by Lance Phegley

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Some 1,500 multi-sport athletes hit the waters of Buffalo Springs Lake in Lubbock, Texas, on Sunday morning, many of them on one of the toughest half-Ironman courses anywhere.

Approximately 1,100 of the day's competitors would test themselves over the 1.2ms / 56mb / 13.1mr distance of the Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon, while the remainder would tackle the sprint distance Tri-Raider Triathlon.

When the dust had settled (hey, this is West Texas, you know), Austin's James Bonney was the first to the finish, establishing a new course record of four hours, four minutes and 24 seconds -- which gave him more than a 30 minute cushion at the tape.

But that's not to say that the race behind Bonney wasn't interesting.

2000 Ironman California champion Chris Legh and Bonney's former fellow Austinite Michael Lovato exited the water behind the past All-American swimmer. And both had designs of claiming the overall title.

On the descent of the Spiral Staircase, Legh flatted and crashed - - and Lovato went down in a similar spot. Both got up and continued on, but Legh dropped out after another flat while Lovato gamely trudged to the finish, but well out of contention.

On the women's side, while the injuries sustained during a bike crash in the week preceding the race kept Paula Newby-Fraser from competing, it opened the door for someone else to take a shot at the title. That someone turned out to be 33-year-old Judith McSweeney, who turned back Eva Machuca by 15 minutes to claim the Elite Women's division. The duo's swim and run times nearly offset each other (McSweeney's 28:03 swim put her six minutes up on Machuca, while the latter's 1:34:54 half marathon ate six minutes out of McSweeney's lead), so McSweeney's 15 minute bulge on the bike was the difference.

Age groupers Eric Hodska and Lotte Branigan showed some of the pros a thing or two. Hodska's 4:22:12 time was the second fastest of the day, while Branigan's 4:52:04 topped all the ladies.