Mirinda Carfrae produced a stunning marathon run to retain her World Ironman triathlon title in Kona on the weekend.
The 33-year-old Queenslander notched up her third victory in the biggest of races and maintained her impressive record of finishing on the podium in each of the six years she has competed.
Although fairly well known in triathlon circles, there are few people outside of the sport who would recognise Mirinda if she walked (or more likely, ran) past them in the street.
Yet Mirinda’s athletic achievements are extraordinary.
The sport she specialises in, Ironman distance triathlon, is brutal to the extreme, and pushes it’s participants beyond normal feats of human endurance.
The race starts with 3.9 kilometres of swimming, that’s 78 laps of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Although in the mass starts of Ironman racing, your nearest competitor is just as likely to swim over you as stick to their lane.
This is swiftly followed by 180 kilometres on the bike. To put that into perspective, riding from Brisbane to Byron Bay or Sydney to Newcastle is (only) about 160 kilometres. All this is then finished up by running a marathon, which Mirinda Carfrae is spectacularly good at.
Last year Carfrae made up a deficit of around eight minutes to take the title ahead of British pair Rachel Joyce and Liz Blatchford. However her comeback this year was nothing short of extraordinary.
Carfrae made up 14 and a half minutes on Switzerland’s Daniela Ryf in the marathon, breaking her own run course record, completing the 42 kilometres in 2:50:26.
The way in which she overtook Ryf, who ended up holding on for second place ahead of Britain’s Joyce, was simply incredible to see.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aHt8WMB2jE
She flew past with five kilometres to go and never looked back, emulating fellow Aussie Craig Alexander’s three victories, and maintaining Australia’s magnificent record of having a winner in either the men’s or women’s race every year since 2006.
So my question to Roarers is, what other athletes can you think of who have achieved so much on the world stage without necessarily getting a lot recognition?
Or do athletes tend to get the right amount of credit based on what they go through to achieve their personal goals?
Simon Smale
Roar Guru
I've always thought that when I've been watching these guys too Jon... Last year at Cairns the pain on the mortals who were doing the run was a sight to behold, yet the pros looked (relatively) comfortable and were running at such an incredible pace it was hard to comprehend what they had gone through earlier that day. Amazing athletes.
Simon Smale
Roar Guru
Thanks for that Kim, some cracking stats there in that article. So interesting to see how dominant the run has been in recent years and how if you can put a (more than) decent marathon together at the end of race, you're in with a shot. Also interesting to see just how far back Seb was on the swim, and just how hard it has been historically to make up that distance. Just goes to show that the adage - "you can't win it in the water, but you can certainly loose it" rings true!
Kim
Guest
http://espn.go.com/blog/endurance/post/_/id/2401/carfrae-kienle-stage-big-kona-comebacks worth a read
English Jon
Roar Rookie
Clearly an absolutely amazing athlete. Having personally attended a couple of Ironman races myself (purely as a spectator, I might add), I can honestly say "oh, my gosh" to anyone who does this - well done Miranda!
Simon Smale
Roar Guru
Absolutely Mark, we had the same issue with not recognising incredible performances in the UK when Chrissy Wellington was dominating the sport. You'd have been hard pushed to find anyone who even knew about her achievements. I heard today that her marathon split would have her finish 5th in the Melbourne Marathon on the weekend, despite it being a tougher course and at the back end of an ironman... Unbelievable run. I think we'd be hard pushed to find better, and certainly the most impressive in recent years. It is a shame. We need more people to spread the word!
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Yes! She is! Amazing run, I can't remember anyone coming from that far down off the bike to win. Maybe Heather Fuhr? Mark Allen in 1996? She is an amazing athlete with zero profile in oz, very sad.