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Late Registrants & Usual Suspects...
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Wednesday, 24 July 2019 23:10
14th CHISAGO LAKES HALF IRON - Historically, late registrants have podiumed at this awesome event. In 2018, for instance, Aussie star MATT HUTCHINSON, a totally cool guy with a great accent, disrupted our predictions. We picked SEAN COOLEY, WADE CRUSER and JOE ADRIAENS to take the overall medals. But Matt popped in and took the gold, throwing down a sweet 4:06:45.
Thus Sean, Joe and Wade, respectively, grabbed the next three places.
In 2017, KORTNEY HAAG, who had won more halves than any other Minnesota woman, was our pick to up her total. Then, with race day near, Colorado's MOLLY SMITH, who had been tearing up the national long distance scene, enrolled. A great runner, she overtook Haag in the later stages of the final leg and pushed on to win in 4:35:40.
We could drop names of talented podium-worthy late sign-ups, like JON BALABUCK (Canada), TIM HOLA (Colorado), ERIC ENGEL (Wisconsin), pro THOMAS GERLACH (Wisconsin), JEN FOLEY (Iowa), JACKIE ARENDT (HERING), MARNIE WALTH (North Dakota) etc., and you'd understand our reluctance to predict a Top 3.
And we believe that in the absence of the "usual supects," i.e. SEAN COOLEY and JOE ADRIAENS, who are racing elsewhere this weekend, this year's men's Top 3 will include one or two guys that were not on the list we saw...
Artificial T-Rexes & Real Loons...
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Tuesday, 23 July 2019 23:10
4th BERTRAM BLAST - Last Friday was Africa hot and Amazon humid. Bathing suit weather.
Temps were 30+ degrees lower on Saturday, and rain fell from the sky. Total sweatshirt weather.
Sunday's weather was perfect.
Bertram Blast happened on soggy, chilly Saturday, but that didn't dampen the spirits of the 100-or-so athletes that did the event. That's because off-road racing is less about results than it is about celebrating the outdoors, and whatever it throws at you. Within reason, that is.
Numbers were down, which bummed out race founder / director BRETT ODEN for a while. Then he recalled that his event shared the weekend with five other multisport races, including the Tri Loppet, our state's largest off-road multisport event.
Ironically, the weather was much yuckier at Theodore Wirth Park than it was at Bertram Chain of Lakes Park, forcing the cancellation of Tri Loppet.
INGRID MELANDER, who is a wonderful person, as well as a total HOOT!, has been doing off-road tris (and MTB races) for a long time. She once drove to Arkansas (or Missouri?) on a Saturday for a race that was cancelled, then considered driving from there to Colorado for a race on Sunday, which would be a sleepless, nick-of-time type of deal. Because she had to work on Monday (she's an Emergency Room nurse), her boyfriend / traveling partner JASON GIDDINGS talked her down. They drove back to Duluth.
In her cool, stream-of-consciousy way, Ingrid described the 2019 Bertram Blast Triathlon:
Great race...rain, last minute course change, a wee bit o lightening during set-up, tyrannosaurs in the lake....but it’s triathlon in Minnesota. The loons were even calling as we arrived and surveyed the beach and the weather.
Warm water, sandy beach start, and mountain bikes lined up in transition....
Juniors Shine at Heart of the Lakes Sprint...
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Monday, 22 July 2019 23:10
HEART OF THE LAKES SHORT COURSE - Wow! What a great race. Four teens, two boys and two girls, cracked the overall Top 7! The two fastest of those talented young athletes, KYLE SWENSON, 17, and ISABELLA BUENTING, 16 (photo), completely rocked, and one of them (Buenting) demolished the 34-year-old race's junior record.
Buenting became only the second teen to win her gender's competition outright.
Not only that, only two women--2018 National Champion GABY BUNTEN and CATHERINE LEE--have gone faster here. Lee's 48:44, which she posted back in 2003, was only nine seconds better than Bella's time.
Gaby's 45:41, a clocking befitting her National Champion talent, was turned in last year.
Buenting's margin of victory was 3:15 over runner-up /fellow elite junior MACY IYER, 15, who was nominated for Junior of the Year in 2018.
Third was earned by exiled Minnesotan MIKAELA ALGREN, who now lives in Coors country (Golden, Colorado). Mikaela finished 11th here in 2018. Her 2019 time--53:50--was 5:04 better than a year ago.(FYI - A Gustavus grad is currently doing research at Colorado School of Mines, Algren finished 4th last month at the TriBella Women's Triathlon in the Aurora, a Denver suburb.)
Buenting's 2019 in-state resume features her HOLT win, 3rds at Lake Minnetonka and Minneapolis Sprint, and a 4th at Buffalo Sprint. Three of those efforts yielded AG records....
Revealing Stuff...
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Sunday, 21 July 2019 23:10
34th HEART OF THE LAKES TRIATHLON - Our state's oldest events, that is, those that have been around since the formative years of the sport, and have survived the recent, and unfortunately protracted, enrollment slump, are our best events. *
We're talking about the Apple Duathlon, Timberman, Brewhouse and Heart of the Lakes.
Apple is arguably our country's premier run, bike, run. Timberman and Brewhouse are true "destination" races.
And Heart of the Lakes, in our opinion, is the event with the biggest heart.
When they arrive at the venue, participants immediately feel a special sense of "friendliness" in the air.
Small-town pride and genuine human warmth is palpable.
HOLT is not only soul-nourishing, it is also one of our region's most competitive events, and this year's race was not only exciting, it was extremely revealing.
Revealing?
Yup. It revealed, for instance, that PATRICK PARISH is clearly the 2019 Triathlete of the Year male frontrunner. And we are not only talking about the Minnesota TOY honor. He's as formidable as any elite amateur man in the US right now, and we'd be disappointed if USAT overlooked him when determing their Athletes of the Year nominees....
North Country Twofer...Moose Lake & Buzz Ryan...
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Saturday, 20 July 2019 23:20
BUZZ RYAN SPRINT - The 7th edition of this Island Lake race saw 110 athletes cross its finish line this morning (Sunday), starting with TODD STRUCKMAN, last year's runner-up.
2018's bronze medalist NATHAN WAECH took the silver this time around, nipping 3rd placer ANDREW BROADMORE by 13 seconds.
In the women's competition, ELAINE NELSON collected her sixth consecutive win here, and 19th W of her ten-year-old tri career.
Newly-minted master TARA MAKINEN made the most of her Buzz debut with a fine 2nd place finish, which came a week after her fast 3rd place effort at Timberman Sprint.
JENA OGSTON took the final women's podium spot, after placing 4th here in 2018 and 2017.
We thinks it's very cool that 61% of the finishers (67 women, 43 men) were women.
RESULTS ....
