Race Coverage

Heather Pops a 4:10!

Sunday, 31 January 2016 06:00

PANAMA 70.3 - Heather Lendway collected $6500 for her 3rd place finish at Panama 70.3 this morning. The race was the 2016 Pan American 70.3 Championships.

Heather and eventual winner Sarah Haskins came out of the water together, HL then outbiked Haskins and everyone else (2:12:43!) in the women's field. A third of the way through the run, Haskins claimed the lead. Lisa Roberts, thanks to the fastest run split of the day for the women, managed to overtake Heather, but only by six seconds.

Heather's bronze medal time was an amazing 4:10:41, a Minnesota state record (pending verification of distances), eclipsing Ruth Brennan Morrey's old mark of 4:13:46 at Kansas 70.3 in 2014.

USAT WINTER TRIATHLON NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (Lake Phalen, St. Paul) - The two most talented Nordic skiers in the race--Joel LaFrance and Jan Guenther--took control in the third and final phase....

(7.5K ski) and sped to convincing wins over a small by talent-rich field. LaFrance dogged pre-race fave Sean Cooley through the 5K run and 15K fat bike portions. On skis, he put 50 seconds on Sean, a  five-time North Dakota Winter Tri champ. A tall guy named Andrew Tillman, rounded outh the men's podium.

Jan, 56, went to the front during the 4th of five bike laps. She held a small lead on Cindi Bannink heading into the final led. She then freestyled her way to a 2:06 win over Bannink, a former USAT AOY HM. Third through fifth were hard-fought and eventually claimed by Jeanne Fleck (former Minnesota Master of the Year), Christina Roberts (#2 on Team Minnesota 2015) and Kitty Earl-Tornianen.

Jeremy Sartain and Kris Swarthout produced an awesome experience for the 73 participants. RESULTS