Wassner Twins at Israman

Yesterday, I saw this tweet from Rebecca Wassner, who is half of the pro triathlete duo known as the "Wassner Twins:"

These 2 images accompanied the tweet:

Yeah, she ran my 1-mile pace for an opening mile of a marathon. AFTER A 2.4 MILE SWIM and 112 MILE BIKE RIDE.

I replied to that tweet, tweeting Rebecca and Laurel back asking if those were Israman splits. If you've been a LONG time reader, you'll remember I went to Israel in January of 2014 to race the "Israman Eilat" triathlon (half iron 70.3 or full iron 140.6 distance).

My 70.3 relay team for 2014: me swimming, Rany biking, and Sharon running.

Well, T2 of that race is high in the mountains above the Red Sea, and then the first 15K (or so) is downhill. That sounds great, but everyone who does it says it's KILLER on the legs, especially running the final 15-20 miles of the race after that (flat, along the Red Sea).

I had heard the Wassner Twins finished 1st and 2nd in the full iron race! Laurel finished in 11:13 with a 3:24 run, and Rebecca went 11:37. (Those times were good for 7th and 13th OVERALL!) Nice work!

The hills out there are fierce. Here's a paragraph from my 2014 Israman race report:

The bike ride out there is epic. This race was label by Triathlete Magazine as one of the "top 10 triathlons in the world." And the scenery and course don't disappoint. I was talking with a fast biker post-race (it was either Ben in our group or someone else - I forget). This person said that in half iron races, they usually hit 40K in an hour. (Yep, that's pretty fast.) But in this race where there's OVER 2,000 feet of climbing in the first 15K, his first 40K took TWO hours.

Waves of swimmers heading off into the Red Sea last week (found in a Facebook album)


Laurel posted this photo pre-race saying "Start of the marathon at Israman.
Run all the way down to the Red Sea. Fast first 10ks but... Ouch!!"


The winning sisters! (Image retweeted by Laurel.)


70.3 winner Ben Collins, 140.6 winner Laural Wassner, and 70.3 winner Jenny Fletcher!
(Found on the race's Facebook page.)

Laurel told me yesterday via twitter that she still couldn't squat down. The race was last Friday; this was 4 days later. Well, rest those legs, and nice job sisters!

If you want to look back on some fun Israel/Israman photos from 2014, here's my 2014 Israman race report, here's a collection of other people's Instagram photos from Israman 2014, here are my Instagram photos throughout my 9-day Israel trip (some AMAZING memories in there!), and here's a Facebook album of race photos from 2014. If you really want to look through a lot of Israel photos/posts, here's everything tagged with "Israel Trip."

p.s. Here's a post from almost 5 years ago where I met the Wassner twins.