Race Coverage

"Determined to Have Some Fun"....

Tuesday, 30 July 2019 23:10

CHISAGO LAKES SPRINT - DIANE HANKEE has been on a racing rampage lately. Two weekends ago, she podiumed at Bertram Blast (3rd despite running long) and Heart of the Lakes (2nd). She raced twice last weekend as well, and didn't simply claim podium spots, she won both races. Her Saturday win was at Shell Lake. On Sunday, she topped a great women's field at Chisago Sprint. In both races, she relied on her fleetness afoot to overtake the ladies who beat her to T2.

Elite Masters women have never been so plentiful in Minnesota. BECKY YOUNGBERG, 44, has won three major events this year and rewritten six Masters records. CATHY YNDESTAD, 40, set course records at Graniteman and Minneapolis. KORTNEY HAAG, 40, set a PR in a winning effort at Chisage Half IM. SARA RONDORF, 41, has won two of the three races she's done this season. ANDREA MYERS, 42, and CHERYL ZITUR, 54, are also racing at  a national level. 

And Hankee, 42, has has won half of the six races she's done thus far in 2019, and the other three results are a pair of 2nds and a 3rd.

Minnesota's Masters women are rocking like never before.

But wait, there's another woman who deserved to be mentioned here....

On the heels of her impressive 7th at Minneapolis, 53-year-old JULIA WEISBECKER placed 2nd behind Diane at Chisago. Absent from the tri scene in 2018, she appears to have reclaimed her 2017 form. That season she place 2nd  at Liberty Olympic and Square Lake, and 5th in AG record time at Superior Man. She also matched her 7th placing at Minneapolis, but she was four minutes faster this year.

Rounding out women's podium on Sunday was four-time Chisago Sprint winner NICOLE HEININGER, whose spot was almost taken from her by later-wave HANNAH CARLSON of Aberdeen, South Dakota. The margin between those fast ladies was just six-tenths of a second.

A glance at Carlson's resume suggests that she may be her state's premier female triathlete this year. Mad Man and Dakota Man were two of the tris she'd won this season.

While the top two women's finishers were Elite Masters, six of the top seven places in the men's race went to 40+ athletes, though the winner was "USAT 40," i.e. he's turning forty later (October) in the year.

On paper, defending champ KEVIN O'CONNOR, 48, and ANDY WIBERG, 41, were the guys to beat. Then 48-year-old Nebraskan THOMAS WOODS, a nine-time national AG champion, signed up. 

It looked like a predictable podium.

Wiberg crossed the finish line first. He was followed by O'Connor. Less than three minutes passed, then Woods, who started in the wave that followed the elite wave, finished, overtaking KO in the standings by a slim six seconds. 

It appeard that Wiberg had just posted his landmark 10th career win. Then a guy from the last wave crossed the finish line. 

It wasn't until results were posted that it became clear that MARK BERVEN had recorded his first career multisport victory, his time five seconds faster than Andy's.

Exciting stuff! 

Mark, a Speedo wearer who is prone to handstanding (top photo), had this to say about his breakthrough performance:

"I can tell you I am at least as surprised as anyone that I won the sprint. I went out in the last wave and although I cut through a lot of the 8th and 9th waves, there were already a number of people finished and I just kind of assumed Kevin [O’Connor] or Andy [Wiberg} or whoever had won.

The short story of my race is that, after having a good long chat with Diane [Hankee] before the race about modifying our wetsuits, I swam slightly better than usual (which still isn’t saying much for my swim). I got caught behind a batch of athletes leaving T1 and honestly had to queue up to slowly walk out past the mount line – it helped me appreciate going out in an elite wave where there’s room to move. Oh well. I had a good bike ride .... And it wasn’t my best run, but it was enough. All said and done I benefitted from the short swim distance and a number of the usual suspects going long or doing races out of state (or country), but I’m pretty excited to garner my first overall win.

My season to date has been fair: 9th at Buffalo, 5th at Trinona, 12th at Lifetime Minneapolis. I was not super pleased with my performance last weekend at Heart of the Lakes (9th) so this week, heading into Chisago, I was determined to have some fun with all of this stuff. (Now that’s a triathlete-like statement “I was determined to have fun…” Haha!) So you may have noticed I rocked the speedo. It’s a gamble – do well and you’re awesome. Do poorly and you just look like a doofus. Although my history shows I am clearly unafraid of looking like a doofus! After the race a story trickled my way; Erin [Lahti] informed me that while out on the bike course, as she made a pass, someone said to her “yep, we’re all just trying to catch the guy in the speedo.”

Happy for you, Mark. You beat some true studs last Sunday, and we're anxious to see what you do in your next race.

As always, the Chisago Lakes races were First Class.  RESULTS