Race Previews

Apple Preview & Other Cool Stuff...

Thursday, 26 May 2011 03:00

* MORE NEWSY & NOTESY STUFF...

in the slop at Gear West last Sunday. Will he be as tough on a course with hard surface throughout? We'll see. Muscle memory favors Bob, who owns Apple's 65-69M CR (1:50:13 in 2009), and Nick, who has won his division in Sartell four times since the current distances were installed in 2004. We never know what Daryl (photo), who sports a totally sweet spiky beard that scrapes Pam's face when he kisses her and though she doesn't complain much, she does wish that he'd shave once in a while, will do. He looked good at COLT earlier this month.

How'ya feeling Daryl?

Here are our picks in some of the AGs:

- 60-64M - Defending champ Spike Milslagle will face two-time divisional winner Mike Colaizy and 2009 Minnesota Grand Master of the Year, Ben Ewers. Ben dominated at Gear West and should do so again on Saturday. Will he be able to break Kerry Mayer's 2008 course best (1:39:31), though? We'll see.

- 60-64W - Ann Rhea should pick up her fifth divisional title on Saturday.

- 55-59 M & W- Dave Dow, who has one divisional record here (50-54M- 1:30:38) should be the guy to beat. Pammy Stevens, a two-time women's overall Apple winner, is the clear fave. Beth Guck, who is a total hoot and whose last name rhymes with "cook," is our pick to place 2nd. See her Facebook photo (L).

- 50-54W - In Jan Guenther's absence, Merilee Sander, who owns the second fastest 50+ time on this course, is the Chosen One. Merilee is very nice. Humble, smart and mild mannered, she loves big hats and children (photo L). Jan will be in Illinois this weekend doing obligatory family stuff. And we predict that St. Cloud's Judy Peters, who is in the 50-54W division but doesn't look like it, will be smiling when she crosses the finish line. Judy smiles a lot.

- 45-49W - 2010 Master of the Year nominee Christel Kippenhan should win and crack the overall Top 10 in the process. Past champ Sue Abrahamson should give the Teutonic Pedagogue a nice push. FYI, Christel is from Germany and is a teacher at Bemidji State. That's why we referred to her as a Teutonic Pedagogue, which is pedantic for "German Teacher."