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|  Thompson, Carfrae win Spirit of Racine Half Ironman triathlon By Anthony Brass and Amy Rushlow July 23, 2007 Chicago Athlete
Competitors took to the land and sea in the Spirit of Racine's Sprint and
Half Ironman triathlons. The sprint-distance race took place on Saturday,
July 21 and the half Ironman on Sunday, June 22 in Racine, Wisconsin.
Sprint Triathlon: July 21 The female elite overall first place finisher Saturday was taken by Stacey
Klepel-Kiefer, 29, with an impressive time of 1:12:47. Klepel-Kiefer
established her lead early in the competition with a 13:11 swim (faster
than several of the top 10 men) in choppy Lake Michigan waters.
"Once you got out there it was extremely rough," said Klepel-Kiefer of
her swim portion. "You had to do your sighting at the top of the wave, or
you couldn't see the triangle buoys."
The Racine native also had a bit of a "home-water" advantage coming
into today's triathlon.
"My husband and I have been coming down here every weekend for the
last four weeks; and training down here in this water. We got up on
Sundays to simulate the course."
Klepel-Kiefer came up short in 2006, with a second place ending. "My
goal this year was to win it. Last year I took second (place) by two
seconds."
This year's second place female was Lindsey Kriete, 30, in 1:14:32. The
third place finisher was to Cheryl Roberts, 43, at 1:15:36.
Palatine's Dean Hewson, 37, won the men's competition in 1:06:39.
Hewson beat second-place finisher Shannon Kurek by nearly two
minutes thanks to Hewson's 18:12 5K split.
Dean's area of concentration today centered on his cycling
performance-he led after the bike portion-but it was in his 5K where he
solidified his win.
"I tried to focus on my bike today, because it needs a little work," said
Hewson. "So I tried to ride hard. I ended up catching Shannon [Kurek]
on the run, so maybe that was my best."
Dean maintained a humble attitude after the contest was over, saying
that he didn't let the competition influence his state of mind today.
"I have my own goals. If somebody is going to beat you, they're going to
beat you. You just try to control what you can yourself, and sometimes it
works out, sometimes it doesn't."
Half Ironman Triathlon: July 22
David Thompson from St. Paul Minnesota placed first with an overall
time of 3:50:56. Thompson split his race success evenly among the
swim (26:14, fifth), bike (2:06:20, third) and run (1:16:53).
Although second-place finisher Australian Craig McKenzie made up
time in the half marathon, running 1:13:08, it wasn't enough to catch
Thompson. McKenzie finished in 3:56:32 overall. Mike Caiazzo placed
third in 4:03:01 but was hurt by his 31:05 swim (66th in the rankings).
In the women's pro race, Australian Mirinda Carfrae took first in 4:16:43,
with top times for the pro women in both the swim and run. Lisa Bentley
(Canada) placed second in 4:22:50. Carfrae and Bentley both excelled
in the half marathon, running respective 6:15 and 6:17 min/mile paces,
but Bentley lost time on her 2:27:53 bike compared to Carfrae's 2:23:40
and third-place finisher Abbigail Bayley's 2:22:53. Bayley, of Great
Britain, finished in 4:35:25.
Chicago triathlete Jason Glowney placed ninth individual overall and
was the first-
place Chicago area finisher. He finished in 4:15 flat with an impressive
2:12:53 bike split (ranked fourth overall).
Brandon Del campo finished first (4:08:54) in the elite open division and
sixth individual overall. Local triathlete and coach Adam Zucco placed
second
in the elite open competition (4:21:27). Wisconsin's Dennis Melowski
was the third elite male (4:23:09).
In the women's elite open division, Heather Curnutt placed first (4:56:10)
followed by Wisconsin's Cynthia Bannink (4:56:22) and Minnesotan
Thea Fleming (4:58:36).
Click here for complete results.
Click here to view photos of the race.
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