Trevor Foley and Giorgia Priarone charged through their respective fields on the bike and then continued on the run for massive margins of victory at IRONMAN 70.3 Maine.
In the men's race, Foley had found himself more than two minutes down on the early leaders after the down river swim; this had him closer to the front than he traditionally is coming out of the water. That meant when he started his charge to the front, he had less ground to make up than normal, taking the lead by the midpoint of the bike and pulling away from the pack. And showing no fatigue from last weekend's race in Oregon, Foley ran a second-best 1:11 half marathon to victory.
Priarone had a somewhat similar path to victory. Emerging from the water in seventh place, she overpowered this rolling bike course with a by-far race best bike split of 2:26:58, leading by nearly three minutes by the end of the ride. She would continue to extend her lead over the course of the run, finishing with a 5.5 minute margin over Amy Cymerman.
Men's Results
1. Trevor Foley 3:33:58
2. Gregory Barnaby 3:39:17
3. Justin Metzler 3:45:12
4. Ben Deal 3:46:49
5. Nicolas Gilbert 3:46:59
6. Devin Volk 3:48:01
7. Ari Klau 3:48:19
8. Hunter Lussi 3:49:29
DQ: Matthew Sharpe
Women's Results
1. Giorgia Priarone 4:11:24
2. Amy Cymerman 4:16:51
3. Nicole Falcaro 4:18:09
4. Samantha Snukis 4:18:34
5. Pamela-Ann Bachelder St-Pierre 4:18:44
6. Holly Smith 4:20:49
7. Mollie Hebda 4:21:14
8. Sarah Bishop 4:22:34
Notes From the Race
Biggest Current Ever: Almost all of the top professional times in the swim were under 50 seconds per 100 meters. The Kennebec River was moving this morning. We've had a lot of rain here in the northeast over the last month, including last night, which only increased the water flow. How fast was it? During the professional warm-ups, none of the pros were making it all the way to the one upstream buoy that they had available to them. It looked like an Endless Pool. It would have been carnage to try to swim upstream at all, especially with over 2,000 age group athletes registered.
Trevor Foley: Very Good at Bike Riding: Add this man to your list of guys that can blitz through a field so long as the swim deficit isn't overwhelming. Because of the downstream swim, Foley was much closer to the front than normal. That meant he was always going to be a threat for the podium, and once he passed Justin Metzler and continued up the road without Metz in tow, it felt like his race to lose.
The Downside of Jersey Fairings: Lots of guys opted for either a bottle or bladder down the front of their kits, given the data seems to suggest it is a fair amount faster than not doing so. (One side text I received about Matthew Sharpe was that he looked pregnant while doing so.) However, it comes with a risk, which is what appears to have happened to Metzler, as he spent a considerable amount of the ride with his kit flapping in the wind with a zipper issue. He eventually remedied the zipper issue, which also seemed to mark a mental shift; he'd been sliding backwards through the field at that point, then got back on the gas to rally to a third place finish.
Slowtwitcher Ben Deal is a Big Deal: Deal's fourth place finish is his best result at an IRONMAN 70.3 event since 2019 Indian Wells, where he also finished fourth. His 1:12 half marathon was also the third best run overall, and nearly brought him his first podium result. Yes, we're biased, I'll admit it. Nice work, Mr. Deal.
Breakthrough for Nicole Falcaro: Falcaro has raced professionally since 2018 and had never hit the podium of any 70.3 (or equivalent distance) race. She started the run in 8th place, more than 2.5 minutes behind the podium positions, and slowly started eating into that time gap. Still, with less than three miles left to run, Falcaro found herself fourth and needing to overcome a 20 second gap. She found the gear and grabbed third. Well done.
Matthew Sharpe's Disqualification: Sharpe earned a disqualification on the run for a bare torso. I had to wind up looking up the current generation of IRONMAN rules in order to track this one down, as I'd also seen some officiating that seemed closer to the old rule where you couldn't have your chest exposed at all at Lake Placid last weekend.
Here's the official breakdown: you can't run with a bare torso, ever, period, end of sentence. Guys, if you want to go with a sports bra-esque top, that's completely fine. It's a 30 or 60 second time penalty at first, and a disqualification if you don't remedy it when asked. The second part of the rule says that you can unzip your top as far as you want, so long as the zipper remains connected at the bottom, and that the kit remains over the tops of your shoulders at all times. This one is also a DQ is you don't remedy it promptly when asked.
Fun fact: the rulebook also says explicitly that your kit should be zippered all the way up for the finish line. So it's not just for sponsors!
Sharpe had been at the front of the race all day prior to the DQ, easily in podium contention.
We Got Real Commercials!: In a promising sign for our sport, the advertisements on Outside Watch were...real commercials! Consumer packaged goods, pharmaceutical companies, and even Burger King were all part of the ad rotation this time out. And we even got a new ROKA ad! Next up: hey, HOKA, can we get something other than a Rocket X 2 ad rolling, please?
Outside Watch Grade: B+: The downgrade on this one has to do with the streaming capability itself, as I had to reload the player multiple times on my MacBook again. When the stream was working correctly, Matt Lieto and Laura Siddall proved to be another insightful combination that added value to the broadcast; still need a little polishing on tossing to a commercial versus just finishing a thought and the next ad begins, but the reps are showing.
Photos: Meg Oliphant/Getty Images for IRONMAN