Cody Beals stayed patient, executed the plan and in the final six kilometers he ran to the win of Ironman Lake Placid (8:15:11 hours). In the women’s race, it was America’s Sarah True, who showed to be in great shape again after giving birth to her son a little more than one year ago. She ran to the victory in 9:00:22 hours.
Beals was already right in the mix after the swim part. Eight seconds behind Belgium’s Pamphiel Pereyn, he exited the water in fourth place. On the bike, Beals initially found a place in the front group, but about halfway through the bike part, America’s Justin Metzler took off on his own. Metzler ended up creating a one-minute gap to Austria’s Michael Weiss, who was in second place after the bike part. Pareyn racked his bike in third place (+3:05) and Beals followed in 4th place (+6:45).
On the run Beals slowly, but steadily narrowed that gap. After a half-marathon, he was running in third place, 5:45 minuts behind Metzler, who was still leading. Beals caught up with Weiss before the 25K point and then continued his chase towards Metzler. With approximately six km to go, Beals eventually flew by Metzler and sprinted towards the gold. Weiss moved up to second place (+1:52), Pareyn ran to third (+8:14) and Metzler dropped back to a fourth place (+12:16).
After the swim, True was in second place, 4:38 minute behind the leading lady: America’s Rachel Zilinskas. 100K into the bike part, True had managed to catch up with Zilinskas. During the second half, she created a big lead to her fastest chaser, which wasn’t Zilinskas anymore. True racked her bike about six minutes ahead of America’s Dede Griesbauer and America’s Heather Jackson, who were in second and third place at this point. True used the marathon to make her lead even bigger. It was soon clear that nobody was getting in between her and the victory anymore. More than 16 minutes ahead of the second-place finisher –Jackson – True broke the tape.
