To date, 1,014 athletes have completed all nine IRONMAN VR races. Over the past nine weeks, these athletes have completed 143 km running and 470 km cycling.
In total, around 11,000 athletes from more than 132 nations and all 50 US states registered to participate in the latest event – IRONMAN VR9. Out of those registered, over 5,600 athletes finished the weekend’s virtual racing. This required athletes to complete a 5km run, 90km ride, and 21km run between Friday, May 29 at 14:00 ET (18:00 GMT) and race close on Sunday, May 31 at 19:59 ET (23:59 GMT).
Competitors could complete the three segments in any order and were not required to do the segments consecutively. Athletes were able to compete anywhere, indoors or outdoors.
Bringing the IRONMAN community together virtually, the IRONMAN Virtual Club now has more than 100,000 members on the platform with ‘thousands completing IRONMAN Virtual Club Challenges since its recent launch.’
IRONMAN Virtual Racing by the numbers
With just over 113,000 finishers across all IRONMAN virtual races (VR 1 to VR9), the 1,014 athletes who have completed all events in the series indicate that, for the most part, individuals prefer to dip in and out of the virtual racing series. The most popular races, in terms of registered athletes and finishers across race weekends, appear to be Sprint and 5150 distance simulations.
Since the IRONMAN VR8 event, athletes who want to compete in IRONMAN VR races with officially monitored times can sign up for the Challenger Division. Here, activities must be completed outdoors or on the ROUVY indoor cycling reality platform to log an official result (results as at time of writing):
IRONMAN VR9
Challenger – 2,130 finishers (3,831 registered); IM 70.3 simulation
Classic – 3,547 finishers (7,276 registered); IM 70.3 simulation
IRONMAN VR8
Challenger – 3,557 finishers (6,117 registered); 5150 simulation
Classic – 7,904 finishers (13,635 registered); 5150 simulation
IRONMAN VR7 – 17,085 finishers (25,018 registered); Sprint simulation
IRONMAN VR6 – 12,743 finishers (21,241 registered); 5150 simulation
IRONMAN VR5 – 8,258 finishers (14,884 registered); IM 70.3 simulation
IRONMAN VR4 – 14,550 finishers (23,747 registered); 5150 simulation
IRONMAN VR3 – 20,266 finishers (33,207 registered); Sprint simulation
IRONMAN VR2 –16,376 finishers (22,985 registered); 5150 simulation
IRONMAN VR1 – 6,695 finishers (11,040 registered); IM 70.3 simulation
IRONMAN VR9 Pro Challenge Weekend
Alongside the participation of thousands of age group athletes, the ninth edition of the IRONMAN VR Pro Challenge featured a battle of elite virtual racing champions with the professional women and professional men winners of the IRONMAN VR1-VR4 Pro Challenges, along with one featured guest each day.
Athletes went head-to-head-to-head-to-head over two days of racing on a simulation of the IRONMAN 70.3 Indian Wells-La Quinta 90 km bike course, utilizing ROUVY’s virtual cycling platform. Emma Pallant of Great Britain won the women’s race and Sam Long of the United States took top honours in the men’s race.
www.ironmanvirtualclub.com
www.ironman.com
