Race Coverage
Rochester's World Champions...
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Tuesday, 08 November 2011 02:00
(Photo - Talent-richTeam Rochester - L - R - Joe Moyer, Alex Hooke, Diana Koepp & Ruth Brennan Morrey.)
By Warren Peece
ITU Long Distance World Championships - The MTN Guys sent me out to Henderson, NV, a sprawling bedroom suburb south of Las Vegas, for Saturday's ITU Long Distance Worlds.
Being a sheltered Midwesterner, I was unprepared for some of the stuff I encountered there. Like "Pricasso," and the "Lingerie Football League." And roving bands of methed-up Elvis impersonators.
In case you don't know, Pricasso is an artist from Australia who paints portraits with, and I'm not making this up, his weenie. No, I didn't buy a ticket to his "exhibition," which was at one of The Strip's more garish hotel/casinos. Wait! All the hotel/casinos on The Strip are garish....
Eloquent Images...
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Sunday, 06 November 2011 02:00
ED. MTN does not post a lot of pro news. We let all the other tri-websites, most of which ignore the fact that AGers are the engine of The Lifestyle, do that. We're making an exception today, though. Lee Gruenfeld is a good friend and supremely eloquent with both words and images. Check out his Kona recap. If these images don't move you, well, you need a new soul.
By Lee Gruenfeld (for Ironman.com)
We've heard it a thousand times: "It's all about the run." And like most tired clich
YeeeeeHaw!
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Thursday, 03 November 2011 03:00
By Kortney Haag (from kortneyhaag.blogspot.com)
Austin 70.3 - What a fun way to end my season in warm and sunny Austin!
Derek and I left for our trip on Friday and I had already shipped my bike to the hotel so it was there waiting for us to put together. This is what it looked like before so I was a little nervous about making sure my fit was perfect, but I knew Derek would be more anal about putting it together than I would!
Friday night we walked around 6th street and could hear the music outside of the bars desperately wanting to go in and party but I knew I would have my chance come Sunday night....
More From the Most Interesting Man in Columbia Heights...
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Monday, 31 October 2011 03:00
By Matthew Payne
Soma Half - I always swore up and down that I'd never become one of those people. You know, the ones who spam up the internets with a bazillion pictures of their kid(s). But oh well, screw it... this little dude--Mikey--is too cute to not share. He must get that from his mom...
I debated hanging up the Lycra for the season back in September after Best of the US. Going out on top and all... but that lasted all of a day or two before I found myself spending a good deal of my free time searching for a mid-October half iron race to jump into. I eventually settled on the weekend of 10/22-10/23, which narrowed my choices down to 70.3 Austin and the Soma Half, in Tempe, AZ. Soma won out on the basis of logistics. Fights were way cheaper and it would be much easier to pull off in a 3-day weekend. Doing Austin on that timeframe would've required flying on Delta, and I'll see them and their $175 each way bike fee in hell.
So... on Saturday morning I packed up the trusty Orbea and made my way to the airport for my flight to Phoenix....
Arlandson Chalks Up Another 140.6 Win!
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Tuesday, 25 October 2011 03:00
Great Floridian Ultra - There are very few hills in Florida. The ones they do have are formidable and are located in the center of the state on the western outskirts of Orlando. It is over this undulating real estate that the Great Floridian Ultra, America's second oldest independently produced IM is contested.
This year's GFU was won in dominating fashion by Burnsville's Dan Arlandson. Dan's remarkable 9:21:07 is the 3rd fastest amateur / 5th fastest overall time in the 21-year history of this event. More impressive was his margin of victory: 1:25:33 over runner-up Brian Kamp of Indiana.
Yes, the GFU is one of the tougher 140s in North America.
This was Arlandson's second IM victory of the 2011 season. He also won (for the 3rd time!) northern California's Full Vineman, which is the oldest independent IM--23-years--in the U.S.
Has a Minnesotan ever won two 140.6s in the same season before? Perhaps Julie Olson did in the early / mid 80s? Or is Dan the first to do so?...
Shining in the Southwest...
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Tuesday, 25 October 2011 02:40
Austin 70.3 - Kortney Haag is one of our region's premier 70.3 racers. Her first effort at that distance was in July of 2009 at Chisago. Though the course was approximately 8 minutes short (for elites), she placed 3rd in a time of 4:25:54, the equivalent of a 4:33. Her next half was Pigman '09, which she won in 4:49:37, a remarkable effort considering the Tsunamiesque winds and intermittent rain.
Pregnancy intervened in 2010. Her next half was Pigman last August, where she broke the previous course record yet finished 2nd, 37 ticks behind the talented Jennifer Sloan of Tulsa, Oklahoma. FYI, Sloan went on to post a 9:56:40 at Kona a few weeks back.
Kort's most recent 70.3 effort was last Sunday in Austin, Texas. There she strung together some sweet splits (S-30:01, B-2:30::37, R-1:34:40) en route to a 4:40:00, which landed her in 6th place overall (2nd amateur). She was only 10:45 behind pro winner Jessica Meyers....
