IRONMAN Florida-The first full IRONMAN of 2020

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG) -Early Saturday morning, IRONMAN racers, organizers and volunteers got their days started. The athletes competing in the full race, swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles, and topped it off with a 26.22 Mile run. The male winner of the full, Chris Leiferman, from Colorado, finishing in 7:52:41, and the female winner, Kat Matthews from the United Kingdom, finishing in 8:40:50. After the race, I caught up with both of them, Leiferman saying just what most could imagine.

“This is so hard. This is not an easy thing. The anxiety you go through pre-race just because you have to go through 140.6 miles of crap is not something that I look forward to, but to get out and race and compete and you get to feel like this, that’s pretty cool.”

As for Kat, this was her first time in Florida, and she was happy to just be on the course.

“I’m so stoked. I’m here representing the team “BMC” and the British Army, and to get out racing in Florida in this amazing city, it’s just amazing what they’re team has done to organize the events.”

Leiferman then realized, due to COVID-19 cancellations, he was the first person to win an IRONMAN in the year 2020.

I didn’t even think about that. This was the first IRONMAN in the world, the first full, that’s pretty cool! That’s pretty rad."

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