Craig Alexander Announces Retirement From Ironman Distance
Three-time Ironman world champion Craig Alexander announced his retirement from Ironman-distance racing after finishing fifth in Melbourne.
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Three-time Ironman world champion Craig Alexander announced his retirement from Ironman-distance racing after crossing the finish line in fifth at the Ironman Asia-Pacific Championships on Sunday.
“I want to pay tribute to my wife Neri, and all the people who have supported me over the journey,” he said. “I feel like my body is a rental car and I’ve been racing with the handbrake on for a while now. I don’t want to be fifth, I want to be the guy on the podium spraying everyone with champagne.”
A swim that left him two minutes off the pace meant Alexander spent the day chasing those in front of him and, even after digging deep into his kit bag and retrieving one more blistering fast run split, Alexander was unable to make up the time he lost at the beginning of the day.
“I’m 41 in two and a half months, it’s going to take me a long time to recover. It’s hard because I want to win, but I’m not what I used to be,” he said. “That marathon hurt me more than any marathon I’ve ever run, I dug as deep as I could, I put myself in a terrible position. I salvaged a top five, but I’ve never been happy with a top five.”
Alexander was recently named as the third athlete in Triathlete’s list of the 25 Greatest Triathletes of All Time.
See more of what Alexander had to say at the finish line at Ironman.com.