races was huge. Respect where respect is due.

Respect to anyone who could qualify for kona, training couldnt be anything less than a second full time job as an age grouper.

On the OP, anyone know what form Stadler or Al-Sultan are in? an outside bet?

too much trifle

wellington & for a good outside bet, i heard graves is 21-1, got in touch with paddy powers but have had no reply, what odds on brit double?

wizwill

too much trifle wrote: »

wellington & for a good outside bet, i heard graves is 21-1, got in touch with paddy powers but have had no reply, what odds on brit double?

I think you would be doing well to get Chrissie at evens. Whilst Chrissie is living proof an unknown newcomer can win in kona i would be very surprised if graves wins, the mens field is very strong. in IM UK graves ran a 2.52 whist macca, crowie and lanos will be looking at around a 2.44-2.46 in the heat in kona.

wizwill

The days are ticking by, its getting closer

The ironman website has a race preview for mens and womens race. In the mens they are writing off macca saying he has raced to much and doesn’t focus hard enough on kona. Crowie’s training is flying by all accounts, they see it as a two horse race, llanos and Alexander.

On the womens side they are saying its Chrisse Versus Keats (and her team BB). If anyone knows Chrissie weaknesses its her former team BB manager Brett Sutton, he might and have his team push her pace on the bike to break her, one of the commentators points out it’s the second tier pro men that should be worried about chrissie, I would tend to agree. I heard an interview with her last year where she said her coach wouldn’t let her use the Cervelo P3C bike (she used the model down) as she didn’t have the bike handling skills, yet she still wins kona.

By my calculations, which are often far from correct, the elites start at 5.45 pm irish time this sat. Not ideal as I am going to the Ireland v italy game, good thing is they will only be half way round by the time I get home.

tunney

Reports from the irish over there say its very very hot and humid. Sweating straight out of the shower.

Road surfaces good but still lots of punctures.
Everyone very very skinny.

baldykav

Anyone know of a good site to watch it on, besides the ironman live streaming.

I'd say the Anorexia levels are at an all time high.

I'm going for a Macca/Stadler duel off. If Stadler doesn't cramp up like last year he'll be right up there. Although CA has been remarkably consistent over the past 2 years, pretty much exactly the same times from 07-08. He's due a bad year!

snack_ie

who's the chic & dude to mark's left, or on the right of the photo.

tunney

"Normann:
Terenzo (Bozzone). And the English guy, (Philip) Graves. He is a great swimmer and he has no fear. He said that he can break the bike record this year already. So he is going off the front"

Stadler and Graves riding off the front. Going to be carnage with the pros on the run.

Abhainn

tunney wrote: »

"Normann:
Terenzo (Bozzone). And the English guy, (Philip) Graves. He is a great swimmer and he has no fear. He said that he can break the bike record this year already. So he is going off the front"

Stadler and Graves riding off the front. Going to be carnage with the pros on the run.

And Graves was only 20 when he won IMUK. Getting excited now ...

baldykav

There's gonna be major suffering on the run alright. I think Graves is capable of alot but don't know if he has the run in him yet. I think his first marathon was IMUK? could be wrong. With macca, Ca in the field the winner i could imagine will need to run sub 2:45 and with conditions etc in there it could be a bridge too far. I don't know if he's capable of it yet. He's gonna cause havok on the bike though and wouldn't be surprised if the paceline gets torn to shreds early in the race.

Also heat and humidity will be against him big time, and from what i've read from his interviews he doesn't seem to be up to speed on nutrition and hydration, seems pretty old school which could also be an issue. Saying that though, being new to it all could be a major advantage, ref CW.

Macca, Bozzone, CA etc have being out there for a long time already which will mean a lot.

Exciting stuff!

wizwill

I agree with you on graves, he is a fantastic prospect but kona is a bridge too far. I think IM UK was the first time he ever ran the marathon distance. He was on the same youth development program as Brownlee (ITU world champ).

My predictions are
Men 1. Macca 2. Crowie 3. Llanos - Stadler top 10, Graves top 20
Women 1. Chrissie 2. Van Klerikin 3. Keats

jcunniffe

tunney wrote: »

snack_ie wrote: »

who's the chic & dude to mark's left, or on the right of the photo.

The five IRL entries for Kona are:

811 Paul Anne F 47 IRL (to Mark's left in photo)
920 Ryan Alan M 42 IRL
1229 Riseley Mark M 38 IRL
1296 Doyle Declan M 36 IRL
1676 Dolan Liam M 29 IRL

baldykav

Interesting. I reckon a prediction is in order as well. Although it all depends on the wind!

Men:

1. Macca
2. Bracht
3. Vanoehnacker (?)


Women.

1. CW
2. Keat
3. Macel

scottreynolds

Is anyone is to upset the top two men of Macca, CA it will be a relative unheard of racer I'd say. I think Macca has the mental strength on most people.... listening tio his IMTalk interview he seemed to talk it up.

CW for the women but anything can happen on the day. A puncture of two could really stuff her up.

tunney

scottreynolds wrote: »

Is anyone is to upset the top two men of Macca, CA it will be a relative unheard of racer I'd say. I think Macca has the mental strength on most people.... listening tio his IMTalk interview he seemed to talk it up.

CW for the women but anything can happen on the day. A puncture of two could really stuff her up.

I think you're right, someone other than the favourites will take the mens I think.

Abhainn

They're off!! Going to be a late one.

tunney

Wow Potts and JF were spanking it, coverage is excellent so was great to see what a non wetsuit 57 swim looks like.

Coverage is fantastic.

Abhainn

tunney wrote: »

Wow Potts and JF were spanking it, coverage is excellent so was great to see what a non wetsuit 57 swim looks like.

Coverage is fantastic.

YA brillant. Chrissie had a great swim too.
My young son of 5 months is watching his first IM championship and is in awe

stevie_b

great coverage all right. chrissie looks comfortable on the bike. be interesting to see if graves can open much of a lead on the bike now after his good swim. i'd like to see chrissie/graves do it.

tunney

Pity the athlete tracker isn't as good.

tunney

Just updated - go on Dolan ya good thing, 57:52, almost ten minutes faster than his Austria time and no wetsuit.

Good man.
Good man.

Abhainn

tunney wrote: »

Just updated - go on Dolan ya good thing, 57:52, almost ten minutes faster than his Austria time and no wetsuit.

Good man.
Good man.

Cheers was just about to check his Austria time

Bambaata

The tracker now says his swim was 1:30:46?

tunney

Defo 57:52 and holding 37.2kph on the bike (4:50 split)

kingQuez

Crap, got my dates wrong.. thought it was on tomorrow and just logged on to check where to get coverage online. Go in just in time to see the last guy out of the water :rolleyes:

duffyshuffle

tunney wrote: »

Defo 57:52 and holding 37.2kph on the bike (4:50 split)

Think thats wishful thinking tunney, swim looked really slow, big swell, no wetsuit, think the 1.30 us right for him, alan ryan did 1.08 or something

edit: amazing coverage on http://www.universalsports.com/mediaPlayer/media.dbml?id=371913&catid=-2&sid=13056&db_oem_id=23000

tunney

duffyshuffle wrote: »

Think thats wishful thinking tunney, swim looked really slow, big swell, no wetsuit, think the 1.30 us right for him, alan ryan did 1.08 or something

Swim looked pancake flat when I was watching it. Definitely said 57:52. Now reads 1:30 but no way thats right. Well I fvking hope not, that will fvck with his head.

duffyshuffle

tunney wrote: »

Swim looked pancake flat when I was watching it. Definitely said 57:52. Now reads 1:30 but no way thats right. Well I fvking hope not, that will fvck with his head.

Riseley did 1.09 so doubt Liam beat him by 12 minutes??

Also would put him just outside the top 100, so unless his swim has come on unbelievably i'd say hes looking at 1.30

kingQuez

Its a single mass start with both men/women is it? theyre saying chrissie is eating into the mens race.. that just mean that they're not opening up the gap that you'd expect yet?

duffyshuffle

kingQuez wrote: »

Its a single mass start with both men/women is it? theyre saying chrissie is eating into the mens race.. that just mean that they're not opening up the gap that you'd expect yet?

Yeah pro's went off first together, Graves went into lead, then a few lads caught him, but chrissie is catching some of the chase pack now, beast

tunney

duffyshuffle wrote: »

Riseley did 1.09 so doubt Liam beat him by 12 minutes??

Also would put him just outside the top 100, so unless his swim has come on unbelievably i'd say hes looking at 1.30

I know, I know, 1:30 seems more right but it DID say 57:52. hope 57:52 is right, he deserves it. I had thought he just found good feet.

mjth2004

Declan Doyle (a Laois man) out of the water on 1.10!!!!

kingQuez

this is just impressive; havent seen an IM before..

tunney

mjth2004 wrote: »

Declan Doyle (a Laois man) out of the water on 1.10!!!!

Never knew surrey was in laois.

mjth2004

that's where he lives, works & trains but a laois man he is!

mjth2004

again under state/country it's listed Surrey SURR GBR / IRL

but on an early photograph in this thread he is carrying the tricolour!

EC1000

Been watching this for hours - these people are stunning athletes - never seen an IM event before. I'm surprised the lead athletes dont seem to have to rack their own bikes though - what's the rule here? I assume the athletes further down the field have to rack their bikes themselves??

kingQuez

wow.. chrissies running form looked scarily fresh, to my eye a couple of the lads looked like they weren't enjoying the transition