IRONMAN 70.3 Eagleman Lives Up to Speedy Expectations with New Course Records

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It came down to the run for the eventual champs at today’s IRONMAN 70.3 Eagleman race as Sam Long overcame a two-minute gap off the bike, while Lucy Charles-Barclay held off a spirited charge from Chelsea Sodaro to take the women’s race. Thanks to the competitive fields and the push to the line both winners shattered the previous course records.

Company for Charles-Barclay in the Water

It’s not often that Lucy Charles-Barclay has any company during the swim, but today she had more than just company, she had full-fledged competition for the fastest swim split. American Margarita Ryan, a former NCAA swimmer with Virginia Tech, was right next to the former British national team swimmer as the two excited the water, but the hyper-competitive Charles-Barclay managed to just lead the way out to earn the day’s fastest swim split of 25:10. It was a shade under two minutes before the next two came out of the water as Americans Grace Alexander and Chelsea Sodaro flew into T1.

The two women expected to be the fastest on the bike, Lisa Becharas and Alice Alberts, were out of the water together, but were well back of the leaders, hitting T1 a shade under five minutes behind.

Once out on the bike Charles-Barclay continued to power away at the front, with Alexander and Sodaro forming one chase group about two minutes back, while Alberts and Becharas were together another two minutes back through the 23-mile checkpoint. The only change to that dynamic through the bike was that Alberts and Becharas would eventually ride themselves up to Alexander and Sodaro, with that foursome hitting T2 about three minutes behind the Charles-Barclay.

Alberts would have the day’s fastest bike split (2:06:46), with Becharas a few seconds slower (2:06:59). There were a few women who rode well under the old bike course record of 2:14:00 set by Sonja Catano in 2022, including Charles-Barclay (2:09:09), Sodaro (2:10:03), Alexander (2:10:01), Daniela Kleiser (2:10:53) and Rebecca Yunginger (2:12:38).

Out on the run course it wasn’t long before it was clear that the race would come down to duel between the two Kona champs as the 2022 winner, Sodaro, was rapidly gaining ground on the 2023 IRONMAN world champion, Charles-Barclay. Through the first 6.5 miles Sodaro had reduced the gap to 1:22, with Alexander a distant 4:50 behind the lead. Sodaro would get the gap down to 1:11 just short of the 10-mile point, but that was as close as she would get. Charles-Barclay found another gear, upping the tempo through the second loop of the run to hold Sodaro off, finishing the race in 3:58:10 after a 1:19:18 half marathon. Sodaro would run a 1:17:26 split to cross the line in 3:59:22. Both were well under Sarah True’s course record time of 4:03:51 set in 2022.

Alexander would hang on for third (4:06:05), but it was close as Kleiser blasted through the field with the day’s fastest half-marathon (1:15:24) to finish fourth in 4:06:32. Becharas would round out the top five in 4:09:03.

“This couldn’t have been more different to my last race in Lanzarote,” Charles-Barclay said after the race comparing the hilly bike course in the Canary Islands to the dead-flat course in Maryland. “It was a much harder bike ride than I anticipated. It’s a good confidence boost – I hadn’t planned on pushing the run that hard.”

For Sodaro, there was a lot of relief in just getting to the line for her first finish of 2025 after not starting the IRONMAN North American Championship in Texas, then pulling out of the IRONMAN 70.3 North American Championship in St. George.

“This has been a rocky year for me,” Sodaro said. “I’m human and I live with someone who goes to preschool, so I’ve picked up every preschool bug there is. I really thought that I would catch Lucy on the second lap, but she put together a really good run.”

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Bike for Show …

As he did at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside earlier this year, American Greg Harper led the way out of the water, hitting T1 in 23:16, just two seconds off the course record, with a lead of 19 seconds on Ben Kanute. Then came Paul Schuster leading a group of five about two minutes behind. In that group were two men who would feature prominently in the race – Swede Robert Kallin and Brit Matthew Collins. The other contenders we anticipated to be on the podium were all about four minutes back after the swim – Canadian Jackson Laundry was a bit under that mark, with Aussie Cameron Wurf a few seconds behind him, while American Trevor Foley was at 4:14, with Sam Long another 18 seconds back.

Kanute was able to stay out in front for more than two thirds of the ride, but was eventually caught by a group that included Kallin, France’s Antony Costes and American Luke Jones right around the 40-mile point of the ride. That’s when Kallin made his move, pulling clear of the rest of the field and eventually opening up a gap of over two minutes to finish the bike in 1:54:37, annihilating the previous course record of 2:01:05 set by Sam Appleton in 2017. Long, Laundry and Foley had ridden themselves up to the chase group and hit T2 just over two minutes behind the Swede.

Long flew out of transition and opened a few valuable seconds on the rest of the men as he started the run, but Foley quickly worked his way up to Long as the two quickly gained on Kallin. The pair caught Kallin by four miles. The Swede tried to hang on for a few miles, but it was clear the race for the win would be between the two Americans. Long made his push at about the eight-mile point of the run and Foley wasn’t able to keep pace. The lead was 12 seconds at nine miles, about 16 seconds at 10 miles and would eventually grow to 26 seconds at the finish line as Long used the day’s fastest run (1:10:49) to cross the line in 3:36:50 – both new course records. (The previous course record – 3:41:46 – was set by Cody Beals in 2022.)

Foley would hang tough for second in 3:37:17, while Collins would put together arguably his best-ever result with third in 3:38:07. Kallin would hang tough for fourth (3:38:42) with Laundry rounding out the top five in 3:40:44.

Long was thrilled with the win.

“The day played out a little different than we thought – I thought we would get to the front earlier in the bike, and we never got to the front on the bike,” Long said after the race. “I’ve wanted a run battle like that with Trevor for a while and I got it.”

Next up for Long is T100 Vancouver, after which he said he’ll focus on his preparation for the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice.

Foley was also happy with his race after struggling at the end of last year after crashing at the end of the bike in Kona and struggling through the early part of this season.

“I’ve been out of the game for a hot minute, it feels great to be at the pointy end of the race,” Foley said.

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