A Breakdown of Patrick Lange’s Ironman World Championships Running Record
The 30-year-old German triathlete ran a record-breaking 2:39:45 marathon—immediately after swimming 2.4 miles in the ocean and cycling 112 miles.
The triathlon world is still in amazement of the 26.2-mile run split Patrick Lange cranked out on Oct. 8 at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii—and with good reason. In his first ever Ironman World Championships race in Kona, the 30-year-old German triathlete ran a record-breaking 2:39:45 marathon—immediately after swimming 2.4 miles in the ocean and cycling 112 miles on the hot and breezy roads of northwest side of the Big Island of Hawaii. That means he averaged about 6:05 per mile for 26.2 miles after 5 and 1/2 hours of swimming and biking.
After a strong swim (2.4 miles in 48:57 was among the best of the day), Lange was set back by a drafting penalty of 5 minutes on the bike section of the race (along with other top competitors Frederik Van Lierde, Andreas Raelert and Brent McMahon), ultimately being taken out of contention on the bike. (He finished with a 4:37:49 split for the 112-mile bike ride. (With the penalty included, that’s an average of about 24 miles per hour … but it was roughly 4 to 14 minutes slower than the top 10 competitor splits.)
However, he found his stride back and re-wrote triathlon history by setting a course record on the run, moving up from 23rd place coming off the bike to third overall in 8:11:14 by the finish of the run. (Lange broke the 27-year-old run course record of 2:40:04 that Mark Allen set in 1989.) While many say the Ironman race is “all about the bike,” Lange proved that a fast runner can make a huge impact. Fellow German Jan Frodeno, who repeated his championship victory at the Ironman World Championships with an 8:06:30 overall effort, closed the race with a 2:45:34 marathon run split. Second-place finisher Sebastian Kienle, also a German, finished in 8:10:02 overall after a 2:49:03 run split.
Lange was wearing a pair of 7.6-ounce Newton Distance Elite shoes during his record run. According to Strava, he had the best estimated half-marathon effort (1:19:23) during the first half of the course, but ran the race with near-equal splits.
RELATED: 2016 Ironman World Championships Running Shoe Count
Lange uploaded his performance data from Ironman on Strava.
Here are some of the other highlights:
Distance: 42K or 26.2 miles
Moving time: 2:39:28 (Note: Lange’s official split for the run was 2:39:45.)
Elapsed time: 2:39:33
Pace: 3:48/K or 6:05/mile
Elevation Change: 238m or 781 feet
Calories Burned: 3,318