Newsletter ep. 98: some races, thoughts, and a bad IPO

This week’s ‘If We Were Riding’ makes some observations about how racing is changing in N. America — but doesn’t have a theory yet on why. Plus, some exciting race results this weekend, safety concerns, and Ironman’s IPO falls short.

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I raced Santa Rosa 70.3 this weekend, because why not, and it was OK. It’s hard, I think, when you keep wanting things to turn a corner, to have some kind of breakthrough changing point, but instead the improvements happen bit by bit, forward and backward. I swam great (for me), biked OK, but have jacked up my hamstring and gutted through one of the tougher runs I’ve had in years. At some point, all three sports will come together in one race. In the meantime, *hella* of you said ‘hi’ or yelled, lots of yelling, and I loved it all.

Of course, what you’re really here for is Sara’s ‘Tales from My Box,’ which she *finally* wrote this week. And we’ll talk all about—ALL ABOUT—her big Crossfit competition on Friday’s podcast. Back to the grind.

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A non-unified theory of everything

(Photo: Paul Higgins/Higgy Baby Photography)

Something is different in North American pro women’s races this year. Something has changed. At first, I thought it was just because I was racing like crap. Which, yes, I was. But the fields have also changed and the way strategy plays out in the women’s races feels like it’s changing.

I don’t know, I don’t have a unified theory of everything yet. What I do have is a number of observations.

For example, this weekend I raced about the same as I did at Santa Rosa two years ago. Maybe a few minutes worse when you factor in conditions, course, etc, but I passed way way fewer women. Two years ago, I was 11th out of 22 finishers/23 starters. This year, I was 12th out of 16 finishers/19 starters. That’s despite the front women this year actually going faster and the front of the field being more intense and deep and competitive.

This is an example. But, in essence, what seems to keep happening is I went from being a middle-of-the-pack pro to being a back-of-the-pack pro without having gotten that much worse. The pack got different.

And not to put all my personal anxieties out there to be dissected, but, yes, sure, maybe I just need to get faster and move up a tier. Maybe that’s even possible. Quite a few girls have made some big jumps this year. But, in the mean time, here are some things I have noticed:

• We know the N. American 70.3 starts lists are getting more stacked and more frequently there are huge names at random tiny events. Especially the women’s fields.
• It appears the top tier of athletes are racing more. (Not Daniela or Lucy or Jan, but the next group—the people who are going to be top 25-30 in Kona.)
• We know the change in the Kona qualifying system means instead of 1-2 extra full IM races/year, people can now race 4-5 70.3s. This is especially true for the women, who were over-racing fulls under the old points system.
• We know salaries for pros are drying up. We know those top people, then, are trying to just pile on more prize money, more sponsor bonuses. All of them are fitting in more races in between training. And, when you talk about female pros, a majority live/train in N. America.
• What also appears to be happening, though, is the athletes my tier are missing from those start lists. What I don’t know is why. Anecdotally, it seems to be a number of things: doing more local or small races (the incentive is there for us to do fewer and later IM-brand races), moving down to AG, quitting or doing other non-triathlon things (Swimrun, gravel, ultras), deciding now’s a good time to have kids or focus on work, or just getting discouraged. All are examples I know to have happened on an individual level.

Let me reiterate: I don’t have a theory yet. Maybe this is simply cyclical. We also know a number of the top pros are going to be done in the next year or two. And there are some women ready to take their places. Maybe other women then will move in to fill the gaps, and it will cycle. Maybe not.

What I do have, though, is the belief that all these things in the sport are related. Yes, everyone makes the individual choice that is the best for them, but trends are individual choices aggregated. And when the same factors affect those individual choices again and again, you have to consider how they are playing into larger sport-wide forces.

(One more note: The new start times this year have the pro men go, the pro women two minutes later, and then the age-groupers either 8 or 13 minutes after that, depending on the race. It’s great for giving us a clean race off the AG men. But two minutes is not enough time to stop things from getting mixed up with the pro men. Even I catch pro men sometimes. It’s a bit of a mess. Also, now that we have a totally clean and empty bike course, and with the rolling starts for age-groupers at every race now, I never ever want to hear how some age-grouper biked so much faster than the pros. Great, cool, come up and join us then and do it for real.)

Race round-up

What actually happened at Santa Rosa, though, is Chelsea Sodaro finally raced again and won again. Beating Mirinda and clocking a 1:16 half (!!). That makes her two for three in her first three 70.3 races ever. I’ve been saying if she can just stay healthy enough to race more, she’s going to be a big star. My underdog pick for Worlds.

Speaking of underdogs, Matt Russell won Ironman Lake Placid and everyone cried. (You’ll remember Matt’s the one who went through the van window during the race at Kona in 2017, had a miraculous and very solid return last year, and now is breaking a well-deserved tape.)

Whistler waved its last finish line tape as Ironman Canada before the race moves back to Penticton and there was more crying. Ironwomen had solid coverage on Facebook Live all weekend, so to sum up real fast: Kelsey Withrow and Jen Annett finally punched their Kona tickets, Dede Griesbauer is a bad ass, and Angela Naeth had a freak accident in a string of bad luck and is now trying to turn around and race IM Tallin instead. (I believe the very raw video she posted to her Insta story has since expired.)

Oh, racing.

No appetite for risk

At the TBI conference in January, Ironman CEO Andrew Messick said this: the Ironman clientele has no appetite for unnecessary risk, they want races to be fundamentally safe. And I think he’s right.

We do not do triathlons to risk our lives. We do it knowing there is some risk, knowing it will be hard, but assuming the system, itself, will protect us from the worst risks.

We seem to be going through a spell where this is increasingly not what’s happening.

A woman got hit by a semi head-on at Ohio 70.3 this weekend and died. (As a note, we do not need to say she was wearing a goddamn helmet, as if that’s important in some kind of victim-clearing way. She was hit head-on by a truck, the helmet is irrelevant in that equation.) It appears she may have gone outside a coned lane, into oncoming traffic, but it’s not clear why she would have done that, if the lane was crowded, if there was a reason, if she got knocked off of her line. I even accidentally swung into oncoming traffic on one turn this weekend, and thought ‘oh shit, whoa, I need to pay more attention.’ At Santa Rosa too, Jen Spieldenner got taken out by a race moto. My husband got crashed out last weekend by a dog at a race that didn’t have closed roads, and we’ve spent a long week after his black out, bad concussion, and broken rib. At Wisconsin 70.3 last month, two men were pulled from the water dead.

What is going on? Do we need to pay more for safer races? Would that cut out small local events? Is there some reason things are getting less safe or is it just our perception?

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• USA Track & Field Nationals was this weekend too, and I was only able to watch bits and pieces between my own racing. Fast Women has really solid recaps of the women’s races, and The Morning Shakeout recapped its own favorites. Lopez Lomong was badass in his double, and Shelby Houlihan was also, well, badass in her double. And everyone loves Emma Coburn (watch her try to tell the officials ‘we need four flags‘). And, for all the talk about other up-and-coming sprinters/hurdlers, Dalilah Muhammed ran a completely insane world record race. I don’t care what people say, I like track. Though I hate the whole standards system. (Fast Women/The Morning Shakeout/Twitter/Instagram/NBC Sports)
• OK, OK, I know the Tour de France was good this year and I should have watched it more. But, if you missed most of it like me, then here were the best moments. (Bicycling)
• Did you know there are two guys who paint over all the obscene and political graffiti on the Tour course? (Wall Street Journal)
• In news that may be huge: Wanda Sports Group’s IPO was a disaster. It sounds like it has more to do with Wanda and concern over Chinese stocks, than with Ironman’s fundamental business model. But. It still could bode really badly for Ironman. (Yahoo/Reuters)
• Ironman, meanwhile, was unveiling a huge announcement: Uh, a fancy watch? (Instagram)
• It sounds like DelMo Sports is announcing it will have a big announcement tomorrow and speculation is the full Ironman in New Jersey? (DelMo)
• Slowtwitch actually has some news you can use in a breakdown of airline bike fees. (Slowtwitch)
• Meet the woman trying to do for cycling what Billie Jean King did for tennis. (Outside)
• When I watched some random track meet earlier this year, I wondered why Kate Hall wasn’t a bigger star. Well. (Runner’s World)
• There are grants available for runners who have qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials. (RRCA)
• There’s a really fancy marathon study that quantifies how runners lose speed after about 90 minutes. Which sounds like, no shit, but the drop in your critical speed threshold is actually quantifiable. (Outside)
• There are now 30 NCAA triathlon programs signed on. So is women’s triathlon really going to become an NCAA sport?? (Triathlete)
• A lot of people sent me this study about how exercise makes you happier than money. Except the graph is U-shaped—meaning you get happier until a certain point of exercise, and then you get less happy. Another thing I could have told you without a study. (World Economic Forum)
• A truly intense and deep and nuanced dive into chronic Lyme and what is it/if it is. (New York Magazine)
• The non-triathlon thing I thought about a lot this week: “Maybe instead of telling white men they can be anything and they can have everything, we should start asking why they ever thought that everything was there to be had and why they ever thought they deserved it in the first place.” (Medium)

Comments & thoughts

– A lot of you—like A LOT—let me know exactly how hot it was in New York. What you all said was: humidity, it was all about the humidity. What a number of you also said was if the NY Triathlon had wanted to find a way to make a shortened race, they could have. It wasn’t hotter than last year. So.

– Maurya also pointed out the NY Triathlon isn’t USAT sanctioned anymore, which is why they could offer age-group prize purses.

– Taylor says, “I agree with Sara in that the people who are successful long term probably don’t view their decisions as ‘sacrifices.'” Which probably means I’m screwed.

– Also, you missed us, you really missed us! And we came back with a new podcast last week!

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‘If We Were Riding’ is a weekly triathlon-ish newsletter written by Kelly O’Mara and produced by Live Feisty Media. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every Wednesday morning. You can also read past issues. This episode is from July 31, 2019.