Lance Armstrong last made headlines for dominating a race when he won his seventh Tour de France in 2005. In the time since he's endured a polarizing celebrity life and continuously denied accusations of performance enhancement during his improbable run at the top of the cycling world.
Now, quietly, when you think he'll become a footnote, he's on a path to Ironman dominance by using his cycling skills to get a jump on the field.
Armstrong won his second Ironman half triathlon in as many weeks when he won on the Kohala Coast in Hawai'i over the weekend. He broke the course record by six minutes, and finished two and a half minutes ahead of his closest competitor by covering 70.3 miles in 3 hours, 50 minutes and 55 seconds. This comes after a May 20 performance in Florida in which he won by 11 minutes, and is the fifth triathlon Armstrong has competed in. This win in Hawai'i gets him closer to the ultimate qualification for the world championship in Hawai'i on Oct. 13.
According to Newsweek, Armstrong, who competed as a professional triathlete at age 18 before focusing on cycling, completed the 1.2-mile swim in 23:22, placing him third. He moved into the lead after covering the 56-mile bike ride in 2:01:46 and sealed the win by running 13.1 miles in 1:22:30.
"I'm having fun," Armstrong said. "That tells me I'm doing the right thing. It's good for a lot of things. I think it's good for the sport. I think it's good for the other pros. It's good for my foundation, it's good for the other business ventures I have."
It's not so good for the people he's leaving in the dust, though.
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