Triathlete who had run a 2:48 marathon in an Ironman runs a marathon fresh, guess his time

Don't be lame.

Don't cheat.

Go ahead and guess.

And the answer.

RG wrote:

Butterfield, Bermuda’s top male triathlete who returned from his home in Boulder, Colorado to compete for the first time in many years, set the pace after a 1:14 time for the first loop on his way to a winning time of 2hrs 27min 7sec to edge out last year’s winner, Bryan Morseman of the United States. Third was Abu Kebede Diriba, of Ethiopia, in 2:37.44.

Butterfield ran several miles with another local runner, Chayce Smith, who was competing in the half-marathon.

“I’ve done one marathon before and that was a 2:42 [time] when I was 21, a good 14 years ago,” Butterfield said after his victory. “I ran a 2:48 in an ironman so I knew with a 2:42 I should be able to improve on that.

Seems pretty reasonable. 20 min.

rojo wrote:

For years, people have wondered how much a triathlon slows a runner down. Well we finally may have an answer.

The marathon was in Bermuda where the temps are high 60s/low 70s right now.

Guess the answer.

Probably not that fast, given your evident glee...

We'll see who it was and what his races were. If the races are both known as relatively fast (and accurate) courses, I'll give a lot more credence to it than if it's some guy whose 2:48 is his fastest triathlon run by 30 minutes. I'll also give more credence to this anecdote if the guy is an elite triathlete, and not a runner who sandbagged the swim and bike.

Assuming he wasn't peaking for the race, I'd say anything from 2:25-2:55 wouldn't surprise me (or a blowup). If he was peaking big time for the race, I'd say 2:18-2:38. But we'll see. I've never been super bullish on triathletes' open run times.

Well, I posted too late, and I underestimated the guy. Great post on my part...

To me, this lends evidence to the idea that, yes, top triathletes are really fast runners, but, no, they're not likely elite unless they've come to triathlon through an elite running background. (Gwen may be an exception, but she was a successful NCAA runner first, was far ahead of the pack, and was not an IM athlete.

I know that course and it's not easy. Also, this guy was training for a time in CO but he also comes from excellent genes. Look up his mom and dad.

Good for him to achieve that time in Bermuda, his first? home. BTW, it's not easy to run there...

Almost got arrested there for running shirtless back in the day when Swan and Debbie were the champs.

2:25:00

rojo wrote:

And the answer.

RG wrote:

Butterfield, Bermuda’s top male triathlete who returned from his home in Boulder, Colorado to compete for the first time in many years, set the pace after a 1:14 time for the first loop on his way to a winning time of 2hrs 27min 7sec to edge out last year’s winner, Bryan Morseman of the United States. Third was Abu Kebede Diriba, of Ethiopia, in 2:37.44.

Butterfield ran several miles with another local runner, Chayce Smith, who was competing in the half-marathon.

“I’ve done one marathon before and that was a 2:42 [time] when I was 21, a good 14 years ago,” Butterfield said after his victory. “I ran a 2:48 in an ironman so I knew with a 2:42 I should be able to improve on that.

http://www.royalgazette.com/runningtriathlon/article/20180114/butterfield-makes-it-bermuda-double

That is legit. As well as being hot and humid that Bermuda course is also hilly.

RI red wrote:

Almost got arrested there for running shirtless back in the day when Swan and Debbie were the champs.

Feel free to divulge the details of this.

Thanks rojo . So the rule of thumb is now iron man marathon - 20 minutes = marathon best . Good sleuth work .

it's true, you're not allowed to be topless in bermuda, and it's applied equally. I've been there many times and was yelled at several times the one single time I made the mistake to run without my shirt. Still makes me chuckle.

Hounddogharrier wrote:

Thanks rojo . So the rule of thumb is now iron man marathon - 20 minutes = marathon best . Good sleuth work .

Low-70s can easily add 5 minutes to the optimal tie, depending on humidity. We need more data.

Hounddogharrier wrote:

Thanks rojo . So the rule of thumb is now iron man marathon - 20 minutes = marathon best . Good sleuth work .

Seems reasonable, but a lot of things can affect this. How much you push on the bike/leave for the run can impact a lot the marathon time during an Ironman. Also, he ran this marathon from the front whereas in the Ironman he might've been chasing during the 2:48. Temperature too, the professional triathletes are usually doing the ironman marathon during early afternoon, so it's gonna be a big difference in temperatures between someone running in Kona or Norway for example. Course too, obviously.

But IM-20 sounds like a good approximation

about a decade ago, a pro German triathlete named Norman Stadler did something similar.

Norman is now retired, but was known primarily as a bike specialist.

At the time when he did this, he had already won the Hawaii world champs once IIRC.

Basically it happened in the Fall, and he had just scratched from an ironman race and decided to jump into a German marathon (i think it was Frankfurt) based on his fitness.

He usually ran low 2:50s off the bike, and did 2:31 i think in the standalone marathon, just off pure ironman training.

20 minutes is about right, especially for the non running specialists.

Chris Legh, better known for his collapse at Hawaii in 1997, ran 2.29 at Chicago last year, aged 44.

Very legit time and solid neg split. I wonder how fast Patrick Lange or Patrik Nilsson could go in an open marathon, they both routinely go sub 2:40 in an ironman and Patrick has done it twice in the Kona heat. I think they could pull off a sub 2:20 with a few months of training.

Also remember that triathletes don't normally train at the paces necessary to run sub 2:20 for the volume needed to run a marathon.

2:29?