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Photo: Kevin Mackinnon<\/p>\nIt\u2019s been a little bit since we\u2019ve had some good, old-fashioned, silly season drama to wrap our arms around. But, considering that everything\u2019s bigger in Texas, it should come as no surprise that we got some fun coming out of The Woodlands. That and we\u2019re just past Marathon Monday for those who celebrate, with more than 30,000 runners who took to the streets from Hopkinton to Boston for the 130th Boston Marathon.<\/p>\n
So, let\u2019s get our Stephen A. Smith on and roll through it.<\/p>\n
How Close to The 7 Hour IRONMAN Are We?<\/p>\n
Photo: Kevin Mackinnon<\/p>\n
This weekend\u2019s men\u2019s race can be chalked up to Kristian Blummenfelt doing Kristian Blummenfelt things \u2014 swimming with the front group, riding under four hours, and then delivering a 2:30:47 marathon on his way to effectively a new world-best IRONMAN time of 7:21:24. (Blummenfelt himself post race said that this was a \u201cbetter time\u201d than his Cozumel one, which features a current-aided swim.)<\/p>\n
Mind you, this wasn\u2019t even a perfect showing for Blummenfelt. He had a puncture to deal with, which led to this conversation with the media crew following him at the time.<\/p>\n
It was a bad day for tires on Saturday, as a different puncture derailed Kat Matthews race, too.<\/p>\n
At any rate, it meant that Blummenfelt had some serious work to do on the bike to stay within touching distance of the front of the race, and then made up a 1:08 deficit on the run to take the title, beating out Marten Van Riel and Casper Stornes in the fastest podium of all time.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s racing has gotten absurdly fast over the last half decade. We\u2019ve gone from Jan Frodeno beating Lionel Sanders in the so-called Tri Battle, racing with near perfect conditions, finishing in 7:27:53, to the 7:20s on a near routine basis. It wasn\u2019t that long ago that men breaking eight hours seemed impossible. Heck, I remember when breaking four hours in a half was considered world-beating.<\/p>\n
Is there a day in the not too distant future where someone is busting through the 7 hour barrier? Probably not. The limit with the current generation of men\u2019s stars in the sport is probably around 7:15, barring a sizable technological breakthrough that would aid swim, bike, or run performance. Let\u2019s take Blummenfelt from this weekend; you might find 30 or so seconds in that swim, but not much more. If we\u2019re being charitable, maybe he doesn\u2019t flat and comes into transition without the minute or so gap, and then maybe he can edge under 2:30 for a marathon? So, let\u2019s call it 2 or so minutes total off his time.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s with a.) an absolutely world class field going head to head, b.) nearly perfect race conditions for a fast day at the office, and c.) everybody who could have had a good day was in contention for a long while. You had to be under 7:33 just to earn a paycheck on Saturday. People who missed making money included Matt Hanson, Kristian H\u00f8genhaug, Ben Kanute, and Sam Long, among many others, all of whom finished under 7:40. We\u2019re within the envelope of where the limit must exist.<\/p>\n
Still, though. It\u2019s just mind-numbingly fast.<\/p>\n
Is Taylor Knibb Ever Going to Win A Full Distance Race?<\/p>\n
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Photo: Kevin Mackinnon<\/p>\n
I know. This seems blasphemous. Especially for someone who has won medals and championships at just about every distance under the sun. And for someone who has finished second in IRONMAN Texas twice, and was fourth in her debut IRONMAN in Kona back in 2023.<\/p>\n
But gosh, doesn\u2019t it feel like she should have won by now?<\/p>\n
Knibb has come tantalizingly close to taking the biggest race of them all twice now; let\u2019s not forget how superhuman of an effort it took from Lucy Charles-Barclay to wrest control of that 2023 race. She was less than two miles from glory this past October when the wheels completely came off the train. Every time she\u2019s on the start line, she\u2019s up at the front of the race.<\/p>\n
And yet victory at full distance races eludes her. <\/p>\n
All of her primary top rivals \u2014 Kat Matthews, Lucy Charles-Barclay, Laura Philipp \u2014 had racked up a full distance IRONMAN win by their third season of racing full distance races. Now, perhaps part of that can be chalked up to Knibb only really moving to the full distance post-IRONMAN Pro Series creation, and she\u2019s got deeper fields to try and break through. But at some point, those three also have won these big events. At one point, it felt less like if or when with Knibb, but how many. Now, it\u2019s really starting to feel like if. <\/p>\n
Brock Hoel Broke Through, But He Probably Should\u2019ve Been DQ\u2019d<\/p>\n
Canadian Brock Hoel had his best ever finish in an IRONMAN Pro Series event, hanging around the front of the race all day and then using a sub-2:40 marathon to hang on for sixth place. Hoel was 54th at Oceanside a few weeks ago. His best ever IRONMAN finish previously was ninth in Arizona. It was, by all accounts, a fantastic day for him. Hoel wrote on Instagram after the race, \u201cLead group swim, chaotic ride with the best of the best, and a patient run that had me passing 6 guys the last 12km to take that last Kona slot. I have no words.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s just one problem: by IRONMAN\u2019s own rulebook, Hoel probably should have been disqualified.<\/p>\n
Hoel, who includes the line \u201cJesus is King\u201d in his Instagram bio, crossed the finish line with a flag with the same on it, as seen below.<\/p>\n
On its face, it\u2019s fine. I\u2019ve crossed a finish line with a symbol before; I went across the finish line at IRONMAN Lake Placid back in 2017 with our physical representation of our late son, Owen.<\/p>\n
But, there\u2019s a specific difference in the IRONMAN rulebook<\/a> between my example and Hoel\u2019s flag in Texas. Rule 2.01(f) states that all athletes must \u201cObey laws and local ordinances and avoid any type of demonstration of political, religious, or racial propaganda. Failure to obey laws or local ordinances and\/or failure to refrain from demonstration will result in disqualification\u201d (emphasis added).<\/p>\n Now, look. Let\u2019s be clear: there was a precisely zero percent chance that Hoel was getting disqualified for that flag in the great state of Texas. And whether or not you agree with the message (we\u2019re a semi-Catholic household, and our daughter adores church) is somewhat irrelevant. The rule is there to prevent religious or political messaging. You\u2019d probably get DQ\u2019d if you tried to cross with, say, a Russian Federation flag. Or one supporting Palestine (or Israel, for that matter). <\/p>\n The problem is in selective enforcement, which has generally been a theme of our sport\u2019s rulebook for far too long. Words have meaning. By the letter of the law, Hoel broke Rule 2.01(f). Either enforce it all the time, or scrap it. I\u2019d be in favor of scrapping it \u2014 any type of intolerant behavior is still forbidden under a variety of other clauses in the IM rulebook. Heck, the two clauses that surround the rule in question cover 99% of scenarios. Rule 2.01(e) offers wide discretion to define how to \u201ctreat referees, officials, volunteers, spectators, the public, and other athletes with respect and courtesy.\u201d Then Rule 2.01(g) says that athletes must \u201cavoid the use of abusive language.\u201d<\/p>\n Get the sharpie out, IRONMAN. Let\u2019s clean up the rulebook.<\/p>\n The Nike \u201cControversy\u201d Misses the Mark<\/p>\n For those who have been living under the rock for the past week: every running brand worth their salt winds up having some type of activation on the Boston Marathon. Nike is no exception to this, and put up a series of signs around the city. But one drew the ire of the Internet in a way that hasn\u2019t ignited running since Pearl Izumi\u2019s ill-fated \u201cRespect the Marathon\u201d campaign from over a decade ago \u2014 reading \u201crunners welcome, walkers tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n The pushback online was swift and immediate. Nike had removed the sign by Friday last week, stating that, \u201cWe want more people to feel welcome in running\u2013no matter their pace, experience, or the distance. During race week in Boston, we put up a series of signs to encourage runners. One of them missed the mark. We took it down, and we\u2019ll use this moment to do better and continue showing up for all runners.\u201d<\/p>\n The problem, though, is that Nike\u2019s message was fine to the audience with which it was tailored to be received by. Boston is by and large a qualification only race. As we wrote last week, it\u2019s not just enough to run the qualifying time itself; you had to be significantly faster than your qualifying time in order to have your entry accepted into the field. Outside of the charity and sponsorship slots, you have to have some decent running credentials to be in the race.<\/p>\n And that sign is meant for that audience of qualifiers. It is intentionally aspirational that is, yes, mildly exclusionary. But it fits in with Nike\u2019s general brand motif of attempting to cater to the elite, performance-oriented athlete. Boston is where more brands sling more carbon-plated super shoes in a weekend than they\u2019ll clear in a month otherwise. <\/p>\n This is also different than the aforementioned Pearl Izumi campaign, which split the entirety of the running community with \u201crunners\u201d versus \u201cjoggers.\u201d Nike\u2019s sign doesn\u2019t define who a runner is. It is left up to interpretation who fits into each bucket. Our own biases get read into the message, rather than the message explicitly telling us who is \u201crespecting the marathon\u201d and who isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Tags:Boston Marathon<\/a>IRONMAN<\/a>Nike<\/a>Opinion<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a little bit since we\u2019ve had some good, old-fashioned, silly season drama to wrap our arms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-260930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-texas","9":"tag-texas-headlines","10":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/670415440_18406929166197630_820085375738905738_n-e1776452043213-1024x577.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n