Episode 88: Ironman Texas Highlights with Travis Mundell from The Daily Tri

This week’s episode of Another Triathlon Podcast is absolutely stacked!

We kick things off with a Boston Marathon race recap from Josh, fresh off his massive PR and BQ effort at his hometown major. He shares what went right on race day, including pacing strategies, nutrition lessons, and the magic of racing relaxed.

From there, we dive into race coverage from Ironman Texas. Jenna-Caer was on the ground Travis Mundell from The Daily Tri with media access, capturing the action, and shares insider stories from transition zone chaos to mid-race mechanical drama (including Trevor Foley’s shoe mishap and Taylor Knibb’s crash at dismount!). Plus, the crew breaks down the pro races, including:

✔️ Kristian Blummenfelt taking the win and validating his spot for Nice
✔️ Antonio Benito shocking the field with a breakout 2nd place
✔️ Rudy von Berg steady as ever to snag 3rd and lead the Pro Series standings
✔️ Kat Matthews running down Taylor Knibb to take the women's title in record-breaking fashion
✔️ Lisa Perterer stepping onto the podium after a smart and strong day

We also chat about how race day at Texas felt elevated this year - from the new finish line setup to a bigger, better athlete and spectator experience. Major props to Ironman for raising the bar.

Finally, we cover Alex Yee's marathon debut at London Marathon (2:11!!), how triathletes are taking over the long-distance running world, and what’s coming next for the pro racing season.

Timestamps:

• (00:00) Welcome and episode overview
• (02:30) Josh’s Boston Marathon PR story
• (18:00) Jenna-Caer’s Ironman Texas race coverage experience
• (26:00) Ironman Texas pro race breakdown
• (34:00) Interview with Travis Mundell
• (52:00) Alex Yee’s London Marathon debut + triathletes crushing marathons
• (1:00:00) What's next for the Pro Series and race season

Follow Along:

• @anothertriathlonpodcast on Instagram or YouTube for race videos and bonus coverage
• @thedailytri on Youtube or Instagram for epic race previews and recaps
• Check out the Mauna Training Camp in Boulder this June! Mauna Training Camp

If you enjoyed this episode, hit that follow button, leave us a rating, and tag us in your training sessions – we love seeing what you're chasing down! 🏁

Transcript

Jenna-Caer (00:01.108)
Welcome back to another Triathlon Podcast brought to you by Mauna Apparel. This week, we're going to break it all down. We're going to be talking Ironman Texas. We're going to chat about Alex Yee at the London Marathon. And we're going to catch up with our very own Josh, who's rocking his Boston jacket here. So we'll find out all about his race too. So stay tuned. We're going to catch up with the crew. And then we'll throw in a segment with Travis Mundell from the Daily Try, who will help us break down Ironman Texas as he was on the ground with me there. So first off.

Let's say hi to everyone and because I know we're going to want the full recap from Josh, we'll start off and say hi to Fede here.

Josh (00:37.454)
you

Fed (00:37.903)
Yeah, let's start with the boring one. Yes. No, everything's... Right, yes. No, everything's going good. Today I just had this really good gym session, which I haven't felt sore in quite a bit of time. And it's been a while since I had like a good gym session that I felt proud of. I was dead lifting like a...

Josh (00:40.718)
You're just back loading everything, that's all.

Fed (01:06.513)
like an athlete, not like a triathlete, so that felt good. And yeah, I my, did a run first because I like to do my triathlete workouts first and then do the strength part just because I want to be a bit more fresh for the thing that I actually do, not the lifting. And yeah, it's been going well, but it's feeling good. And I was doing this,

Jenna-Caer (01:25.803)
Yeah.

Fed (01:35.421)
10 by two minutes on the run and it was painful and I was just talking to you guys off the air about this Redos race 70.3 and I was hurting for two minutes. I was like, man, this 70.3 at altitude that Ironman just announced, it's gonna be tough. So if you're doing that, please do a lot of intensity and be prepared to feel like you're dying.

Josh (02:00.558)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (02:04.822)
Quite the race endorsement.

Fed (02:05.477)
Yeah. Hashtag go-ri-dozo. Visit New Mexico. Yeah. Maybe Iron Man needs to send me an invite for the race and then have me as a spokesperson of altitude racing. Yeah. Awesome. Anyways, now that we've talked about what I wanted to talk about, why don't...

Josh (02:08.237)
Everyone go to New Mexico.

Jenna-Caer (02:20.064)
There we go.

Josh (02:23.394)
You're on your way, Fed.

Jenna-Caer (02:27.062)
my goodness.

Fed (02:35.217)
you guys tell us what's going on with you.

Jenna-Caer (02:38.294)
Yeah, Josh, give us the rundown, Mr. Boston. How'd it go out there?

Fed (02:42.342)
Mmm.

Josh (02:42.894)
I'll keep it short because this was a huge triathlon weekend and another marathon took place only six days after I had a ton of friends do both, which is also crazy. I felt good. Probably by the time the weekend rolled around and London came out and I probably could have run a marathon, but nowhere near as fast as I ran Boston. which if you haven't seen was a huge surprise. Like I, I just was not expecting to.

Jenna-Caer (02:46.198)
Yeah.

Josh (03:12.372)
Attack that course for 26 miles. thought it would be like a big training day in terms of grabbing data for the rest of the year and how we were going to approach the rest of the season and draft on and eventually towards the Chicago marathon goal of trying to run a sub three. and I think a lot of that just allowed me to be relaxed. I enjoyed the whole weekend. Like I

I wouldn't normally, if I was chasing a PR, I walked around, did a lot of things at the expo, got some awesome invites. I ran an all out two mile on the New Balance track two days before the race and hanging out with Meb Coflezzi and other pros and Megan Featherston. It was just a really cool event and just relaxed me. I stayed at home every night. I would go into the city, my wife and I would go in, we'd come back home, go back in.

Fed (03:39.357)
Mmm.

Josh (04:03.298)
come back home and then Sunday we made the decision not to go in the city. And I think that was a game changer because we just totally relaxed and stayed off our feet and were able to get everything done at home that we wanted to. live 20 minutes from the start line. So I didn't have to do the bus into the city. I live on the other side of the start line too. So like we took an Uber.

Fed (04:18.908)
Go!

Josh (04:26.094)
My parents drove my cars in on Sunday night because they have an apartment, um, that we were going to stay in, in Copley square, literally right at the finish line. So they had to drive in Sunday night. took my car in their car and they were going to meet us at the finish line on Monday and we'd have a place to stay and enjoy Tuesday. So we took an Uber on Monday morning and my start time was 10 25. My wife's was at 11 15 and.

We got there around eight 45, and then you take a bus. So you get dropped off. There's a parking lot for athletes to park and, and drive if they wanted to. And then you take a bus from there, 15, 20 minutes to the start village. Because we were both with charities as well. had access to the indoor facility. And so if you ever want to do Boston and you don't want to raise money, raise money, find a charity, raise money. The start line experience is so much better because you have access to private.

Fed (04:58.224)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (05:20.61)
bathrooms and indoor bathrooms and not forward potties. And it's, it's really, really nice to have that extra aspect, but like, you're to hear a lot of people say you're not there long. And, and a lot of people arrived late and they were like going right. Cause it's about a three quarter mile walk down to the start line from the high school that you start your village at. so it just kind of really crushed the morning in terms of my nutrition, had a great breakfast.

Fed (05:27.868)
Yeah.

Josh (05:48.376)
Took my bar carb about two and a half hours before the race and super hydrated, had a high carb bottle with me with, with sodium that I was sipping on and drinking all the way down to the start line and then grabbed one more Poland spring water. They've got a huge area of porter bodies and water bottles and sunscreen and all this stuff literally within a couple hundred feet of the corrals. And so I took one of those with me into the corral and

I was just like, I put my phone away at this point. Took one last photo before we started and put the phone away in my pocket. and I knew the course and I was like, I'm not going to go out too hard. had a strategy of don't push really much under seven 30, for the first five, six miles, which are mostly downhill net net way downhill, but then there's a few rollers along the way and

Fed (06:30.333)
Hmm.

Josh (06:47.852)
That calmness just made a huge difference. Like I just felt relaxed. The heart rate stayed where it needed to be. It was still cool at that point, but the sun was out. and I was just rolling and seeing friends along the way. And, and we had taped Josh huge on my, my, my bib, cause I wore my nerd belt. So my, my bib was down by my waist instead of up on my chest. so I wasn't covering a good space that you could write your name. I was like, that was a mistake.

Fed (07:05.821)
Josh (07:16.738)
having my name that big because literally every 10 seconds it was like, Josh, Josh, like, no, I only want my friends to know my name. So tip, if you don't want to be turning your head left and right the entire race. but then it was like, go Poland spring. And it was like, for those who don't know, I got a bit because of a sweepstake that Poland spring had, and it was awesome experience running for them. Having that on and, next thing you know, just kind of rolling in and the first couple of miles were.

Fed (07:17.021)
No.

Jenna-Caer (07:20.936)
It's a new user.

Fed (07:20.984)
No.

Uhhhh

Jenna-Caer (07:29.173)
What?

Josh (07:45.902)
728, 728, and it was just like, I'm not even using music. have no headphones on and I'm just taking it all in and, and rolling with the people that I, yeah. Well, I mean, we're, we're good at that. Right. But typically in a marathon, I'll wear the headphones to make sure I have my cadence up. I have like a beat playlist and it's around 180 BPM. I finished the race at 181, 182 average cadence.

Fed (07:54.128)
True triathlete.

Jenna-Caer (07:55.815)
Yes, I'm sorry.

Fed (08:05.24)
Jenna-Caer (08:11.082)
Breakfast.

Josh (08:11.822)
So right where I needed to be without the music and man, was just epic the whole way and never ran a crazy mile and overdid it all the way through the hills. And I knew I would push it a little bit on the flats around mile six, seven. And there's some more of a, a straight, straight run there. And I dropped the pace probably 10 seconds a mile in that area.

Fed (08:12.369)
Wow, there we go.

Josh (08:37.838)
And knowing that I would lose a little bit once we hit the Hills around mile 17, 18. And those Hills during training were tough. And I ran, I ran them all the time out and back twice in a day. And this was so different. Like you were just in a pack. You're in a role. You're you got people yelling your name. I knew I had bottles on the course, which were also, I mean, again, this is two marathons in a row. World majors where I had friends step up.

allowed me to pre-mix bottles, give it to them and they were where they were supposed to be. So I got, I missed the first bottle, but I had my nerd belt, was my backup. So I had that as my second bottle. started with the bottle, 90 grams of carbs. Um, the tailwind high carb, amazing. Um, and then I had some Morton gels with me as well. And so I used those two bottles to get me through 15. And then I got a bottle of 15 and a bottle at the

Fed (09:08.795)
Nice.

Fed (09:15.207)
Perfect.

Josh (09:34.19)
almost at the bottom of heartbreak Hill at 19. And so I fast drank the 15 mile one. And then when I got to 19, right before the Hills needed that was just amped. Like my friends were there, like you see it and like, you're like, I got to change strategies if they're not. And then you see them and they're there and they're holding the bottle up. And it's like that juice that it gives you without even drinking it. Um, and it just.

Fed (09:54.919)
Yeah.

Josh (10:00.276)
Everything worked out perfect. I got to the top of heartbreak Hill and I was like, I fast stepped it, but slowed down my pace. still ran under eight minute miles. I think during training, I was running like nine minute miles up those Hills and, I knew quick step at, at the top and really turn over on the cadence coming down. And I was running seven or sub seven minute miles coming home for the last six miles. And I think it was around.

Fed (10:14.023)
Mm.

Josh (10:28.278)
mile 21, 22 towards the end of heartbreak kill as I got to BC and I had done that run so many times. That was pretty much my out and back on us on a like an eight mile day out to BC and back. I done it so many times. I knew I could negative split coming home and I knew my legs were feeling good. And I started to do some triathlon math or some marathon math. And I was like, Whoa, Chicago's in reach here. And on top of Chicago's in.

reached like this is now a PR and a BQ and like, how low can we go? I never thought I'd be lowering my BQ at Boston. And now next year is potentially in the question with a better buffer. And I was like, man, I can push it and I feel good. And I had so many friends in that stretch too. and at that point I turned into Osh and then Osh had turned into just.

No bib, no name. and only the people that knew me were yelling my name. So that helped. And you make that, you see the Icico sign, like everyone talks about and being from here, that's huge. and, and then you turn right on to come out and down a hill and up a hill to Hereford street. you turn right. And I had friends right there on the corner yelling my name. And I was like,

Fed (11:25.851)
Yeah

Josh (11:44.726)
I know there's a camera guy hard left on a Boylston street. have like no time to play with here. Every second matters. This was this, this, was my mentality. Like every second totally matters for my BQ because I might not make it with the buffer I have. So I thought I was sprinting. I still think I would run a six 52 or something like that. I was not running the five 30 or six minute mile. I thought I was running at that point. Yeah. Boylston street was, was long and it just went by so fast.

Fed (12:05.327)
Yeah.

Fed (12:09.682)
Yeah.

Josh (12:13.612)
It was like, my wife and I both said this, like we, it just was a blink of an eye. Like, and she had a harder day, but she had a great race and, you just, like, you get to the end and you're like, wait, what? That's it? And I know a lot of people had a rough day in the heat and the, and in the weather, but I mean, it was probably the best I've ever executed a race from start to finish and, including the, the nutrition and the breakfast, the morning of, and, all the way through. And I just feel.

Totally lucky to have like the knowledge that you guys have given me. I called my coach afterwards and she was like, you did what? Like we weren't supposed to be cute today. weren't supposed to PR a marathon today. I was like, so all that training, all that training we've done, just paid off in terms of the aerobics. It's like, okay, well now sub three's really in the question because my longest run was 14 miles before this race. And we did a couple of them, but now I can put a marathon block into October.

Fed (12:50.159)
Yeah

Fed (12:54.246)
Okay.

Josh (13:10.862)
All right. got a lot of hard work coming up. That's for sure. That was the last time I was like, man, this is going to be a difficult summer.

Jenna-Caer (13:11.04)
That's it.

Fed (13:13.905)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (13:19.392)
Amazing how fast it goes by when you hit that state of flow. Like when you're feeling good and things are clicking in a race, it's over in an instant.

Josh (13:22.583)
Yeah.

Fed (13:25.093)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Josh (13:26.358)
Yeah. And I was, I was slowing myself down at the beginning and that's when I knew it was going to be a good day. As long as I just kind of stayed ahead of my nutrition and, and I grabbed a whole bunch of Morton gels at the aid station. So thank you, Morton. actually left the race with more than I started with for the first time ever. actually remember. And every time I went into my pocket, I would grab the right one and I was just looking for the calf one. and I got the calves when I needed it and.

Jenna-Caer (13:41.11)
you

Fed (13:42.397)
Hey, there we go.

Josh (13:54.284)
I know a lot of people can't handle calf, but you got to train your gut for it because it's a huge piece of a cheat. It's a cheat code at that important part of the race. And you can have all the fans and all the people yelling, but your body needs to have something to actually kick it into gear. And for me, that was, that was huge. Having a couple extra hundred calf gels, down the stretch and

Fed (13:59.6)
Yeah.

It is.

Fed (14:13.597)
Yeah.

Josh (14:16.312)
Yeah, the finish line is great. Everything about it, meet my parents. And then I went back a mile towards Kenmore and cheered my wife on and a whole bunch of other friends coming in and, the athlete that I coach broke her PR by like 20 minutes too. So it was a good day. And then, yeah. And then my coach went and won her age group by like almost an hour in Texas. So it was like quite the week and started my job at super try on Wednesday. And, yeah, cloud nine right now, for sure.

Fed (14:41.596)
There we go.

Jenna-Caer (14:44.182)
That's fantastic. Just living the endurance sports dream at the moment.

Fed (14:44.325)
Perfect.

Josh (14:47.278)
At the moment we are going to continue rolling with it.

Fed (14:48.549)
Yeah. Hmm. Yeah, I wanted to especially well on the on the flow state that Jenna was saying, I am a strong believer that we promote that flow state. Even though sometimes we don't know we are promoting it or actually doing things to be in a flow state on race day, but

Jenna-Caer (14:52.118)
That's

Fed (15:15.431)
The way you talked to us about how you were feeling on the week, no pressure, doing fun things. I think all those little things helped for you to feel the way you felt on race day. Took the edge off, allowed you to race your race and definitely, definitely put, like it put you on a great place to be mentally.

Josh (15:39.532)
Yeah, I agree. It was, it was a different way to approach a race for sure, especially one that wasn't an a race. And there's definitely a mindset reminder that I have going into races now with that. Cause the other thing about Boston, there's no pace groups. So this was all soul paced and you're just running off of people that you trust and what you know, your legs are doing and the paces that you've trained with. So.

I had run a bunch, at that pace, nowhere near what you would normally do in a training block. And yeah, like you said, it was, it was that relaxed feeling. And every time I saw somebody I knew just, just kind of kept rolling with it. was like, wow, we're, we're this far along and. And negative split Boston, like not many people do that. And it was exactly what I had hoped to do. And I think it was by like a minute or two, but, yeah, that felt good.

Fed (16:12.882)
Yeah.

Fed (16:25.714)
No.

Jenna-Caer (16:31.978)
That's awesome. Well, congratulations. You're keeping your streak of PRs alive here.

Fed (16:37.49)
Yeah.

Josh (16:38.685)
Yeah, we got to lower that bar a little bit. But I'm feeling good enough that my coaches let me jump into my third annual sprint try down the road in Hopkinson as well. So I'm to do that for a third year in a couple of weeks. But yeah, congrats to Jenna as well. wasn't on the last week's episode because I was frolicking around Newberry with AG1 and going to spas and getting ice baths and sauna. So thank you AG1 for that treatment as well.

Jenna-Caer (16:40.96)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (17:04.822)
Well, thank you very much. Yeah, no, it's definitely good to get that BQ, or not that BQ. Well, I did get a BQ.

Josh (17:10.062)
They just don't allow it. Talk to Nick Lamb. He's not happy about that either.

Fed (17:13.993)
She needs to do it in Kona to get the BQ in Kona. Do it in style. Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (17:20.618)
There we go. Okay. Google. Get it done in Kona.

Josh (17:25.354)
Or just not drink the night before Chicago.

Jenna-Caer (17:28.17)
I mean, or train.

Fed (17:28.187)
There we go.

Or train

Josh (17:31.202)
I mean, quite a difference between October and what Jenna just went through the last three months for an Iron Man build and now another one coming up.

Jenna-Caer (17:38.95)
lot less drinking, lot more training than before Chicago. So marathons are much easier when you go that way. No, but this weekend definitely has me fired up for the training ahead and for Kona and everything. I am in triathlete geeking out heaven this whole weekend. So it was pretty cool. Our little podcast here that we've been doing for about a year and a half now is big enough that

Fed (17:39.432)
Yeah.

Josh (17:44.822)
Ha ha ha.

Fed (17:45.693)
Thanks

Fed (18:03.132)
Wow.

Jenna-Caer (18:04.072)
I went to Ironman and said, hey, can we get a media pass for the podcast? And we got one of the select few kind of available there. They've always got like their core group that they kind of know and trust will get on the course. hear they're a little picky about who else goes out on there because you get a lot of access that you wouldn't typically get. And sometimes that can be a risky prospect for them with some people just running around who don't know what they're doing, I guess.

Anyway, so was very cool to see that we are growing as a podcast, getting more influence out there. And so they gave me that pass so that we could really do some race coverage at Ironman Texas this weekend. And it was just so fun to be able to go check out all the pro bikes beforehand. There were some bizarre bike setups out there. Definitely took some pictures, some interesting ones, we'll say.

Fed (18:47.921)
Hmm, yeah.

I was going to say that anybody that listens to the podcast that's not following Jenna or the ATP Instagram page, should give it a follow because Jenna was really on it with the posting and social media and keeping us really engaged. I wanted to talk to you about, posted on transition this bike with a water bottle holder. what was it made of? Like, what was the deal there?

Jenna-Caer (19:23.05)
goodness, so there was this one bike in the pro male transition and it looked like it had this metal welded on like circle that was about the size of like a big pop bottle. Like what is it, two liters or something in those big bottles? Like that would slot. Yeah, it was like this big around. It was crazy. And it's welded on there. I'm like, what is this thing?

Fed (19:38.403)
huh. Yeah, yeah. that big.

Okay.

Jenna-Caer (19:52.791)
went and checked it out the morning of the race and the race wraps were going around and doing their checks after all the pros checked in and they must have flagged it and said you cannot do that because they had swapped it in the next day but I was just so curious to see what was gonna fit in there.

Fed (19:55.879)
Yeah.

Josh (20:07.51)
Yeah. You wonder how he had to fix that. I mean, that's like towards the end of the run, not, at the beginning of the bike. He needs to see my setup. That's it's, it's, it's interesting to see though, that a lot of the pros, cause we know pros push the limits when it comes to arrow and bottle setups and things like, it seems like everyone is still sticking to the two bottles. And it's almost like, do they actually know that you can put more up there?

Fed (20:07.703)
Go, yeah. Yeah, maybe a two liter Coke.

Jenna-Caer (20:17.642)
Right?

Fed (20:18.985)
right.

Yeah. Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (20:22.88)
There we go.

Josh (20:36.494)
And I know, and a lot of people are using fast CT. So they're talking to the people who have the triple bottle setup. And I mean, obviously the times were fast enough as we'll find out a little bit. Um, it was interesting to see the bottle setups that, we're still running and then you saving the day with Trevor Foley.

Fed (20:52.925)
Mm.

Jenna-Caer (20:56.51)
Yeah, so Trevor Foley, if you guys didn't see it, I took a picture of his shoes, see it stuck his shoes on the wrong way. And I saw him put like clipping them in by hand. And that was quite the effort. He must have speed players up in there. But yeah, his shoes run backwards. So we posted on the stories, tagged him, Josh went in and tagged everyone in his sphere to say, hey, like your shoes are backwards. Cause could you imagine you're running out of transition with a group and you go up on your bike and the shoes are the wrong way.

Fed (21:05.969)
Yeah.

Fed (21:18.076)
Hey.

Fed (21:23.197)
It's happened to me before. So, so when I, when I saw your, your posts, I was like, where was Jenna back then in my life that this happened to me? And it was, it was an Olympic distance and it was a draft legal race. So I got out the water, had a great swim, grabbed my bike, jumped on the bike, started pedaling, put on my shoes. And I was like, this feels so weird.

Jenna-Caer (21:25.11)
no way!

Jenna-Caer (21:33.558)
That's right.

Fed (21:51.835)
And then I looked down and of course had to stop, had to switch like swap bike shoes. And of course the group left and that was that. But yeah, it happens to the best of us. Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (21:52.224)
That was great.

Jenna-Caer (22:03.061)
Yeah.

Josh (22:03.15)
Definitely not pigeon toed.

Jenna-Caer (22:07.444)
I went back and looked race morning and his shoes were not clipped onto the pedals. They were beside his bike on the side there.

Josh (22:13.368)
So you almost wonder too, because that transition is once they get to their bike, it's a long transition, but once they get to their bike, the pro racks are right at the mountain. Almost right. And it's grass. it's like, just put your shoes on and go. And it's like, you're going to catch the train of 17 people. Now Trevor is a different story. He's way back, but, that it's, it's interesting to see. I know it looks cool to have them all band-aided in. And that was interesting too, to see Gustav. think Travis is the one that.

Fed (22:13.884)
Okay.

Fed (22:23.185)
Yeah. Yes.

Josh (22:43.03)
So that happened where Taylor Nib gave all her, what her bag of zip ties to everyone. I said she's walking around transition with in the morning.

Fed (22:53.05)
Mmm. Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (22:56.894)
Yeah, no, was definitely interesting. yeah, it was so cool just to have that that access in there. It got to go right down to the swim start on the little floating dock there. That was pretty sketchy. There was only a maximum number of people allowed on it and that thing was swaying up and down. It's like you'd not want to put all the camera gear and equipment that was on that thing. I'm like, bad if they fell over.

Josh (22:59.628)
rubber bands.

Fed (23:08.573)
Mm.

Fed (23:14.638)
Okay

Jenna-Caer (23:20.374)
Yeah, it was just so much fun to be able to chase them around the whole day and actually see it happen. And then got some great videos. Like I said, got the cam work running off with his Ironman bike record. And then unfortunately the Taylor nib crash. Um, and we got a chance to chat with some of the pros afterwards and stuff too, and get some of their recaps on the day. So very, very cool to see that the podcast is growing and we do have, you know, the ability to go out to some of these races. So definitely going to endeavor to do a few more of those so we can get all the insight.

Like we said, go check out Add Another Trathon podcast on Instagram. We've got some good videos up there. And then I was also down, I don't know if I've mentioned on here yet or not, but I'm writing for Trathly Magazine now as a coach. So I also shot some videos with them for some of the articles that I've written that'll be coming out over the next little while. So just got to geek out on Trathon altogether. Had a few beers over at the ProTry News pre-show. So that was a lot of fun as well.

And yeah, just got to geek out all weekend. I'm feeling so fired up to get back into training and desperate to get back into training at this point after like getting sick after Ironman and then starting to feel better and then the trouble and now it's like, okay, it's two weeks out. Time to get back into the routine.

Fed (24:30.429)
Mmm.

Josh (24:36.114)
Yeah, it was, it was a slow roll back into the routine for me. So I can feel you on that, but this weekend certainly made it very easy to get back on the bike and, and then go for a swim today, which was my first one. I was supposed to swim last week, but I just didn't have it in me. was, I wanted, I wanted to take this time off and relax and work started and things like that. So, but I had a good swim today. I was very surprised how well the water felt and, I mean,

Fed (24:52.721)
Yeah.

Josh (25:06.209)
How was that swim? mean, you must've been stoked that it was shortened and you got the wetsuit and the whole time you're doing all this heat training. And yes, it was warm, but it was, the water wasn't enough.

Fed (25:18.521)
Yeah

Jenna-Caer (25:18.622)
I was happy for a wetsuit swim and the change in the course there. And they, you know, they decided to accidentally add an extra couple miles to the bike ride to make up for the swim, which I am all for that less swimming, more biking. I'm happy. It was good all around, but.

Fed (25:33.489)
Yeah.

Josh (25:33.71)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (25:36.982)
We have an interview with Travis coming up, but first off, I think we have to make a mention. You brought up SuperTry. We had one of our triathletes, one who likes to race SuperTry and kind of dominates at it, Alex E, ran his first marathon. And what did you guys think of the result? 2.11. That is smoking fast.

Josh (25:57.07)
It wasn't his goal, but it was smoking hot in London compared to what it typically is. And I, I know a lot of people struggled on the day and for him to run the two 11 finished 14th overall, like this is with Kipchoge in the field. Like he, he was eight spots behind Kipchoge, the goat of marathon running, which also in crazy performance by him too, at 40 years old. Um, but these guys are running.

Fed (25:57.841)
Bye.

Jenna-Caer (26:13.524)
was a strict course, trying to...

Fed (26:15.654)
Yeah.

Josh (26:25.818)
So freaking fascinating. was right there, right there with them, with the lead pack and, that's his marathon debut and to drop it at London and to, mean, by far the fastest triathlete. I think Steve McKenna paced a 220 marathon this weekend too. Like what's going on in the triathlon? And Hugo Milner is the one that, that paced Alex Yee for 18 miles. So he was right there with them.

Fed (26:34.94)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (26:48.478)
Yeah, that's crazy.

Fed (26:50.173)
Yeah.

Josh (26:53.518)
So super, super crazy triathlon running performances this weekend across the board. But Alex Yee, I mean, what a performance in London. And he was soaked when he crossed that line. And I know a lot of it's the triathlete in him and dousing himself with water, but he was drenched and he was taxed and he said it kicked his butt. That's for sure. Maybe in different words.

Fed (27:13.885)
I remember a couple of years ago there was an interview with Christian Blumenfeld and Gustav Eden. The interviewer was asking them how fast they think they could go over the marathon. Gustav said, well, I think if you give us like good three, four months and we still...

we are still doing triathlon and swimming, biking and running. We can go around the 208, 209, 210 mark. But if we dedicate like a full year to running, I think we can go sub, you know, 205 or whatever. And I think it goes to show that, you know, triathletes, are, it's way past that we are, you know,

We suck at three sports, but we do three sports at a very high level and maybe swimming is the one that's way behind, but biking and running, think top level triathletes can compete with elite or world class runners. And Alex just showed that it's definitely possible. I mean, imagine if he says, well, I won gold in

Jenna-Caer (28:31.189)
Yeah.

Fed (28:41.881)
In Paris, I'm going to win gold in LA. And after that, I want to win gold in Australia. Because why not? Because I'm Alex G and I can. Exactly. I'm going to do the marathon and I'm going to do the road race for fun and see if happens.

Josh (28:52.078)
Which sport and which distance?

Jenna-Caer (28:54.269)
There we go.

Josh (29:02.06)
And he did that with exactly what you just said on a, on a triathlon build. Like it was a marathon build, but he was still swimming and biking because he's still got a season.

Fed (29:05.34)
Yeah.

Fed (29:11.27)
Yes.

Jenna-Caer (29:11.35)
And short, like, it's not like he's an Ironman athlete who's running 20 mile runs every other weekend for years. Yeah. He turns around and pulls us off. Seriously impressive. And speaking of how good these triathletes are in other sports, I was talking to Taylor Nibb after the race here, and it sounds like she'll be doing the time trial nationals again this year. And, you know, we saw her pull off a crazy performance there as well. So it's just.

Josh (29:15.566)
No. No, he's a 10G guy.

Fed (29:17.669)
Yeah.

Fed (29:34.269)
Ooh.

Josh (29:39.234)
And that's in a few weeks too, I think.

Jenna-Caer (29:41.468)
Yeah, kind of fast here. So, so cool to see that triathletes are not just, like you said, of mediocre three sports. They are truly world class and it's just mind boggling that you can see them put it together like this.

Josh (29:54.764)
Yeah. Really, really cool. think Tom Oosterdach ran a 240 or something like that too. Like, so mean, not an Alex E day, but I mean, our buddy, Tom had a good day using his Ghana fuel. And again, like a lot of people DNF that race, like a lot of people pulled out. And I think not only do we have the aerobic engine built differently and able to withstand a certain things, I just think.

Fed (29:55.313)
Yeah. Yeah.

Fed (30:01.252)
Yeah.

Josh (30:21.57)
that whole mentality on fueling is a little bit different as well and recovery and you're not putting in for him still swimming and biking, which means he wasn't putting the 120 mile weeks in there. And some of these guys are, and that makes a big difference on a tougher day would be my guess.

Fed (30:25.212)
Yes.

Jenna-Caer (30:33.931)
No.

Fed (30:40.358)
Hmm. Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (30:41.142)
so funny how there's a different perspective on heat when it comes to marathon running versus like, triathlon and stuff. Like, a hot day in London. What was the temperature in a hot day in London? Like, did it reach the freeze? Yeah. Where in Texas they're out there at 31 Celsius and that's just, not a lot of them complained about the heat either. Like, we had a crazy hot day in

Fed (30:52.167)
Bro.

Josh (30:52.686)
23 Celsius.

Fed (30:58.716)
Yeah.

Josh (30:59.702)
Yeah. No, people complained about Boston being hot and it was 65 degrees at the high. And then like towards the end of the race, cold again. it was, I mean, to me, it was like ideal running conditions, except there was full sun, but yeah. I mean, yeah. Then you see Texas and it's 85 Fahrenheit and like people are, don't even look like they're struggling because of the heat.

Fed (31:02.781)
No

Fed (31:09.442)
Yeah

Jenna-Caer (31:26.038)
Yeah, after an 180k bike ride.

Fed (31:26.277)
Yeah, exactly. I was going to say, I was just going to say that. And I think honestly, no, no shame to the running community and because it's an amazing community. I think triathlete, the triathlon community is a bit, a couple of steps ahead when it comes to recovery, just because we have to juggle three sports and the volumes that we train are so much bigger than

Jenna-Caer (31:32.598)
in middle.

Fed (31:55.581)
the average runner. So I think we know a bit more about nutrition and recovery and the importance of sleep. right now the running community is starting to pick it up. I mean, I have a couple of running friends and it's funny, but I feel like a geek, an absolute nerd because I went to a barbecue the other day and one of them was like, dude, I found out a bit about this awesome technology, the whoop.

It measures your heart. That's like four years ago. And, but no, I mean, we look like dorks sometimes, but I think it's because we, know we need to juggle a lot and it's swimming, biking and running. yes, running takes a toll on the body, but it's a complete different animal when you're running a marathon after 180 Ks of biking and 3.8 Ks of swimming.

Jenna-Caer (32:27.094)
I

Josh (32:27.864)
Just look at any triathlete we got both.

Fed (32:53.177)
But then again, running a fast standalone marathon like Josh did and what he's going to do in Chicago, it's going to take quite a bit of preparation. obviously, there's the cycling and the swimming, going to take a bit of a backseat there. yeah, that was just my take on that.

Josh (33:09.71)
Well, we didn't get a chance to talk about this in our talk with Travis coming up, but the one thing Ironman does need to, and triathletes need to figure out is that sunburn or battery burn lotion for these new GPS that the pros have to wear on their bike kits. If you haven't seen, take a look at Instagram and you'll see some of the burns that.

Jenna-Caer (33:09.771)
Yes.

Josh (33:35.138)
the top pros had from being an arrow and out in the heat in Texas, speaking of heat, there's a reason why it was out there. You'll see they were all burnt by these GPS systems and it's unfortunate. And it sounds like it's probably due to the heat. I think Feday had said something with the reaction the batteries had being in that type of heat, but they use similar systems in the T100 and they've done that in Singapore. But maybe it was the fact that they're on a highway in direct sunlight for that long.

Fed (33:44.605)
Mm.

Fed (34:01.255)
Mm.

Josh (34:05.268)
Jenna-Caer (34:06.27)
Yeah, they also have different devices for those ones and a little less time. yeah, lessons learned for Ironman there. But speaking of Travis, why don't we pop in that interview here and we will break down how Ironman Texas went. And then we will be back next week.

Josh (34:21.742)
us.

Fed (34:22.545)
Awesome.

Jenna-Caer (00:01.147)
As we mentioned, we've got Travis Mundell joining us today. You will recognize his voice from the Daily Try. He gives all of those epic race previews and breakdowns after the events. So we're excited to have him on. And then as always, joined by Josh and Fede. But let's jump in and say, hi, Travis, how are you doing? We're glad to have you on.

Travis Mundell (00:19.908)
I am doing good. I'm glad to be here. I'm a little bit tired from running around chasing all the pros at Ironman Texas, but it's a good feeling of it's a good feeling of tired right now. Just had a fun time out there. Love that place and it was good to be with you as well. I'm chasing them around and yeah, sharing stats with each other the whole time.

Jenna-Caer (00:42.131)
Yeah, it was a blast. This is one of the first times I've kind of gone down and really tried to do some race coverage on another Trathlon podcast and definitely have to give you a shout out for knowing where to go for everything and letting me chase you around a bit so that we didn't miss the good shots and got some good stuff there.

Travis Mundell (00:57.049)
It makes all the difference having gone to a location before. So I was grateful I'd been there once before. But yeah, in Oceanside when I was there a few weeks ago, I had no idea what I was doing and definitely missed a lot of things. So I was grateful to have some knowledge on this one before.

Jenna-Caer (01:14.323)
Well, why don't we jump right in with the recap. We usually have Fede here break it down for us on what happened at Ironman Texas. Why don't you give us a quick rundown there.

Fed (01:24.907)
Hmm. Yeah, sure. Let's let's do it together. I mean, since you guys were there, it's only fair if we all we all do it together. But yeah, why don't we start with with the men's side? We saw Gustav Christian, the Norwegian train racing in in Texas. It was a stuck field, like I think out of the World Championship and 70.3 Worlds, Texas

is becoming like a really hot event for pros to test the waters early on. And we saw KB running away from the wind. There was a bit of a pass on the bike course. Gustav made the pass and then right there I thought that he was going to ride away from everyone. yeah, KB proved to be super strong on the day. Second place, Antonio Benito from Spain. I think, I mean, it's...

Fair to share, I he's a really good athlete, but I think none of us had Antonio to be top three on the day. big, well, maybe Travis did. Why don't you talk a bit about Antonio and Travis?

Josh (02:29.55)
Travis did.

Travis Mundell (02:38.004)
I just was really impressed by him last year at the World Triathlon Long Distance World Championships where he won there and he ran like that 232 pace marathon, but it's only a 30 kilometer run there, 32 kilometer run. Yeah, something like that. So that's when I first really started being like, okay, this guy is the real deal. beat a couple of good athletes there and he showed that he could bike at that race as well. So that's when I was like, okay, this guy, stepped up from short course in the last couple of years and

Fed (02:51.567)
30. Yeah.

Travis Mundell (03:06.932)
I was like, okay, this guy's the real deal. So yeah, and then he beat a lot of guys at Vittoria last year. So, and just with this being a hot race, he's from Spain, you know, and yeah, it's, it's in perfect form.

Jenna-Caer (03:20.541)
Yeah.

Josh (03:20.558)
Was the, uh, was everyone kind of surprised on the ground about the pack of swim? mean, it was, I mean, 17 guys on that, that train out off. I mean, cam morph was on the back of that. Like the dudes learned how to swim. He's he's, and then to throw down the bike he did on top of that, uh, is insane. But I would imagine a lot of that time speed, all that was due to the fact that they were 12 meters and everyone's learning how to ride with race ranger. But.

Travis Mundell (03:26.504)
Yes.

Josh (03:48.224)
It was a certainly a surprise how many came out of the water.

Jenna-Caer (03:52.251)
Yeah, and we had a, they got a little lead astray in transition. There were so many men coming out of the water that the transition zone was just absolute chaos, first off, just everyone trying to get in and out there. But the swim leader went off in the wrong direction, trying to get through transition, all the volunteers yelling at him, okay, go this way, go this way. It was definitely not what anyone expected, to have so many men all so close together. We almost got run over at one point and got told to get out of the transition zone.

Fed (04:07.599)
He

Travis Mundell (04:21.086)
Yeah, I think it.

Josh (04:21.358)
Is that Ben Canute?

Travis Mundell (04:24.308)
Yep. And it was funny because we were in the pro area before the race and he was the one asking, okay, where do we go? How do I run into transition, run out of transition? Still messed with him. yeah.

Fed (04:24.623)
Yeah

Jenna-Caer (04:37.523)
Even the pros when the heart rate's at 180 and they're trying to get out of the water, kind of lose their way in their sense of direction a bit.

Josh (04:45.068)
We think that like the non wetsuit swim played a big factor in this race. we, if we throw wetsuits on this, do you think the race results are any different?

Fed (04:45.54)
Mm.

Travis Mundell (04:55.944)
I don't think so. just don't think anybody took the bull by the horns on that swim. Really. I don't think anybody tried to make a move and it is kind of a hard one to do so because there's no, not that many buoys, just one buoy at the end. Right. So it's like, if you get that one long pack, it's hard to get some separation. but yeah, it's just from hearing some people talk about it. It looks like nobody really tried to break it up and yeah, I think they pay for that. Having some of the guys that don't want to round them starting the bike.

Fed (05:24.047)
Yeah, definitely. And did you guys manage to see Cam work on the bike while you were on course? And did you knew that something special was going to take place in him? Big capacities right now on the bike for an Ironman course. Did you get to see Cam at all or, or did he came by surprise? was that whole thing?

Travis Mundell (05:51.38)
Yeah, we didn't get to see the bike course out there so hard. You have to really be in the know on how to get around to get out to see them on the bike. And it might not be worth it just to see them one time go by. yeah, I didn't have any guess about that. I wasn't really talking him up too much before this race. I didn't hear too many people picking him. But yeah, it just sounds like this year he's more focused than ever, especially this time of year.

on triathlon as a whole and his swim is showing that. I mean for him to be right there at the front, especially after Oceanside as well. Yeah, I did not expect that. What he did on the bike was incredible. It wasn't like he was really towed along to it as well and you know the fact that he was able to break away from that huge group at the end is so impressive.

Fed (06:35.855)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Josh (06:40.098)
Kind of went with Nick Thompson. I mean, that was impressive too. mean, and, Nick held on and like both of them didn't go too far down in the run either. mean, we saw them off, off, out of T2, out for the lead and then kind of wave Christian and Benito on, but it was, it was impressive what Nick and Cam did for sure. And Cam had come from further behind. So that ride was just insane. How fast, I mean, he was a couple of minutes up on anyone else too, off on the bike, which was just insane. And then.

Jenna-Caer (06:42.204)
Yeah

Josh (07:09.218)
For Christian to have a clean ride and, be in that front swim pack and sit in with 17 guys, 15 guys and, and save the legs for that run. And he said in his post post race interview that he could tell Benito was breathing a little heavier and he was like, time to lay it down. And it was just like, I felt good and it was time to go. And man, that was an impressive performance. And I wonder if somebody was pushing him, if we would have seen the record.

Go down. but it did sound like he was starting to lose it a little bit on the last five K.

Jenna-Caer (07:43.291)
Yeah, it was definitely cool to see him out there. He just looked so solid and so strong all day in there. And, you know, it's kind of a shame that we didn't have all three Norwegians up at the front with Gustaf with his flat tire in there. But kudos to the mechanic team from Ironman that we don't often say that. that change was poetic. It was smooth, fast, got him back on there. But he just seemed to lose that fire after that flat. So it wasn't much time that he lost, but he just lost tons of time after it.

Fed (07:57.518)
Yeah.

Travis Mundell (08:12.52)
He did tell me had another puncture before that one actually. he had two, like right out of transition. Yeah, that's right. If you want. And then he said he also, think why you thought he lost a lot of steam. I didn't realize this until after I spoke to him, but he had been riding on his rim. I believe he said for 10 or 15 kilometers already before they got to change it. So I think he might've put in a lot of power to try and stay with them.

Josh (08:16.834)
Like leaving T2, yeah. Or T1,

Fed (08:18.7)
Hmm

Jenna-Caer (08:35.207)
for peace.

Fed (08:35.502)
Yeah.

Travis Mundell (08:37.076)
But the funny thing is then Christian saying that the moped was next to him the entire race and Gustav was like, where is this guy? I need him and he couldn't catch up to him because the moped was too slow. So this was Gustav's bad luck race. Christian had his. Maybe it's Casper next. We'll have to wait and see. But Casper had a good race too.

Fed (08:43.616)
Ha

Jenna-Caer (08:48.403)
Jeez.

Jenna-Caer (08:58.003)
Apparently they had a flat tire on their rental car too, like the Norwegians, just forgetting all of the stuff is out here.

Travis Mundell (09:00.955)
my goodness.

Fed (09:01.908)
really?

Hey, so maybe someone's trying to sabotage the Norwegians even on the rental cars. Yeah.

Travis Mundell (09:05.338)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (09:07.069)
Yeah.

Right? They're going to have gator skins on the next race, I swear. Yeah, and unfortunately, another pro that we all have a soft spot for, Jason Pohl, he got double flats too. So he fixed the first one, got back on the road and then got another flat out there. So there was a bit of debris on the highway, it sounds like. I heard about a lot of flat tires, unfortunately.

Travis Mundell (09:14.408)
Yeah.

Josh (09:32.106)
And water bottles being tossed erratly apparently too, which started launching some pros.

Jenna-Caer (09:38.931)
man, it's out there. And then one insane part too, they actually had a crash of a big like truck over on the highway that a few of the triathletes saw going by in there. So yeah, big 18 wheeler like flipped on the other side of the highway, which you can see the triathletes like riding by in the background. So luckily, sounds like everyone's okay after that, but that would throw you off seeing that happen.

Travis Mundell (09:39.219)
Yeah.

Fed (09:39.607)
Yeah, definitely.

Fed (10:02.756)
Yeah.

Josh (10:03.158)
It sounded like the age groupers played a big factor on the second lap too. It's amazing the times that they rode because you listen to Taylor talk and Kat and some others, how cautious they had to be on that second lap. And yet they still were thrown down. It's like at times they're like, is that the lead trainer or not? Or is that an age groupers? It's like, who am I sliding in behind or do I need to keep rolling at 35 miles an hour and past these guys?

Travis Mundell (10:03.505)
Over and out.

Fed (10:17.711)
Okay.

Fed (10:24.537)
Yeah. Yeah.

Josh (10:30.998)
It was definitely, it makes it interesting. I mean, there's nothing you can do about that. And I've always been a big proponent for the one loop course, but I've been a fan of Oceanside for a long time. But when you get into the full distance, it's really hard to find.

Jenna-Caer (10:44.263)
Well, and we got to talk about the guy with the horns that everyone seems to sleep on until he shows up these big races where all of the top guys are out with Rudy Von Berg, who just always seems to come out of nowhere. Like he's steady all day and just winds up on that podium against some of the best in the world and still no one talks about him going into it.

Fed (10:57.935)
Hmm.

Fed (11:01.327)
Yeah, I mean, Rudy, it's just a class act and I guarantee you know, he's going to have a solid race. He is, he strikes to me as a really smart athlete. He races smart. He races his race. And yes, he was like nine minutes behind Christian, but to me, it wasn't like a blow up type of situation. It was Rudy racing his own race, knowing he was going to get a really good amount of points and maybe not emptying the tank right now.

this time of the season. mean, obviously everybody wants to win, but I think Rudy is one of those athletes who's very honest with himself and he knows the best way for him to go by this whole situation is race his own race. And then when NIS comes and he can actually empty the tank and see what does he have on the day. But yeah, great racing from Rudy. I think he definitely did an empty tank on race day.

Josh (12:01.824)
He's leading the pro series now, right?

Travis Mundell (12:05.458)
I think so, I actually don't know. I was just about to look that up.

Jenna-Caer (12:06.951)
to be. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think we're waiting for the final updates on the pro series rankings, but with his two podiums, he's got to be right out there with that consistency. Pro series definitely rewards.

Josh (12:20.174)
Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's at the top and KB might even be second with the big five and some points at Oceanside. obviously, but man, if Christian had a good Oceanside, we'd be talking a different story right now without that puncture. the amount of points that you would have and often running with one of each. But I mean, the other big part for Rudy too is again, we talk about them, but it's always as an afterthought and we're probably going to end up.

Fed (12:20.525)
Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Josh (12:47.328)
regretting it and sure enough, he does what he needs to do. And he's lined up perfectly for Nice and the big check at the end of the day is still in play, which is huge. And we know it's too early to start looking at it. think Daniel Lewis led at this point last year, maybe even Fenella was in the lead at this point last year. On the female side, so Matt Hansen was up top. Things are going to change, but at the same time he's had two big races and now he's got a little gap in his season.

I think St. George will be interesting for sure with the couple week break in there and seeing who's doing the double and going after that next big one.

Travis Mundell (13:23.4)
That's true. Yeah, I just looked it up and he is ahead by only a hundred points though over Christian. So he did get, yeah, he did get quite.

Jenna-Caer (13:27.517)
Really.

Josh (13:28.194)
Yeah.

Fed (13:29.132)
wow.

Josh (13:30.936)
That's because Christian put down so much of a gap there.

Travis Mundell (13:34.14)
Yeah, exactly. And I have to quickly shout out that Rudy's coach is Mikael Eden, which is super interesting, you know, as well as the whole dynamic with the trio of Norwegians racing against him in this pro series. And I don't think Mikael gets enough credit, you know, as well for the work he does with Rudy. They've been so good together in the last couple of years. you know, Rudy, to me, why maybe he doesn't get talked about enough is because he doesn't have that X factor necessarily in any of the three disciplines.

Fed (14:02.937)
Yeah.

Travis Mundell (14:03.646)
but he's just so good at all three of them. And he always runs about that 240, 241, 242 marathon and it goes to show if you're from pack swim, I have a strong bike and you run that fast, will podium at the Ironman race. So yeah, I can't wait to see what he can do come nice time because he's already in good form.

Josh (14:05.688)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (14:23.581)
Definitely.

Josh (14:23.758)
A lot of talk about the tires and the wheels, but kudos to Kadex, not sponsored by any means, but Kadex across the board on the men's podium.

Fed (14:31.961)
Yep.

Jenna-Caer (14:32.115)
Crazy. Well, speaking of the men's and nice, we have some updates on the Ironman World Championship slots who will be going there from this race. got Kristen Blumenfeld validated his spot. Antonio Benito Lopez got his, Rudy Von Berg, Daniel Bakkegard, Casper Stornes, Paul Schuster, and Gustav validated his spot as well. So we have some secured big names on the...

course, Denise coming this September. So looking forward to seeing them battle it out again, even though this was like, I think tri-rating said 55 % of a world championship field. I'd say it was higher than that. When we look at who will actually make it to nice healthy and ready to race. Well, let's jump into the women's side of things because

Fed (15:12.449)
Yep.

Jenna-Caer (15:17.209)
We had the big three that we thought were going to do well on race day there between Taylor Niv, Kat Matthews and Chelsea Sodaro. And unfortunately, Chelsea Sidaro did not make the start. We were standing in that pro-rack area and it was like half hour to transition closing and still no Chelsea Sidaro. And then shortly after she put out that she wasn't going to be racing due to sickness. And we had the top two definitely battle it out, but I think we had some surprises on the podium as well. What did you guys think of the women's race?

Fed (15:24.28)
Mm-hmm.

Fed (15:46.839)
Yeah, I thought it was exciting. I thought it was great racing and I think a lot of us thought Taylor was gonna, it was just like a, I don't know, like a walk in the park for her. But no, definitely. A lot of people wrote Kat Matthews out and Chelsea out when we saw Taylor Neve on the start list. And I, well, I speak for myself, but I thought Taylor was gonna ride from

everyone and she's gonna had a new Ironman world record and we're all gonna be clapping and saying she is a successor for from the yellow reef and this and that but no, Kat Matthews, the you know, Ironman is about experience and the more Ironman you have under you, the better you usually race and Kat, she's a stellar runner. I mean, I think over the Ironman distance, there's nobody better than her over the over the full marathon.

And she's a type of athlete who doesn't slow down and usually negative splits the second half of the marathon. So yeah, Kat ran away with the win and Taylor took second. And I think the surprise you're talking about, Jenna, is Lisa Pereter from Austria, former short course athlete. And she, I'm really happy for her because she loves Mexico. She does a lot of training camps here in Cozumel. So she feels like a local in a way.

So I'm very happy for her.

Jenna-Caer (17:18.227)
Yeah, was great to see when we saw Kat was like six minutes down around there out of the swim. It was like, okay, it's still within range, but we've seen Taylor throw down some bike splits that you would kind of wonder if Kat Matthews was going to lose and go up to that 10 minutes. And for a while it looked like she was, Taylor Nip was putting some time into Kat, but Kat ended up clawing it back and just staying strong to the end of that bike ride. And she pretty much finished the bike with the same deficit she had.

Josh (17:28.846)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (17:44.071)
going out of the swim and as we all saw Taylor Niv broke the record for the Ironman bike times out there. Kat Matthews was 20 seconds behind that. Can you imagine like how many times have you think about that 20 seconds how easy that would have been to get in there.

Josh (18:00.667)
And she made that up on the dismount line.

Jenna-Caer (18:02.803)
If you guys haven't seen, head over to another Travel on Podcast Instagram. got, unfortunately, Taylor Nib, Travis was chatting with her afterwards and she forgot that the rear bottle cage was on there and her foot kind of caught on the rear bottle cage as she tried to go over and then she went all the way over, unfortunately. So that record bike time, that happened before the timing point on it too.

Fed (18:04.121)
Hahaha

Jenna-Caer (18:31.269)
So she lost a few seconds falling down, getting back up, and getting over that timing ship time. Man. We need her to it this

Fed (18:36.386)
hehe

Josh (18:40.754)
I mean, the other, mean, was what we kind of expected. I mean, it was a race between the two of them for most of, I went half of the run. And, and then it was a really good race from third on back. And, and a lot of ladies trying to make up the gap, a lot of questions coming out of Taylor Nib and all the, all the others on where are the Kona slot people, where are the Kona slot people? Like, who do I have to get? And, and thankfully there were a couple.

women upfront that actually had already had their slots. So it did drop down to, believe seventh, was the last spot with Haley Cher. Yeah. So it was definitely, go ahead.

Jenna-Caer (19:17.523)
Yeah.

Fed (19:18.095)
Haley, yeah. Yeah, and by the way...

Fed (19:24.247)
I was just gonna say that there were only two women that ran under three hours, Kat and Tamara Jewitt. So this goes to show how hot was the race, especially on the run and probably how much over biking was happening on course on race day.

Josh (19:45.59)
Yeah. And you guys were at the, the pro tri news live podcast where I think towards the end, they were talking about if Taylor would ride away and commit, come home with like a 16 minute lead, just based off of history, right? She's used to doubling in the 70.3 or so why not 16 minutes coming off the bike? And, and Mark was like, guys, I don't think that's going to happen this time. And sure enough.

Kat's new bike coach knows what he's doing and she's got a cycling coach now. And man, she is as aero as they get. She literally rode just with her and right with her. And Taylor didn't pull away. think, I mean, she had some company for a while too. It was not the typical, but then you find out, I just wanted my Kona slot. And that was kind of her MO towards the end of the day, maybe because she wasn't going to win, but at the same time.

Jenna-Caer (20:14.856)
Yeah.

Josh (20:40.116)
It's literally all she needed because she's not going after the pro series either. Whereas Kat is and Kat definitely put a lot of people on notice like Laura Phillip, time to race and see what you got this year. When you talk about a good marathoner though, Fede, we still got to see Kat beat Laura at the Worlds. So I think Laura Phillips is, she's had a heck of an off season and now it's time for her to go soon too.

Fed (20:57.347)
Yeah. Yeah, true.

Josh (21:08.546)
We'll see, it's going to be a heck of a season and Kona is going to be on fire.

Travis Mundell (21:14.95)
And you can't forget about Anne Howe when you're talking about the Marathon Times as well too. And I was just looking up her Instagram there just to see, cause she's been so quiet and nobody knows what's going on with her. yeah, I think Kat's in the driving seat right now while we wait for a couple of those other big names. But yeah.

Jenna-Caer (21:33.521)
Yeah, and I saw on Mark Matthews post on his Instagram stories there that Kat ran that first 5k in eighteen thirty So that's like what? Apparently he told her just just race it smart, don't screw it up kind of thing. She's like, I'm just going to catch her as fast I and see what happens.

Fed (21:42.432)
wow.

Fed (21:48.972)
Haha

Travis Mundell (21:51.316)
Thank

Josh (21:51.456)
and see if she responds.

Fed (21:52.3)
Wow.

Jenna-Caer (21:54.053)
Yeah, and didn't see the pass happen, but it didn't look, didn't sound like Taylor had any response to it once Kat Matthews went running by there.

Fed (22:00.909)
Yeah. No.

Josh (22:02.423)
I don't know if you guys saw this on the ground. think you were both like right near, I think Jenny, you actually put something up about it, but the fact that Christian immediately when he finished and one was taking selfies and autographing, was like, that is so good for the sport and so like so much needed more of, it's like, yeah, it's KB. And then for KB to be there at midnight and handing out medals and high-fiving, I was like, trying to count how many people didn't know who they were getting their medal from. How people knew?

Fed (22:14.176)
Yeah.

Fed (22:24.239)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (22:29.971)
I'm ready to go.

Fed (22:30.063)
No.

Josh (22:30.378)
And it was really, it was really cool to see the ones that did recognize who he was and actually know that he had won and congratulate him too. So, but man, that was awesome to witness for the sport in general.

Fed (22:41.945)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (22:42.643)
And as we're talking about the women's race here, so the women who are going to be guaranteed in Kona after this race are Kat Matthews, Taylor Nib, Lisa Petter had already qualified in Cozumel, got Alice Alberts, Sarah Spence also already qualified for it, Tamara Jewett who raced on her birthday. There was a birthday keeper at the finish line, which was awesome. And then as you mentioned, Haley Chura got her spot as well.

Josh (23:02.339)
Yeah.

Fed (23:03.107)
No.

Jenna-Caer (23:10.211)
So it's definitely shaping up for some epic racing over in Kona this year. Looking forward to that one. Although I won't see much of it go down.

Josh (23:17.314)
cause you're racing. You definitely couldn't miss Haley Turer out there. That's for sure.

Fed (23:19.382)
Hahaha

Jenna-Caer (23:23.235)
I her neon kit.

Fed (23:25.453)
Wow, wow, that was bright.

Travis Mundell (23:26.132)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (23:29.913)
No, that was easy to spot. you know what? Texas was such a fun one to spectate. I haven't done a lot of just Ironman spectating and trying to follow the race in there. But there's so much support on the course. Like you look at the bridge overlooking the swim and there's a few people deep just watching all the swimmers go off. Hippie Hollow. Trevor showed me that place. That was my favorite thing in the whole race. You just have these guys banging garbage cans, yelling, screaming, and even the pros who like come into it look like they're suffering and then they can't help but.

Fed (23:51.939)
Ha

Jenna-Caer (23:58.451)
smile as they go by. Uh, Travis some of your kind of favorite things from the on the ground part of it.

Travis Mundell (24:05.512)
Yeah, I actually found this very interesting to compare 2023 when I was there last to this year and I mean, I've definitely stepped up their game. It was still amazing to me in 2023, but it was just that much better this year. They had stands now set up in the finish line, so a lot more people could enjoy it that way. They also had a big TV, so everybody a big screen so everybody could, you know, hang out at those restaurants and those walking by.

Fed (24:12.335)
Mmm.

Jenna-Caer (24:29.011)
you

Travis Mundell (24:34.16)
anyways could then tune in and see what's going on in the pro race. yeah, there just seemed to be a lot more spectators than when I was there last time. And I think this is all to do with the pro series now and they're taking it a lot more serious. And it just seems like more and more people are getting into the sport, especially the pro side of it than I've seen in the last few years. Exciting.

Josh (24:57.142)
And Jenna, you had a video up of like the expo area when you first got there, I think. And it seemed like it was different than what you would normally see, like walking through the, the merch tent and into a closed off expo. This one seemed like pretty wide open with a stage and, like a coffee bar or like whatever. It was hard to tell, but it seemed like Iron Man stepped up their game in the expo area.

Jenna-Caer (25:19.923)
Yeah, I was definitely impressed with that. They had some more seating so people would hang out. There was one little area where they're having tire changing competitions, see how fast people could change out flat stuff. like you mentioned, they had the coffee, which we all need lots of coffee going in there. yeah, it sounds like you're having talks all throughout the weekend and just making it easier for people to kind of...

Fed (25:27.791)
Hello.

Jenna-Caer (25:40.199)
gather and hang out there. With the monocrew, we all got together there and took some pictures of the team and it just had much more of a vibe than get in, get out and yeah, go on to your race day, which is very cool to see.

Travis Mundell (25:55.026)
Yeah, I think that's been something that's a big push for from the CEO, just making it more of an experience, but not only for the athletes, but for also for the spectators, you know, and I think anybody who would have come to that race as just a spectator would have been, you know, over the moon with their experience. Yeah, hats off to them.

Fed (25:55.212)
Awesome.

Fed (26:04.802)
So lovely.

Fed (26:13.873)
That's

Jenna-Caer (26:15.207)
Yeah, they had that new finish line location too. That just looked epic right under the bridge with all the banners and stuff. It definitely made it all look and feel a lot bigger.

Travis Mundell (26:20.713)
Yes.

Josh (26:24.468)
You couldn't even tell like the finish line isn't there naturally. Like it just like incorporated itself into that whole look and it was really neat. and I had not remembered it being like that in the past. So yeah, definitely really, really, really epic finish line. And you can probably see it from a ways away as you're coming in and just awesome. It's like now you had Oceanside with the pier and now Texas, I mean, what are they going to do in St. George? They got to figure that out.

Travis Mundell (26:48.986)
It's probably one of those things that they're like, why didn't we do this before? Like it was just, right there. It looked meant to be.

Fed (26:49.836)
shit

Jenna-Caer (26:52.146)
Thank

Fed (26:52.847)
Yeah, yeah, I think.

Josh (26:57.824)
It definitely seems like the whole crowd, like the whole pro field is really receptive to what Scott Drew has been doing to like just when they finish and, typically it's like, want to see my loved ones or I want to see my friends and family. it's like, they, they go right to Scott. And it seems like the athletes are behind him and everything he's doing and telling them. that that's a big change too. think that's awesome to see.

Fed (27:24.495)
Definitely. And speaking about finish lines and this amazing race, think we should all need to peer pressure Josh. So he does Ironman Texas for his first full next year. I think it'll be cool.

Josh (27:41.782)
Yeah, well, we need to fix global warming so it's a wetsuit swim. It was like what, six tenths of a degree too much?

Fed (27:44.911)
We could go at midnight and dump a bunch of pies.

Jenna-Caer (27:52.882)
man, that'd be a rough swim too, because it's fresh water, no wetsuit, you're getting no help from anywhere on that one.

Fed (27:55.384)
Yeah.

Josh (27:59.062)
Yeah. But I love the TT bike, the TT style bike I'll take. I'm actually looking forward to that at Oregon, just to see how that goes. I've been climbing for so long in my races. So I'm actually looking forward to testing the power.

Fed (28:00.429)
Yeah, yeah.

Jenna-Caer (28:15.075)
Absolutely. And if you guys haven't checked it out already, go check out the Daily Try. Travis does these, like I said, great previews and post-race production. You got some really great shots of Ironman, Texas. So if you want to kind of see how the day all went in there, he puts those together for all the big races. What's up next for you, Travis? What's going on in the Traphone world?

Travis Mundell (28:35.198)
Well, thankfully it sounds like, well, I shouldn't say that, but I'm just a little, I've done a lot of traveling already this year, so I'm not going to any races. And I feel like I can actually do a bit of a better job when I'm at home doing more content than being at the races. get too wrapped up in all of it and sometimes struggle to put the content out. So, yeah, just going to enjoy spectating St. George, San Francisco, T100 coming up and Vancouver and all that. Plus my wedding also coming up. So.

I guess I have to spend some time planning for that too. So, yeah.

Jenna-Caer (29:07.559)
Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for jumping on and joining us here. And again, thank you for helping show me around Ironman, Texas so we can get some fun shots out there. We will definitely be keeping an on your race recaps and previews. And hopefully we'll chat with you again soon.

Josh (29:22.702)
You gotta keep putting that content out so I have some more to watch while I'm on my trainer for sure is one of my top viewing

Travis Mundell (29:22.931)
That sounds great.

Fed (29:27.734)
Hahaha

Travis Mundell (29:30.032)
Awesome, I'll keep doing it. Don't worry, I love doing it.

Jenna-Caer (29:33.603)
Awesome. Have a great night, Travis.

Travis Mundell (29:35.668)
Thanks, guys.