Race Coverage
M & Ms, Girlfriends & Katie's Gun Show...
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Wednesday, 07 August 2024 00:10
GRANITEMAN BIG LAKE OLYMPIC COVERAGE - We don't much about NATHAN LASSELLE, other than that he is young and wears a UM tri kit. He captured our attention in 2023 when he placed 2nd at Big Lake Olympic. So we did some research, starting by Googling the UM Tri Team. We learned at lot:
Nathan Lasselle - "I am this year’s Fundraising Coordinator. I am from Maple Grove, Minnesota, and I am majoring in Chemical Engineering. My hobbies include playing clarinet, being outdoors in nature, weight lifting, eating M&Ms and of course swimming, biking, and running. My favorite part of the team is the friendships that are formed. Many of my best friends were met on the team. My favorite memory of the team is when we went tubing after Pleasant Prairie Tri."
Lasselle, an exuberant clarinet-playing, M & M aficionado (Who isn't?) with fundraising skills is a faster in all three diciplines this year than he was in 2023, when he posted a 2:19:47 second place finish at Big Lake Olympic, which proudly features four bike miles more than standard Olympic routes. Last Saturday at this year's Big Lake Olympic, he won the race, though he needed to overcome a rather slow first transition to eventually track down and pass early leader NOAH BILLINGS, who would keep things close until the run, where he proved to be about 10-seconds per mile faster. Billings, whose girlfriend (phot below) was watching him race for the first time, was justifiably pleased with his effort. ...
Shyanne & Spencer!
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Monday, 05 August 2024 00:10
Top Photo: BH Sprint champ Shyanne McGregor. Page 2 Photo: BH Olympic winner Spencer Syvertson.
BREWHOUSE OLYMPIC COVERAGE - Not since 2018 has a triathlete beaten JOSH BLANKENHEIM in his own backyard, i.e. Duluth and environs, until yesterday, that is. Josh and Wade Cruser duked it in '18, with Wade coming out on top at Brewhouse Olympic. FYI, Cruser was the Triathlete of the Year in back then.
Yesterday, Josh turned in his fastest Brewhouse performance ever, but he came up just 22-seconds short. He made up time on the bike and run, but SPENCER SYVERTSON's swim, along with his improved cycling, delivered him to the finish line in course record time. 1:50:17! This performance along with his RR at Alexandria and his 2nd at Lake Minnetonka make him arguably the frontrunner for 2024 Minnesota's Most Improved male triathlete.
Josh's 1:50:39 nuked BH's Masters record.
The final mem's podium sport went to Superior Wisconsin's RICHARD VANDEN BRANDEN, whose fine 1:56:57 on the 1200m - 24 mile - 10K course was highlighted by his signature strong running. According to his Facebook page, Richard is into hunting, fishing and country music.
Wisconsin's MADDY BLAIN, who had a brief stint as a pro triathlete a few years back, and many fine amatuer performances in her home sate since then, was a late registrant. She bracked solid swim and bike spits with...
Brisk Racing...Updated...
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Sunday, 04 August 2024 00:10
2024 GREEN LAKE INTERMEDIATE PREVIEW - We are anticipating some brisk racing next Sunday at the 18th edition of the Green Lake Intermediate (.75 - 22 - 6) Triathlon. Defending champ COREY NYGAARD is returning. He's racing at a Team Minnesota level this season and, weather permitting, become the 13th man to break 1:50 here. He'll need that kind of time to repeat. He'll be facing JOE ADRIAENS, a legitimate sub-2-hour Olympic-distance racer. Will Joe have put his Covid symptoms behind him by race time? We're guessing he will.
UPDATE: Corey Nygaard collected his third W of the season this morning at Hoot Lake by a four-minute margin.
MERILEA OSTERLUND has two wins and a pair of 3rds in this race. Her PR here is 2:07. We're picking her to finish 2nd on Sunday behind KADIE HOKANSON, who is making her Green Lake debut. Kadie was nominated for Master of the Year last year and her times are even more impressive this season. A sub-2:04 would be one of this race's Top 10 fastest women's times ever. We think that Kadie is ready to throw down that kind of performance.
AG Prediction: We believe the husband/wife team of JEFF GILMER, 65, and MARY DEEG, 62, will rewrite their respective divisional records. Jeff already owns the 60-64M mark. Jeff will need to better 2:19:07, which we believe is very doable. Mary need a sub-2:30:34. A lot to ask? Sure....
Magic Kona Coffee Beans...
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Friday, 02 August 2024 00:10
By Kenneth Downer
Instead of a typical blow-by-blow race report, this one simply shares a few vignettes from my experience at Ironman Lake Placid 2024 to convey a sense of the race and the atmosphere of an Ironman event. I hope you enjoy it.
Before the Gun.
• 3:15 AM. Coffee. The beans I grind are part of a quarterly delivery I get from Kona, Hawaii. My daughter and I toured the Heavenly Hawaiian Farms coffee plantation after I raced on the Big Island in 2019. I signed up for regular shipments to maybe keep that Kona spirit alive. I hope that perhaps those beans might somehow add a little something special to my race today.
• Standing with our toes in the moist sand on the starting beach of Mirror Lake, we listen as a local singer belts out the National Anthem with commendable skill. Her final words are drowned out as an Apache helicopter gunship roars out of the leaden sky and over our heads.....
Caryn & Jack, Cheryl and Nick...
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Wednesday, 31 July 2024 00:10
CHISAGO LAKES OLYMPIC COVERAGE - There were plenty of awesome performances in Sunday's Chisago Lakes Olympic Triathlon. The race is young, only three years old, and many of the AG records are a bit soft, so it wasn't earth-shattering that eleven of the sixteen non-open class (00-19, 40 & over) age groups saw record times despite the heat and wind. Some of those performances were truly special, like JULIA WESIBECKER's 55-59 effort that landed her in 4th place overall in the women's race, or THOMAS WOODS' 50-54M performance, which landed him in 8th place overall. Woods is a highly decorated elite master from Nebraska....
Kim & Jasper...
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Monday, 29 July 2024 00:10
CHISAGO LAKES 70.3 COVERAGE - In the days leading up to this year's races, ELENA JASPER decided not to race in the Olympic event, and instead tackle the 70.3...
