Ironman Maryland 2017: Age Group Results and Kona Qualification

Latest statistics for Ironman Maryland

Last weekend saw Ironman Maryland take place. The fourth running of an event that has had more than its fair share of disruption. A last minute date change and a shortened swim in 2015, a cancelled swim and shortened bike in 2016. This year’s race appears to have gone ahead without such serious issues. It pulled a field of just over 1,000 athletes with forty 2018 Kona slots on offer.

I’ve largely excluded 2016 from this analysis, but have included 2015 which will influence the historical data with its shortened swim.

Distribution of Finisher Splits at Ironman Maryland 2017 Compared with 2014-2015

This year’s race trends slower than the 2014-2015 data. There’s obviously a big difference in the swim distributions thanks to 2015 and I would consider the 2017 results to be typical for the course. Bike and run trend slower, but not too significantly, so a fair portion of the difference in the overall comes down to the influence of the swim. Given the variation in data it’s hard to place the 2017 race in context for this course.

DNS and DNF Rates at Ironman Maryland
Year
Listed Athletes
Swim Finish
Swim DNS/DNF
Bike Finish
Bike DNF
Run Finish
Run DNF
Overall DNS/DNF
2014
1495
1447
3.2%
1433
1%
1378
3.8%
7.8%
2015
2613
1415
45.8%
1394
1.5%
1359
2.5%
48%
2016
2572
1964
0%
1886
4%
26.7%
2017
1094
1090
0.4%
1063
2.5%
1015
4.5%
6.9%

Again, it’s hard to draw comparisons with the many changes to this event. The 2015 numbers have a very high DNS rate due to the last minute date change. The 2016 numbers are also impacted by the swim cancellation – what wasn’t clear from the athlete tracker at the time was how many started the bike. The 2014 data seems fine and with that in mind this year’s results don’t seem unusual.

Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Maryland 2017
Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Maryland 2014-2015

As with previous comparisons the 2015 swim makes it hard to compare swim medians, but bike and run should be safer. In the later cases we still see slower medians in 2017.

Top 10 Nationalities at Ironman Maryland
Country
Count
Percentage
United States
1134
84.8
Canada
59
4.4
United Kingdom
18
1.3
Germany
12
0.9
Brazil
11
0.8
Colombia
8
0.6
China
7
0.5
France
6
0.4
Mexico
6
0.4
Panama
5
0.4
Ironman Maryland 2017 Predicted Kona Qualifiers by Country
Country
Percentage of Slots
Percentage of Field
United States
57.5
84.8
Canada
10.0
4.4
United Kingdom
5.0
1.3
Germany
5.0
0.9
Panama
2.5
0.4
UMI
2.5
0.1
Estonia
2.5
0.1
Finland
2.5
0.1
Austria
2.5
0.1
Ireland
2.5
0.2
France
2.5
0.4
Australia
2.5
0.3

As usual we see a majority US attendance, with a spread from other nations that’s also reflected in the likely slot allocation.

Changes in Male Finishing Times by Position at Ironman Maryland
Changes in Female Finishing Times by Position at Ironman Maryland

Tracking times and positions gives us the best picture on how this year’s race stands. we can see how much faster the much shorter 2016 event was and that the 2015 race wasn’t particularly fast, despite the short swim. So, that suggests this year may have been on the slow side for the course; certainly in comparison with 2014.

Ironman Maryland 2017 Predicted Kona Qualification Times
Age Group
Slots
Winner
Average Kona Qualifier
Final Qualifier
M18-24
1
11:10:38
11:10:38
11:10:38
M25-29
2
09:21:48
09:23:26
09:25:04
M30-34
2
08:51:11
08:52:59
08:54:48
M35-39
3
09:06:35
09:09:49
09:12:01
M40-44
3
09:06:46
09:18:55
09:27:49
M45-49
3
09:18:54
09:27:37
09:38:34
M50-54
3
09:39:50
09:44:52
09:49:54
M55-59
2
10:45:32
10:47:08
10:48:44
M60-64
1
10:59:16
10:59:16
10:59:16
M65-69
1
12:05:21
12:05:21
12:05:21
M70-74
1
12:59:36
12:59:36
12:59:36
M75-79
1
16:36:18
16:36:18
16:36:18
F18-24
1
11:49:11
11:49:11
11:49:11
F25-29
2
10:16:18
10:29:38
10:42:59
F30-34
2
10:15:43
10:24:39
10:33:35
F35-39
2
09:54:26
10:00:51
10:07:17
F40-44
2
10:11:06
10:20:40
10:30:15
F45-49
2
10:47:55
10:49:21
10:50:48
F50-54
2
10:31:12
11:01:26
11:31:41
F55-59
1
11:33:43
11:33:43
11:33:43
F60-64
1
11:13:53
11:13:53
11:13:53
F70-74
1
13:49:30
13:49:30
13:49:30

Based on the start list I’ve estimated the slot allocation and the likely automatic qualifying times in the table above. Final numbers may have varied. You can compare with other races on my Kona qualification page.

Top Twenty Male Performances and Kona Qualification by Age Group at Ironman Maryland 2017
Top Twenty Female Performances and Kona Qualification by Age Group at Ironman Maryland 2017

To finish off, the times in the top twenty of each age group. What’s most worth noting is that the front runners in the top 5 or 10 tended to be average or faster for the course, but then times drop off. So although there’s some evidence this race was slower, that wasn’t so much the case at the very front, where times are more comparable.

You can access a spreadsheet of the full results and splits from Ironman Maryland 2017 on my Google Drive.

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