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Andrew Starykowicz set a bike course record of 1:58:49, outpacing Joe Gambles by 8 seconds. But Gambles' 1:13:21 run brought him home 5th, while Starykowicz's 1:20:00 left him 24th.
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Pros complained about sharing the roads with traffic and narrow lanes set off by the cones, which produced large packs on Florida's typically flat terrain.
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The result of the crowding - several drafting penalties, served in four minute segments in bins on the course.
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Phillip Graves (38), the 20 year-old phenom from Great Britain who won Ironman UK, was in the mix with a 21:25 swim and 1:59:25 bike, but faded to 43rd with a 1:26:38 run. Brian Fleischman (81) ran amore evenly paced race to take 10th in 3:41:37.
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Phillip Graves stayed aggressive throughout the bike.
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The lead pack stayed in tight but legal formation coming back over the causeway, but 400 yards from T2, a marshal popped an irate Leon Griffin for drafting. Without the four-minute penalty, Griffin theoretically would have been second.
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Matt Reed felt strong through a 1:59:09 bike and led the field out on the run.
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But when he hit causeway bridge at Mile 2, Reed said his race legs just weren't there and he faded to third with a respectable but not stellar 1:13:11 run.
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Greg Bennett was he was taking his debut at this year's Foster Grant Ironman 70.3 World Championship as an experiment. A 22:14 swim and a 1:59:07 bike got an A- grade. His 1:20:59 run to 27th place showed that four races in six weeks after his painful collision with a bike in June left him off his best form.
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Richie Cunningham had the most consistent results at Clearwater in the first three years with a 3rd, 5th and 3rd. But in 2009, his best-ever 3:42:13 only brought him home 11th.
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Joe Gambles' second-best 1:58:57 ride and 1:13:23 run brought him 5th place in 3:38:19.
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Tim O'Donnell was disheartened when he got popped for drafting, but still ran home with a 4th-best 1:13:06 for 11th place at the line.
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Greg Bennett's elegant stride should be preserved on a Greek frieze. But when you're out of gas, you drop 10 minutes and 25 places.
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Julie Dibens led twice and dropped to 4th at the finish in 2007 and 2008 when her run broke down. This time, she backed up her race record 2:07:15 bike with a 1:24:37 run to take the gold.
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Jodie Swallow, a few weeks after her ITU long course world title, started the run in third, but DNF'd the run.
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Some 1,800 age groupers raced the course.
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After a fine bike, Caroline Steffen of Switzerland held second for most of the run before Mary Beth Ellis and Magali Tisseyre took a podium finish away.
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Michael Raelert stepped out of the shadow of his brother Andreas, who was second in his Clearwater debut last year, with this surprise victory won with a stunningly fast 1:09:05 run.
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Raelert's torso in full flight on the run.
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Michael Raelert, you are an Ironman 70.3 World Champion - and new world record holder with your 3:34:04 finish. .