“I did it for my husband.” Kat Matthews on Ironman World Champs silver hat-trick and breaking the run course record
"Chat GPT told me that the run battle would be around the 33km mark, so we’ll see…” How GB's Kat Matthews ran her way to a new course record in Kona at the weekend, predicted run battle and all.
The colour silver seems to follow GB long-distance star Kat Matthews wherever she goes. Ironman World Champs second-place winner in 2022 in St George, 2024 in Nice, and this year in Kona, Matthews is no stranger to the pro podium.
Having only turned pro in 2019 at the age of 28, Matthews began her professional career as a physiotherapist officer in the British Army, where she was introduced to triathlon in 2018 during a posting in Canada.
Since then, she quickly rocketed to tri stardom with multiple Ironman wins, 70.3 championship silvers in 2023 and 2024, and made history as the first female triathlete to break 8 hours over the iron distance as part of the Sub8 Project.
Fast-forward to October 2025, and it’s time to get out the record books once more as Matthews ran an astonishing 2:47:23 during the World Championship run leg in Kona, smashing the previous record by a full minute.
Drama along the Queen K
Once our elites hit the run leg, Matthews quickly emerged as the fastest runner on course. making up time on the race leaders right off the bat, despite a 14min gap to pole position.
On each others tails, Matthews and returning champion Laura Philipp clawed back just over a minute in the first 8km, while the Brit maintained strong momentum through Ali’i Drive, looking fresh on the climb up Palani Hill and onto the Queen K.
Two-thirds of the way into the marathon and race favourites Lucy Charles-Barclay then Taylor Knibb began to falter under the heat, both eventually dropping out. Pushed up into third and then second place but still with several minutes to make up on the front runner, Matthews was clearly intent on closing the gap.
A surge in the closing miles brought Matthews within a heartbreakingly close-but-not-close-enough 35 seconds of victory, though it ultimately wasn’t enough to catch the winner and new Ironman champion, Solveig Lovseth, who ran 2:55:47 for the marathon (roughly 8 minutes slower than Matthew’s split).
Once more writing history, Matthews comes away from the 2025 World Championships with a truly well-earned second place and a new run course record. As the third and final leg of the 226km (104.6mi) mammoth that is Ironman, setting a run record for the most prestigious triathlon race on earth is no mean feat – hats off to Matthews.
The women’s previous run course record for Kona was a time of 2:48:23, set by Germany’s Anne Haug in 2023, where she also took silver place. Like Matthews, record-making seems to follow Haug, who currently holds the long-course record, which she set in Roth in July 2024.
Words from Matthews
On her run course best: Quite simply – “I did it for my husband.”
On whether she was aware of the narrowing run gap: “I love running downhill. I assumed Solveig wasn’t running as fast, I didn’t know I was that close though.”
On the race overall: “It was a fantastic experience to make T2 specifically, as I didn’t two years ago, and to be in a race where everyone was really having to push their limits clearly. I think it was really quite spectacular what Solveig was able to pull off.”
On whether she was proud of her performance: “Yes, I am proud of my performance. I’m really happy to finish strongly. I experienced the challenge of Ironman for sure today. I wasn’t able to play my part on the bike, sorry [to the other athletes]. But I didn’t let that mentally put me down actually, the splits I wasn’t worried about.
“I really found a mind state coming here that it’s my own best personal performance and it’s irrelevant what everyone else is doing… They were 15minutes ahead at one point and that’s catastrophic really. To me, I was like – ’well, you know, I’m doing my best’. And I just kept staying grounded in that.”
Ahead of the race, Matthews shared: “I have no idea what it’s going to feel like out there. I’m expecting to feel as awful as I did when I got off the bike in St George, with zero confidence that I could even make it to the energy lab, let alone finish the race in a run battle….
“I’m not sure if this is the course for a run battle, but that would make me sad. It would be so cool, wouldn’t it? Chat GPT told me that the run battle would be around the 33km mark, so we’ll see…” [It really started at 39km when Knibb dropped out, pushing Matthews to second spot, so a pretty close prediction].
On what she’d be happy with at the finish line: “I want to win this race… but the thing I want the most is to be able to share the success with the people who put the work in. That’s one of the things that I strive for. Not to win for myself, but to win to reward my husband, my coaches, my agent, my family… that’s what I want to give them.”
On the effects of breaking her back in September 2022: “My back is sore now. It is a factor. I have issues that I can associate to those injuries, but it doesn’t change the way I live. I’m happy for it to be part of my journey, and I’m really proud of my recovery from that.”
Interview credit: Ironman pre-race and press conference athletes interviews.
What makes the Kona run route so brutal?
The final leg of the world championship course is an out-and-back course that starts with a 7.2-mile stretch along infamous Ali’i Drive. Athletes are best served to pace it out on Ali’i; it’s easy to start off too fast along this fan-lined coastal stretch of road.
Returning to Kona, athletes then tackle the steep Palani Road hill that climbs out of town and onto the long and exposed Queen Kahamanu Highway. Once at the top, there’s no respite to be found as the vast and endless Queen K highway stretches on for miles, and the mind games truly commence.
Surrounded by shadeless lava fields and with no respite from the relentless sun, athletes reach the Energy Lab and turnaround point at 25km/15mi before heading back towards the finish. The women suffered tremendously from the hot and humid conditions during this year’s race, with temperatures of around 29°C/85°F and high humidity of 80-85%, the real feel for athletes would have been more like 36°C.
Read more:
The 2025 women’s Ironman World Championships in Kona in photos
Kate Milsom
Freelance sports journalist 
