Ironman Muncie 70.3 – The Endurance Tradition Continues
Muncie, Indiana continues to be one of the top venues for endurance sports featuring Prairie Creek Reservoir and its open water swimming with slow rolling hills for fast biking and running. This weekend is no different as Muncie hosted the Ironman Muncie 70.3 today, and Sunday will host the Muncie TOUGHKids Regional Triathlon competition at Tuhey Park.
For over 30 years, the Muncie Endurathon hosted many international and national championships. The largest multi-sport/endurance company in Indiana, Muncie Multi-Sport, is located in Muncie, Indiana and hosts a variety of run/walks, mini-marathons, aquabikes, duathlons, and triathlons of various distances.
On Saturday morning, the race continued its excellent tradition of providing a great venue, and terrific volunteer support which all combines to attract top competitors. Close to 1,700 athletes were registered for the event.
Unfortunately, the weather did not provide a break from its near record high temperatures for yet one more day. On Friday, Ironman officials announced that the 70.3 Muncie course would be shortened to a 1 mile swim, 30-mile bike, and a 10k run.
Our No. 1 priority is always athlete safety and a first-class athlete experience,” said Shane Facteau, Vice President of North American Operations for World Triathlon Corporation. “We never like to cancel or modify a race, but sometimes conditions beyond our control force us to do just that. After consultation with The National Weather Service, medical staff and city officials, the clear and only choice was to shorten the race. We want to thank all of our participants, volunteers and Muncie residents for their participation and continued support of this event.
The weather man promises a break in the weather overnight for the ToughKids race on Sunday. Temperatures are expected to be around 77 degrees for the 9:00am start time at Tuhey Park.
In the IronMan competition, professional athlete Greg Bennett (USA) was at the front for the entire race and was unstoppable once he reached the run course which is by far his strongest of the three triathlon disciplines. His overall time was sensational at slightly over 2 hours.
Kelly Williamson (USA) took the top spot for the pro women as she simply over-powered the rest of the women on the run course. She finished a full 4 minutes ahead of the women’s field with an overall time of 2 hours and 10 minutes.
Finishing times for the top ten men and women are listed below:
| Name | Country | Swim | Bike | Run | Finish | Div. Rank | Overall Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bennett, Greg | USA | 00:20:50 | 01:03:14 | 00:33:36 | 02:00:24 | 1 | 1 |
| Amberger, Joshua | AUS | 00:19:49 | 01:04:14 | 00:34:50 | 02:01:37 | 2 | 2 |
| Umphenour, Joe | USA | 00:20:47 | 01:04:43 | 00:34:18 | 02:02:44 | 3 | 3 |
| Hoffman, Ben | USA | 00:21:00 | 01:04:20 | 00:35:01 | 02:03:24 | 4 | 4 |
| Bretscher, Daniel | USA | 00:20:57 | 01:04:25 | 00:35:23 | 02:03:43 | 5 | 5 |
| Kemp, Christian | USA | 00:20:50 | 01:03:14 | 00:37:34 | 02:04:31 | 6 | 6 |
| Duff, James | USA | 00:20:55 | 01:04:29 | 00:37:48 | 02:06:17 | 7 | 7 |
| Allen, Rich | USA | 00:21:13 | 01:03:59 | 00:38:13 | 02:06:35 | 8 | 8 |
| Whistler, Ollie | AUS | 00:21:51 | 01:05:49 | 00:36:00 | 02:06:52 | 9 | 9 |
| Berkel, Tim | AUS | 00:21:57 | 01:05:45 | 00:36:28 | 02:07:23 | 10 | 10 |
| Name | Country | Swim | Bike | Run | Finish | Div. Rank | Overall Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Williamson, Kelly | USA | 00:21:37 | 01:10:35 | 00:35:48 | 02:10:53 | 1 | 15 |
| Swallow, jodie | GBR | 00:21:27 | 01:10:37 | 00:39:42 | 02:14:55 | 2 | 23 |
| Carfrae, Mirinda | USA | 00:23:24 | 01:11:15 | 00:37:33 | 02:15:33 | 3 | 26 |
| Lawn, joanna | NZL | 00:23:30 | 01:11:15 | 00:40:15 | 02:18:33 | 4 | 33 |
| Smith, Lesley | USA | 00:24:59 | 01:12:25 | 00:38:57 | 02:20:07 | 5 | 43 |
| Kuck, missy | USA | 00:22:46 | 01:10:21 | 00:44:23 | 02:21:02 | 6 | 47 |
| Clifford, Ashley | USA | 00:23:35 | 01:16:36 | 00:39:39 | 02:23:21 | 7 | 58 |
| Grant, Julia | NZL | 00:25:03 | 01:14:01 | 00:43:45 | 02:26:16 | 8 | 78 |
| Piampiano, Sarah | USA | 00:28:32 | 01:12:07 | 00:41:56 | 02:26:29 | 9 | 80 |
| Hutchins, Andrea | USA | 00:34:14 | 00:00:00 | 00:00:00 | 00:00:00 | – | – |
A special thank you goes out to all the volunteers who braved the excessive heat and supported the long tradition of providing suburb endurance races in Delaware County. Without the volunteers, the race doesn’t happen – it’s as simple as that.
Please come out tomorrow to support the Muncie TOUGHKids competition starting at 9:00am in Tuhey Park. The age groups are from 4-14 years of age. The kids will be competing in the following events/distances:
Ages 4 to 6: 25meter swim / 0.5mile bike / 100yard run
Ages 7 to 10: 100meter swim / 1.6mile bike / 0.5mile run
Ages 11 to 14: 200meter swim / 3.2mile bike / 1mile run
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