FRANKFORT — Sean Saxton had a little extra to race for Sunday.
Make that a lot extra to race for.
The Dover, Delaware 27-year-old won his first triathlon, a year after he had to drop of out the Ironman 70.3 Michigan due to the death of his father.
“I wanted to come back here,” Saxton said, struggling to hold back tears. “I had some unfinished business. … This one meant a lot. I wanted to win it for him. I didn’t know if I would.”
Saxton and his dad, Joe, both competed in the first Ironman in Frankfort back in 2021. It was Joe’s birthday, and Sean qualified for worlds. They did the same in 2022, also in Frankfort.
They planned to recreate that in 2024, but Joe passed away from heart failure a week prior to last year’s race.
“Last 5k always sucks to be honest,” Saxton said. “Everyone would agree, no matter how fast you are, even the pros and the age groupers. I heard someone say, ‘He’s hurting a little bit. He’s hurting.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, I know how to suffer a bit now, too.’ I just went for it the last mile.”
Saxton made the 15-hour drive from Delaware to Michigan with his mom, Cindy, the first time they did a race trip together.
“I sat with him in the hospital for 12 days and in critical care until he peacefully went,” Saxton said. “He left me with a lot of good life lessons. Hopefully I’ll someday pass them on to my children. He would want me to come back.”
Not only did he win, but he set his own personal-best 70.3 time by three minutes.
He’s already qualified for the world championships in Spain in November, and is entered in the Ironman race in Waco, Texas in three weeks.
“Before I came here in ‘21, I had really never been in the Midwest,” said Saxton, 40. “When I came here four years, I was like, ‘Oh, wow, the Midwest is pretty nice.’ I love it. This part of Michigan is just gorgeous.”
The race drew almost 1,900 competitors, with 1,588 finishing the 70.3-mile course before the finish line closed at 5 p.m. The course consisted of a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run.
Drew Nesbitt, or Lancaster, Pennsylvania, took second, as both passed Jacob Capin late in the run. Nesbitt was four seconds behind Saxton and 11 ahead of Capin.
“I was chasing him the whole time and made a little move around mile 9-12ish,” said Nesbitt, physical therapist who set his PR by about four minutes. “But he just took off that last mile and caught the guy that ended up getting third. We had great little battle going.”
This was Nesbitt’s second time racing at Frankfort, but the first with his own bike.
His bike broke the day before last year’s race. A bike shop in Midland offered a road bike to use before a former classmate in Midland reached out to the triathlon community there.
“I was very blessed that a random guy let me ride his bike 24 hours before the race,” Nesbitt said. “So I got to race last year, but needed a little redemption this year. Bike survived this time, and I had a great race this year. I knew when I couldn’t make it back here last year, I had to come back.”
“I appreciate the course, I appreciate the community,” Nesbitt continued. “It’s a great small town race, and fits the vibe I enjoy. I’ll be back.”
Dexter Holland, the lead singer of punk rock band The Offspring, finished the race in 6:16:22.
BONAWITT WINS WOMEN’S TITLE AFTER TRACKER ISSUE
At first, Emily Bonawitt thought her dad was playing a joke on her.
Then race officials questioned her win after she crossed the finish line first by almost eight minutes.
“I was a little nervous when I crossed the line, and they’re like, ‘You skipped half the course,’” Bonawitt said. “I’m like, ‘I promise I didn’t skip half the course.’”
Race officials talked to the volunteer cyclist who accompanied the leader, and he vouched for her, saying she moved into the lead about five miles into the run and he stayed with her the rest of the way. His bike odometer read over 19 miles.
Several minutes later, the chip tracker information updated, showing the 27-year-old from Sylvania, Ohio had completed the entire course.
She crossed the finish line so early that the banner wasn’t up for the first-place female to run through, so race officials allowed her to go back into the chute and cross the finish again with the banner held by Frankfort city superintendent Josh Mills and city council member MacKenzie Stratton.
Her father, Ed Altwies, told her during the race as she passed that the tracker wasn’t working.
“I thought my dad was pulling my chain at that point,” Bonawitt said. “I thought he would get in my head, because I knew I was in first place, and I think he wanted to make sure I kept going. I thought he was telling me the tracker’s not working so I don’t know how far the next person is behind. I thought it was a joke, but then I passed the finish line and oh, it actually wasn’t working.”
Kelly Hagerty took second in 4:38:06, while Lindsay Delorme placed third in 4:42:39. Bonawitt won in 4:29:55 in her third time racing in Frankfort and seventh Ironman overall.
She also raced in 2023 and 2024, finishing second among amateurs last year.
“I came back this year with a little bit of fire,” Bonawitt said. “This was the goal of my year. I said I want to be first place at Ironman 70.3 and no better way to do it tan at my favorite course. It’s such a beautiful day, such a beautiful city. I would recommend everyone come up here and race. I love the people of Frankfort and the neighboring cities. They are so great to us.”
Bonawitt, who is also qualified for the world championships in Spain like Saxton and Nesbitt, is a registered nurse.
“We like to challenge ourselves,” Bonawitt said. “It’s a nice it’s a nice stress reliever, I would say.”
She swam for a club team in high school, then did a sorority charity bike ride in college at the University of Toledo on a “$100 mountain bike from Walmart” and was hooked.
Her dad ran in college and turned to cycling after too many miles on the knees.
Her husband Tyler Bonawitt finished 28th in the men’s 70.3 in 4:21:52, ninth in the men’s 25-29 age group.
Em,ily Bonawitt started seriously training for triathlons during the Covid-19 pandemic. Tyler started training with her, and they entered their first Ironman in 2022.
“Working during the covid pandemic caused a lot of stress,” she said. “It was a great way to put my head down.”