IT'S MORE THAN A BIKE: HOW MEGAN IVERS ACHIEVED AN EPIC KONA PR
Every athlete’s worst nightmare when traveling to Kona for the IRONMAN World Championship is losing their bike on the flight over. For Megan Ivers, however, the nightmare started before she even boarded a plane. Two weeks before Kona, and only four days before she was scheduled to fly out, she was involved in a crash that totaled her bike. With bruised ribs, road rash, and no bike to ride, her Kona dreams were in jeopardy.
The Quintana Roo team sprang into action to get Ivers a new V-PR in time for the race. Despite her injuries and riding an unfamiliar bike, Ivers smashed her previous IRONMAN PR by over an hour. She also placed 5th in her age group and brought home the coveted Umeke bowl. We are always excited to help athletes realize their potential, and we are immensely proud to have been a part of Ivers’ success. But our role was really quite small.
For Ivers, this amazing Kona result was the culmination of two decades of hard work and personal growth. We sat down with her after the race to learn more about how she handled the stressful lead-up to the World Championship, what motivates her to compete, and why her accomplishment is about a lot more than just a bike.
Resilience in the Face of Disaster
I couldn’t afford to dwell on what happened. I needed to pick myself up and move forward.
IRONMAN’s mantra for the 2025 World Championship in Kona was “Ho'oikaika,” meaning resilience. After her crash, Ivers embodied this perfectly. She went to the ER to ensure nothing was broken, and then she quickly got to work to save her race.
“I immediately knew I had to go into problem-solving mode if I had any chance of healing and salvaging what I had worked so hard to put myself in a position to do,” Ivers said. “This meant staying positive and focused on what I needed to do to heal, find a bike, travel while injured, and deal with all the other stresses that come pre-race.
“That also meant not posting at the time about the crash on social media. Some of my family didn’t even realize what happened. The people close to me who needed to know knew and helped me navigate what I needed to do. I couldn’t afford to dwell on what happened. I needed to pick myself up and move forward.”
The hunt for a replacement bike began right away. However, finding a high-performance triathlon bike with the correct fit and getting it shipped to Kona in less than two weeks is no easy task. Ivers called various shops, distributors, and brands with little success.
“My regular bike shop is a small town shop, and most shops don't have these high-end bikes at the ready,” she explained. “I had been contacting dealers all over the country, just trying to see what was out there, and obviously, I didn't get very far anywhere else.”
Fortunately, her coach, Amanda Wendorff of Multisport Mastery + JHC Coaching, had met Sam Voigt, a member of our sales staff, during her time as a pro. Their paths crossed again this year at Challenge Roth, and Wendorff realized he was the perfect person to reach out to for help. She connected Ivers with Voigt to order a new bike and provided the measurements to dial in the sizing and components. Voigt rallied the QR team to rush a new V-PR through production, and they were able to set the bike up with our Fit-Ready service, pack it, and ship it to Kona in record time.
“Things like struggling to get a bike or dwelling on the crash, and kind of replaying those events, can potentially detract from the energy that needs to be flowing towards your goal,” Ivers said. “From an equipment standpoint, [Quintana Roo] made it incredibly easy to maintain that focus.”
Turning Things Around
Everyone gets curve balls with these races, and if this is mine, I have plenty of time.
Ivers landed in Kona on October 1st with bruised ribs and an empty bike box. A new V-PR was on the way, so she had at least one worry crossed off her list, but her injuries meant she was unable to stick to her training plan in the final days before the race. Recovering and rebuilding what she could over the next week was the priority.
“I stood on Ali’i Drive with people swimming, running, and biking every which way,” she said. “The dolphins were playing with the swimmers that afternoon, too. Talk about salt on the wound! I focused on what I could do every day, even if it was sitting on a beach lounger. Day by day, things improved. By Saturday night, I was able to ride on my host’s trainer. It was a bit big for me, but stretching out in the aero bars actually had a therapeutic effect, opening my rib cage. ‘Maybe things could work out after all,’ I thought. ‘It’s not over until it’s over. Everyone gets curve balls with these races, and if this is mine, I have plenty of time pre-race to deal with it.’
“On Sunday, October 5th, I decided to start the Hoa’la practice swim, committed to listening to my body and stopping if things didn’t feel right. Well, things actually felt good, and I swam an open water personal record for the distance despite starting towards the back and not drafting. I placed 7th in my age group. ‘This is a sign,’ I thought.
“That afternoon, we lowered the seat on my host’s 58cm road bike (Ivers usually rides a 56cm) for a spin on the Queen K. I couldn’t run yet, but was eager to do whatever I could to keep the legs moving. I think I turned a few heads out there, but I wanted to get those ‘first-ride-post-crash’ nerves done and dusted as soon as possible. Plus, I figured if anything, it would help me be versatile and adapt to the QR when it finally came.”
Ivers’ V-PR was delivered at sunset the next day, five days before race day. The bike was hastily assembled for a quick test ride where she rode it around the cul-de-sac in the dark. The next morning, she brought the V-PR to the Quintana Roo booth in the IRONMAN expo, where our team on the ground helped dial it in and give it a pre-race inspection. It was finally time for her first real ride since the accident.
“I went for a ride on the Queen K, like a little hour spin, 30 minutes out, 30 minutes back, and I wasn't working very hard,” Ivers said. “But before I knew it, I was setting Strava segment PRs beyond the airport. It's probably five or six pounds lighter than my [previous bike]. It was just very clear to me that this bike was designed to be on this highway."
"I did a couple of other rides before the race, with not much effort, and I was just flying and having a great time. Obviously, in a perfect world, you go to a shop and you test ride things. But I was in a pinch, and I had to put my faith in you guys. You pulled through, and it was awesome.”
With the V-PR ready to go, all that remained for Ivers was to dial in her mindset before the start.
“I knew that my chances of having the day I wanted had lessened,” she said. “But at the same time, I simply couldn’t accept that fact. I did everything in my power to keep the crash behind me and continue visualizing the race I’d been dreaming of since I started this sport.”
Packing a Podium Dress
Yes, things could go wrong. But things could also go right.
Fast forward to race day, and Megan Ivers finished the IRONMAN World Championship in 10 hours and 15 minutes. This blisteringly fast time earned her 5th in her age group. Considering her circumstances in the weeks before the race, this is an impressive result. But it’s even more impressive compared to her previous efforts.
Her coach, Amanda Wendorff, helped put it in perspective. At Kona two years prior, Ivers placed 215th in her age group. Before this, she had never broken 11 hours in an IRONMAN and had finished under 12 hours only once.
“This is a feel-good story, not just because of the amazing day she had (quite honestly, it was textbook Ironman execution), but because of the whole journey,” Wendorff wrote. “For years, Meg has worked so, so hard, with results that never truly showcased the prep. This year, she decided it was her year. Every detail was dialed in, from nutrition to recovery to mental skills to equipment. Her training was executed almost perfectly.”
A finishing time in the low 10-hour range was necessary to compete at the front of Ivers’ age group. With the training and dedication Ivers had displayed over the last two years, Wendorff believed that this sort of performance was possible. But perhaps no one believed it more than Ivers herself.
After her top-five finish, Ivers would get to stand on the podium at the IRONMAN Banquet of Champions, where she would be awarded a traditional Hawaiian Umeke bowl. Wendorff called to suggest buying a podium dress for the occasion. To her surprise, Ivers didn’t need to because she had already packed a podium dress in her luggage! Despite the crash, the injury, the unfamiliar bike, and the stressful lead-up, Ivers knew what she was capable of, and her belief was unwavering.
“Every ounce of energy and thought and positivity had to be fueled into the vision of what was going to happen,” Ivers said. “Yes, things could go wrong. But things could also go right. If they were going to go right, everything had to be channeled toward that end goal, that finish line, having that day, and executing everything you planned for. Packing a podium dress was just part of that!”
20 Years in the Making
There was always this hope and this confidence that my focus on triathlon gave me.
For Ivers, this sucess was about a lot more than getting a bike to race or crossing a finish line. It was about achieving a version of herself she had envisioned decades before. Her Kona story actually began 20 years ago, when her introduction to triathlon coincided with a life-changing event for her family.
“My first triathlon was in the summer of 2005,” Ivers explained. “2005 was significant because it was the last time that my family took a vacation together when my dad had full sight. He was hit by a car while shoveling snow and is completely blind right now. For my family, that was huge. He was the breadwinner, and that accident completely changed everything.”
Inspired by a desire to help her dad and others, Ivers found herself pulled toward a career in healthcare. She wanted to support the scientists and doctors working on innovative drugs and treatments designed to change lives. For Ivers, growth in triathlon became a reflection of growth in her career.
“The last 20 years of triathlon all happened in parallel,” she explained. “I just felt like there was always this hope and this confidence that my focus on triathlon gave me that illuminated the hope for other endeavors.
“In many ways, IRONMAN teaches you how to support someone like [my dad] when the odds are against you. You aren’t supposed to do these things (swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles), but then you do work at it day after day after day, and the impossible eventually becomes possible. So there was kind of this shred of hope in me that perhaps with him, that the impossible can still become possible, right?
“That's something that I have to remember in my day job. The transformative medicines and innovative therapies for patients struggling with very tough, tough diseases take endless work. You have to trust that all of the work will get you to that point. Prepping for this race was the same. You have to constantly believe that you can do it, and you have to want to do it.”
Ivers always had belief. But it hadn’t manifested in the results she knew she was capable of. After her last Kona finish in 2023, she realized that she needed to recommit herself fully to realize her dreams.
“Coming into this year, I realized that there are all these little things that make the difference between the pointy end of the age groups and the middle of the pack. At certain points, I had done these things. But could I do it for an entire IRONMAN build? Could I do it long enough to realize the benefits?
“So I really challenged myself. At the beginning of the year, I started making changes to my diet, being more consistent with strength and mobility, and going to see a sports psychologist to really uncover some of these mental barriers that really kept me from that full sense of self-belief. And wouldn't you know, it's all worked. I lost 50 pounds in a year. I've been fueling better. I've been sleeping better. I've been training better. I can actually show up for my coach, and we can actually build fitness. We knew months ago that things were going in the right direction.”
Stay the Course
If you believe in yourself and you want it, it's there for you.
When I called Ivers the week after Kona, she was at home in Chicago, still recuperating from her epic effort. I had to ask the question that everyone asks an athlete who has realized their dreams: What’s next?
“We're just getting started!” she said. “I mean, I've ridden my new bike for less than a week. I have IRONMAN Marbella coming up on November 8th. I'm taking the V-PR. It's the lightest thing out there, and it's gonna fly up those mountains! And who knows what's possible, right?
“I'm at this incredible crossroads right now where I've reached a pinnacle of my involvement in the sport. But I don't think it's my pinnacle or the pinnacle. That has me asking myself a lot of questions about what's next and what that looks like. I'd love to get back to Kona. At this point, I think we have to try to win. I’m happy Quintana Roo is in my corner for that."
As a fellow athlete rapidly approaching 40 who is terrified of the effects time will have on my performance, I also had to ask Ivers what words of wisdom she had for other age groupers trying to reach the sharp end of the field.
“I'm not getting any younger. I'm over 40, and most people think that you're on the decline at that point,” she said. “But now I'm realizing that I'm just getting started. I just started to figure this out. I went to a camp with Crowie (triathlon legend Craig Alexander), and I’ve kept in touch with him. I sent him a picture of the Umeki bowl, figuring he’d be shocked because when I went to camp with him, I was 50 pounds heavier, a middle-of-the-pack finisher, and still trying to figure out how to put it all together. Now, I'm a totally different athlete.
"He told me that's the trajectory that every coach hopes for, but rarely sees because people don't stay the course. So that's my message to you: stay the course. You know, there's going to be ups and downs and detours and curveballs and crashes. But stay the course. If you believe in yourself and you want it, it's there for you.”
Photos courtesy of Megan Ivers.
