Ironman Wisconsin 2015: Results and Analysis
The second Ironman race of the weekend was Ironman Wisconsin. Like a number of other Ironman races in the US this year there was no pro race in Wisconsin. Despite this the race winner was an MPRO, I guess nothing bars a pro entering these races other than the lack of prize money or Kona points. For the age groupers there were 50 Kona slots on offer at this race. Results from the 2015 event suggest it was a largely typical year, just slightly slower across the age groups.
Comparing this years finisher distributions with those from the previous 13 years shows that each discipline trended behind the historic averages. In each case the difference is small, but they add up to a slightly bigger shift in finishing times. Even then we’re not looking at a large enough change to indicate significant differences in race conditions or levels of age group competition.
Differences in median splits vary with age groups. The under thirties appear to have trended faster at this years race, while the biggest age groups over thirty come out a touch slower. Differences come mostly on the bike and as with the distributions up top they aren’t particularly significant.
Tracking how times within the age groups have changed over time at Wisconsin puts 2015 as one of the slower years. It’s not the slowest year seen in Wisconsin and it doesn’t deviate too far from recent results.
At the front of the age group race we see a different trend – if anything times here are ahead of the race averages. Not by huge margins though, but while the field as a whole appears a little slower the competition for slots wasn’t.
So overall it looks like a typical year of racing in Wisconsin (without a pro field) that produced slightly slower results. I wouldn’t read too much into this though, the change is small and well within the bounds of chance rather than an indication of significant variation in race conditions.
You can access a spreadsheet of the full results and splits from Ironman Wisconsin 2015 on my Google Drive.