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Race of the Year Voting Breakdown...
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Wednesday, 07 December 2016 23:10
Photo - Timberman co-directors, Amy and Alan Dettmer
Recently, we received this email from Timberman co-director, Amy Dettmer:
Hi MTN Guys,
Great to see you at Gear West a couple of weeks ago! I may have missed it on MTN, so wondering if you have posted, or will post, the final tallies for the Race of the Year voting? Wondering how Timberman fared? Were we 2, 3, 4, or 5? Happy that Superior Man won Race of the Year. I like to see northern MN races do well!
Amy
We replied: ....
Erin's Best Season Ever...
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Tuesday, 06 December 2016 23:10
Yesterday we discussed the selection of Junior of the Year, which we referred to as an "In-between" category, that is, one that is neither a slam dunk, nor controversial.
Today we'll talk about the women's Most Improved selection, which was also perceived to be a 'Tweener category.
The Selectors agreed that Erin Hyndman-Farrens (photo) and Diane Hankee were the two most viable MI candidates. Angela Kidd had raced well, but her volume was low and her ultimate Team MInnesota placement was in the 15th-16th area. Dani Vsetecka would have made Team Minnesota in 2015 had not her scorecard featured performances from 2014, thus her making the Team in 2016 was expected.
Hyndman-Farrens won the award because she made Team Minnesota (#7) for the first time, though she had come very close on two prior occasions. Low racing volume is what had kept her off in the past. Boosting her selection was the fact that she set personal bests in Olympic distance, half IM and full IM. Her 10:02:29 at Ironman Louisville was nominated for Performance of the Year....
Crowning Clayton...
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Monday, 05 December 2016 23:10
A few weeks back we used the term "In Between" to designate the MMA categories that were neither slam dunks, nor all that controversial. They fell somewhere "in between" those designations. The three categories that we considered 'tweeners were Junior of the Year and both the male and female Most Improved.
Let's start with Junior of th Year, which was won by Mitchell Clayton, 19, of Forest Lake.
On the surface, Mitchell's selection seemed pretty slam dunky. He'd raced twelve times, which was more than the other three nominees combined. (We're only including non-draft-legal races here.) He won five of those events, which is an unprecedented number of victories in a single season by a Minnesota junior.
What bothered the Selectors somewhat about Clayton were his race choices. He excelled in what can be called the "companion" races, i.e. the sprint events that are historically less competitive than the longer events they accompany. By doing this, Mitchell never faced, thus could not be measured against, our state's best athletes (Team MInnesota guys etc.).
Still, when measured against his own performances of prior seasons, Clayton, a three-time JOY nominee, had definitely gotten faster....
A Great Interview With RBM...
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Sunday, 04 December 2016 23:10
By Timothy Carlson (slowtwitch.com)
In 2010, Ruth Brennan Morrey was 35 and coming off a 10 year hiatus from sports - an elite soccer and marathon career interrupted by many things including the birth of three children and acquiring a PhD - when she decided to try triathlon and became a pro. First step: learn to swim.
One year later, the Rochester, Minnesota mother of three was the women’s overall age group champion of the ITU Long Distance Worlds in Henderson, Nevada. In 2013, she scored the fastest run splits at three 70.3s – all under 1:20 – while finishing 5th, 6th and 12th overall woman. In her most impressive performance, she was racing second overall woman, five minutes behind leader Eva Nystrom during the 150 kilometer bike segment at the 2013 ITU Long Distance World Championship in ...
Why Bri?
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Thursday, 01 December 2016 23:10
By An Anonymous Guy
Sometimes you get what you want. Sometimes you don't. That is tha nature of democracy.
The process determining the MMAs is a democratic one, which, as one of the Selectors, who shall remain nameless, I appreciate and respect. Naturally, I don't always get what I want....
