40th Annual Visit Panama City Beach Ironman 70.3

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - Today was the 40th running of the Visit Panama City Beach Ironman 70.3

The professional males starting everything off. This event featured 1700 registered male and female athletes spanning 45 countries and kicked off the 1.2 mile swim at 5:40 am this morning before taking on a 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run; all totaling to 70.3 miles, half a full Ironman

One of those athletes, Peyton Thompson, crossing the finish line third for the males in the amateur class. The 20 year old, Duke University student finished at 4 hours and 7 minutes and was pretty stoked about his placing.

“My goal was top 3 and I got it done so I’m stoked. That was absolutely brutal but I feel really good, it got pretty dang hot out there and I just ran as hard as I could and I ran into third place, so super happy with the day”, Thompson said.

In the women’s amateur group, Kerry Girona finished first with a time of 4 hours and 32 minutes and said it was a fight for that whole time.

“Pretty, pretty good. It was a tough day for me, I pretty much had to fight my whole way until about mile 13 to get into first place. Uh, a little painful but it was pretty awesome, you know, reminds you to just keep fighting til the end, no matter how far back you are”, Girona said.

Sam Long the overall winner in the professional group.. He had a time of 3 hours and 36 minutes.

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