Ironman Texas: Past Performances and Kona Qualification

A review of 3 years of race results and Kona qualification at Ironman Texas ahead of the 2014 event
Latest statistics for Ironman Texas

Lanzarote isn’t the only Ironman this weekend, on the other side of the Atlantic Ironman Texas will also take place; which means I’m posting my second pre-race analysis of the week. This is the fourth running of the race and weather over the last 3 years has varied with hot, challenging conditions in 2013 resulting in a high rate of DNF and slower finishing times. Despite this variation competition for the 50 Kona slots has remained consistent.

I’ll start by reviewing the summary data, but age group specific details are available at the end of this post.

Distribution of Finisher Splits at Ironman Texas 2011-2013
Distribution of Finisher Splits at All 2013 North American Ironman Races

The two sets of histograms above give a very broad picture of the nature of racing Ironman in Texas and North America as a whole. Of course they also hide much of the detail, amalgamating the much slower times of 2013 with the previous 2 years at Ironman Texas for example. It’s imperfect, but offers some basis for comparison with other races. For the most part, at least considering the overall finish splits, Ironman Texas is not significantly different from the other US races. Times are slightly slower, but the margin is small. Within the individual disciplines we can see that bike times in Texas are distinctly faster and run times slower; of course some of this variations may reflect the weighting of the 2013 event (particularly the slower run times).

Typical Distribution of Splits at Ironman Texas

Looking at last year’s pre-race analysis, the 2011-2012 distribution (above) doesn’t vary that much from this year’s 2011-2013 charts. While 2013 did add weight at the slower end of the run, it didn’t hugely shift the distribution. Texas appears to have a faster bike and slower run than the typical North American pattern.

Median Splits by Category at Ironman Texas 2011-2013
Median Splits by Category at 2013 North American Ironman Races
Average Age Group Splits at Ironman Texas

The median charts usually confirm observations from the distributions and this is once again the case. Swim averages are a little slower, bike distinctly faster and run distinctly slower in Texas than in other US races. For the pros the only significant difference is the faster average bike, while the broad age group picture points to a slower run this isn’t true at the sharp end of the field. Again, looking back at last year’s charts, eliminating 2013 results doesn’t change the pattern.

Predicted Kona Slot Allocation for Ironman Texas 2014
  Number of Athletes Number of Slots
F18-24 15 1
F25-29 65 2
F30-34 112 2
F35-39 99 2
F40-44 124 2
F45-49 94 2
F50-54 65 2
F55-59 22 1
F60-64 9 1
F65-69 3 1
F70-74 1 1
M18-24 51 1
M25-29 173 3
M30-34 290 4
M35-39 364 5
M40-44 505 6
M45-49 321 4
M50-54 190 3
M55-59 88 2
M60-64 48 1
M65-69 15 1
M70-74 4 1
M75-79 4 1
M80+ 1 1
Total 2663 50

There are 50 Kona slots available to athletes at Texas and using the bib list available on the Ironman.com site I’ve estimated the above allocation of those places. Actual numbers will vary on the day, but the distribution seems typical of a 50 slot race with M40-44 taking the biggest share.

Top 20 Male Performances and Kona Qualification by Age Group at Ironman Texas
Top 20 Female Performances and Kona Qualification by Age Group at Ironman Texas

Front of pack performances have remained consistently fast over the 3 years of the events regardless of conditions. Qualifying times vary with division, but for the major male age groups it’s likely to be around the 9:30 mark, some will require more, some less. For the women’s field the average tends to run around the 10:30 mark, but again can dip down as low as 10:00. Basically, as we should expect, regardless of course and conditions those looking to qualify need to be fast.

More specific details are available in the age group PDF documents below.

Detailed Age Group Statistics

Age group specific Ironman Texas results analysis. More charts and more detailed timings and splits for top age grouper and Kona qualifiers.

Select an age group to view or download PDF

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Come back next week for my analysis and comparison of the 2014 Ironman Texas results.

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