It might be his first trip to Australia, but the upbeat American certainly appears in the right frame of mind (and fitness) to be able to excel at the final two races in the IRONMAN Pro Series. While Marc Dubrick isn’t gunning for a top-10 finish in the standings since he hasn’t done an IRONMAN, (like Grace Thek, who we interviewed earlier), he is hoping to earn enough points over the next few weeks to get into the top-50 in the standings, which would provide a welcome US$5,000 cheque.

The trip to Australia also serves as a tune up for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Taupo in a couple of weeks, which has been Dubrick’s “focus the whole year.”

After earning a scholarship at the University of Missouri after walking on to the cross-country and track team there, Dubrick, who had been a competitive swimmer through high school, turned his sights to triathlon. He started competed on the elite draft-legal racing scene from 2018, but would eventually start jumping into some long-course races along the way. He was second at his first half – IRONMAN 70.3 Maine in 2021, and earned his first qualifying spot to the 70.3 worlds in St. George the following year. He continued to jump back and forth between draft-legal and long-course racing until this year.

“I made the switch 100 percent and it has just been so good for me,” Dubrick said in an interview in Busselton a few days before the 70.3 race. “I think I just better at this distance. I really enjoy the community as well. I joined the Real Tri Squad (RTS) two years ago and it just makes every race really fun. We have a nice community growing and the people on the team are fun … It’s just the camraderie around triathlon in general – in long course it seems to be a bit better.”

Preparing For a Fast Day

“I like to compare the course (here in Busselton) to Indian Wells,” Dubrick said. “It’s flat and the pavement is actually better here. And it is pancake flat. We’ve got the 12 m draft rule and an ocean swim, but it’s with a wetsuit, so that will also make for a quick swim. We’ve also got some short-course people coming in, so they’re going to push the swim. Hopefully I’ll be there and helping with that and split it up, because I don’t really want a massive 20-person group on the bike.”

Dubrick is also expecting Swede Robert Kallin, who’s 3:54:33 bike split at IRONMAN Vittoria-Gasteiz is being hailed as the fastest ever for a full-distance race, to blast through the course. Kallin, who is currently in eighth in the IRONMAN Pro Series standings, is just one point behind Jonas Hoffman, and is looking to move up at least one spot in the standings after this weekend.

“I’m sure he (Kallin) wants to make sure he doesn’t get off the bike with everyone because every second counts,” Dubrick saiid. “It’s actually funny because he is literally one second behind the person who is ranked ahead of him.”

So where does Dubrick fit into all this? Now that he’s “all in” on the distance front, he’s looking to continue to compete with the top athletes.

“I have the run background, the swim background, been working my ass off on the bike, so hopefully I’ll be in a position where I’m always coming off the bike close to the leaders and can let the run legs talk,” he said.

Along with those lofty goals, though, is an outgoing nature that makes Dubrick a perfect fit for the RTS squad (and also his part-time gig doing customer service for Magic5).

“Beyond just performance I want to keep meeting people, keep growing my community, keep getting people excited about triathlon,” he said. “I absolutely love this. I just love the multisport community. If I can get people in the sport motivated to chase their goals, whether it is to finish an IRONMAN, finish a half, do an Olympic, whatever it is. Have a good time with it. With the Real Tri Squad, especially, we have a great community.”

While Dubrick is considering moving up to a full-distance race next year, he’s not trying to recover from even one IRONMAN race heading into tomorrow’s race, let alone three, like many of the contenders have done through 2024. If he can help keep the pace moving through the swim, look for the 30-year-old to stay in the mix through much of the bike. If he can stay close enough, who knows what sort of “talk” those run legs can provide.

Mark Dubrick’s Felt IA 2.0

_{Dura Ace 1x drivetrain, with an 11-30 cassette and .}

_{… a Drag2Zero 58-tooth chainring}

_{Dubrick tested this aero set up off the back of his Bisaddle Saint Pro 3D saddle, and the aero water bottle on the top tested a few watts quicker in the wind tunnel.}

_{We’re used to seeing the raised BTA bottle to go along with the Fast TT aero bars}

_{He’s not sure where it started, but he’s leaning into the Marc “The Shark” moniker}

_{We believe Dubrick will be the first triathlete to use the Enve SES 100 wheels in a race}

_{He’ll also be riding the ENVE Disc. He’s using a Continental Aero 29 mm in front with a GP5000 TT 28 mm on the disc.}

The post Marc Dubrick Has a Fast Bike, but That’s Not the Only Reason We’ll See Lots of Him at the Last Two Ironman Pro Series Races first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

She might not be one of the best-known athletes competing at the second-to-last IRONMAN Pro Series race of 2024, but Australia’s Grace Thek has quietly amassed an impressive series of 70.3 performances throughout the year. Thek has yet to do an Ironman, so she’s not in the running for a top-10 finish in the series, but she’s an impressive 23rd in the standings with only four 70.3 races counting. That means she could move up a bit in the overall results with a solid finish of her season here in Busselton, or Taupo in a couple of weeks.

Like so many triathletes, Thek is an oft-injured runner who did lots of cross-training before moving to the sport. Despite dealing with lots of injuries during that running career, the Melbourne native enjoyed more than a bit of success. She represented Australia at the World Cross Country Championships as a junior and was the country’s national U20 cross country and 5,000 champion before she headed over to the US to compete for Providence College. In her final year at Providence, Thek was the instrumental fifth runner that helped the team take the NCAA Division I title.

She returned to Australia, though, dealing with glandular fever (mononucleosis for us North Americans) and a battered body, taking a year to “just get my body healthy again” and embark on her physiotherapy studies. She found herself a triathlon coach, and it wasn’t long before she was hooked. She started with shorter races, but eventually moved up to the half-distance. Her first professional race was IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong in 2018, where she came within seven seconds of taking the win.

Thek continued to work part time as she pursued her pro career, but went “all in” with triathlon at the end of the COVID pandemic in 2021. Last year she took three half-distance wins – Challenge Wanaka, 70.3 Geelong and Challenge Salou. While Thek hasn’t topped a podium in 2024, she’s had an impressively consistent season with runner-up finishes at the IRONMAN 70.3 races in Tasmania, Geelong and Zell am See, along with three fourth-place finishes in Oceanside, Mont-Tremblant and Tallinn. She also competed at four T100 races – San Francisco (12th), London (16th), Ibiza (16th) and Lake Las Vegas (DNF – she was recovering from COVID).

All of which sets her up for the speed-fest we’re likely to see this weekend in the penultimate IRONMAN Pro Series race. Despite the stakes, Thek isn’t putting much pressure on herself this weekend.

“Honestly, I’ve kind of taken off the full-pressure expectations – it’s been a long year,” she said. “I started … the first weekend of February at Ironman 70.3 Tasmania … so I’m just here to have fun, do my best and if that gets me on the podium, that would be great. But, I think there’s a lot of really talented women in this field and it’s going to be hard. Anyone could win it, anyone could podium. At the end of the day, I’m just here to do a good performance and get some confidence going into Taupo.”

After missing the 70.3 worlds the last two years due to injury, Thek is looking forward to finally getting back to that event in a couple of weeks.

“Sometimes making the start line can be an achievement in itself,” she said. “Obviously, it’s always a privilege to race the best in the world.”

IRONMAN Racing

So why haven’t we seen Thek take on a full-distance race?

“Well, to be honest, I still feel like I’m somewhat of a rookie, but when I reflect on it, I’ve been in the sport since 2018.” she said. “I think that there’s so much to try and improve on in a 70.3 that it has always seemed a little overwhelming going to a full Ironman, cause it’s even more to consider. But, I once said that I’d gift it (an IRONMAN race) to myself for my 30th birthday. I just turned 33 and I still haven’t done an IRONMAN. Next year is the year that I think I’ll give it a crack.”

First things first, though – there’s the 2024 season to get finished, starting with the race here in Busselton in two days, followed by the big day in Taupo in two weeks. Thek might not be gunning for a top finish in the IRONMAN Pro Series, but she’ll certainly be a crowd favourite here on home-soil this weekend.

Grace Thek’s CADEX Triathlon Bike

The post Grace Thek’s Journey from NCAA XC Champ to IRONMAN 70.3 Success first appeared on Slowtwitch News.