Kat Matthews runs sub-2:50 marathon on her way to Ironman Texas win

Last fall Kat Matthews (pictured above on her way to a runner-up finish at the Ironman World Championship St. George) was heading into the Ironman World Championship as one of the pre-race favourites when she was hit by a car while training in Texas. After a long recovery, she proved that she’s quickly rounding back to her 2022 form with an impressive win today at Ironman Texas, which also served as the Ironman Americas Championship.

Ironman favourite Kat Matthews hit by car while training in Texas

The win certainly wasn’t easy – Matthews had to run an impressive 2:49:32 marathon split to catch and pass Denmark’s Maia Stage Nielsen, who would finish just two minutes behind Matthews, while defending women’s champ Jocelyn McCauley (USA) would round out the top three.

All Brandon in the swim

As is usual in almost every race she enters, American Lauren Brandon led the women out of the water in 51:14, four minutes up on a group that included McCauley, Stage Nielsen and Lottie Lucas, with Matthews hitting T1 in fifth, 7:20 down.

Brandon would hang on to the lead for about 60 km before McCauley and Stage Nielsen joined her at the front. By the end of the ride McCauley would open up a gap of 48 seconds on Stage Nielsen, with Brandon at 4:10 down and Matthews a whopping 9:19 behind starting the run.

Stage Nielsen would move to the front early in the run, but her three-hour marathon wasn’t nearly enough to hold off the fast-running Matthews, who took the lead at about 35 km and never looked back, crossing the line in 8:32:52. Stage Nielsen’s 3:00:05 marathon got her second in 8:34:51, with McCauley rounding out the podium in 8:45:45. Brandon would take fourth in 8:53:07 and Danielle Lewis finished fifth in 8:56:28. Canadian Jen Annett would finish eighth in 9:14:00.

 

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