This week, Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong announced his ambitions to race the Ironman World Championships in October, 2012, and his plan to get there. His will race the Ironman Panama 70.3 event on Sunday, followed by the Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas, Ironman 70.3 Florida, Ironman 70.3 Hawaii and Ironman France in an attempt to pick up enough qualifying points to race the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.
The 40-year-old Texan is no stranger to triathlon, having won the US Sprint Triathlon series over 20 years ago, and placing 5th at the XTERRA Triathlon National Championships last year (and 23rd at Worlds, after crashing and suffering a head injury). Craig Alexander, the defending 3-time Ironman world champion and two-time Ironman 70.3 champion, welcomed Armstrong to the sport:
"It is exciting to see Lance Armstrong, one of the greatest-ever endurance athletes, coming back to race triathlons in 2012."He's going to rip it up!
[Update - Lance made a helluva debut at Ironman Panama, getting 2nd overall in 3:53, just 40+ seconds behind winner Bevan Dougherty. His swim split was right in there, and his 2:10 bike split was second only to Chris Lieto, whom he passed in the run to lead the race for a short period before Bevan caught him with a screaming 1:12 half marathon (vs. Lance's 1:17). Lance later said, "There was a time I was a great runner and I need to get back in touch with that. [Bevan] can run low 30's in the 10k...there's no way my old ass is keeping up with that."]
- SD
Scott:
ReplyDeleteSorry to go off-topic and post this query as a comment on the blog post, but I don't have your email. This is Sam McManis, reporter for the Sacramento Bee. I write a monthly trail feature and wanted to feature Woodside this time. Can you please send me your contact info, at smcmanis@sacbee.com, so I can fire off a couple of quick Huddart questions to you? I'd appreciate your insights.
Thanks,
Sam
I think it's great that he's branching out (I'm a long-time exerciser but new to trail running, by the way), he's a warrior. Didn't he have a rough time in his first marathon, though.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Jonathan Aluzas
It's good to hear Lance Armstrong is aiming for Ironman this 2012. Not bad on his first marathon.
ReplyDeleteHello there, simply become alert to your weblog thru Google, and fosbobetund that it’s really informative. I’m gonna watch out for brussels
ReplyDeleteHi Scott!
ReplyDeleteI Happened to stumble on your blog as I was searching for ironmans and trail running. So this is not really related to your blog today (although very interesting to read as i am anxious to see how Lance will do!)
Wondering if you could shoot me an email ... You seem to be in the loop for trail running and stuff... Im wondering if theres any ironman that has a trail run instead of running the marathon distance on concreat... ??
Thanks much!
Janine
Crossfitbathurst@gmail.com
Gosh, I don't know of an offroad Ironman.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Lance took 7th at the Hermann 70.3 in Texas in 3:53. Seems fast to me, but he didn't seem too happy with the result.
Dont you find that strange!! It would be so awesome! I should organize one:p
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