33 Ironman triathlons in 33 days–a case study

Beat Knechtle, Christoph Alexander Rüst, Thomas Rosemann, Normand Martin

This case report presents the performance of an athlete who completed for the first time in history the total distance of 33 Ironman triathlons within 33 consecutive days. The athlete finished the total distance of 7,458 km (i.e. 125 km swimming, 5,940 km cycling and 1,393 km running) within a total time of 410 h and a mean time of 12 h 27 min per Ironman distance. During the 33 days, the athlete became slower in swimming (r(2) = 0.27, p = 0.0019), transition time 1 (r(2) = 0.66, p < 0.001), and transition time 2 (r(2) = 0.48, p < 0.0001). However, in cycling (r(2) = 0.07, p = 0.13), running (r(2) = 0.04, p = 0.25) and overall race time (r(2) = 0.10, p = 0.069), the athlete was able to maintain his performance during the 33 days. The coefficients of variation (CV) for the split times in swimming, cycling, running and overall race times were very low (i.e. 2.7%, 3.2%, 4.7%, and 2.7%, respectively) whereas the CV for transition times 1 and 2 were considerably higher (i.e. 25.5% and 55.5%, respectively). During the 33 days, body mass decreased from 83.0 kg to 80.5 kg (r(2) = 0.55, p < 0.0001). Plasma [Na(+)] remained within the reference range, creatine kinase, blood glucose and liver enzymes were minimally elevated above the reference range after four of five stages where blood analyses were performed. This case report shows that this athlete finished 33 Ironman triathlons within 33 consecutive days with minor variations over time (i.e. even pacing) in both split times and overall race times. This performance was most probably due to the high experience of the athlete, his pacing strategy and the stable environmental conditions.