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Successful Debut...
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Saturday, 31 July 2010 13:37
Taggart Downare's impressive season got even impressiver today. This morning the 40-year-old 
from St. Cloud (photo-Taggart with his pets) recorded his first career win. The race was the 1st annual Chase the Police Triathlon in beautiful Walker, a nice little town on scary-sounding Leech Lake that has a cool yesteryearesque courthouse (photo below). (For those of you who don't know, which is almost everybody, except for residents of Walker, the 114-year old town, which was founded by Patrick McGarry, is the home of "Ah-Gwa-Ching," the first residential facility for TB patients. We're not totally sure what "Ah-Gwa-Ching" means but but we know its an Ojibwe deal. We suspect that, loosely translated, it means "place for many people who cough alot."..
Golden Rides...
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Saturday, 31 July 2010 05:00
By Rose Greenleaf
"Hi. I'm a triathlete and I pee on MY bike." I then passed the sacred glide stick to the guy next to me. "Hello. I'm a triathlete and I have been peeing on the bike for 4 years." He passed the stick to the next person...
No one tells you these dirty little secrets when they first try to induct you into their secret club. No one mentions these trivial absurdities when they woo you with flashy bikes and attempt to indoctrinate you into their "healthy" lifestyle. You don't find out until later, when you become....one of them. (Insert scary high pitched noise here.)
I was zipping up the guy's wetsuit next to me when the subject came up. "Rose, you know..
Frightfully Lifelike....
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Friday, 30 July 2010 05:00
Believe it or not, the big guy and the big blue cow in the photo here are NOT real. Amazing detail and biological correctitudinousness, huh!
Whoever crafted these totally lifelike replicas of Paul Bunyan (of Brawny Towels fame) and Babe the Blue Ox ("Ox" is Ojibwe for "Big Cow") was a true master of the sculptorial arts. Mike D'Angelo, Ro-Dan and Leonardo Da Caprio--considered by many to be the greatest stone chiselers of all time--got nothing on this guy!
Who is he?....
Brewhouse Preview...
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Thursday, 29 July 2010 05:00
After 14 Bichful years, the Brewhouse Triathlon will be a Bich-Free Zone on Sunday, August 1. It's gonna feel strange.
Since the turn of the century, Duluth family man / college professor / stud triathlete Brian Bich has won 40 races, was named US Master of the Year (2008) and collected nine MMAs, four for Triathlete of the Year. His first of nine victories at Brewhouse was turned in in 1998.
Soft spoken and classy, Brian has been both the face and the soul of this great race. A perfect poster boy, if such a poster were...
Great Stuff About Waseca...
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Wednesday, 28 July 2010 05:30
Waseca, Minnesota, home of the Waseca 1/3 Iron & Sprint triathlons, is a wonderfully quaint community.
It promulgates its "Old World" charm via the steadfast resistance to all forms of modernization. It's fire department (photo), for instance, looks much the same today as it did in the Lincoln era. Sure, departmental response time is unimpressive and an inordinate number of local homes and businesses have burned down over the decades, not to mention the fact that the streets (cobblestone, of course) are terminally littered with horsey poop, but such is a small price to pay for pastoral charisma.
Continuing the yesteryearish theme, Waseca doesn't have a mayor or city council (but it does have an old fashioned butterfly net-wielding dog catcher!)...
