Chrissie Wellington Wins Frankfurt & Just Misses World Record!

Chrissie Wellington winning the Ford Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawai'i last year! A few minutes ago, she won the Frankfurt Ironman, in a time very close to the all-time women's Ironman record (missing it by only 31 seconds)!

This morning I had my last swim of this last week, and afterwards I felt a little tired. I swam a total of just over 24,000 meters this week. My workouts were slightly shorter on average than in previous weeks, more around the 4,000m mark, but I did try to push a bit harder more often in each swim. The highlights of the week were a 100m in 1 25s and some video footage of me swimming taken by our elder son, James, which enables me to see what my swimming looks like, and so that I can make some needed adjustments.

However, the main highlight of today was the Frankfurt Ironman race in Germany. While I originally wanted to see how Chris McCormack would get on, since this race had been talked about for a long time, I ended up watching fellow countryperson Chrissie Wellington have a fantastic and absolutely brilliant race.

Chris McCormack of Australia won the Frankfurt Ironman in 7:59:55.3 (a truly great time!). It was a hard fought race, and it showed what a true champion Macca is. Well done, Chris! Eneko Llanos of Spain looked as if he was going to win until fairly late in the run. He had a great race, too. However, I think the spotlight in this race was as much on Chrissie Wellington of Great Britain as on Chris McCormack. After her performance, who could have any doubts she will win Kona again this October. Ways to go, Chrissie!

Chrissie had a good (wetsuit) swim, apparently 48 something minutes. While she was in the lead on the bike for what seemed like a long time, she was only a little more than two minutes ahead, and that gap was narrowed to a matter of seconds. However, at transition, she was at least 8 minutes ahead of the second woman. Her race, was not without its problems. Late in the bike, she seemed to lose all her water bottles and was not able to replace the water she needed to take in her nutrition for an unspecified distance until she finished the bike course. When she was briefly interviewed in transition, it did not seem to have affected her. When asked if she was concerned about the girls behind, she just said she was running her own race. Her unofficial time at T2 was 5:48.36.

As she ran well the first few miles and extended her lead, the focus shifted away from the competition to whether she could complete the fastest women’s Ironman in history. Here is a collection of news snippets that were posted on the Ironman live coverage website:
How fast will Chrissie go? Wellington completed 14.2 km of the run in 6:48:12. That gives her 2:11:48 to do 28 km and still go under nine hours. That's 4:42/ km. he's running at 4:10/ km right now, which would get her to the line in 8:44! That would be the fastest time ever for an Ironman!

(At 7:10 into the race) The women's race heats up ... for second! Currently leading the women is Chrissie Wellington (#60) -- she's on world best time pace and is running away from the rest of the field.
(7:18) Wellington probably has no idea ...That she's on pace to smash the world best time here today. Wellington only became a full-time triathlete in January of 2007 -- since then she's won three Ironman races, including the Ford Ironman World Championship. She is so inexperienced that she refuses to use tubular tires because she "wouldn't begin to know how to change them."So, you can be sure that she doesn't know that Paula Newby-Fraser's world best is 8:50:53, set at Ironman Europe in 1994.
(7:23) Wellington through the half-marathon. Her overall time to that point was 7:17:49 -- which gives her 1:32:11 to set a world best. All she has to do is run a half-marathon in that time!
(7:34) Nicole Leder goes through the half-marathon. She's in second, but she's 17:45 behind Wellington.
(7:51) The Wellington report Now the big question is whether or not Chrissie Wellington is on her way to a world best time here today. If she can average 4:24/ km for the last 13.5 km, she will get Paula Newby-Fraser's world best time.
(8:16) Wellington passes 34.5 km ...Her time is 8:10:59 to this point. Less than eight km to go -- she's still on track for a world best time here today.

(8:33) Is that 8:50 slipping away? Chrissie Wellington went through 37.6 km in 8:30:49 -- which means she has exactly 20 minutes to run 4.6 km -- a tough challenge!

(8:36) Smiling to the line Chrissie Wellington has a big smile on her face as she works her way towards the finish line here at the Romer. She has three km to go, and about 13 minutes to do it to get a new world best time.

(8:41) Go Chrissie Go! Says our Ironmanlive writer Henry Budgett, who hails from Great Britain.As he just pointed out, though, Wellington isn't particularly driven by times or records, so it'll be interesting to see if she actually does push over the last few kms of the run here to break that 8:50:53 time that has stood for 14 years.Wellington probably had the run course record in Kona in her grasp last October -- instead she cruised into the finish, enjoying the last few minutes of her amazing race.Wellington's parents are watching her for the very first time in an Ironman today -- how's that for a nice present for mom and dad?