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Kona Race Analyses
In partnership with Quarq, SRM and CycleOps, TrainingPeaks is proud to present race files and analyses from Kona athletes.
Men
| 1 | Pete Jacobs Australia | 8:18:37 |
| 2 | Andreas Raelert Germany | 8:23:40 |
| 3 | Frederik Van Lierde Belgium | 8:24:09 |
Women
| 1 | Leanda Cave Great Britian | 9:15:54 |
| 2 | Caroline Steffen Switzerland | 9:16:58 |
| 3 | Mirinda Carfrae Australia | 9:21:41 |
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Pete Jacobs Australia | 1st | 8:18:37
Data collected by 
Pete Jacobs has raced the Ironman World Championship six times, finishing 8th and 9th in 2009 and 2010, respectively. In 2011, Pete proved himself to a top contender for the World Champion title when he finished 2nd place and with the fastest run split of 2:42:29.
281
Avg. Watts
645
Max Watts
4938
kilojoules
91
Avg. Cadence (rpm)
- Pete came out of the swim only 50 seconds behind Potts and exited T2 with Faris, Frederick and Luke.
- Luke took lead and brought the group of 4 to Potts. Pete stayed in 3rd position through the first 45 miles then made his move to the front. During this move he maxed out at 578W - enough to power a freezer!
- From T1 to the turn around he held top 5 position and maintained 298W or 4.3 w/kg (83% of FTP) for over 2 hours. Amazingly, he was able to maintain a relatively high average of 265W (3.8 w/kg) on the ride back back to T2, and was 2nd off the bike.
- Coming down Hawi, riding a 54 tooth chainring forced Pete to "spin out" at 120 rpm. He lost some position to riders with 55 tooth chainrings but put in a 300W effort for 10 minutes to keep his position.
- With the fastest marathon times in the previous 2 years Pete put himself into a great position starting the run.
- Ironman athletes can expend 8,000-10,000 calories during the race, or approximately 1000 kcals/hour. At the high end of what the human body can absorb, they may consume about 400 calories/hour on the bike (1800 calories total). Pete burned approximately 4900 kCals on his ride. Add in about 1000 calories expended for the swim with no calories taken in, we estimate that he was at a 4100 calorie deficit heading into the marathon!
Luke McKenzie Australia | 24th | 8:54:58
Data collected by
Luke McKenzie is a 5x Ironman winner. In 2010 Luke set a course record and won one of the toughest Ironman races ever recorded, at Ironman China in shoe-melting 40 degree C heat. That same year, Luke was the first non-South American to win Ironman Brazil in almost a decade, running to his fastest IM finish in 8 hours, 7 minutes - also a new course record. Luke finished 9th at Kona in 2011, with the 6th fastest bike split ever (2nd among the field that day).
265
Avg. Watts
24.2
Avg. Speed (mph)
4409
kilojoules
74
Avg. Cadence (rpm)
- Luke was 3rd out of T1, 56 seconds behind Andy Potts and with a group that included Pete Jacobs, Faris Al-Sultan and Frederick Van-Leirde.
- With a group of top contenders few minutes behind, he led the charge to pass Potts for the lead after mile 10, and held it through mile 47. He averaged 290W (4 w/kg) and 25.5 mph during the first 44 miles of the bike, maxing out at 627W - what it takes to lead the Kona bike.
- This aggressive start may have caught up to him - the strong effort of 290W (~80% of his FTP) from T1 to the turn-around at Hawi kept Luke in top 3. But, on the ride back to T2 he dropped to 238W average for the remaining 53 miles. He ended up 8th off the bike.
- Impressive effort by Luke in up to 93 degree heat. An athlete loses 2-3% of his body weight during an Ironman - for Luke at 160 lbs that would have been 5-8 lbs.
Rachel Joyce Great Britain | 11th | 9:40:16
Data collected by 
On the list of Kona women's favorites, Rachel Joyce has finished top 10 at Kona three times (2009-2011), took the 2011 ITU World Long Course Triathlon champion title, and won Ironman Lanzarote (2011). Her finish time in Challenge Roth (8:45:03) makes her the fifth fastest woman over the Iron distance.
3.1
w/kg Avg.
408
Max Watts
3466
kilojoules
78
Avg. Cadence (rpm)
- Reporting an illness a few days prior to race, Rachel still had a good swim coming out of T1 in the top 10.
- Despite making her day's best effort at 212W (3.7 w/kg) for the first 60 minutes, she remained in or around 8th place for the entire bike.
- From T1 to Hawi she averaged 202 watts (3.5 w/kg) for 2:44, and was in 6th place but started losing ground by mile 60.
- From Hawi to T2 her average watts dropped to 159 watts (2.8 w/kg) for the remaining 2:38 of the ride and she entered T2 in 15th.
- Rachel appears to prefer a pushing a bigger gear at a lower cadence than what's typical, averaging 78 rpm for the ride. This is more of an issue of personal preference than performance, as a couple athletes within the top 3 finishers have also been known to pedal at lower than the "typical" range of 85-95 rpm. Another possibility is that athletes are able to use less "heart" at lower cadence so with her upper respiratory illness she may have been pushing a bigger gear to lessen the strain on her breathing.
- To stay in the top 10 for the tough bike leg, Rachel spent 45 minutes of her ride "red-lined"; that is, 20% or more higher than her average power output for the day of 181w. This occurred early on as she fought for a good position. Keep in mind the fact that she's recovering from an illness - that amount of time in the "red" is the effort of a determined competitor.
Michael Lovato USA | 25th | 8:56:04
Data collected by 
Michael is back for his 13th appearance at Kona, and has finished three times in the top-10 at the World Championship. Michael has won three Ironman events, including Ironman Cozumel in 2011, and Ironman 70.3 Buffalo Springs.
266
Avg. Watts
927
Max Watts
4668
kilojoules
23.1
Avg. Speed (mph)
- Michael was with the back pack in the swim but exited with a group of strong athletes including Sebastian Kienle and eventual race runner-up Andreas Raelert.
- Michael put in a big effort right off the bat to ride with this strong group, averaging 292W (4.2 w/kg) or 78% of his FTP for the first hour. During this time he hit his best power efforts for the day between 5 seconds and 60 minutes, including two 60-second efforts above 450 watts (20% above his FTP). This is termed "burning a match" in power terminology: at a basic level, this is a hard effort over 20% of your FTP for longer than a minute, though it extends to longer efforts at shorter percentages over FTP. Michael burned 4 matches today, and you can see them marked in his power file.
- While Michael's early efforts were impressive he eventually settled into a good pace out to Hawi and was able to average 300 watts and 17 mph for the 20 minute, 860-ft climb to the Hawi turn around. Michael could've powered your Plasma flat screen TV for these 20 minutes!
- Note how close the bike splits are among the athletes we profiled - only 17 minutes separated Lovato's 29th fastest bike split from 2nd fastest. How the competitiveness of the male pro field at Kona has increased over time: in 1982 (the year the bike course was changed to be the same as the 2012 course) no athletes had a sub-5 hour bike split. This year, 38 athletes (vast majority of the male pro field) rode sub-5 hour bike legs.
More Ironman Kona race data:
- Faris Al-Sultan Germany
5th Pro Men | 8:28:33
Data collected by SRM - Dirk Bockel Luxembourg
10th Pro Men | 8:36:21
Data collected by SRM - Jordan Rapp USA
13th Pro Men | 8:42:49
Data collected by Quarq - Amanda Stevens USA
18th Pro Women | 9:51:59
Data collected by SRM
- Ronnie Schildknecht Switzerland
19th Pro Men | 8:50:18
Data collected by Quarq - Joanna Lawn New Zealand
21st Pro Women | 9:55:11
Data collected by SRM - Trevor Wurtele Canada
38th Pro Men | 9:45:07
Data collected by CycleOps - Frederick Scott USA
3rd M60-64 | 11:00:45
Bike - Data collected by CycleOps
Run - Data collected by Garmin
Kona Power Rewind Interviews
Joe Friel interviewed 2012 Ironman World Champion Pete Jacobs and Ronnie Schildknecht at the Quarq Power Download the day after the race. Check out the video of the interview, courtesy of Quarq (originally published on the Quarq blog and YouTube channel), and find out how Pete and Ronnie used power to plan and pace their race.
