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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Beehive State To Bring Five To Ironman Texas

            The state of Utah is sending five Ironman competitors to the inaugural Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas in The Woodlands, Texas on Saturday, May 21 – and all but one of them had their taste of the first ever Ironman St. George this past May.
            The fifth, Holladay’s Stan Hansen, a 40-year-old banker, showed on the original participation list but was a “do not start” for the 2010 event.
            Two of the four – Draper’s Shawn Talbott and Murray’s Joe Larsen -- have competed in a long-distance endurance event in the Lone Star state.  Both have 100-mile finishes at the Rocky Raccoon Trail Run, which is held annually in February at Huntsville State Park, approximately 35 miles north of the Ironman Texas starting line.
            Larsen, a trail runner-turned Ironman athlete, clocked a 28-hour finish at Rocky Raccoon in 2007 – one of his two career 100-milers, while Talbott finished in 23:00:36 just last year.
            Talbott, 43, has eight career Ironman finishes according to realendurance.com and his showing at Ironman St. George last May was indicative of how many experienced Ironman athletes were challenged by the course and the conditions.
            He went 13:48:08 at Ironman St. George then came back six months later and posted a personal best effort at Ironman Florida with a time of 11:15:08.
            After two 100-milers, five 100-kilometer and eight 50-mile finishes since 2005, Larsen turned his sights to triathlons.
            The 61-year-old posted efforts of 6:42:24 at the Rohto Ironman 70.3 California in April before returning to the Beehive State for a 16:04:18 finish at St. George.
            Kulaniakea Fisher, 36, of Cedar Hills, will be looking to keep his Ironman-a-year streak alive after a 16:15:26 finish at Ironman Arizona in November 2009 and a 16:26:54 showing last May at Ironman St. George.
            With a fairly common name of Genaro Fernandez, it is hard to tell which one is coming to Texas in May – looking at both realendurance.com and athlinks.com
            What we do know is that the one that has Utah attached to his results finished Vineman in 2009 before recording 12:28:20 and 13:01:54 finishes last year at St. George and Arizona, respectively.
            It is believed though that Fernandez, 31, might have just been a step off of his career bests, which include 14 career Ironmans and three appearances at the Ford Ironman World Championship.
            Hansen appears to have finished an Olympic triathlon in St. George in 2009, according to athlinks.com.

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