| It was a day of multiple broken records during a race that had some interesting upsets and surprises.The day started off with cool temps, clear skies and cooler water - 64 degrees to be exact - and that led to some fast times today. The pros enjoyed their usual pre-dawn early start 10 minutes ahead of the rest of the 2200 deep field. Very soon off the gun, Kieren Doe and Mark Van Akkeren set the pace in the water, but by the swim exit, it was Doe and Clearwater runner-up Andreas Raelert sprinting for the finish. Doe edged out Raelert and set a new course record of 46:02; Raelert was just 8 seconds back.First out of T1 was Brian Lavelle, but by mile 7 Doe was leading, followed by Francisco Pontano and Raelert; Chris Lieto was about 3 minutes back at this point. Doe continued to pull away from the men's field with the exception of Lieto who was quietly picking up places behind him. By mile 49 Lieto was in second at 1:40 back, with Raelert in third and Jordan Rapp (3rd in April's IMAZ) in 4th. Doe and Lieto would trade the lead back and forth for much of the bike. The two co-led into T2 with Rapp in 3rd 2 minutes behind. Rapp had the fastest bike time of 4:26:12; he, Doe and Lieto all broke the previous course record of 4:29:47. By T2 Raelert had dropped back to 6th...but his race was far from over.Leading out of T2 was Doe, but Lieto quickly passed him for the lead. Within a few miles Rapp also passed Doe for second and would begin working his way closer to Lieto. As it turns out, Doe was dealing with some plantar fasciitis issues and would end up chucking his race flats at mile 8 to continue running in just his socks (embodying a popular acronym used by many triathletes about hardening up when things get tough ;)).Back to the race! By mile 10 Rapp passed Lieto for the lead, but Lieto kept him in sight never getting further than 30 seconds behind him. Little did they know a German train was steaming towards them on a 2:46 marathon pace. Doe continued to hold his place running barefoot until mile 14 when Raelert passed him. At this point they were 4 minutes off Rapp's lead, but that lead would quickly diminish. Lieto continued shadowing Rapp, perhaps biding his time to make the move to first, but those plans were derailed when Raelert blew by them both before mile 20. Neither Rapp nor Lieto could match his pace and the gap from first continued to grow. Raelert crossed the line in 8:14:16, breaking Michael Lovato's record. Having made some moves in the last miles, Lieto crossed 2nd in 8:19:25 and Rapp rounded out the podium at 8:19:45 - all three broke Lovato's record today.As a side note, Doe never quit his race and ended up finishing in 22nd place, after running 18 miles in his socks.The WomenNo less surprising was the women's race today. Predictably leading the field out of the water was Joanna Zeiger, breaking her own record (48:57) with her 46:17 effort today. Leanda Cave was 2nd out of the water in 48:13.
Coming out of T1, Cave had a fast transition but Zeiger was already 1:30 ahead of her on the bike course - and her gap would just continue to grow. The rest of the women behind Cave were at least 5 minutes back. Through the entire bike, Zeiger pulled further away and looked like she'd be untouchable today.
By T2, Zeiger had a comfortable cushion of 6:24 over the next woman, Sweden's Tove Wiklund. Cave was third at +8:10 and Heleen Bij De Vaate was 5th at over 17 minutes back. No one would have guessed the outcome of today's race at this stage in the game!
Out of T2, Zeiger continued to pull away from the other girls - odds were good that she'd have a gun-to-finish win in the bag. In the first few miles, Zeiger increased her lead over Wiklund to 8 minutes while Cave was 9:30 back. However, things began to fall apart when Zeiger pulled off to the side to vomit at the 6.5 point. She did her business and started up running as quickly as before, but eventually her performance would crumble. In the meantime, Cave passed Wiklund and was now running in second. As Zeiger's once fleet run now turned into a walk, Cave quickly diminished the gap. Zeiger ended up dropping out, and just like that the race was no longer a foregone conclusion. Now Cave was out front.
However, Cave's lead would be short-lived; similarly to the men's race, an unexpected steam train was blowing her way through the rest of the women's field. Bij De Vaat was quietly picking off the women ahead of her, as well as Italy's Edith Niederfriniger (a sub-9 hour IM finisher). By mile 20, Bij De Vaate took the lead from Cave and ran away for the win in 9:21:06. Cave maintained a comfortable cushion with a second place finish in 9:25:07, and Niederfriniger claimed third in 9:28:09.
Ford Ironman Arizona
Tempe, AZ
November 23, 2008
Professional Men
1. ANDREAS RAELERT 8:14:16
2. CHRIS LIETO 8:19:25
3. JORDAN RAPP 8:19:45
4. JOZSEF MAJOR 8:21:34
5. JAN RAPHAEL 8:23:03
6. BEN HOFFMAN 8:24:13
7. PAUL AMEY 8:27:20
8. PETR VABROUSEK 8:28:09
9. FREDERIK VAN LIERDE 8:28:09
10. CHRIS BROWN 8:39:18
Professional Women.
HELEEN BIJ DE VAATE 9:21:06
2. LEANDA CAVE 9:25:07
3. EDITH NIEDERFRINIGER 9:28:09
4. KIM LOEFFLER 9:33:54
5. TOVE WIKLUND 9:44:44
6. HALEY COOPER 9:45:59
7. ANA LIDIA BORBA 9:48:03
8. CAMILLA LINDHOLM 9:50:23
9. IMKE SCHIERSCH 9:53:14
10. CHRISTINE FLETCHER 9:58:55 |
