Wheelchair racer Jacob Heilveil is nothing if not thorough.
A native Korean who grew up in Hawaii with adoptive parents and moved to Longmont from Bothell, Wash., last October, Heilveil drove the Colorado Colfax Marathon course three times and videotaped it to develop his plan of attack for Sunday’s race.
“I went through the course and said, ‘This is where I’m going to attack,’ and ‘This is where I’m going to break away,”‘ Heilveil said. “It came very close (to plan).”
Heilveil held off Adam Bleakney of Savoy, Ill., to win with a time of 1 hour, 43 minutes, 4 seconds. Bleakney finished in 1:43:25.
A lead pack of four dropped by one at about 10 miles. Heilveil and Bleakney made it a two-man race after the course began climbing at mile 18.
“I didn’t expect Adam Bleakney to be with me that long,” said Heilveil, who was partially paralyzed by polio when he was an infant. “I wanted to get away early, but I couldn’t shake him.”
That changed about 3 miles from the finish where the course descended dramatically, then finished with one more arduous climb.
“Luckily on the last downhill, I got up to about 30 mph, gave it a little bit of gas, and then on the last climb I tried to put a hurt on him,” Heilveil said.
Consider it a payback.
“We’ve been competing for many years,” Heilveil said. “He got me last year in the Oita (Japan) Marathon and I didn’t like it.”
Shirley Reilly of Tucson was the top women’s finisher in 2:01:07.
“It was a fast race,” said Reilly, who was born prematurely and paralyzed from the waist down when her spine was deprived of sufficient oxygen. “I was with the lead pack the whole time and made a move at the end.”
The women’s field was only three deep, but Reilly was pleased.
“I thought it was fantastic,” said Reilly, 20. “It was a really fun race. I definitely want to come back again.”
