IRONMAN Lake Placid 2024 Results: Danielle Lewis holds off Hering for BIGGEST career win

Danielle Lewis took her first full distance win in style at IRONMAN Lake Placid with a fine run, just a fortnight after finishing fifth at Challenge Roth in Germany.

The 36-year-old, whose previous best was a third place finish at IRONMAN Arizona in 2022, also punched her ticket to the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice in September.

In second, Jackie Hering picked up another IRONMAN Pro Series podium, with defending champion Alice Alberts wrapping up the medal places after a run battle for third.

Swim – Brandon sets the early pace

As we often see in full distance races in the US, American Lauren Brandon exited the water in first in a time of 50:04, with her fellow countrywoman Rachel Zilinskas right on her feet in second.

Dutch pro Lotte Wilms was into transition in third, +1:48 down on the leaders, with pre-race favourites Sarah True and Hering out in fifth and sixth respectively, +5:30 and +7:30 adrift.

Defending champion Alberts came out of the water alongside Hering, as further back, Lewis left herself with a lot of work to do on the bike and the run, after coming out +15:37 down in 15th.

Bike – Zilinskas makes her move

On to the bike, Brandon and Zilinskas were soon joined by Wilms at the front of the race, with the leading trio maintaining a gap of around five minutes to True and Swiss athlete Nina Derron up until the halfway point.

After dropping Brandon just before the 90km mark, Zilinskas then rode away from Wilms to go at it alone. Over the second half of the bike, she started losing time to True, but still entered T2 with a healthy lead of +4:30.

In second, Olympian True looked good and ready to roll on the run, with Alberts another +1:45 back in third. Wilms, who lost significant time over the second half of the bike, was +8:53 back from Zilinskas in fourth, just ahead of Hering in fifth.

Lewis, who had managed to make up five minutes over the course of the bike leg, started the marathon in sixth place, but still had +10:45 to make up on Zilinskas in first and close to five minutes to third place Alberts.

Run – Lewis takes the tape

After setting off at a lightning pace, True quickly started to make ground on Zilinskas, and moved into the lead after just under an hour of running by the 14.5km mark.

By then, Alberts was within four minutes of the lead, and Lewis had passed Hering to move up into fourth, with both athletes less than six minutes from the front of the race.

Even at this early stage, Lewis was the fastest runner out on course, and it seemed certain to be a close battle between her and True, until the latter started to falter after passing through the halfway mark with a +4:47 buffer.

In a mile and a half stretch, True relinquished a three minute gap and the podium places, and with 10km to go, Lewis moved into the lead and Hering, Alberts and Zilinskas all came past. By then, True was walking, and eventually called it a day.

Pushing on at the front, there was no let up by Lewis over the closing stages, as she consolidated her lead over Hering and Alberts to take the tape by almost five minutes following a brilliant 2:52:23 run split.

Hering also broke three hours for the marathon in second, whilst last year’s winner Alberts secured a third professional podium and improved upon her time from 2023 by almost six minutes after a great day of racing.