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Pursued by Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies...
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Saturday, 17 August 2019 23:20
By Christina Roberts
IGNITE SWIMRUN RACE REPORT- This past weekend, I teamed up with Corey Towle to successfully defend our title in the IGNITE MN SwimRun race up at Cuyuna regional park! We raced the long course which totaled just over 17 miles of swimming and running. There were 9 run legs ranging from 0.02 to 3.9 miles and 8 swim legs ranging from 0.15 to 1 mile. The runs weren’t too technical but they required focus to avoid falling and leaving a little blood on the trail, which happened to nearly every team out there. Every single mile was an adventure. And we smiled and laughed (mostly at our botched transitions) every single mile. It was so much fun. IGNITE put on an awesome race! ...
David & Sara. Kevin & Simone...
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Saturday, 17 August 2019 23:10
Photo - Teen standouts Jack Hennen and Simone Lundquist.
YOUNG LIFE TRIATHLON - Past champions of both genders claimed victories once again yesterday at this popular 16-year old triathlon. 2018 men's Olympic winner DAVID LEWIS successfully defended his title, and was joined on the Top Step by SARA CARLSON, women's Olympic winner here in 2017. Both enjoyed girthy margins of victory, as Lewis's time was 6:11 faster than the men's runner-up, and Carlson bettered her closest rival by 3:46.
SIMONE LUNDQUIST, now 16, posted her first career tri victory at Young Life's Sprint race in 2018. Like Lewis, she was able to successfully defend her title. Her tme was 1:10:18, which was 20-seconds faster than last year, but her margin of victory, only 21-seconds last time, was 6:32 yesterday.
Lundquist now has three career multisport victories....
Hello. Goodbye.
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Thursday, 15 August 2019 23:30
SUPERIOR MAN TRIATHLON - After watching ALEXANDER MUNDT, a Danish grad student / swim coach currently residing in St. Cloud, race at Buffalo Olympic, we were sure he was going to be our state's next (male) tri star. Blowing everyone out of the water, then beating a Who's Who of our region's elite athletes en route to a podium finish turned some heads, certainly ours.
We were anxious to watch him race again, though two months would pass before we got that opportunity. And once again, he didn't disappoint. This time he blew the entire field away at the 8th annual Superior Man Half IM.
How blown away? His 4:10:50 was 14:12 better than the next two guys, Minneapolis' PATRICK CROWE and Ontario's KRIS NISULA, who turned in identical runner-up clockings. Nisula, 43, was coming off a win at Brewhouse Sprint, a performance that was preceded by a 3rd place finish at Timberman Olympic.
It's quite possible that Kris will be the second foreign athlete (after JON BALABUCK, also of Thunder Bay) to be considered for a post-season MMH nomination....
Youth Excel at Green Lake...
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Wednesday, 14 August 2019 23:20
GREEN LAKE TRIATHLON - A total of 281 athletes crossed the events' finish lines last Sunday after having endured the most turbulent swim in the race's 16-year history. Wave starts had to be elongated to allow previous waves to get far enough down the course before the next wave could be launched. (It took 53 minutes to get everyone in the water; not the posted 29.) Thirty-five life jackets were delivered to struggling swimmers via jet ski and paddleboards, and when their users either finished, or gotten to the downhill portion of the route, those jackets were delivered to the next group of strugglers.
Triathletes are "endurance animals," of course, thus few complained about the Maytag conditions.
Despite the chop, and the rather windy conditions, the eventual finish times were surprisingly fast, especially in the Sprint race. Both of the winners--SPENCER SYVERTSON and South Dakota elite master TERESA VAN HYFTE--had raced, and won, here before and were convinced that the run course was a bit short this year. The printed results seemed to support their suspicions .
As a result, Syvertson's excellent 57:46 could not be an official course record. JOHN SHELP's 58:35, set in 2012, therefore, remains intact.
And Van Hyfte's 1:10:41 would not erase the 50-54W course best (1:13:03) she set in 2018.
Still, both athletes were ecstatic with their performances and and were highly complimentary of the event.
At 22, Syvertson was the "Old Man" of the Sprint podium. His nearest challengers were a pair of talented 16-year-olds, both of whom had been laboring in the shadows of their elite siblings in past years. Placing 2nd was CARSON DEICHMAN (photo L), younger sibling of two-time Junior of the Year...
Bluff Land, St. Paul & Young Life Previews...
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Wednesday, 14 August 2019 23:10
There's three triathlons on Minnesota soil this weekend. All are on Saturday, and we hope you will support one of them. Contact your chosen event to see if race-day is available.
In alpha order, these are the events:
BLUFF LAND TRIATHLON - We must admit that we don't know much about this event, other than that it is extremely scenic and consists of a 5K run, followed by a 15.5 mile bike ride, and concluding with a 2.1 mile HIKE. Here's the website description:
Chip-timing will be used for all three legs of this Run – Bike – Hike. Register online to participate in the full triathlon or grab some friends and do a relay of the three activities. All segments start and end at Creekside Park in Rushford, Minnesota....
