Race Coverage

Runaway Win Caps Blankenheim's Season...

Tuesday, 27 August 2019 23:10

By Mike Aulie (brainerddispatch.com / cool photo by Steve Kohls)

BAXTER -- Josh Blankenheim of Duluth improved on his second-place finish of last year to post the fastest time in the Lakes Country Triathlon and Baxter’s Jacquelyn Bacigalupi repeated as the top female finisher Sunday, Aug. 25, at Kiwanis Park in Baxter....

Blankenheim completed the quarter mile swim, 13.6 mile bike ride, and 3.2 mile run in 57:49, better than his time 58:27 last year when he finished second to Wade Cruser of Sauk Rapids who set a 56:55 course record. Cruser did not compete this year.
Bacigalupi, 41, finished eighth overall in 1:11:05, slightly slower than her winning time of 1:09:56 last year.
Race conditions were near perfect. Temperatures hovered around 63 degrees under sunny skies with a slight breeze when it began at 8:30 a.m. for 138 registered participants with the swim in Whipple Lake.

Blankenheim, a 39-year-old fisheries biologist with the DNR, was the third swimmer out of water, 19 seconds behind the leader. A quick transition time had him in second for the start of the bike leg. READ MORE