Lisa Bentley announced on the xtri website that she will race Ironman Canada this year. Should be a good show between her and Heather Fuhr. I wish Lori was in it too.
Great to see and it should an impressive race between those two great Champions. Strangely Fuhr has never raced at IMC and Bentley is coming back from an injury and trying to get things back on track. Bentley’s had a rough year, but no one is tougher than Lisa! Should be a great race.
We have been lucky in Canada over the last number of years with the likes of Fuhr, Bentley, Lori Bowden and the now retired Melissa Spooner to have had such an amazing track-record of wins and high places in IM races around the world. My sense is the mantle is about to be passed from these four outstanding ladies to Samantha McGlone.
Steve - Not only are the Canadian Women good at the Ironman distance, but you’ve got a great group of younger women doing very well at the ITU distance! Must be something in the water up there! Z
that is one great news!!! people love her here and it s good for the race to have her racing!
Don’t mean to hijack, but Fleck, are you going to be there? I’ll drop by and introduce myself if you’ve got a booth up.
I’d love to see her skip IMC and show up in KONA more rested. I’d almost bet the year she skips Canada she wins Hawaii.
That is great news. I was talking to her a month ago and she hadn’t been able to run for quite some time due to an injury. Hopefully it is behind her and she’ll have a good one.
Must be something in the water up there!
Tom,
Actually, it’s the six months of winter, snow and ice.
What’s the current popular saying - “Harden the %^&* up” - I think sums it up nicely. Sunny and 70 every day is way over-rated.
I don’t know what it’s like to be able to race at that level: maybe it is a nice sharpener for Kona, or maybe it does tire her - I think Michellie Jones would have been hard to beat last year even by a rested LB. I think she must actually LIKE doing these races. it’ll be nice to see her extremely large smile again this year though - she sort of personifies this race for me. And HF will have a fight on her hands, all going well. Pity Granger won’t be there for a re-match.j
Big Lisa fan here, but she did skip IMC in 2005, and that was the year she got sick in Kona. That was the year that Holloway won IMC.
I’m hoping one of these years she wins Kona!
you’re right, but appendix problem aside, she would have been very likely to take the top spot, in my opinion. We’ll never know.
The dynamic of the pro women’s races at the Ironman events has changed and this change is most seen at IMH. With the seperate start, the strong swimming women can swim with the pro men. Women who normally swam 55 - 60 minutes, and normally got a good draft with the top AG men, now are often strung out solo and on their own, and swimming slower or using more energy for the same swim split as the used to. They then have to chase, again solo, for a very long way to get back into the race. Some thrive on this, but I am sure for others it’s taxing. My guess - The big come-from-behind-and-win-it-on-the-run will happen less and less in the women’s pro races at IMH and other IM races.
This is why Sam McGlone has to be considered a serious and potent threat for IMH. She has no weakness. She has ITU speed on the swim is very strong on the bike and runs very well off the bike. If she can handle the heat and the nutrition issues, watch out!
I am super excited to see that Lisa is racing IMC…she was just here for a 1/2 and looked great. Also a big fan and hope she does well and is healthy!!
Go Lisa 
Sonja
Sports Massage Therapist
I just read LB’s little note on Xtri. Brought tears to my eyes. She’s the very spirit of long distance triathlon, for me at least. j