Carfrae, Butterfield Run Down the Competition
IRONMAN 70.3 Timberman excites every year since it acts as the final tune-up race before Kona for many athletes. And others are simply there to do what they do best…race fast!
Boulder’s Mirinda Carfrae and Tyler Butterfield, who will be among Kona’s top contenders this October, showed their fitness and foot speed as they both took home wins this past weekend in New Hampshire.
Carfrae started her day off with a solid swim of 28:20. But she exited the water in seventh place with some ground to make up on the field. She wasted no time as she hit the bike course and began chasing then leader, Magali Tisseyre, who dominated the entire 56-mile bike course.
Carfrae made a dent in the field and came off the bike in second place thanks to her 2:26:32 bike split. Only Tisseyre stood in the way of Carfrae and the top of the podium and, as expected, Carfrae turned on her running jets and ran herself to the win with the fastest run split of the day, 1:24:30.
Carfrae’s winning time of 4:22:22 was only 20 seconds faster than runner-up Tisseyre’s time of 4:42:22. Rounding out the podium was Jennifer Spieldenner in a time of 4:25:56.
Boulder-trainee Lucita Poblete turned in a solid showing with an overall time of 4:42:26, earning her 12th place on the day.
In the men’s race, Boulder’s Tim O’Donnell exited in the water just seconds back from the leader in 23:58 and quickly began to push the pace on the bike. With strong cyclists like Michael Weiss and Tyler Butterfield in the mix, O’Donnell decided to put down the hammer, building himself a two-minute cushion early on the bike. Weiss, Butterfield, and Leon Griffin remained close in the chase group, which became the lead group when, unfortunately, O’Donnell had to stop and deal with a flat tire.
It didn’t take Butterfield long after slipping on his running shoes to catch the then-leader Weiss and take over for the remainder of the race. Butterfield posted the second fastest run split of the day, 1:16:51, which helped propel him to the finish line in a winning time of 3:48:04.
Weiss stayed strong and finished second on the day, 3:49:22, while American Chris Baird rounded out the podium in 3:54:06.
O’Donnell never threw in the towel and, after patching up his tire, hit the ground running to capture fourth, 3:56:06. Rounding out the top ten was Griffin, who finished in 4:04:03.
