Joel Maley of St. Albert soldiered through Ironman Arizona as the first overall amateur with a personal best time by 22 minutes.
The Canadian Armed Forces major completed the 3.86-kilometre swim, 180.25-km bike and 42.2-km marathon run in eight hours, forty-three minutes and 52 seconds Sunday in Tempe.
The fifth fastest Canadian was also the 22nd racer out of 2,251 finishers, including the professional field, and the top 30 to 34 age division male.
“The whole objective was to go under nine hours and then to be the top age grouper and the top amateur, it was kind of icing on the cake,” said Maley, the squadron aircraft maintenance and engineering officer at 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron at Edmonton Garrison.
Lionel Sanders of Canada was the winner at 7:44:29.
Ironman Arizona is billed as the most urban full-distance race in North America.
“It’s one of the easier or faster courses on the Ironman circuit and so I figured I would be under nine hours. I figured if I had a good race I would probably be in the 8:55 neighbourhood,” Maley said.
“The conditions were pretty much ideal for the race. The water was fairly calm and then there was a good breeze on the bike. We had cloud cover for most of the day and so once we got off the bike and I was running it was perfect, almost ideal conditions for running. You didn’t feel like you were overheating and I think that was the reason why I was able to put the hammer down on the run.”
Maley, 33, was clocked at 1:05:27 for the swim (29th division rank, 206th male, 260th overall), 4:38:05 for the bike (fourth division rank, 47th male, 50th overall) and 2:54:38 for the run (first division rank, 22nd male, 22 overall).
“I get better as the disciplines go and swimming is my weakest discipline,” said the second fastest amateur on the bike. “When I came off the bike I was in fourth in my age group or 50th overall so I moved very substantial.
“Running is my strength, everybody who knows me knows that, so I had the fastest amateur run by like six minutes and I had, I think a handful of professionals who outran me.”
Maley’s performance was rewarding but physically taxing.
“After the race, at the end of the finish line, I was totalled. I put everything I had into it (the race) and only today (Thursday) am I really starting to feel like my legs are starting to feel better. My legs felt terrible on Monday and Tuesday and they’re just now starting to loosen up,” he said. “That was the last race of the year for me so I will pretty much do nothing for a couple of weeks. I might swim a little bit but realistically it probably takes pretty much a month for your body to recover from an Ironman or marathon.”
Maley was competing in his 10th Ironman and the second of the year after placing 101st overall as the 95th fastest male at worlds in October.
“I had no pressure going into the race. I already had my slot for the Ironman world championships for next year,” said the 57th age grouper at his fourth worlds. “I had a fairly good race (at worlds) but everything this year I focused on Ironman Arizona with the intent of breaking nine hours.”
Maley went the distance at 9:21:27 as the third fastest finisher in the military division.
His times were 1:07:51 for the swim (141st division rank, 967th male, 1,220 overall), 5:00:32 for the bike (71st division rank, 336th male, 354th overall) and 3:06:16 for the run (12th division rank, 95th male, 101st overall) on the legendary Kona course in Hawaii.
The winner was Jan Frodeno of Germany at 8:06:30.
“I did really good. I was 12th in the male 30 to 34 division, which was my best result in Kona yet,” said Maley, the long course triathlon coordinator for the Canadian Armed Forces.
