A familiar feel to pro finish at Ironman
For all the work and training that triathletes put in, it might make things a little easier to have some close friends doing the same thing.
Nothing was easy in last Sunday’s Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene.
Three friends currently residing in Boulder, Colo., really made that clear.
IN CASE you missed it, Tim Reed, Sam Appleton and Josh Amberger — all from Australia and training in Boulder — claimed the top three spots respectively in the professional race.
“It’s great,” Appleton said, shortly after finishing. “We’re all really great friends. After the race, we’ll go get dinner and beers together. But on the track, it’s all business. We’ve got a great respect for each other. Tim ran a really good race today, and I rode with Josh on the bike. Tim had a great run and got away from me coming down the last stretch.”
Reed won in 3 hours, 47 minutes and 53 seconds. Appleton, in his first Ironman in Coeur d’Alene, was second in 3 hours, 48 minutes and 8 seconds.
“Honestly, I was blown away by the setting here,” Appleton said. “This was one of my favorite courses I’ve ever done. I’ll definitely be back here next year.”
For Reed, who was third after the 56-mile bike portion of the race, caught Appleton on the run for the win.
“To be honest, the key for me today was the bike,” Reed said. “I knew I couldn’t lose a lot of time to them because they’re really good. I was just happy to get my bike legs going.”
ON SUNDAY, as the race was building toward its conclusion, the announcer made it a point to mention that this could have been the most talented professional field they’ve had here.
And sure, they say that every year — could be in the contract — but they weren’t wrong.
In the pro race, the men’s top 10, from Reed to 10th-place finisher Ernest Mantell (3 hours, 59 minutes and 37 seconds) of Tempe, Ariz., were separated by a little under 12 minutes.
The women’s pro race, from Heather Jackson (4 hours, 12 minutes and 58 seconds) of Bend, Ore., to 10th-place finisher Maggie Rusch (4 hours, 47 minutes and 55 seconds) of Asheville, N.C., was a little under 35 minutes. Jackson won Ironman Coeur d’Alene in 2015, one of the last full races before the event was cut to the 70.3 in 2017.
Last year’s men’s champion Matt Hanson of Storm Lake, Iowa, was fifth and Haley Chura of Bozeman, Mont. — going for a third straight title in Coeur d’Alene — was fifth in the women’s race.
BUT WHEN it comes to strategy, whether it be eating right, getting plenty of sleep or training constantly, Reed added that it really wasn’t any of those keys that led him to a title in Coeur d’Alene.
“I’d been on a bit of a break heading into this race,” Reed said. “Sometimes when you get a break, you come back fresh physically and mentally. Today, I was able to do that. Now, I can get back into training properly. Then again, maybe I should stop training and start relaxing more.”
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.