News
CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--More than 9,000 professional, amateur and youth triathletes swam, biked and ran in the August 23rd-24th Transamerica Chicago Triathlon, presented by Toyota and produced by Life Time – The Healthy Way of Life Company. This year marked the 32nd anniversary of the endurance event, one of the world’s largest triathlons. An estimated crowd of 50,000 cheered on the race participants – about one third of whom were first-time triathletes.
Greg Bennett (Boulder, CO) took first place in the male professional division at 01:49:02 while Alicia Kaye (Clermont, FL), coming off wins at the TriRock Philly in June, Life time Tri Minneapolis in July and Panasonic New York City Triathlon earlier this month, led all female professionals with a finishing time of 02:01:50.
Other top finishers included last year’s winner Hunter Kemper (Colorado Springs, CO), who took second among male professionals with a time of 01:49:11. Chicagoan Ben Collins, following wins at the Life Time Tri Minneapolis and Panasonic New York City Triathlon, finished third, completing the race in 1:50:15. In the female professional division, Radka Vodickova (Czech Republic) finished second with a time of 2:04:30, trailed by Abby Geurink (Hudsonville, MI), who took third place at 2:05:34.
Professional triathletes battled for the event’s $40,000 purse, with Bennett and Kaye taking home $8,500 each. Hundreds of awards were given to top finishers in various divisions.
This year’s triathlon featured a new bike course for the International Distance event, team challenge competitions, a new start sequence for Sunday’s races and a special Divvy bike wave at the SuperSprint event. With more than 1,050 children ages 7-14 participating, Saturday’s Life Time Kids Tri was the largest in event history.
As part of Tri weekend, Life Time has expanded its partnership with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to Chicago. 75 participating “St. Jude Heroes” raised more than $50,000 to help ensure patient families never receive a bill from St.Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food.
Participant results are available at chicagotriathlon.com, the official website of the Chicago Triathlon. More information on today’s race will be provided on Twitter by following @ChicagoTri and by liking the Chicago Triathlon Facebook page.
About LifeTime Fitness, Inc.
As The Healthy Way of Life Company, Life Time Fitness (NYSE:LTM) helps organizations, communities and individuals achieve their total health objectives, athletic aspirations and fitness goals by engaging in their areas of interest — or discovering new passions — both inside and outside of Life Time’s distinctive and large sports, professional fitness, family recreation and spa destinations, most of which operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Company’s Healthy Way of Life approach enables customers to achieve this by providing the best programs, people and places of uncompromising quality and value. As of August 24, 2014, the Company operated 112 centers under the LIFE TIME FITNESS® and LIFE TIME ATHLETIC® brands in the United States and Canada. Additional information about Life Time centers, programs and services is available at lifetimefitness.com.
About Transamerica Direct
Transamerica Direct is the direct-to-consumer business unit of Transamerica. At Transamerica, we help our customers Transform Tomorrow®. Through Transamerica Direct, the Transamerica companies offer a wide array of life and health insurance solutions that create better tomorrows by protecting families and their dreams. Insurance products and services are issued by Transamerica Life Insurance Company, Cedar Rapids, IA, and affiliated Transamerica companies.
With more than a century of experience, Transamerica has built a reputation on solid management, sound decisions and consumer confidence. For more information, visit www.transamerica.com, Facebook or Twitter.
About Toyota
Toyota, the world's top automaker and creator of the Prius, is committed to building vehicles for the way people live through its Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands. Over the past 50 years, the company has built more than 25 million cars and trucks in North America, where Toyota operates 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ nearly 40,000 people (more than 37,000 in the U.S.). The company’s 1,800 North American dealerships sold more than 2.5 million cars and trucks in 2013 – and about 80 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 20 years are still on the road today. (NYSE:TM) For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.