Kelly Fillnow Finishes 5th at Prestigious Ironman Lake Placid
7/23/2012 3:10:00 PM | General, Women's Cross Country, Women's Tennis
Gavin McFarlin- Assistant SID
DAVIDSON, N.C. — Former Wildcat standout Kelly Fillnow, a 2005 graduate who starred in women's tennis and cross country, put her name among the best in the nation recently in Ironman competitions by finishing fifth overall Sunday, July 22 at the Ironman Lake Placid race in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Fillnow, who was making her professional Ironman debut, had a time of 10:19.49 to finish behind four other USA participants at the second-oldest Ironman race in North America. Jessie Donavan had the top time on the female side, clocking in at 9:47.39 to win her first career Ironman.
The race started out with a 2.4 mile swim in Mirror Lake where Fillnow came in with a time of 1:06.33. Following the swim came the challenging 112 mile two-loop bike ride through the Adirondacks?Mountains. She finished that trek with a time of 5:35:21 and moved onto the final stage of the Ironman with a 26.2 mile run through the downtown area. Fillnow closed with a time of 3:31:52.
“Ironman is all about placing one foot in front of the other and digging deep to overcome the many dark periods,” said Fillnow. “I learned from my tennis days at Davidson how important it is to stay in the moment. I used to break up my tennis matches into one stroke, one point, one game, one set at a time. In Ironman racing, it can become overwhelming if you focus on the 140.6 miles. Instead, I focus on one stroke, one pedal, one foot strike at a time. This gets me through the tough day, while believing that my body can endure so much more then I think it can.”
For complete results of the Ironman Lake Placid, visit Ironman.com.
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