Another “bike for show, run for dough” day at Ironman Texas

It was always one of Texan Lance Armstrong’s favourite sayings – “bike for show, run for dough” – which makes it all-too-appropriate that the adage proved true once again at Ironman Texas, which also served as the Ironman North American Championship.

How fast did you have to run to win today? Mexican champ Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez (pictured above at Ironman 70.3 Mont-Tremblant two years ago) managed to outrun the fastest marathon runner in our sport (Patrick Lange clocked 2:30:31 to win Ironman Israel a couple of years ago and ran 2:30:27 at Challenge Roth last year) by over a minute, running 2:34:14 to Lange’s 2:35:15. What’s probably even more impressive is that the Mexican was 12:47 behind bike leader Matthew Marquardt (USA) at the end of the bike, and had scorched past the American shortly after the halfway point of the run.

“I ran the first two laps so fast,”  Rodriguez Hernandez, the winner of Ironman 70.3 Campeche earlier this year, said after the race. “The last lap I just wanted to survive.”

Fighting for the podium behind Sanders: Who is Tomas Hernandez? Laundry and Beals sprint for third

Survive he did, crossing the line in 7:42:38 and holding off the fast charging Lange as the German, who was almost five minutes down with 10 km to go, cut the lead to 1:36 by the finish line with his 7:44:14 finish. France’s Clement Mignon would round out the podium in 7:48:37.

Marquardt was just behind swim leader Florian Angert (GER) before storming clear on the bike thanks to his 4:03:22 split. The American started the run 1:33 up on Sweden’s Robert Kallin and 8:33 ahead of Mignon (as mentioned earlier, Rodriguez Hernandez was 12:47 back in fifth, while Lange was two more spots and another 36 seconds behind starting the run.) The American wasn’t able to hold on in the hot, humid conditions in Texas, though, and would end up one spot off the podium (7:49:10) with Kallin rounding out the top-five in 7:51:25.

Despite a disappointing race in Oceanside, Lange’s runner-up finish puts him at the top of the Ironman Pro Series standings.