LAKE STEVENS – What were you doing at 6:30 Sunday morning?
While many of us were doing our best to sleep in or looking over our Sunday newspaper, nearly 1,200 triathletes were diving into the waters of Lake Stevens.
The reason: To finish the 2007 Barclays North Ironman 70.3 Triathlon at Lake Stevens.
The Lake Stevens triathlon is a Half Ironman race with a total distance of 70.3 miles. Athletes swam 1.2 miles, transitioned to their bikes and rode 56 miles before finishing the race by running 13.1 miles.
The Lake Stevens event is one of just ten 70.3 Ironman races in the United States and the only one in the Pacific Northwest.
The event is also one of just 22 qualifiers in the world and is part of the Triathlon World Championship series, which means participants were vying for 75 slots to the 2007 Ford 70.3 Ironman World Championships, which will be held in Clearwater, Fla., in November.
Also on the line was $30,000 in prize money.
Grabbing $5,000 each from that $30,000 purse were Australians Chris Legh, who won the men’s title and Rebekah Keat, who finished first among the women participants.
Legh finished in a course record time of 3 hours, 56 minutes and 26 seconds, just a few seconds ahead of a couple of other lads from down under, Paul Matthews and Luke Mckenzie.
“It’s pretty rare for a Half Ironman to finish that close,” Legh, a 17-year triathlon veteran said, “It makes for a tough race. You’ve been racing for four hours and to have that gap, you’ve got to keep the pressure on.”
Legh was ninth after the swimming portion of the race but quickly moved up the standings after a strong showing on the bike and on foot.
Matthews tried to close the gap towards the end, finishing with the fastest time on foot, but it wasn’t enough to catch his fellow countryman.
“It’s funny traveling the world and bumping into each other,” said Legh, who says he does about 15 triathlons a year.
“We race each other quite a bit. They’re the young guys coming up and I’ve got to be careful,” the 35-year-old winner said of his two younger competitors, Matthews (24) and Mckenzie (26).
Josh Fountain, a Lake Stevens High School grad and current University of Washington freshman, had a strong outing in the men’s age 20-24 group.
Fountain, who is not only a member of the Husky’s Triathlon club but also the president, bested his 2006 finish by 43 minutes finishing in 4 hours, 37 minutes and 40 seconds.
“I did awesome. The first time I was at 5:45, then 5:20 and now 4:37,” the 19-year-old said.
All that despite running in his racing flats and not his regular trainers.
“My feet are killing me,” Fountain said after the race, “I felt every rock in the road.”
After the race Fountain was flanked by family and friends who came to cheer him on and motivate him to his personal best time.
“It’s gorgeous. I love running here. I had all my friends here cheering me on, it was great. You don’t get that on other courses,” Fountain said.
Gorgeous, beautiful and challenging were just some of the adjectives used to describe the Lake Stevens course.
The consensus with most of the runners was that it was a chellenging race held on a gorgeous day.
“It’s nice to have a lake that’s so clear and clean, and that’s one of the best bike courses I’ve raced on,” Legh said.
Blake Becker, who didn’t come as far as Legh, but still logged quite a bit of miles coming from Wisconsin, thought the race was “very nice, with some hills to break it up and get (the race) out of the rhythm.”
Seattle’s Jake Bartholomy, who races about four to seven triathlons a year and finished No. 1 in the men’s age 30-34 group thought the weather played perfectly for the athletes.
“The water was nice, the clouds held up so we weren’t staring right into the sun. It was very pleasant, we really lucked out,” Bartholomy said.
To find out how the rest of the triathletes finished log-on to the Barclays North Ironman website at www.lakestevens703.com.
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