In her victory speech at the 2009 Ironman world championship in Kona, Chrissie Wellington described her ambition to build a “platform for change” that enables her to translate her athletic accolades into positive humanitarian causes.

Judging from her performance in yesterday’s Ironman South Africa, Wellington’s “platform” is like a stainless steel structure built on bedrock and surrounded by a moat. Wellington’s race yesterday was not merely record-setting, it was record-crashing.

She hammered the field within minutes of exploding out of her swim-to-bike transition. Her 2h52 run split — yes, that’s a 2-hour 52-minute marathon after swimming almost 4km and cycling 180km — proved faster than every other man, woman, and dog.

Not only did Wellington’s 8h33 overall time become the new course record, it represented the fastest woman’s Ironman time ever.