Race Coverage

"I Will Definitely Be Back"...

Monday, 01 August 2022 00:10

CHISAGO LAKES TRIATHLON COVERAGE - Part I - Breakout wins by "under the radar" male athletes have almost become the rule, not the exception, at Chisago Lakes Half Ironman  in the last half-dozen years. Tri rookie KARL NYGREN outraced a plethora of pre-race favorites en route to the men's title in 2021. Kiwi MATT  HUTCHINSON's credentials were very solid, though totally unbeknownst by his American peers, until he beat our region's best --Cooley, Adriaens, Cruser et al--here in 2018.

We shouldn't have been too surprised, then, when a heretofore unknown, outside of Xterra circles, that is, overtook pre-race favorite JOE ADRIAENS during the run and sped to an impressive win, a personal best for the distance by more than six minutes despite the unrelentingly windy conditions.

His name is LUKUS KLAWITTER. He's originally from Hutchinson, Minnesota, and is currently completing his doctorate at NDSU in Fargo. We reached out to him after the race and communicated via Facebook Messenger. His personal race report, which includes his competitive bio, will serve as the first  of two, perhaps three, MTN posts covering this year's exciting Chisago Lakes Triathlon. It is unedited. We love the fact that Dr. Klawitter isn't into using mid-sentence capital letters....

"I raced xterra triathlon 2016-2018. I won two national and pan american age group championships. 5th overall amateur and pan american championships. Qualified for three xterra world championships. Got back into racing triathlon in 2019 where I began training for the 2020 70.3 triathlon season. Another rider crashed me out of my first 70.3 last year where I separated my shoulder, this ended my entire triathlon race season. My first 70.3 was the north american championships in chattanooga this may, I won the 30-34 age group and was 10th overall amateur. I am one semester away from finishing my phd in sport physiology and biomechanics at North Dakota State University, my research is focused on preventing age related losses of fitness in aging endurance athletes. I am starting a job at Northern Michigan University this Fall as a Professor of Biomechancis.

(I also coach triathletes from all around the world as it aligns directly with my work as a professor, researcher, and athlete. Having a full understanding of how the human body works under various stresses is essentially my career, so it is fun to apply that in a coaching standpoint.)

The weather made for a tough day for sure. I just moved out of my apartment in fargo on Friday, and wrapping up everything at NDSU made for a stressful few weeks so this race was very much approached as a more of a training day. The swim was tough my shoulders were heavy and I did not spot well. But still overall ok with the time being not the most strong swimmer. I tried to be patient in transition to make sure I did not miss any nutrition. I lost a bottle the first mile of the bike and had to stop to pick it up as I did not want to lose 85g of CHO. I missed a turn around mile 11. ...

I did not have my normal bike legs today, but the bike course was beautiful, volunteer, were great, and I even saw a bear. Unfortunately I lost another bottle so was very behind on nutrition and my bike legs just did not allow me to push well into the head wind on the way back. I was about 6 minutes down going into the run and just focused on staying present, and my run legs were great, I kept the entire run in control and had such a blast with all the volunteers. I was very happy to be able to put a complete race together today without many unfortunate events.

I will definitely be back for this race. I am racing madison 70.3 in september and worlds 70.3 in October.

ED. Lukus' time at Chattanooga was 4:20. His time at Chisago was 4:14:12, a terrific performance given the extreme winds. His splits - S - 31:54 - B - 2:19:26 - R - 1:19:19. RESULTS

There is so much more to write about, so stay turned for Part II of our Chisago coverage, which is scheduled to post on Tuesday afternoon.