We Noticed: Big Sugar to Decide Life Time Grand Prix, Backyard Ultra Worlds, Cody Beals Retires and More

The Life Time Grand Prix Series finishes up tomorrow in Bentonville, Arkansas with the Life Time Big Sugar Gravel race. There are five men and five women who remain in contention for the overall titles, which means there should be some exciting racing on tap for tomorrow’s 101.8-mile gravel race.

In the men’s race three-time Grand Prix champ Keegan Swenson leads the way with 110 points, but Bradyn Lange is only four points behind and Brendan Johnston sits another four points back. In the women’s standings, another three-time series champion, Sofia Gomez Villafañe, sits 13-points up on Cecily Decker, and there are only nine points separating second through fifth, which means Lauren Stephens, Hayley Preen and Karolina Migoń all remain in the hunt.

Saturday’s course includes 6,400 feet of climbing through the Ozark Mountains. Live coverage will begin at 7:10am CDT on the Life Time Grand Prix YouTube channel. 

UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup, Western Australia

One of the reasons things have become so close in the Life Time men’s standings is because series leader Keegan Swenson was in Australia at the UCI Gravel World Championships. Held in Nannup, Western Australia (near Busselton, where IRONMAN Western Australia takes place), it was the first time the event has been held outside Europe.

Denmark’s Magnus Bak Klaris took the men’s race ahead of Florian Vermeersch (BEL) and Connor Swift (GBR) in a four-man sprint for gold. Swenson would take sixth, seven seconds back.

The women’s race saw Marianne Vos (NED) take her second gravel world title after attacking with 3.5 km to go, pulling clear of Rosa Klöser (GER), who crashed shortly afterwards, but was able to hang tough for second. Third went to Vos’s countrywoman Larissa Hartog.

Elite men (Oct. 11, about 144 km)

Elite women (Oct. 10, 125.6 km)

Lill and Paton Take Life Time Little Sugar MTB

South Africa’s Candice Lill managed to pull well clear of the rest of the field at last weekend’s Little Sugar MTB race ahead of Melisa Rollins and Hannah Otto. On the men’s side, US MTB XC national champion Cole Paton soloed away from the lead group roughly 40 miles in to the race to take the men’s title ahead of Bradyn Lange and Andreas Seewald. Lange’s big finish moved him into contention for the overall Life Time Series title.

Cody Beals Retires

Canadian Cody Beals retired from professional racing this week, ending a 13-year career with 12 pro wins and over 30 podium finishes. Beals made his mark in his first IRONMAN race, besting Lionel Sanders to win IRONMAN Mont-Tremblant in 2018. He would then win IRONMAN Chattanooga a few weeks later before defending his Mont-Tremblant title a year later.

Beals spent much of 2023 and 2024 sick, although he did show glimpses of his previous form, including a runner-up finish by just 20 seconds at IRONMAN Chattanooga to Sam Long.

Beals, who described himself as one of the few openly gay professional triathletes, credits triathlon with helping him face many issues:

“Off the course, triathlon helped me reinvent myself, purge angst, and gain confidence in who I am and who I want to be,” he wrote on Instagram. “It began as a way to outrun challenges like compulsiveness, self-isolation, disordered eating, perfectionism and coming out. But the sport eventually helped me face them. There’s no hiding from yourself in the depths of a training block and in the lonely back half of an IRONMAN.”

Backyard Ultra World Team Championships Start Saturday

This weekend the world’s premier backyard runners will compete at the World Team Championships. The US team will line up at Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, with national teams running at satellite sites around the world.

For those not familiar with “Backyard Ultra” racing, it’s a last-one-standing race where athletes cover a 4.167-mile (6.7056 km) loop every hour. (The distance was picked so that athletes will cover roughly 100 miles in a 24-hour period.) If you finish the loop in less than an hour, you get to rest before starting the next lap. If you miss the cut off, or don’t start the next lap, you’re out. The race ends when an athlete finishes a lap alone.

The team championship format sees national teams of 15 runners compete at the different satellite sites – the country with the most total loops wins. Each athlete is also competing for their country’s individual national championship, too.

The first team championship took place in 2020, which was won by Belgium, with the USA taking second and Mexico third. The team championship alternates every year with the individual world championship. Here’s a breakdown of the top-three from the first three editions of the event:

Racing begins at 7 am Central (8 am Eastern). You can follow the action on the Backyard Ultra Channel.

Kipruto and Feysa take Chicago Marathon

We’re in fall marathon season, and last weekend’s Chicago Marathon once again featured some speedy times as Kenya’s Amos Kipruto took the men’s race in 2:01:09, moving up a spot on the podium from last year. Kipruto and Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo were running stride for stride at 20 miles, but the Kenyan would pull clear to take the win at Kiplimo faded and would finish fourth. Ethiopia’s Tadese Bikila (2:02:56) took second, with Milkesa Mengesha (2:03:46) rounding out the podium.

In the women’s race Ethiopia’s Hawi Feysa defended her title in 2:13:33, knocking off more than a minute from her winning time last year. Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi took second in 2:14:07, with her countrywoman Brigid Kosgei (a former world-record holder and Chicago champ in 2018 and 2019) taking third in 2:14:55. According to World Athletics, it was the first time the first three women finished a marathon in under 2:15.

In the wheelchair event Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner set a world record of 1:33:16, while Marcel Hug (1:21:34 – a new course record) took his fifth straight Chicago title. (He’s won seven in total.)

This was the 48th running of the Chicago Marathon, with more than 54,000 participants.

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