Bradley Weiss Wins Ironman 70.3 Maine
Bradley Weiss of South Africa combined a 5th-best 23:19 swim, 3rd-fastest 1:56:48 bike split and 2nd-fastest 1:09:01 run to finish in 3:32:56 with a 1:05 margin over Marc Dubrick of the U.S. and 1:23 over third place finisher Andre Lopes of Brazil.
Race recap
Marc Dubrick led a very competitive swim with a 22:58 split that gave him 7 seconds lead on Martin Ulloa of Chile, 13 seconds on Andrew Kelly of the U.S., 19 seconds on Dylan Gillespie of the U.S., and 21 seconds on Bradley Weiss of South Africa and Joe Gambles of Australia.
Dylan Gillespie of Montana forged a 5 seconds lead on the bike after a 4th-best 1:56:51 split that gave him a 5 seconds lead on Weiss, 13 seconds on Taylor Reid of New Zealand, 14 seconds on Martin Ulloa of Chile, 17 seconds on Joe Gambles of Australia and 18 seconds on Elliot Bach of the U.S.
Once the run started, Weiss quickly erased his deficit and surged ahead to a second-best 1:09:01 half marathon, that brought him to the line in 3:32:56 with a 1:05 margin on Marc Dubrick of the U.S. (1:10:01 run) and 1:22 on third place finisher Andre Lopes of Brazil (1:10:15 run split). Matt McWilliams ran 1:08:28 – the day’s fastest – on his way to 8th place.
While the swim times were quick but not incredible, the bike and run splits begged for a little course re-measuring. The top nine bike splits ranged from 1:56:27 to 1:57: 13. The run splits were equally eyebrow-raising. The top seven half marathons ranged from 1:08:28 for 8th place Matt McWilliams to 1:11:25 for 9th place Cody Beals. The top eight overall finish times ranged from 3:32:56 for Weiss to 3:39:42 for 8th place McWilliams. (Editor's Note: the bike course measures slightly more than 54 miles, whereas the run course comes in at approximately 12.75 miles).
No harm done, but anyone looking for a half Ironman PR need look no further than Old Orchard Beach.
