James Cunnama ran down Pedro Gomes with a 2:43:09 marathon to win the 2010 Ford Ironman Florida in somewhat cool temperatures. Jessica Jacobs took the lead on the bike and held on for the win on the run as all possible challengers fell off the pace.
The men
With temperatures hovering in the low 40s in the morning, the waters of the Gulf Coast were not such a bad place to be. Dirk Bockel and Bryan Rhodes set the pace in the wetsuit legal swim and towards the end of the second 1.2 mile lap Bockel managed to get a little gap over his competitors.
Romain Guillaume was out of the water in third position and with a quick transition he soon was in the lead on the bike. The French Pro slowly rolled away from all other competitors and by mile 60 had more than 8 minutes of an advantage. But that was as much of a lead as he would get and the chasing pack of about 10 riders slowly took back time over the final 52 miles of the bike. By the time he got back to the bike-run transition the chasers were only 2 minutes behind him. Missing in that group was Austin 70.3 winner James Cunnama who had suffered a flat around mile 80 and was now a few minutes behind.
Out on the run Markus Fachbach briefly was i the lead but was overtaken by a fast running Pedro Gomes. The relatively unknown Portuguese Pro had actually raced quite heavily recently, but that did not show. On any other day his closing 2:49:12 run would most likely have been sufficient to take the win, but behind him South African Cunnama was running even faster. The Team TBB Pro ran a smoking fast 2:43:09 marathon to take the win in Florida and his first Ironman title. Gomes held on to second and Bockel finished third.
"I had no idea who Gomes was, and he was running very strong and looking good, even when I caught him. But as I pulled up alongside him he said, 'Man, I am done now.' He was looking good, so I wondered if it was mind-games, but I slowly pulled away and kept it controlled to the line," said Cunnama to slowtwitch.
The women
Jeanne Collonge was first out of the water for the women and she was followed by Meike Krebs and Kim Loeffler. For Loeffler who has been working on her swim this was most likely her best Ironman swim to date.
Karina Ottosen though took charge on the bike and the Dane quickly pulled back the 2:49 she had lost during the swim. By mile 15 she was in the lead and steadily built up her advantage. A bit further back Jessica Jacobs was riding even faster and pushed past all the athletes who were ahead of her. By mile 50 she was in second place, 1:25 behind Ottosen, and 25 miles later she pulled into the lead. When Jacobs reached T2 she was 3:22 up on Erica Csomor who earlier during the bike segment had looked like she might keep pace. Ottosen reached the bike-run transition another 30 seconds later.
But that was as close as anyone would get to her today. Jacobs closed out her day with a 3:04:52 marathon to take her first Ironman title in 9:07:49. Csomor hed on to second place and Kim Loeffler finished third.
"I focused my energy and thoughts on the fact that I know I'm one of the fastest runners in the Ironman distance - with that being said, I just kept telling myself to run my race and if someone was going to 'run me down' they were going to have to hurt very badly," said Jacobs.
Ford Ironman Florida
Panama City Beach, FL / November 6, 2010
Top 10 men
1. James Cunnama (RSA) 8:15:29
2. Pedro Gomes (POR) at 8:19:26
3. Dirk Bockel (LUX) 8:21:23
4. Markus Fachbach (GER) 8:25:25
5. Jeremy Jurkiewicz (FRA) 8:26:49
6. Christophe Bastie (FRA) 8:27:01
7. Petr Vabrousek (CZE) 8:29:59
8. Esben Hovgaard (DEN) 8:31:29
9. Chris McDonald (AUS) 8:32:37
10. Swen Sundberg (GER) 8:33:44
Top 10 women
1. Jessica Jacobs (USA) 9:07:49
2. Erica Csomor (HUN) 9:14:40
3. Kim Loeffler (USA) 9:21:26
4. Karina Ottosen (DEN) 9:24:34
5. Tamara Kozulina (UKR) 9:28:43
6. Jeanne Collonge (FRA) 9:35:19
7. Anne Basso (FRA) 9:37:37
8. Danielle Sullivan (USA) 9:46:42
9. Susan Langley (AUS) 9:55:19 * AG W40-44
10. Linnea Humphrey (CAN) 9:58:09 * AG W40-44
