Foley Attacks on the Run to Become IRONMAN 70.3 North American Champion
Happy Valley, Pennsylvania, was the new host of the North American Championships. Fifty-nine men registered to battle for the title, and it wasn’t long before a strong American trio of Morgan Pearson, Marc Dubrick and Ben Kanute went to the front of the calm, non-wetsuit swim, gapping the rest of the field early.
Pearson, an Olympian who is also looking to qualify for LA 2028, was first out of the water in 23:17, with the other two hot on his heels. Forty-six seconds back the rest of the pack started to trickle in. Notably, fan favourites Mathew Marquardt and Jason West were about a minute behind; Trevor Foley and Matt Hanson (wearing bib one as the highest-ranked Pro Series athlete) were around 2:30 back; and Sam Long hit T1 just over three minutes behind.
Marquardt Leads As Long Powers Through
In the early kilometres, Pearson seemed to be having an issue with his bike (he would eventually continue and finish eleventh), leaving the door open for Kanute to take the early lead. Marquardt and West also made their way to the front but, living up to his reputation, it was Long who stole the early show. Laying down incredible power, he rode himself from 29th to fifth within the first 20 km. Foley and Rasmus Svenningsson did the same and, by the halfway point, Marquardt and Kanute were out front with Long, Dubrick, West, Foley, Svenningsson and Justin Riele in the front chase pack.
At the 60 km mark, Kanute started to struggle in the rolling hills. It was the opposite story for the chase pack, which took full advantage of the challenging terrain. Kanute slipped through the group, sitting just ahead of West, who had also fallen two minutes off the back of the group.
Marquardt, a full-time medical student, started to show signs of fatigue being out front alone for so long and, although he was first into T2 with a bike split of 2:04:28, the chase pack was only 22 seconds behind.
All Together in T2
The second transition was exciting, with all the top contenders coming together. It was fast and furious, especially for a zoned-in Long, who skipped socks to save extra seconds (apparently he was always planning this as no socks were seen in his transition box). Marquardt was first out of T2 but, making a clear statement, Long chased, caught, and passed him within the opening moments of the run.
Marquardt tried to stay within striking distance, but was soon passed by Foley, who was also on the hunt.
With 14 km to go, Foley made the pass on Long, but coupled it with a fist bump. The two ran shoulder to shoulder, swapping the lead in a great run battle. Hitting a small incline with 5 km to go, Foley took advantage of a gap to make a decisive attack. Long couldn’t respond, and It seemed like every second of advantage made Foley faster.
The fastest man on course with the win in his sights. Foley would clock a 1:09:50 half marathon to become the IRONMAN 70.3 North American champion.
Long, 70 seconds back, took second with a smile. West, who put together an impressive run from seventh, rounded out the podium.
Marquardt, who took a tumble on the run, looked absolutely spent in fourth after an impressive and aggressive race.
“I got a really nice second wind with 5km to go so I (thought) I’m going to just put my foot to the floor and just see what happens,” Foley, who won IRONMAN New Zealand to start his season, explained after the race. “I feel amazing, just on an absolute heater this year. When you start winning, you carry this momentum…I have a lot of really good momentum right now.”
| POS | ATHLETE | COUNTRY | SWIM | BIKE | RUN | OVERALL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trevor Foley | United States | 25:42 | 2:03:26 | 1:09:50 | 3:42:25 |
| 2 | Sam Long | United States | 26:23 | 2:02:57 | 1:11:14 | 3:43:35 |
| 3 | Jason West | United States | 24:20 | 2:06:57 | 1:10:11 | 3:44:38 |
| 4 | Matthew Marquardt | United States | 24:14 | 2:04:28 | 1:13:54 | 3:46:02 |
| 5 | Marc Dubrick | United States | 23:19 | 2:06:12 | 1:14:15 | 3:47:02 |
| 6 | Rasmus Svenningsson | Sweden | 25:47 | 2:03:12 | 1:15:45 | 3:48:32 |
| 7 | Blake Harris | Canada | 24:59 | 2:09:28 | 1:10:57 | 3:48:52 |
| 8 | Luke Jones | United States | 24:51 | 2:07:37 | 1:13:34 | 3:49:49 |
| 9 | Justin Riele | United States | 24:57 | 2:04:07 | 1:17:18 | 3:50:10 |
| 10 | Ben Kanute | United States | 23:17 | 2:07:06 | 1:18:25 | 3:52:03 |
Florida man gets the job done again. I know he wants the Pro series cash (understandably so) but I’d so much rather see him turn in his best performance for one day in Kona.
He’s probaly still 1-2 years away from affording that type of “focus” on 1 day Kona. I’d almost do the opposite, just keep plugging along and just show up to Kona in the best fitness possible but without this “focused” goal.
There’s a reason you’re a coach and I’m just a fan!
Just a few years ago, Ben Kanute biked 2:01 in St George and ran 1:11. I’m not comparing the bike and courses between the two races just pointing out at the hard StG bike and hilly run, he still had great legs.
What’s up Ben?
I’d guess it’s just he figures why run 5 minutes faster to get in a battle for 8th. But it’s so frustrating to see him have all the pieces and fade to the back so often.
For a guy who hasn’t won a race in 5 years he was sure talking himself up before this one. A “winning mindset” and a winning performances are two very different things.
Yup, keep chipping away on his swim deficit so he can consistently make the second pack. He’s made real progress the last couple of years.
Shots fired by Trevor at the “informed” Tri pundits.
It’s been the same story for a while now. He is sort of right there until half way though the bike and then just gets shuffled backwards
So do we know what Trevor’s rest of the season schedule is? I mean two perfect scores in the series now, even if just doing Kona with two more half’s, he should be in for some pretty decent money at the end. Of course assumes he has a decent Kona race, it really is too bad we didn’t get to see him run and how that last couple hours suits him..
He said in the post race interview that he’s doing Lake Placid and then focus on the WCs. Not sure if that includes an insurance 70.3 or not.
Thanks, and quite smart to plan for 3 fulls for your final score, and the two WC’s. I mean if Blu screws up and has another really bad day, someone else has to win, right??
I think my plan is IMLP & then maybe a quick double at 70.3 Boise. (Will just try to hobble around the course and secure 2,000 points or so) If I’m absolutely destroyed I’ll race 70.3 Zell em see as my 2nd 70.3 score for the series. Then obviously end the szn in Kona. That’ll be 5x races/pro series races on the szn!
Haha yeah, I beat myself on this so often. But judging on how I was riding/running that szn and where Wurfy finished I think it would’ve been a solid first outing on the big island. But obviously who knows entirely.
Depth of fields even for US based races is only getting stronger now. It’s probably taking more to win even the US based races even without world class international talent.
That’s a smart schedule, getting a back up race could be worth 10’s of thousands in the end. It also gives you some peace of mind going into those big WC’s at the end, you can pull the plug if you are really hurting yourself and still claim a nice end of year payday..
And unfortunately you will still be a Kona rookie going in this year. If you had done at least 10 miles of the run you would have so much information to plan on, but having no miles basically means rookie again. Although having done the whole ride quite hard and fast is a pretty good data point, and only you being honest with yourself as to how you felt when you hit the pavement, is going to provide some kind of point to think on during this years race. But even then, if you felt crap, look at what Ditlev did thinking he would jog a bit and probably pull out at 10k that year he got 2nd. that’s of course why you need some of the run to really see what your body will do under the bright lights with the oven door open in your face… Looking forward to watching how you handle the rest of the season, you are in a great spot for now…