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?

Vineman Half Ironman Results Analysis

Triathletes finished the Vineman half Ironman in an average time of 6:02, about 6 minutes faster than last year. The average bike split was identical in both years -- 3:04 -- but conditions were conducive to a 5 minute improvement in the run split, to 2:10. Most age groups delivered faster average times as well.

With a rolling bike course that's a bit more challenging than most, there's always a higher chance that triathletes will expend too much energy on the bike, retaining too little for a fast run. But with the average 2:10 run split and only a 2% DNF rate, it seems that most avoided this pitfall. The not-so-lucky ones who suffered on the run are represented by the datapoints in the upper left quadrant.