By Bill Plock
After 70.3 miles of racing, less than 75 yards separated 1st from 2nd place in the men’s pro race.
At the awards ceremony, men’s winner Chris Leiferman thanked fellow competitor Tyler Butterfield for pushing him–Leiferman won by eight seconds! Leiferman knew Butterfield was close behind when the crowds errupted behind him as Butterfield was closing the gap. But Leiferman prevailed to take first place with a time of 3:44:32. The rest of the field included Kennett Peterson, 3rd, Andy Potts, 4th, Josh Armberger (Aus) 5th and Ben Hoffman 6th. Only Jos Armberger doesn’t reside in Colorado, quite the day for the Coloradans!
The women’s race was won by Skye Moench with a time of 4:09. She came off a recent victory in the full in Frankfurt Germany and Boulder was her first 70.3 win. In second place was Boulder’s Lesley Smith, followed by Meredith Kessler(USA) , Luiza Cravo (Brazil), Romina Palacio (Argentina) and Rachel Olson (USA).
Of the 2,200 amateurs who started the race, Matt McWilliams was the fastest male with a 3:58 time and Alina Henschke Busch for women at 4:28. As temperatures soared into high 90’s the last athletes came in around 4:30
In a fun side story, the Miami Tri Club brought 50 athletes to race, but more importantly to be witnesses to the club manager, Andy Clark marrying Stephanie Reinhold at the finish line after all the athletes were in–and having raced themselves. Andy’s sister in-law, Nicole Clark works for IRONMAN in Louisville. She and her husband, Nick (Andy’s twin brother) raced as well. It’s all one big happy family in the Triathlon World!! Congrats to the Clark family!
All the results of yesterdays race can be found HERE
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