It was a big surprise when American Ben Kanute joined Kristian Blummenfelt yesterday, after about three kilometers into the half marathon of the World Championship Ironman 70.3. He not only joined Blummenfelt, but Kanute immediately passed him and set the pace for over ten kilometers from then on. With about five kilometers to go, it was finally Blummenfelt who made his move and accelerating towards victory.
Blummenfelt finished the half marathon in a time of 1:12:09, which equates to a pace of 3:24 minutes per kilometer. But what kind of pace was he running during the acceleration in which he made up the difference over Kanute? Just to be clear; that pace was truly dizzying.
For example, the seventeenth kilometer – his fastest – Blummenfelt ran in 2:56 minutes per kilometer. The kilometer after that was finished in 3:02 minutes and the kilometer after that in 2:58 minutes. Kilometers seventeen, eighteen and nineteen were thus run faster than twenty kilometers per hour on average. It should be noted, however, that those kilometers ran downhill.
These are Blummenfelt’s kilometer times:
