Most Half Ironman Finishers? 5393 in a Single Day

On August 18, 2011, five half ironman events took place around the world, in Germany, the Philippines, Yeppoon, Michigan and Washington State. A combined total of nearly 5,400 triathletes finished these triathlons, perhaps the largest number of half ironman finishers in a single day.

An additional 192 triathletes had begun their respective half ironmans but did not finish, a 3% DNF rate. Notably, nearly 6,700 had initially registered to compete, but 17% never made it to the starting line. Lake Stevens' DNS rate of 34% is the largest we've ever seen. The Europeans are driven to compete; it appears that only 2% of registered entrants chose to skip Germany's half ironman, the lowest we've ever seen.

Of the five events, the Philippines half ironman appears to be the toughest challenge, as indicated by average finish times by age group. Germany comes in a close second, followed by the race in Lake Stevens.

Yeppoon's inaugural half ironman featured remarkably fast finish times across all age groups. The Steelhard half ironman swim was cancelled due to weather conditions; it was transitioned to a bike/run duathlon. Interestingly, the Steelhead duathlon times approach Yeppoon's full half ironman times in several age groups.

Half Ironman Calgary Results Analysis

Over 700 triathletes finished this year's Calgary half ironman distance event in an average time of 6:03, a slight improvement from 6:07 in 2010. With these results, Calgary remains among the middle of our Toughest Half Ironman Races rankings.

How the average splits turned out: 43 minute swim, 3:01 bike and 2:09 run, with the remainder in transition time. These splits are nearly identical to the average time it takes to finish a half ironman triathlon.

Ironman UK Results Analysis

After its inaugural event's average finish time of 13:01 in 2010 placed Ironman UK, Bolton, as one of RunTri's toughest Ironman events, the 2011 edition was substantially faster, with a 12:36 average finish time. Dramatically improved times were seen across most age groups.

Breaking down the gains: the swim, at 1:11, was 2 minutes faster; the bike at 6:50 was 12 minutes faster; and the run, at 4:17, was 13 minutes faster. 

For some reason, the run split seems too good to be true. A large number of runners went sub-3 hours (see red circled area below), more than we'd expect, particularly after lightning fast bike times on a very tough course.

As a reference, we did the same analysis on Ironman UK's bike and run splits for 2010; substantially fewer ran sub-3. Did Ironman UK have a notably high number of run specialists this year?