Race Coverage

Ruther's Kona Debut...

Saturday, 10 October 2015 00:10

It was a tough day for RBM and we're anxious to hear about it. Her final time was 10:22:57.

7:55 here - Ruth's bike split was 5:19:24. She's currently in 25th place. Hey, do you remember back in the 90s when Dave Scott was 42? He was 30th entering T2 and ran his way to 5th place overall. One of the greatest IM performances ever. RBM (age 40 today! Happy Birthday Ruth!) is capable of doing what The Man did back then. We're predicting a Top 10 for her and our fingers and toes are crossed.

5:47 PM here - Despite the heat, Daniela Ryf is gunning for a women's record. RBM is not off the bike yet. Tough day for her, it appears.

10:35 - Here, 5:35 there - RUTH BRENNAN MORREY will start her Kona adventure in less than an hour. We are SOOOOO excited to see how she will do.

Kona is her third IM, after Chattanooga 146.6, with its downhill swim and 166-mile bike, and Frankfort (European Champs), which is normally a fast course, but not so this year thanks to extreme heat and humidity. Her splits at Frankfort were: 1:06:31 - 5:04:26 - 3:04:59 = 9:21:09. We're going to measure her Kona splits against these....

FYI, RBM placed 2nd at Chattanooga in 9:09! Based on typical results, especially 2014's, a similar time at Kona would land Ruth in the Top 5. But remember, this is Kona, which is uber-tough under the best conditions, and merciless when conditions are not optimal, which is most often the case.

 - It appears that Ruth may have had a poor swim split - 1:16:52, though it's possible that we are not correctly interpreting the new data format. Not loving it. That format, not RBM, who in spite of her time and placement at this moment, will move herself up in the pack over the next five hours. Then look out. We expect her to have one of the top 3-5 women's run splits.