Let's Call it a Tie....

stephen-marion.gifPhoto - 55-59 winner at Lake Marion Sprint, Stephen Bullard. After the race, Stephen and an overweight buddie went to McDonald's and got large milkshakes. The overweight friend got a chocolate one with no "whip." Stephen got a strawbeery shake with whip.

 

LAKE MARION INTERNATIONAL TRIATHLON - Let's call it a tie.

Though pre-race favorite Olivia Bagnall was declared the winner--she was the first woman to cross the finish line--second waver Amy Borden turned in the exact same time, a fact that was not discovered until after the event was over.

The last time we saw an exact tie was back in 2012. The race was the London Olympic Triathlon and Sweden's Lisa Norden and Switzerland's Nicola Spirig were the tiers. For some reason, one that hasn't been adequately explained, in our opinion, Spirig was awarded the Gold medal and Norden settled for the Silver....

 

For MTN's record-keeping purposes, we are recording Borden's effort as a win, a co-win. For Bagnall, the soccer star who was runner-up for Rookie of the Year in 2013, the victory is her fourth in seven career starts. For Borden, who we believe is a rookie this year, the W is her first in two starts. Her other performance was a 7th at Lake Waconia, where she outraced several of our region's most decorated multisportwomen.brianltf.gif

We hope that Amy, a 30-year-old Minneapolisianite, continues to race this season. One more great effort would make her eligible for a Rookie of the Year nomination. We hope she is listening, er..reading.

Bagnall's co-fave coming into this five-year-old race was UM's Brian Gorman (photo R), who thrashed his competition like a...a...a machine that thrashes stuff. His 2:10 on this elongated route--43ish K bike that some claimed was even hillier than in year's past, which is saying a lot--was very solid. In case you didn't know, Gorman won Life Time Minneapolis' Collegiate division last month in a time that would have tied for 2nd in the Elite competition.

Second place went to 50-year-old Rich Heilman, a true Minnesota multisport pioneer. A former long course Worlds medalist, he was one of the top half and full IM amateurs in the US back in the 90s, when mullets and center-parts were in vogue, and "How Do I Live," by LeAnn Rimes was the decade's top-selling song. Seriously.  RESULTS

LAKE MARION SPRINT - Back in 2012, Andy Wiberg started to win races. This tri was one of them. He won again this year, the 8th  running of the event, and now has three Ws here.

His win on Sunday was a convincing one. His margin was 5:17.

The race for 2nd, however, was very close, and very exciting. David Phillips entered T2 in 2nd place but he didn't look very spunky as he embarked on the run. In fact, he looked a bit unspunky. And though Anthony Hirschman, who placed 2nd in his last tri (Shell Lake) was third into T2 approximately two minutes back, the way he blasted out of transition told us that the race for 2nd was not over.

4.9K later, both Phillips and Hirschman came into view for the finish line crowd. Hirschman was closing fast but there wasn't quite enough course left for him to close the deal. Phillips held on for the silver medal. Exciting stuff.

For the second straight year, Bette Rowley and Shauna Joas finished 1-2. Rowley was also victorious last month at Elysian. RESULTS

 

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