Craig Alexander wins Ironman Coeur d’Alene
Craig Alexander secured an unexpected win at the Ironman Coeur d’Alene over the weekend, in the quickest time there has ever been in the nine-year-old event.
Craig pulled out a course record of 8 hours, 19 minutes, 48 seconds, almost 4 minutes faster than the previous best.
“I was prepared to give 100 percent of what I had but I didn’t know what that was,” said the 2008 and 2009 champion, who missed his planned season debut two months ago in his native Australia because of a viral infection that cost him a month of training.
“I think what you saw today was my residual fitness from 16 weeks of amazing training. Then I got sick and had four weeks off. Maybe that was a blessing, it freshened me up. Sometimes a rest is just what the doctor ordered, so to speak.”
German Twelsiek was second in 8:24:59 and Tom Evans, from Penticton, B.C., was third another 25 minutes back.
“Those two chaps are at a whole different level,” said Evans, who last won in 2008. “Even in my prime I wasn’t as good as those two guys. … They’re Tier I athletes, they don’t usually come to races like this, they usually do bigger ones. … It was quite incredible to see what they did.”
Alexander, who celebrated his 38th birthday Wednesday, came out of the water with Twelsiek, about 90 seconds behind Evans, then watched Twelsiek just roll away, finishing in 4:29:10. The effort made Twelsiek, 30, ill and unavailable after the race.
“He had a great race today,” Alexander said. “They told me I broke the bike course record and he outran me, so he smashed it. He’s a brilliant bike rider, one of the best.”
Making up the time deficit was a tough challenge, but achieveable for Alexander.
“You never quite know,” he said. “Even when I caught Maik, I think Mile 14, you still have 12 miles to go.”
He credited the crowd with helping him get to the course record.
“I felt great until 5 or 6 miles to go when I started to tighten up a little bit,” he said. “The crowd support helped me out, it was an amazing atmosphere. I’ve raced all around the world but I haven’t raced in too many atmospheres like that, maybe Kona.
“The people around town and even out of the bike course are just amazing. It makes a huge difference and I know the athletes really appreciate it.”
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