picture from Slowtwitch.comShe is amazing! After racing virtually as an unknown in 2007, she wins for the third year in a row, and sets a new course record at 8:54:02.
Miranda Carfrae, in her first Iron-distance race, sets a run course record of 2:56:51. Not only was it her first Ironman, but her first ever marathon distance run - and none of her previous runs were longer than two and a half hours. AMAZING!
A note about the race on Slowtwitch.com today...
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii -- The incredible Chrissie Wellington Express wrote a new chapter in triathlon history by taking down the 17-year Ironman Hawaii race record held by eight-time winner Paula Newby-Fraser with a dominating 8:54:02 that outpaced runner-up rookie Mirinda Carfrae by the Paula-esque margin of 19:57. While Wellington surrendered her year-old run record to Carfrae's blazing 2:56:51 marathon, she upped her Ironman-distance win record to a perfect eight-for eight and took her third straight win at the sport's crown jewel, the Ironman World Championship in Kona.
On a day in which the next fastest women's bike split was 5:01:42 by third place finisher Virginia Berasategui of Spain, Wellington essentially closed the deal with 4:52:07 bike that put her in the same dominant two-wheel category as Newby-Fraser and Swiss legend Natascha Badmann.
"I'm honored and incredibly proud to have broken such a historic record set by Paula Newby-Fraser, an incredible legend of the sport," said Wellington.
From her interviews, Chrissie seems like a really cool, down to earth person. No big head on her. I'll pulled some interesting and funny bits from previous articles:
From Ironman.com 10/10/09
What a change from two years ago ...
When Chrissie Wellington won here two years ago, she tried to call home from the finish line to let them know how she'd done ... and there was no one home.
Today her family was here in force to help her celebrate her record setting performance.
Sunday Times, 7/10/09
Wellington now coaches herself but has some advisers. Such a solitary, self-improving existence could lead to extreme selfishness but this is certainly not the case with Wellington. She has set up a women’s empowerment network, GOTribal, to help women develop themselves through sport, particularly those who are underprivileged. It is an extension to her former academic and working career.
Examiner.com - Washington DC
And where had she come from? Why, Nepal of course. Prior to starting her career as a pro triathlete, Wellington had spent 16 months working for a Nepalese nonprofit called Rural Reconstruction Nepal. Between intestinal parasites, Wellington rode her mountain bike. She also enjoyed going for hilly trail runs, even if it meant fleeing rabid stray dogs through the mountains.
What makes Chrissie Wellington the apple of everyone’s eye, though, is the personality she brings to the sport. While most champions race with a grimace on their face, Wellington races with her head up and one eye on the crowd. She always races with a big smile on her face, a gleam in her eye, and a laugh in her throat. While making women’s triathlon history, she cheers for the pro men she sees along the way. Wellington is like a superhero who feeds solely on love for the sport and the charged race energy.
Wellington does the Blazeman log-roll over every finish line in
solidarity with the war on ALS.
Photo courtesy Ben Mansford and Chrissie Wellington
The most important aspect of the sport for Wellington is what it allows her to give back to the community. All of the fame and exposure that Chrissie gains from her triathon success, she funnels right back into the sport through groups like GOTRIbal, an organization that aims to empower women through triathlon and sport. At Timberman, Wellington made it a point of hanging around at the finish line to hand out medals and hugs to grimy, sweaty age groupers.
[this is actually a great article, you should read the whole thing!]Slowtwitch.com, 9/10/2008
ST: Do you follow any other sports?
Chrissie: I am partial to a bit of mud wrestling, belly dancing and naked bungy jumping. Just not together.
ST: Can you share with us some of your food likes and dislikes?
Chrissie: I like food, and dislike not having any! I am wracking my brains to think of a food substance that I don’t like. I ate snake, dog and rat in Indonesia. I guess my foody favorites are bircher muesli (nuts, seeds, coconut, oatmeal, dried fruit – the whole kitchen sink - with yoghurt), huge bbq’s at my mum and dad’s house, salads with everything, steak, all things middle eastern, and dense, heavy German bread!
ST: What about music? Anything you listen to more often?
Chrissie: Country and Western. Dolly Parton is my idol. I would love to have her assets. Aside from that, I tend to jive to Placebo, Smashing Pumpkins, U2, Zwan, The Calling, Jeff Buckley, Jim Major (someone gave me this CD at the Awards Party at Kona last year, and it’s a gem), Tracy Chapman, Razorlight, The Killers, Feeder….Plus anything that comes on a 1980s cassette tape… Chesney Hawkes (famed for the classic ‘I am the One and Only’, and then promptly fell off the face of the earth) and Wham are my party favorites.
ST: What was the last book you read?
Chrissie: ‘A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali’ by Gil Courtemanche - a superb, powerful, humorous, yet shocking and disturbing commentary on the genocide, the AIDS/HIV crisis, poverty (and the West’s culpability) - juxtaposed against the color, joy and love characterizing everyday life in Rwanda.
ST: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Chrissie: I am thinking of becoming a nun. Sister Madonna is leading the way.
Alternatively, perhaps happily married to an aging sugar daddy with five kids, and one on the way. I will start taking sugar daddy applications now.
Seriously, I haven’t got a clue! I don’t even know what I am doing in 5 minutes, as the boss doesn’t tell me. I could still be competing professionally at triathlon, or another sport, going back into politics, cycle touring and traveling round the world, or starting a sport/development related foundation. I will seize any opportunity that comes my way, and you never know what might cross your path. So nothing is certain. But whatever it is, I will be smiling!
ST: Is there anything else we should know about you?
Chrissie: My nickname is Muppet. I prefer cats to dogs (got bitten by a potentially rabid one once and it put me off. That’s why I ate dog in Indonesia). I snore. Loudly. I have four toes that are all the same length. My middle name is Anne. I wanted to be a tractor driver when I was 5. I once went to a meeting at Number 10 Downing Street and wasn’t wearing any underwear (I had been swimming beforehand and forgot to pack said item of clothing). I am a very bad car driver (hence failure to reach pinnacle of tractor driving career).
You can also check out her website at www.chrissiewellington.org/
1 comment:
Very funny, that Chrissie! Thanks for pulling all of these tid-bits together. :)
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