Ironman Arizona 2014: Past Performances and Kona Qualification
This weekend it’s Ironman Arizona, the penultimate North American Ironman race of this season. As I found in my analysis last year it’s a typical US event – a large field with a broad spread of abilities. Times aren’t exceptionally fast, but they’re certainly not slow and there’s decent competition for the 50 Kona slots on offer. So, as a typical US race, here’s a look at the results and qualification times at Arizona over the last nine years.
You can find more detailed, age group specific versions of the following race statistics at the end of this post.
Comparing the median splits at Arizona with the aggregate from other North American races the only clear difference is on the bike. The margin varies, but bike times are consistently faster in Arizona at the pro and age group level. Differences are much smaller and less consistent in swim and run with nothing standing out as significant. Pros have tended to be slower on the run in Arizona, but there’s no pattern to the age group times.
Viewing the distribution of finisher splits for these races suggests that Arizona may also have a slightly faster swim, but as before the difference is hardly significant. It’s only the shift in bike times where changes stand out, here Arizona trends roughly 10 minutes faster than the US aggregate data. That trend carries through to the overall finishing split where Arizona remains slightly faster.
| Number of Athletes | Number of Slots | |
|---|---|---|
| F18-24 | 12 | 1 |
| F25-29 | 57 | 2 |
| F30-34 | 129 | 2 |
| F35-39 | 144 | 2 |
| F40-44 | 171 | 3 |
| F45-49 | 166 | 3 |
| F50-54 | 109 | 2 |
| F55-59 | 51 | 1 |
| F60-64 | 22 | 1 |
| F65-69 | 6 | 1 |
| F70-74 | 2 | 1 |
| M18-24 | 31 | 1 |
| M25-29 | 138 | 2 |
| M30-34 | 223 | 3 |
| M35-39 | 307 | 4 |
| M40-44 | 484 | 6 |
| M45-49 | 429 | 5 |
| M50-54 | 263 | 3 |
| M55-59 | 158 | 2 |
| M60-64 | 58 | 2 |
| M65-69 | 38 | 1 |
| M70-74 | 7 | 1 |
| M75-79 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 3006 | 50 |
The above slot allocation is based on the start list available at Ironman.com. Final allocation will depend on start numbers on race day and may vary from the estimates in the chart.
Times amongst the top age groupers are also typical of US races. That means male age groupers under 40 will be looking for something under 9:30 for qualification, but as the charts above show, there’s been a lot of variation over the years; there is at least 40 minutes difference between the slowest and fastest years for the top twenty age groupers. Actual qualifying times are very much dependent on the conditions on the day and the competition that turns up.
There’s a lot more detail on individual age group in the PDF files below.
Detailed Age Group Statistics
Age group specific Ironman Arizona results analysis – more charts and more detailed timings and splits for the top age groupers.
Select an age group to view or download PDF
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I’ll post a full analysis of the results from this year’s race after the weekend.
