Alexander, Kessler rule EagleMan
Ironman World Champion Craig Alexander took the win at the 2012 EnduraFit Ironman 70.3 EagleMan, but his excellent time of 3:44:57 did not break the 3:44:07 course record of Tim DeBoom from 2002. Greg Bennett grabbed second place and defending champion TJ Tollakson finished third.
Meredith Kessler's race best splits in each segment gave her a huge advantage and thus the San Francisco resident stormed to a convincing win in Cambridge, MD.
The men
David Kahn was first out of the water in 22:49 and about 30 seconds behind him Mark Bowstead led a small group that contained Greg Bennett, Craig Alexander and Richie Cunningham into transition. TJ Tollakson though had lost over 90 seconds to the fast swimming Kahn.
Out on the bike though Tollakson made up that time and more and recorded a race best 2:02:30 bike split – improving his time from the previous year. Alexander though showed again that his cycling had improved greatly and the 3-time Ironman World Champion managed a speedy 2:03:57, allowing him to reach the bike-run transition right on the heels of Tollakson. Bennett also managed to stay sub 2:05 on the bike, but the rest of the competition had lost quite a bit of time.
Alexander soon took over the lead and took the win with a race best 1:15:07 run. Bennett ran 1:16:23 to take second place and Tollakson held on to third.
The women
Meredith Kessler led the women out of the water in 23:52 and only Dede Griesbauer had managed to stay reasonably close. Defending champion Mirinda Carfrae came out of the water about 3 minutes after Kessler and dropped out early during the bike, apparently not feeling well.
Kessler then really put on a show on the bike and her 2:19:00 bike split was best on the day by quite a big margin. Sarah Piampiano and Kristin Andrews were next best with times of 2:23:30 and 2:23:49 respectively, but they had lost more than 5 minutes to Kessler during the swim. Griesbauer's 2:24:41 allowed her to reach transition in second position, but she had not planned to do the run, so that left Margaret Shapiro in second place with her combined efforts of 25:32 and 2:24:56.
Kessler though had one of those days were everything was falling into place and the San Francisco resident closed out her day with a race best 1:26:28 run to take a dominating win in 4:12:40. Shapiro finished second about 10 minutes later and Andrews outran Piampiano to take the final podium spot in 4:26:56.
EnduraFit Ironman 70.3 EagleMan
Cambridge, MD, USA / June 10, 2012
1.9km swim / 90km bike / 21km run
Top men
1. Craig Alexander (AUS) 3:44:57
2. Greg Bennett (USA) 3:47:14
3. TJ Tollakson (USA) 3:48:52
4. Richie Cunningham (GBR) 3:56:29
5. James Bowstead (NZL) 4:00:29
6. David Kahn (USA) 4:03:24
7. Steve Johnson (USA) 4:03:47 * AG
8. Mike Gazinski (USA) 4:05:26 * AG
9. Christopher Thomas (USA) 4:06:30 * AG
10. Andrew Imrie (CAN) 4:07:02
Top women
1. Meredith Kessler (USA) 4:12:40
2. Margaret Shapiro (USA) 4:22:38
3. Kristin Andrews (USA) 4:26:56
4. Sarah Pampiano (USA) 4:30:39
5. Amber Ferreira (USA) 4:31:09
6. Heather Leiggi (USA) 4:36:03
7. Suzanne Serpico (USA) 4:36:22
8. Lauren Capone (USA) 4:37:22 * AG
9. Kim Schwabenbauer (USA) 4:39:44
10. Tyla Brown (USA) 4:42:28 * AG
