Michael Raelert stormed to the title at Ironman 70.3 Austin with a 1:11:05 run and recorded a 3:47:48 winning time. Jessica Meyers took the win in the women's race in 4:29:15 while long time leader Tenille Hoogland disappeared from the leader board.
The fastest bike split of the day belonged to Swiss Pro Ronnie Schildknecht and his 2:05:53 time was more than 4 minutes quicker than the time of Michael Raelert, but with an almost 2 minute slower swim Schildknecht barely had a 2 minute lead over Raelert when he started the run.
It didn't take very long for the German to reel in the Swiss, and the 1:11:05 run split of Raelert was fastest of the day by a couple of minutes and allowed him to take the 2011 Ironman 70.3 Austin title. Schildknecht, who recently competed at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii, hung on to second place and Paul Amey ran to third place with a second best 1:13:26 Half Marathon time.
Tenille Hoogland took charge of the women's race during the swim and emerged first out of the water, 5 seconds up on Kristen Peterson and more than a minute ahead of Mandy McLane.
Once on the bike, Hoogland cranked out the day's fastest bike split of 2:25:41, over 3 minutes quicker than Jessica Meyers who reached T2 in second position but almost 5 minutes down. Peterson was next into transition, followed by McLane.
Hoogland looked good on the run too and still had a comfortable lead late into the run when she mysteriously disappeared from the front of the race. Jessica Meyers ran a 1:29:10 and passed Hoogland around mile 11 on the way to grab the Austin 70.3 title. McLane finished second and Caroline Gregory rounded out the podium.
"I came off the bike with a big deficit but I knew I was making big gains each loop, passed Tenille at mile 11," said Meyers. "I executed my race plan as smartly as possible."
Ironman 70.3 Austin
Austin, TX / October 23, 2011
1.2m swim / 56m bike / 13.1m run
Top men
1. Michael Raelert (GER) 3:47:48
2. Ronnie Schildknecht (SUI) 3:49:48
3. Paul Amey (GBR) 3:52:46
4. Massimo Cigano (ITA) 3:56:26
5. Richie Cunningham (AUS) 3:56:59
6. Pedro Gomes (POR) 4:01:53
7. Fraser Cartmell (GBR) 4:04:52
Top women
1. Jessica Meyers (USA) 4:29:15
2. Mandy McLane (USA) 4:34:39
3. Caroline Gregory (USA) 4:38:28
4. Lesley Smith (USA) 4:39:10
5. Haley Cooper-Scott (USA) 4:40:48
6. Rachael Paxton (AUS) 4:40:59
7. Kristen Peterson (USA) 4:42:16
