Race Coverage
Cathy's Words...
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Thursday, 05 April 2012 03:00
(Photo - Fast Friends: Cathy, Angie Schmidt & Julie Hull.)
By Cathy Yndestad
Leadman 125 Report - This event was one for the memory books. A group of us from MN decided to sign up for the event about a month ago. A fantastic reason to get a group together in a fun city and bank a quality spring training event in the process. Peer pressure at its finest!
Initially I thought the biggest factor for the swim would be the frigid water temps. Early reports from the week put the water near 60 degrees. Since I
Epic in So Many Ways...
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Wednesday, 04 April 2012 03:00
Race Coverage - We hope you read yesterday's "Epic Newbie" post. If you did, you'd have a sense for how goshdarn epic the Life Time Leadman Epic 125 really was. Hellaciously tough courses. Even hellacious-er conditions (55 degrees with major chop; unrelenting 25-30 mph winds with 50+ mph gusts; 85 degree heat). This totally hard, yet cool and wonderful, event defied exaggeration.
Epic events give birth to epic stories, the embellishable stuff that legends are made of. Let's tell a few now, shall we?
* Matt Russell, the handsome bald pro who finished 2nd on Saturday, has a smoking hot South African girlfriend. Gillian Foreman is a triathlete and an actress who has a very charming accent and has been in several movies, most notably "Ocean's 13." This means that she got to hang out with George Clooney and Matt Damon and Brad Pitt. As she waited excitedly for her boyfriend to finish, a fellow spectator giddily asked her (we overhead this): "Isn't Brad Pitt like the handsomest guy ever?"...
Epic Newbie...
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Tuesday, 03 April 2012 03:00
(Photo - The girlfriends: Lillian Petite and Todd Hoekstra.)
Event Coverage - In a moment of un-medicated insanity, St. Paul cyclist / occasional cross-dresser (photo L), Todd Hoekstra, decided to make his multisport debut at the Life Time Leadman Epic 125 in Henderson, Nevada on March 31.
What was he thinking?!
Everything about The Epic is just that: Epic! The distances (1.5 miles -70 miles - 8 miles, A.K.A. 125K) and extreme course difficulty are epic enough. A member of the race staff described the run course to several participants who were standing at the swim start as follows: "Look to the southwest. You see that mountain range? We'll, the finish line is on the other side." He didn't need to describe bike route. The road leading to the race start was an asphalt ribbon than snaked up and down the craggy mountains that form the eastern and norther borders of Lake Mead. That was a section of the bike course. Scary stuff....
Indoor Tri News...
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Thursday, 29 March 2012 03:00
Race Coverage - We totally like the way the YWCA of Minneapolis Indoor Tri Series (Fall, Winter and Spring races) score their events. Not only do they post a participant's time and splits, they also post a comparison of those times with the times the athlete turned in at prior series races. For instance, check out Samanthalyn Trapp's improvement:
FYI, Samanthalyn (photo L) went to Vegas recently and had a wonderful time. She stayed at the Luxor.
The Y's Spring event was contested last Sunday and 68 athletes participated, one of whom was Tom Couillard of White Bear Lake. Tom is 62, which means that as a young man he listened to Frank Sinatra records and spread "oleo" on his toast in the morning. Tom was 3:32 faster on Sunday than he was at the Winter Indoor.
Not Playing It Safe...
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Wednesday, 28 March 2012 03:00
By Dan Hedgecock (from http://danhedgecock.blogspot.com)
This weekend Claire and I headed down to the deep south along with our personal race assistant (my dad) for Elite Du Nationals. The race was held in conjunction with Powerman Alabama's multi-sport weekend on the same course as the Powerman Duathlon. Right off the bat I have to say that the Powerman course was hands down the best course I have ever raced on. The course has EVERYTHING: beautiful scenery, smooth roads, challenging hills, off-road running, world class race organizers and phenomenal volunteers. If you're looking for a
