Race Previews
Late Registrants & Usual Suspects...
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Wednesday, 24 July 2019 23:10
14th CHISAGO LAKES HALF IRON - Historically, late registrants have podiumed at this awesome event. In 2018, for instance, Aussie star MATT HUTCHINSON, a totally cool guy with a great accent, disrupted our predictions. We picked SEAN COOLEY, WADE CRUSER and JOE ADRIAENS to take the overall medals. But Matt popped in and took the gold, throwing down a sweet 4:06:45.
Thus Sean, Joe and Wade, respectively, grabbed the next three places.
In 2017, KORTNEY HAAG, who had won more halves than any other Minnesota woman, was our pick to up her total. Then, with race day near, Colorado's MOLLY SMITH, who had been tearing up the national long distance scene, enrolled. A great runner, she overtook Haag in the later stages of the final leg and pushed on to win in 4:35:40.
We could drop names of talented podium-worthy late sign-ups, like JON BALABUCK (Canada), TIM HOLA (Colorado), ERIC ENGEL (Wisconsin), pro THOMAS GERLACH (Wisconsin), JEN FOLEY (Iowa), JACKIE ARENDT (HERING), MARNIE WALTH (North Dakota) etc., and you'd understand our reluctance to predict a Top 3.
And we believe that in the absence of the "usual supects," i.e. SEAN COOLEY and JOE ADRIAENS, who are racing elsewhere this weekend, this year's men's Top 3 will include one or two guys that were not on the list we saw...
Mini-Previews: Bertram Blast, Turtleman, Moose Lake & Buzz Ryan....
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Thursday, 18 July 2019 23:10
The two busiest racing weekends of the season are August 10-11, which has eight events, and next weekend (July 20-21), which has five. Twenty-nine percent of the adult outdoor tris / dus staged on Minnesota soil this year are on those two weekends.
Naturally, we worry that race attendances will suffer, and we'd hate to see more events fall off the calendar. (Thirty-eight races have been cancelled between 2014 and now.)...
2019 HOLT Preview...
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Tuesday, 16 July 2019 23:20
34th HEART OF THE LAKES PREVIEW - Here are the athletes that are our current podium favorites for Sunday's Long Course race:
Men:
JOSH BLANKENHEIM - HOLT History - 2nd in 2017 & 2015, 3rd in 2018, PR - 1:33:05 (2015)
JOSH MORK - HOLT History - 14th in 2016. Comment: Josh's rise in the last three seasons has been impressive. A podium finish is very possible....
Jessica's Iron Quest - "I Had Not Earned it Yet."
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Friday, 28 June 2019 23:10
ED. We found this cool story about a Brainerd triathlete Jessica DeShaw on Facebook. ..
By Conrad Engstrom (brainerddispatch.com)
Jessica DeShaw remembers not crying despite not finishing her first ever Ironman triathlon in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.
She got pulled off at mile 17 of the run because she didn't make the marker in time.
"I did not know how to train in the heat and that was something that held me back," DeShaw said. "I remembering not crying because when they pulled me off I realized I had not earned it yet."
Will CY Be There? ...UPDATED AGAIN...
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Wednesday, 26 June 2019 23:10
GRANITEMAN CLEARWATER OLYMPIC - Though the Graniteman Clearwater event will be 10-years old on Saturday, its Olympic-plus distance event has only been a part of the progam since 2015.
We use the terminology "Olympic-plus" because the bike portion is longer than 40K. How much? About 6K, or about 3.8 miles.
Here in the upper Midwest, triathletes love lots of bike miles. One is not going to find many sprint races in Minnesota with only 20K (12.4) bike routes. They're more apt to a find a 20-mile course, as in the case of Heart of the Lakes, or a 22-mile route, as at Chisago.
As a result, of course, athletes who typically post, say, a 3-hour time at Brewhouse or Minneapolis, will probably need another dozen minutes to go the distance at G-Man. So you know, the course records belong to established elites, BENNETT ISABELLA (2:09:31 in 2015) and KORTNEY HAAG (2:24:40 in 2017), but more typical winning times are in the 2:14 range for men, and 2:30 range for women.
Who do we think will lead the way on Saturday? ...
Beware of Fast Teenagers...UPDATED...
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Saturday, 22 June 2019 23:10
GRANITEMAN CLEARWATER SPRINT - The original Graniteman Triathlon happened in 2004 in Rockville, a bucolic berg southwest of St. Cloud. JOHN SHELP and SARAH FOLEY were the winners that year.
The race soon outgrew its venue, and organizers wanted a site that was closer to the Twin Cities. So, after just six years in Rockville, the event was moved to Warner Lake near Clearwater. 2019 marks the 16th anniversary of the event, and 10th anniversary of it at its current venue.
According to the race website, the event features the following:
It offers both sprint and olympic distances and features a unique point to point sprint distance swim, a beautiful bike ride through rolling country roads, and finishes with an out & back run that includes both paved and natural surfaces. There is also a park for the kids, live music, great food, fantastic race swag, great awards, and awesome door prizes!
In other words, Graniteman Clearwater is awesome.
It's fun for us to make some predictions, which we do to stimulate interest and conversation, so, according to the registration list we saw last week, let's do some name-dropping....
