There isn’t much Jonny Brownlee couldn’t achieve in triathlon if he put his mind to it – but in the near future you’re unlikely to see him adding an IRONMAN win to his long list of achievements.
Brownlee is one of the most-decorated British triathletes in history with Olympic medals of every colour.
But he says watching brother Alistair blow up in the heat on his first attempt at an IRONMAN at the World Championships in Kona in 2019 has put right him off trying the discipline for himself.
“Long day out”
Speaking on the ‘Junkyard Dogs’ podcast on YouTube, embedded below, Brownlee said: “Generally what’s put me off was watching Alistair do Kona. I sat at home with the coverage on, up late at night. Watching him blow up just made me feel, wow… it just looks like a long, long, long day out.
“I keep saying I’m not going to try it. I know it’s harder. When you do a sprint distance race, you think: ‘I can’t do double that for an Olympic distance race.’
“And in an Olympic distance race you think: ‘Oh I can’t do double that to do a half IRONMAN.’ And the same process for the half IRONMAN. So for me it’s just the distance. It just seems like a lot.
“I’m coming round to it now I’ve done a 70.3 without blowing up. Maybe in a few years’ time I’ll do an IRONMAN but I’m still not sure if I’ll ever do one competitively or do one just to get round.”
Brownlee does have an IRONMAN right on his doorstep in Leeds, his hometown, this year. The 35-year-old admits to being tempted by it – but there’s just one problem.
“At least a year”
Brownlee said: “The Leeds one tempts me though it’s a really hard course. Alistair told me once ‘when you do an IRONMAN do one that’s over as quickly as possible’ and that’s definitely not Leeds.
“Leeds does tempt me but by that point I will be back doing Supertri racing, I want to have at least a year doing that and I really enjoy racing that.”
