Martin

I don't think @Matt tired himself out enough on his honeymoon since he dropped a 1:19 half yesterday.

Two day format: Seemed better for the racers. Would be curious to hear from the women if it led to better racing for them - less drafting off the men, etc. Coverage was ok. It's an Ironman so never going to be exciting.

Frodo is never going to win Kona again. He's the GOAT for now (with apologies to Mark Allen), but his time has past. Set aside the 'wegians and you have Ditlev, Laidlow, Magnussen and several other new up and coming stars at the distance, including a couple of Americans in Chartier and Long (although Long will never win it because his swim is third rate).

I thought Lange's reportedly whiny interview on German TV was interesting. (BTW, he's won his last Kona as well) He basically created a new category for himself by staying his run record was set without carbon soles. The next wave of shoes will probably see tuned carbon, specific to a runner's weight and gait. That's probably good for another 60 seconds over 26.2.

Oh, Ryf is done as well. She'll never win another Kona. (Someone should snapshot this as an ice cold take for when she pulls a Natascha Badmann and wins the next three years.)

So Dan Empfield sold Slowtwitch. That makes Webstey the longest-tenured owner of a triathlon website now, right?

@PevashishDaul is friends with the president of whoever owns Ironman now and reached out to help us all.

@kjrunnin Looks like Dev has your back:

I don't hold them accountable for the other travel hell right now, but you would think Ironman and the Juneau tourist board would have negotiated something with AA or Delta ahead of time.

Can someone call Sarah Palin?

Congrats, @KHilgendorf. And let's give a shout out to @kjrunnin who rode herself into form in week 3 to give the only real challenge to the returning champ this year.

@KHilgendorf - PM me and I will have an American relative venmo you my $5.

Alas, no one had Pierre Rolland, 69th on this year's TdF, so the framed oil painting of nude Webstey on a beach - throwing a coquettish over-the-shoulder glance - goes back into the safe for another year.

1. After a hot draft-fest of a race at Canadian Nationals in Drummondville in 2001, trying to tackle @Aaron Webstey in the finish chute and nearly wiping both of us out. Or maybe we did both wipe out. I think we were sprinting for 39th place or something equally important. Or maybe he was in a different age group and I was just grumpy. (This was clearly a year or two before his ITU days if I was anywhere near him.)

Oh, then sending the fiancée of a friend who had passed out in a ditch with heatstroke a few hundred meters back to get him...

2. The local Terry Fox charity run (which was run like a local World Championships in our small college town) was always on Sunday morning of homecoming weekend at University. Usually ran it with a stunning hangover, or more likely still drunk. One year we had acquired several cases of green apple Gatorade the day before and used it to mix drinks for homecoming, because why wouldn't you? The rehydrating effect was fine until about kilometer 9, at which point I painted the town green with my stomach contents and fell from 2nd to 8th or 9th.

3. In a high-stakes local masters meet, I was leading off the 4x50 medley and managed to tear the tendon on my finger with the touch at the end of my 50 back. Managed to rig up a splint later in the day, not realizing how much damage had been done. When I finally went to the hospital, I managed about one appointment before Covid hit and made the weekly adjustment a massive logistical undertaking.

Erik Zabel and Jan Ullrich are shredding the Tour this year.

Can we all agree that Valverde (not racing) wears the honorary 69 this year?