Kona 2014: The Women's Race

8/9/2019 Kona 2014: The Women's Race

1/690 TR IATHLET E DECEMBER 2014

Ko2014

By Holly Beett


2/6


3/692 TR IATHLET E DECEMBER 2014

Would Switzerlands Daniela

Ryf, the recently crowned Iron-man 70.3 world champion yetan unproven Kona newcom-er, stun the field in her debutappearance, under tutelageof the same coach, Brett Sut-ton, who mentored four-timeIronman world championChrissie Wellingtons rook-ie Kona season? Would it beGreat Britains Rachel Joyce orSwitzerlands Caroline Steffen,finally rewarded with a winafter years of dogged determi-

nation and consistent top-fivefinishes? Or would one of theother numerous talents in anever-improving womens fieldprove triumphant?

THE CHAMPIONThe day kicked off with a pre-dictable group of swim starsemerging first out of the waterin a time of 54:25. AmericansAmanda Stevens and Mere-dith Kessler and Great BritainsJodie Swallow exited together,

followed shortly after by othersmall groups of women includ-ing American Mary Beth Ellis,Brit Liz Blatchford and KiwiGina Crawford. The conditionson the swim were choppierthan previous years, whichespecially affected weakerswimmers. Joyce and Steffenwere less than two minutes inarrears, with Carfrae climbingfrom the sea five and a halfminutes back. The women

ahead of the reigning worldchampion knew they wouldneed every advantage overCarfraes killer run speed, sothey set to work pushing thepace hard into the howlinghead and crosswinds.

By the bikes halfway point,a few contenders let theirintention to win be known.Ryfa notoriously strong cy-clistforged ahead and openeda gap on her rivals. Meanwhile,Swallow, who had been in the

lead pack, served a four-minutedrafting penalty, which shecalled questionable after therace. Joyce used her own in-tense focus and speed to stayclose to Ryf, as well as to builda time buffer against Carfraes

inevitable run onslaught. Thetwo arrived to T2 two minutesapart, with Ryf 14:32 ahead ofCarfrae and clocking a 4:54:33

bike split, and both looked mis-sion-driven to maintain theirtime advantage.

When I started the run Ithought 14 minutes on Rinnycould be enough, said rookieRyf. I was really confident,and the run felt pretty good.But I hit the wall at 30K, prob-ably not having enough food.

Ko2014

Jodie Swallow(GBR)

Fourth place,

9:10:19

The former 70.3world champion

battled back into themix after serving a

four-minute penaltyfor failing to pass

within the timeallowed.

Caroline Steffen(SUI)

Fifth place, 9:12:43

For the fifth yearin a row, the strongcyclist, whos nowcoached by Chris

McCormack, scoreda spot in the top five.

Julia Gajer (GER)Sixth place, 9:16:58

A fixture on theEuropean circuit,Gajer impressedin her first Kona

appearance.

HOW

THEYFARED

PAULPHILLIPS/COMPET

ITIVEIMAGE(2)


4/6TR IATHLETE .COM 93

Liz Lyles (USA)Seventh place,

9:18:11

Finishing as the topAmerican, Lyles,a mother of two,proved that top

performances andparenthood can go

hand in hand.

Gina Crawford(NZL)

Eighth place,

9:19:21

Likewise a racingmother, the Kiwiused her finely

honed foot speed tobattle back from a

sub-par bike, despitesuffering a race-day

stomach bug.

Mary Beth Ellis(USA)

Ninth place,

9:20:46

Ellis bounced backfrom a devastating

DNF in 2013 dueto a pre-race bikecrash and brokencollarbone to post

an impressive top-10performance this

year, despite havingdropped her salt

tabs early in the bike.

Clockwise from top left: Jodie Swallowand Meredith Kessler were among thefirst women out of the water; Rachel

Joyce chased in second place on theway back to town; Swallow incurred afour-minute penalty on the bike, takingher out of the early lead; Daniela Ryfled most of the bike leg and posted thefastest split among the women (4:54).


5/69 4 TR IATHLE TE DECEMBER 2014

Joyce felt similarly optimisticstarting the marathon: I couldsee the time gaps going up andby T2 I had 12 minutes on Rin-ny. Like Daniela, I hoped thatwould be enough. But I reallystruggled at the beginning of therun and was wondering how amarathon was going to happenat all. Like in any Ironman youhave dark points and usuallythings come around, and bythe time I hit the Queen K Iwas running a little better, but

Liz Blatchford(GBR)

10th place, 9:23:34After a podium finish

in her Kona debutlast year, Blatch-

ford struggled yetremained steadfastthroughout the bike

and run after anexpectedly speedyswim, refusing to

relinquish the finalspot in the womens

top 10.

Linsey Corbin(USA)

12th place, 9:25:38

Despite starting theday with a disap-

pointing swim andfailing to gain ground

on the bike, Corbinin the end logged

the second-quickestwomens marathonsplit (2:58:58)she

was the only womanaside from Carfraeto break the three-hour mark, yet she

finished outside thetop 10 in her bestseason to date.

NataschaBadmann (SUI)

24th place, 9:50:37

The six-time Konachamp finished in9:50at age 47.

Enough said.

Ko2014

Ryf started the run with twominutes on Joyce and more than

14 minutes on Carfrae, whoultimately averaged a 6:30

pace for the marathon.

with Rinny running 2:50 by thatpoint it was too late.

Indeed, the athlete knownaffectionately as the Aussiepocket rocket was en routeto proving her run prowessyet again on the Kona course,

clawing back at the leadersseemingly insurmountable

buffer at a rate that shockedeveryone, including herself.

Going into the race I saidto my coach anything over10 minutes is too much, ad-mitted Carfrae, post-race. Ihopped off the bike and wasquite concerned. I was actuallyjust focused on trying to getinto the top five at that point,

because they were so far ahead.

But then I was able to makemy way into the top five andthen the top three.

Carfrae continued to gainmomentum, and by the timeshe emerged from the EnergyLab and turned onto the QueenK highway for the final stretchback to Kailua-Kona town shehad a historic third title firmlyin sight. With four miles togo, Carfrae had claimed thelead, appearing to fly just abovethe asphalt with unwavering

PAULPHILLIPS/COM

PETITIVEIMAGE(;NICKMORALES/COMPETITIVEIMAGE


6/696 TR IATHLE TE DECEMBER 2014

Ko2014

Meredith Kessler(USA)

DNF

The American, look-ing to improve on herbest-ever Kona finish

of seventh placelast year, predictablystayed with the leadswim-bikers but col-lapsed around mile

8 of the run due to acombination of G.I.

distress and battlingthe hot conditions.

Heather Wurtele(CAN)

15th place, 9:34:18

After a solid swimand bike in windy

conditions, she wasas high as sixth

early in the run, butstruggled on the

marathon to a 3:25run split.

Caitlin Snow(USA)22nd place, 9:48:14

After four years in arow of top-10 Konafinishes thanks tosuper speedy run

splits, including sixthplace last year, Snowbattled to clock an

uncharacteristicallyslow 3:16 marathonsplit and was proudto have been able tofinish, she tweeted

after the race.

perfect rhythm and form.Ultimately, Carfrae bettered

her 2013 run course recordby 12 seconds, laying downa 2:50:26 marathon, a nega-tive split and the fifth fastestoverall run of the day in her9:00:55 finish. I knew goingin that it would be a battle tothe finish line, Carfrae saidafter the race. Im just ab-

Carfrae improved upon hercourse record from 2013, post-

ing a 2:50:26 marathon, thefifth fastest overall, and nearly

cracking the nine-hour mark. Ryfheld on for second in her Konadebut, and Joyce rounded outthe women's podium in third.

solutely shocked to get thisdone. Defending is harder thananything. Kona rookie Ryffinished two minutes later, and

Joyce earned her fourth top-fiveKona finish with the final spoton the podium.

At 33 years old, with severalcompetitive seasons still ahead,Carfrae has already cementedher place in Ironman lore, join-ing the likes of Paula-NewbyFraser, Natascha Badmann andChrissie Wellington as the onlywomen in the sports historyto thrice claim Kona titles.Yet one cant help but won-

der what will be her ultimatelegacywhether shell sur-pass even the greatest greats inrecord and impact. Her 2014come-from-behind messageclearly resonates with pow-erful inspiration, and is bestsummed up by Carfraes ownmorning-after Kona tweet:Where to even start. What aday. Start of the run thoughtit just wasnt my day. Littleunder 3hrs later I broke thetape. Never. Give. Up.

PAULPHILLIPS/COM

PETITIVEIMAGE(;NICKMORALES/COMPETITIVEIMAGE

Documents

Kona 2014: The Women's Race