From Slowtwitch.com

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Gambles, Lavelle take Lake Stevens

Written by: Timothy Carlson
Date: Sun Aug 16 2009

Joe Gambles set his second straight Ironman 70.3 course record by a mile and Becky Lavelle outran strong cyclist Heather Wurtele to take a 68-second margin for the win at Lake Stevens Ironman 70.3.

Gambles used a race-best 2:14:22 bike, 4 minutes 30 seconds faster than any of his competitors, and race-best 1:14:39 half marathon to earn a 7 minutes and 10 seconds margin of victory over runner-up Jeffrey Symonds of Penticton, British Columbia.

Gambles’ winning margin was a welcome contrast to his one-second sprint finish loss last year at Lake Stevens to Luke Bell. Gambles 3:56:36 finishing time broke Bell’s 2008 course record by 3 minutes 40 seconds.

Gambles' course record win was his second in a row, following his 3:49:18 at Vineman 70.3 last month.

Lavelle started the day with a race-best 25:58 swim that gave her a 1:18 margin over ITU star Samantha Warriner, 2:04 over two-time ITU World Champion and 2006 Ironman World titlist Michellie Jones, 2:13 over super-cyclist Wurtele, and just over 4 minutes on Xterra champion Melanie McQuaid of Canada and Ironman Hawaii 5th place finisher Linsey Corbin of Montana.

Wurtele took a 26-second lead over Lavelle at T2 after a race-best 2:32:56 ride, with Jones 3:05 back and Warriner trailing by 3:33. McQuaid, with a 2:35:34 bike, was 4:10 back...read the full article here.

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