Race Coverage
REDEMPTION....
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Thursday, 07 September 2017 23:10
By Joe Adriaens (triad.triadriaens.com)
CHISAGO HALF IM RACE REPORT - Toughman long course: aptly named. This race usually has some rolling hills on the run with little to no shade. Although the course was changed a bit this year, the hills and heat remained the same. This course is tough no doubt, but honest.
Leading up to the Race
Theme of the race: REDEMPTION. Coming off the Heart of the Lakes debacle and the complete bonk-fest last year, I was looking for a performance I knew I was trained for. Chisago came just two weeks after HOLT, so that didn't give me much time to gain any additional fitness. The workouts leading up to this were pretty low key with a few harder effort bikes and a couple tempo runs off the bike. Other than that, pretty standard....
Making Great Memories...Updated...
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Sunday, 03 September 2017 19:10
HOPKINS ROYAL TRIATHLON – SCOTT and ANDREA MYERS had hoped to accomplish what they had often done during their nine-year stint in Ohio: Share the Winners Circle. Both had the advantage of low bib numbers, which allowed them to get favorable placement in the TT swim queue. Both were out the water ahead of everyone else, thus they went off the front.
Scott was able to stay there, arriving in T2 well ahead of the next arrivee. Andrea was passed only by a handful of men.
With fingers crossed, the Myers waited to learn their fate. In the end, Andrea prevailed, winning by nearly a minute over women's runner-up SARAH HUNTER, aka “The Huntress.” For Myers, 41, it was her second victory of the 2017 season. Her resume appears, once again, to be Master of the Year nomination-worthy.
For The Huntress, the performance was a breakout. She finished 7th here in 2016 in a time that was almost seven minutes slower than her Sunday effort. Good stuff.
Finishing 26-seconds after Hunter was ANDREA JENSEN, who races infrequently but has demonstrated elite potential in the past.
Unlike his wife, Scott Myers would have to settle for 2nd place, just ten seconds behind defending champ BRETT LOVAAS, who despite a very scary surgery-requiring health issue earlier in the year, has won three of the four triathlons he's done this season. The win on Sunday, according to our records, was the 33rd of his multisport career.
Claiming the final men's podium spot was 2016 Junior of the Year, MITCH CLAYTON, now 20. Though a bit scraped-up from a crash the previous weekend at Superior Man, Clayton turned in a fine effort, his time was just seconds off his AG's record....
Sara's Casual Approach...
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Friday, 01 September 2017 09:10
UPDATE: Great day for racing in Hopkins this morning. Coverage of the 4th annual Hopkins Royal Triathlon will post on Monday. RESULTS
LAKES COUNTRY TRIATHLON - SARA CARLSON is a lovely person all the time, but some of the time she is also a silly goose.
Via Facebook, Sara has let us know stuff about her competitive plans, noting that her main focus right now is running, i.e. qualifying for Boston, and that her tri racing is basically undesigned. She said, in effect, that if the spirit moves her, she'll make a last minute decision to pop into a multisport race.
What a silly goose, right?
Carlson's casual approach this season has yielded incredible results. She not only posted her first career tri win--Graniteman Clearwater Sprint--but went on to collect two more victories--Young Life Olympic and Lakes Country. Amid these great performances was a satisfying 4:55 / 6th place finish at wetsuitless Chisago Half IM.
Maybe there's something to this casual approach? Maybe Sara's not such a silly goose, after all?
Sara's most recent triumph was last weekend at Lakes Country in Baxter, where she outraced 2013 LCT champ / perennial podiumer here, SARA SAMPSELL-JONES, who placed 2nd, and the current frontrunner for Female Junior of the Year, TAYLOR LUNDQUIST, 17, who has won two races outright this season....
Cheryl Wins Again....
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Thursday, 31 August 2017 23:10
MAPLE GROVE SPRINT - Though her season has been fraught with injury and rotten luck, CHERYL ZITUR managed to race like her three-time Master of the Year self last weekend at the soggy Maple Grove Sprint, winning that event for the 4th time.
(Cheryl won her first multisport race when she was 49. Now 52, she has amassed 11 wins.)
Zitur's time last Saturday--1:10:49--appeared to be well off her 1:06:01 course record she set in 2015, but it was actually closer than you might think. Several GPSs agreed that the swim course was closer to 1000 yards than the advertised 820.
Zitur's typical margin of victory here had been two-or-more minutes, but not so this time around. Occasional elite amateur triathlete / body builder SARA RONDORF, now 40, threw down an awesome performance, posting a 1:10:51, just two seconds behind the winner. (Zitur and Rondorf started in different waves, thus they were unaware of their positions during the race.)
The men's race was won by 2014 Minnesota Most Improved nominee / Team Minnesota member / totally nice guy RYAN BAILEY, who seemed to disappear in 2015. This is because he got his pro license and raced on the ITU circuit. We're not sure if he is still a pro....
State Record Falls at Superior Man...
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Tuesday, 29 August 2017 09:10
PRers - JORDAN ROBY (4:15:13) and CHRISTINA ROBERTS (4:37:04)
SUPERIOR MAN TRIATHLON VI - Despite the non-spectator-friendly conditions (cool, soggy and grey) on Sunday in Duluth, the sixth annual Superior Man Half, and its 41.5 companion, many athletes showed their appreciation for the racer-friendly climate with outstanding performances.
It wasn't just the meteorolgical stuff that helped produce fast times, the new outdoor transition location, just 25 meters from the swim exit, certainly shaved a minute-or-two for most.
But mostly it was the field quality that lent itself to the enhanced performances that produced race records and personal bests.
In a true breakout performance, MATT CYMANSKI, 26, of Des Moine, Iowa, left the 70.3 men in his wake. A tough guy, as he proved with his victory in horrendous conditions at Liberty last June, he showed that he possessed true speed. With favorable conditions Cymanski sped to a personal best 4:01:40, which was a 20-plus minute improvement on his next best effort at this distance. Even more impressive is the fact that his time is a Minnesota state amateur record for a half IM.
Four-time SM winner SEAN COOLEY took 2nd this time around, posting a 4:11:31.
The next record to fall was courtesy of DAN ARLANDSON, 41, who placed third in a Masters Record 4:12:59, lowering Winnipeg's PATRICK PEACOCK's prior standard by more than almost a minute-and-a-half....
Collegians Set the Pace at Maple Grove...
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Monday, 28 August 2017 19:10
MAPLE GROVE TRIATHLON - August was cancelled, thus Autumn came early this year. Last weekend's weather certainly proved this. It couldn't have been more Octobery than it was at Weaver Lake Park in Maple Grove on Saturday. It was chilly and drizzly and as grey as the greyist thing you can think of. (Insert your own simile here.)
Though a few hundred athletes stayed in warm and snug in their respective beds, approximately 700 triathletes, and 50-or-so duathletes descended on the otherwise gorgeous park and participated in the 8th edition of the Maple Grove Triathlons (Olympic, Sprint, Super Sprint and Duathlon).
And guess what? A lot of folks turned in terrific performances.
Setting the brisk pace in the Olympic race were a triumvirate of talented collegians from Iowa State University. Cyclones took the Top 3 places in the men's race, including REECE LINDER's winning 1:55:58, the second fastest men's clocking ever on this course. Even more awesome is the fact that Linder is only 18-years-old.
Bright future, huh!
Another ISUer, 2017 US Junior of the Year MAEGHAN EASLER, now 20, rocked the women's Olympic contest, winning is 2:10:37, which like LInder's performance, was the second fastest time for her gender here a the MGO....
