Ironman Wisconsin is the last of the weekend’s Ironman races for me to review. A long standing US race that draw a field of around 2,500 athletes to compete for 40 Kona slots.This year’s event looks to have been slower than usual.
Every stage of this year’s results trends slower than the amalgamated data from the prior 10 years. This is most pronounced on the bike with a large shift of around 20 minutes at the median. As is often the case, changes up front are much smaller. Overall the race distributes slower than the combined historical data.
As well as trending slower than usual, DNF rates for the bike are among the highest for the course too. Run DNFs are typical and while it’s difficult to make comparison of the swim DNS/DNF figures this year’s level looks normal for an Ironman event. All indications are that the bike was the most challenging aspect of the course this year.
Median splits for each age group largely follow the trends of the distributions above. There’s more variation when you get down to the division level, but still, slower age group bike medians is the most obvious pattern.
Wisconsin draws a handful of athletes from other regions, but as you’d expect is largely a US race with most slots being claimed by US athletes.
Tracking placings within age groups over the last decade shows that this year lies towards the back of the results. There’s a slowing of many of the finishing times, more pronounced with the placings further back. We’re not necessarily seeing the slowest times for the course, but we are leaning towards the tail of Wisconsin results.
Based on the results list I’ve estimated the Kona slot allocation to calculate automatic qualifying times. Final slot allocations may have varied and roll down would affect the final qualifying times. For more information on qualifying times at Ironman races check out my Kona qualification page.
While the race results have largely slowed this is less true of the front of the race. Age group top twenties tend to be closer to the course averages or slightly slower. There are some exceptions coming in either faster or much slower and as you move back through the top twenty times start to deviate more. At the very front of the race – podium and qualifying positions – results mostly come in close to or better than the average. Just a little further back they have dropped off a bit.
You can access a spreadsheet of the full results from Ironman Wisconsin 2017 on my Google Drive.
