Bell, Badmann take Eagleman

Fighting the pull of surging tides, heat on the pavement, high winds and large painful blisters which developed during the 13.1- mile run, 26-year-old Luke Bell finished in a combined time of three hours, 53 minutes and 55 seconds, less than seven minutes off the course record

Natascha Badmann, who was six minutes slower in the swim due to the pull of the Choptank River's currents, got a flat tire on the bike course and encountered almost all the indigenous fauna of the Dorchester County region, yet still managed to win with a total elapsed time of 4:21:00.

"I felt like I had a headwind going out as well as coming in," Bell joked after the victory. "But, even with the blisters, I managed to take over in the bike and just kept going."

Third out of the water (25:54), Bell used a 1:13 turnaround time to begin the bike segment. Taking the lead on the bike course, he pedaled to a 2:09:52 mark on that leg, and put up an impressive 1:08 turnaround time on the bike-to-run transition.

Despite the huge blisters - the one on his right heel looked to be more than two inches in diameter - Bell kicked his way to a 1:15:50 time on the run to Horn Point and back to Great Marsh to breast the tape.

Badmann, who won Ironman South Africa and and the Ford Florida Half Ironman Triathlon at WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort prior to coming to Cambridge, was one of many bedeviled by the surging tides. The pull of Luna had such an effect on the waters of the Choptank that the Golds, or first wave, usually in the water at 7 a.m., sharp, got moved up to 6:50.

It didn't do all organizers had hoped, pushing and pulling the strokers and costing almost everyone a significant amount of time.

Badmann, who finished her swim last year at Cambridge in about 25:30 - and was pushed off course last year by the tide - put up a time of 31:09 this year, and was fifth coming out of the water behind eventual runner-up Desiree Ficker and third-place finisher Marinda Carfrae.

Rolling by both early in the bike, Badmann seemed poised to make up for the lost time on the swim and perhaps threaten the ladies' half-Ironman world record of 4:11:01. But then she got a flat tire in the final few miles of the 56-mile bike ride, and had to change it before wrapping up Stage Two.

"I was about to go into the parts of town that have a lot of curves," Badmann said afterward, "but with a tire like that, it's very dangerous. For a minute, I thought, 'Do I go on?' - but I had to stop."

She still put up a time of 2:17:58 on the bike which, combined with her swim and a 1:35 transition from the swim, put her in the lead, seven minutes ahead of Ficker.

Ficker, however, kicked admirably on the final leg, but could not close the distance entirely. Badmann, age 38, crossed the line at 4:21:00 - she might have saved eight seconds or so but for the numerous high-five offers which she graciously took part in - while Ficker came in less than three minutes later, having cut more than half off her deficit after the bike.

"I really was looking forward to this race," Ficker, a native of Potomac, Md., perhaps 90 minutes away by car, said. "But the heat [temperatures were in the low 90s by noon], and the wind, plus the current in the river, they were tough this year."

Badmann, always upbeat, had plenty more reason to be so Sunday - especially since her bike ride was so filled with sightings of the area's native creatures.

"Thank you so much for all the beautiful animals you let me see today," Badmann joked with event coordinator Dr. Robert Vigorito. "I got to see a turtle first, and then there was a deer... He was right on my way, maybe 10 meters away, and I yelled, 'Get out of the way!' - but the deer just stood there, watching me."

Badmann said she also got to see "a pretty little bunny - and there were some [buzzards] as well," recalling the encounters with her ever-there smile.

The course skirted the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, a place where several dozen deer strikes - instances of cars striking the whitetails and sika deer which inhabit the area - take place, as it does every year. The EagleMan is, in fact, named after one such inhabitant of the Refuge - the American national bird, the Bald Eagle.

PROFESSIONAL MEN

1 LUKE BELL                           26        MELBOURNE               3:53:55 
2 VIKTOR ZYEMTSEV              32        DADE CITY FL             4:01:22 
3 BRYAN RHODES                   32        TAUPO                        4:04:07 
4 TODD WILEY                        35        DOYLESTOWN PA       4:04:28 
5 TRAVIS KUHL                       30        LOWVILLE NY              4:04:49 
6 LUKE MCKENZIE                  23        ST. PETERSBURG FL  4:06:14