Samantha McGlone, 27, of Canada won the women's division of the first ever Ironman World Championship 70.3 held in beautiful Clearwater, Florida. The weather was moderate and the water temperature was 73 degrees, very pleasant for a triathlon. She was in 78th place as she came out of the water, 277th off the bike and 61st to cross the line out of 1,360 participants. Her time was 27:29 for the 1.2 mile swim, 2:21:33 for the 56 mile bike ride and 1:20:22 for the 13.1 mile run. Her final time was 4 hours, 12 minutes and 58 seconds.
Samantha McGlone, the first woman to finish the event said she saved “absolutely nothing” for the finish. Samantha had responded to the tone in her coach’s voice as he yelled and cheered her on. She said just the way he was yelling, told her someone was catching her and she gave it her all. She said “usually there comes a point on the run where you can relax a little bit, but not today, I was pushing the entire way.”
