‘I’ve spent months craving this feeling’ – Kat Matthews on the freedom of running

Kat Matthews underlined again that she’s one of the top runners in the sport with her display at the San Francisco T100 and says her all-round performance has made her “VERY excited” for the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice on 22 September.

The Brit bounced back from her disqualification at IRONMAN Hamburg the previous weekend as the bold decision to quickly change plans and head to California was rewarded.

She was runner-up to a dominant Taylor Knibb, with her swim, bike and run all looking in great shape as she herself put over three minutes into the rest of the field.

‘I frigging love running’

Matthews was right in the mix in the choppy waters of the Bay and while uber-biker Knibb – who is #1 in that discipline in the PTO rankings and also competing in the women’s time trial at the Olympics – was too quick for everyone on the bike, Matthews clocked the second-fastest time.

But anyone who watched her post-race interview on the live broadcast will have noted it was arguably her running display which gave her the most pleasure.

Her reaction when asked if some people may have been surprised by another superb run was: “Only the uneducated don’t expect me to run well if I’m honest!

“I frigging love running, it’s my primary sport and I’ll always count on it to be one of the best in the field.”

And that is absolutely backed up by the stats.

Only Tamara Jewett was faster than Matthews in San Francisco (by 29 seconds), with Matthews taking a minute out of third-best Knibb over the 18km.

[Photo Credit – PTO]

It’s the latest in a line of stellar run displays too, which unfortunately were punctuated by that calf tear at T100 Miami.

After recovering from that, Matthews was quickest on the run at IRONMAN Texas, and last season when she was runner-up at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships it was again only Jewett who was quicker on two feet.

‘It makes me so happy’

And writing on her Instagram page a couple of days after the race, Matthews underlined what delight last weekend’s display gave her, saying: “The freedom of running 🤩🥰.

“I’ve spent months craving this feeling.

“12 weeks of rehab/load management since Miami and I’ve not run really hard since ?December.

“It makes me so happy!!!

“I didn’t think I could run the 4mins into Taylor that I needed to win, but I did try 🤩 and it felt fantastic!!

“Of course this was an overload for my run legs (just 106km run in the last month) so I’ll take some extended recovery time from 🏃‍♀️ impact now (as usual tbh), but happy to be healthy AND to show high performance in the run.”

And with an eye on the hilly and technical nature of the bike course at the IMWC in Nice, Matthews described the varied nature of San Francisco as a “cyclist’s dream” which “had everything”.

“This course and race has made me VERY excited for IMWC Nice.”