Sub7 Sub8 Challenge: Hi-tech goggles, banked turns & true grit

Matthews finished second on her Ironman World Championships debut in Utah last month

"It is a 'cringe' question, and I guess I have a 'cringe' answer," says Kat Matthews.

She has just been asked what it would feel like to cross the finish line on Sunday and see her time displayed with a seven still at the start.

No woman has ever raced an Ironman-distance triathlon in under eight hours.

But arguably none has had a better chance that Britain's Matthews this weekend.

The Sub 8 Challenge will combine a flat, fast course with bleeding-edge technology and top data minds to give Matthews and Swiss rival Nicola Spirig the best shot at smashing the eight-hour barrier.

On the same day, Ironman world champion and Olympic gold medallist Kristian Blummenfelt and Britain's Joe Skipper - a late replacement for Alistair Brownlee - will attempt to become the first men to beat seven hours for the same distance.

"It is about challenging our performance boundaries as a collective," Matthews tells BBC Sport. "Not just for me, but for the whole sport and anyone coming through.

"We are trying to break down these barriers and find out what is physically possible. It will give me a new expectation on what it is to race on the limit."

In 2019, the team behind the Ineos 1:59 Challenge picked the Austrian capital of Vienna and a looped course with minimal, gentle curves, a slight camber and protection from the wind to propel Kenyan great Eliud Kipchoge to a sub-two hour marathon.

The Sub7 Sub8 Challenge is similarly steamlined.

The 2.4-mile swim will take place in 1,300-hectare Lake Senftenberg to allow a straight point-to-point swim, without the need to waste time rounding buoys.

The 112-mile bike leg will include 27 laps of the Lausitzring, with its banked turns, where some of the world's top motor racing teams come to test.

The marathon will take the triathletes around the same smooth, flat tarmac, shielded from any breeze by circuit-side trees.

Each of the four participants will be accompanied by pacemakers and science-heavy support teams.

Sarah-Jane Walker and India Lee will have Matthews behind them on the swim leg, while in front of them, courtesy of high-tech goggles, are live, in-vision stats on how fast they are going.

Matthews will be wearing a specially tailored wetsuit, with the thickness of each neoprene panel designed to compliment her individual swim style.

On the bike, Matthews' pace-making team will be calibrated to maximise their aerodynamism and power output and minimise her own effort. They will be linked by radios to allow for tactical tweaks based on data analysed in a nearby team car.

The banked turns of the Lausitzring are a key benefit of the course

On the run, Matthews will be clad in a yet-to-be-released Asics shoes which harnesses the latest in carbon-plate trainer technology.

However, by that point in the challenge, Matthews says she will also banking on something less tangible, if just as important.

Among the run team is Nerys Jones.

Unlike many of the other pacemakers, Jones is not a professional triathlete. Instead she is a serving soldier, part of the Army's Physical Training Corps.

In April, she was part of a relay team that walked the 813 miles from Land's End to John O'Groats in less than four days.

Matthews, who has her own background in the army is relishing her mental and emotional support on the leg where drafting is of least importance.

"The run is more about the morale for me," she said.

"It is about having people around me who keep the mood high and the psychological effort of it very low, because the cycle is going to be so concentration heavy.

"With Nerys, there is an army camaraderie which I love. Having her come and do this with me, it is heart-warming."

There are allies, but there is also a twin enemy to overcome.

Matthews knows she must beat both the clock and Spirig to claim a place in history.

"I wouldn't be satisfied to beat Nicola and not go sub eight. And I wouldn't be satisfied to go sub eight and come second to Nicola," Matthews added.

"For me it is the combined, I want to win."

Come Sunday afternoon's finish line, if Matthews sees zero people ahead of her and a seven on the timing board above her, it'll add up to a landmark victory for her and her team.