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Mini-Previews: Bertram Blast, Turtleman, Moose Lake & Buzz Ryan....
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Thursday, 18 July 2019 23:10
The two busiest racing weekends of the season are August 10-11, which has eight events, and next weekend (July 20-21), which has five. Twenty-nine percent of the adult outdoor tris / dus staged on Minnesota soil this year are on those two weekends.
Naturally, we worry that race attendances will suffer, and we'd hate to see more events fall off the calendar. (Thirty-eight races have been cancelled between 2014 and now.)...
2019 HOLT Preview...
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Tuesday, 16 July 2019 23:20
34th HEART OF THE LAKES PREVIEW - Here are the athletes that are our current podium favorites for Sunday's Long Course race:
Men:
JOSH BLANKENHEIM - HOLT History - 2nd in 2017 & 2015, 3rd in 2018, PR - 1:33:05 (2015)
JOSH MORK - HOLT History - 14th in 2016. Comment: Josh's rise in the last three seasons has been impressive. A podium finish is very possible....
A Special Day...
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Monday, 15 July 2019 23:10
TIMBERMAN TRIATHLON - "Groundhog Day." A terrific movie that asks the question: "If you could relive one day in your life over and over, which one would it be?"
For us, it would be July 13, 2019. Last Saturday....
Another Big Win For Parish! Teens Rock in the Sprint!
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Sunday, 14 July 2019 23:10
MINNEAPOLIS OLYMPIC - The "on paper" men's podium favorites lived up to their status last Saturday. What was less clear was who would would win. Madison, Wisconsin's VANT LAMMERS had beaten Minneapolis' PATRICK PARISH (and everyone else) at Pigman Sprint six weeks ago, but Parish was not at his best that day. And since then, Patrick, Minnesota's Athlete of the Month in April/May and June, has been dominant on the regional scene.
We were excited about the Lammers / Parish rematch.
The other podium favorite was JOSH MORK, who was coming off a win at Graniteman Clearwater, and a 2nd (to Parish) at Lake Minnetonka. His M.O. is grab a lead in the swim, hammer the bike and hope that his pursuers aren't former collegiate runners.
Lammers and Parish are former collegiate runners.
Mork hit T2 with an almost two-minute lead on Patrick, and was 2:40ish in front of Vant....
A+ Stuff!...UPDATED!
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Saturday, 13 July 2019 23:20
MINNEAPOLIS OLYMPIC - The battle for the women's Top Step promised to be epic, even though 2017 champ / 2018 runner-up GABY BUNTEN was not in the elite lineup. Could newly returned CATHY YNDESTAD, now 40, give defending champ HANNA GRINAKER a run for her money?
CY came into the race with the taste of a course record victory lingering on her palate. She also had a ton of stored Minneapolis Tri memory in her muscle fibers, facts that Grinaker, who has all the repect in the universe for Yndestad, was painfully aware of. Just an "A Game" effort wasn't going to get it done. She needed her "A+" stuff.
(Interestingly, when Cathy applied for the Elite Wave, the SEVEN-TIME Minneapolis Tri champion had to provide proof that she was worthy, i.e. proof of having broken 2:30 at the 32-mile distance. In fairness to LTF, there had been a lot of staff turnover since 2014, the date of Cathy's last appearance.
As expected, CY gapped HG in the swim. She hoped her 2:13 edge would keep her adversary in the rearview mirror as long as possible. Perhaps Hanna would work too hard to catch up, then falter in the run. A fresh Hanna, a former collegiate runner, would be too much to handle in phase three otherwise....
