Kelly Williamson won Saturday's fourth annual Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas with the fourth sub-nine hour finish in the history of the race - a six-minute win of 8:54:42. All four female Ironman athletes who have gone under nine hours have won the race.
Seventeen female professional Ironman athletes finished in under 10 hours. In the first three years, just 24 combined had done so.
Twenty-one pro women finished. Only five - Williamson, last year's runner up Jennie Hansen, Sarah Piampiano, Oleysa Prystayko and Tami Ritchie - had recorded a finish here in one of previous three years and every one bettered their times.
They join Amy Marsh as the only two-time pro finishers of Ironman Texas.
All in all, 54 different professional female have completed the race.
Williamson led the women out of the water with an all-time event best swim time of 51 minutes, 49 seconds - breaking her own previous best time of 53:12 three years ago - to become the third straight female to win the race after leading the swim.
The only year that it didn't happen?
The inaugural year when Williamson finished second to Catriona Morrison from Great Britain.
Four other women - Ritchie (51:57), runner-up Julia Gajer (52:36), Amber Ferreira (52:58) and Bree Wee (53:00) - broke Williamson's former event-best 2.4-mile swim time.
Williamson also overcame an eight-minute, 49-second deficit from Gajer for the win and was 41 seconds greater than the lead that Tine Deckers had on Morrison the very first year of the race.
Sarah Piampiano and Gajer were 1-2 on the bike in 4:53:04 and 4:53:53, respectively, but their times are just ninth and eleventh all-time. Ellis and Joyce won in 2012 and 2013 after having the best bike split.
In fact, they were the only two to break five hours, which had been done 15 times - by a professional - since 2011.
Williamson came into this year's Ironman Texas with the third-best time in the marathon with a 3:04:06 showing in 2011, but her 2:54:46 was only the second sub-3 behind Caitlin Snow's course best 2:51:47 which moved her from fourth to second place two years ago.
Piampiano was actually ahead of Williamson leaving T2, but finished tenth after having a hip injury lock up on her before the last aid station and was forced to walk it in the last mile and a half according to a picture posted on her Instagram account.
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