Great Stuff About Waseca...

July 28, 2010

Waseca, Minnesota, home of the Waseca 1/3 Iron & Sprint triathlons, is a wonderfully quaint community.

It promulgates its "Old World" charm via the steadfast resistance to all forms of modernization. It's fire department (photo), for instance, looks much the same today as it did in the Lincoln era. Sure, departmental response time is unimpressive and an inordinate number of local homes and businesses have burned down over the decades, not to mention the fact that the streets (cobblestone, of course) are terminally littered with horsey poop, but such is a small price to pay for pastoral charisma.

Continuing the yesteryearish theme, Waseca doesn't have a mayor or city council (but it does have an old fashioned butterfly net-wielding dog catcher!)...

It has a King. And in kingly style, whatever King Dave, who inherited his crown from his father, King Marv, wants, he gets. He has eight wives, a guillotine (which he almost never uses) and a really big chair. He also lives in a totally cool castle (photo).

We recommend that you visit Waseca next Sunday, do the triathlon, which will be great, then drive around the quaint community and see all the great quaint stuff, like the fire department and King Dave's castle (and guillotine!) and all the horsey poop.

You'll probably want to enjoy a great old timey meal when you are in town. There are plenty of great old timey restaurants lining the horsey poop-strewn cobblestone thoroughfares; places where you can get croquets, "soused calves' feet" (we're not making this up!), stewed fruit and bread with briers and brambles sticking out of it and lots and lots of mutton and stuff called "rusk" and "Sally Lunn."

We recommend the restaurant in the photo. Notice that it is called the "Olde Towne Eatery," which is very old timey with those extra "e"s and all. And check out the words on the awning: Fine Food & Spirits. This means that they not only serve a bodacious "rusk," you can wash it down with moonshine that is probably "stilled" on the premises.

How cool is that?

Now a few words about the race.

Based on the registration list that we saw, which is very incomplete and bound to swell significantly because lots of new folks are going want to see a guillotine or eat "Sally Lunn," the women's race--the 1/3 IM--promises to be very exciting. Podium faves include Suzie Finger, last year's runner-up, Liberty Olympic champ Katherine Schlaefer, who was 3rd here in '09, and a hungry Lydia Novotny, who's post-surgery and illness fitness is improving by the day. Talented girls!

Two of the Top 3 men's finishers last year are returning and barring the late sign-up of an elite athlete or two or three, we think these guys--defending champ Dan Cohen and masters star Doug Davis--will go 1-2, in that order.

We see Jesse Nelson and Casey Richter as the clear favorites to win the sprint race. Barring late arriving ringers, that is.

NOTE: Some of what has been printed herein wasn't completely true.

BONUS: RECIPE FOR "SALLY LUNN" - LINK - Helpful hint: Make sure to use "cardamom" sugar, not the regular stuff. Next time we'll post a recipe for "rusk."