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Probably the Most Disappointing Race of My Career...
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Sunday, 21 June 2015 00:10
By Heather Lendway (heatherlendway.com)
Pigman Sprint Race Report - Earlier in the year I had pegged Pigman as an important race to see how I’ve improved over the last year. Unfortunately things didn’t really go as planned; I’ll talk about that after a quick recap of the race...
RochesterFest & Manitou Preves...
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Saturday, 20 June 2015 00:10
UPDATE: Brooks and Suzie win LAKE MINNETONKA DUATHLON (cancelled swim) this morning. RESULTS
Two great races will take place tomorrow: the 8th annual RochesterFest Tri and the 24th Manitou Sprint Triathlon. Without further ado, here are MTN's predictions:
ROCHESTERFEST OLYMPIC - Podium Guesses
David Thompson, RFT's course record holder, picked up his 95th career win last weekend at the Accel Triathlon in Iowa. His margin was humongous. The margin will not be as large on Sunday because his competition includes Patrick Parish, Kris Spoth and Kevin O'Connor. Our Top 3 picks are: 1. DKT, 2. PP, 3. Spoth, who will pick up the amateur win. O'Connor, who's racing like a banshee this season will take fourth. We think he'll lower his masters record, a 2:01:01, set here in 2013.
The women's race for the top spot will be intense. Gaby Bunten and Bridget McCoy are evenly matched, but we suspect that Bunten will come out on Top, though not by much. She has finished 2nd in her last two efforts--Trinona and Capitol City--and appears ready to collect her first win of the 2015 season. Her time at Cap City--1:05:11--clearly illustrates that she is faster than last season.
Our pick for the final podium spot is Rochester's Diana Shewmaker, who finished 4th here last year....
Anthropomorphic Race Report...
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Friday, 19 June 2015 00:10
By Michael McConkey's Wetsuit, Bike and Running Shoes
LIBERTY HALF RACE REPORT - Michael has been slacking so we decided we would write the Final Stretch 70.3 Liberty Half Ironman race report for him. I am Michael’s 2XU R3 wetsuit, next up will be his Cervelo P2 Tri bike, and finally his Newton Distance 5 running shoes.
Let me get this started, like any wetsuit, I dream of gliding through water, feeling it flow across me as I propel forward stroke after stroke, passing other wetsuits on the way to a glorious swim leg.
Unfortunately, you don’t choose your owner. I got Michael, don’t get me wrong, he tries hard but the guy just can’t swim. Race after race we start out slow and sort of just get slower and by the time we get out of the water and into transition all the other wetsuits are already relaxing and soaking in the sun. Never the less any time I get to race is better than sitting on the shelf so I was excited to be put on and taken for a quick warm up swim. Got to see several other LAM’s wetsuits. Of course Radniecki’s new wetsuit was all “we’re gonna crush this course”, but hey he can bring it so I wished him good luck and wondered if I was the same size? (so what, it’s a wetsuit dream, have you seen him handle a...
Mikey Beat Goldie. Matt Beat Everyone Else...
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Thursday, 18 June 2015 00:10
By Matthew Payne (matthew-payne.blogspot.com)
Mikey ran his first race a couple weeks ago. It was a totally non-competitive kids fun run across a parking lot, but hey, we all started somewhere.
Check out his sweet starting line game face (he's the one in the yellow pants)...
I lined up for a few races myself and did pretty well: Gear West Duathlon (2nd), Apple Duathlon (1st) and Duathlon Nationals (1st).
The Pre-Race Jams
You've gotta love a band like Madball. These guys have been putting out the exact same album since the 90's. If you could reach back into 1994 and magically put modern production on their old shit it would sound exactly like the new shit. It's kind of like my tri training... I've been doing basically the same routine for a decade and I somehow keep getting faster. If it ain't broke don't fix it. ...
Immune to the Stuff...
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Wednesday, 17 June 2015 09:10
LAKE MINNETONKA PREVIEW - There are only 2-3 multisport events in Minnesota that seem to be impervious to those trends that have been adversely effecting race enrollment in recent year. Northwoods in an example. An even better one, better because it is twice as large as NWT, is Lake Minnetonka.
Sure, LMT takes a little longer to fill up than it used to, but it continues to get its target 600-650 participants. This year, the 12th edition of the race, is no different. In fact, it may have accepted a few more registrations than their 650 limit.
Why is this race special. Why is it immune to the pernicious trends?
We're not sure, but we think that the fact that it is an excellent event in every way has something to do with it. Ross and Tina bust their respective humps to make their participants happy and resolute about returning, and they are (happy) and they do (return). In fact, the LMT recidivism rate is as high, if not higher, than "destination" races like Northwoods and Timberman.
And speaking of recidivism, eight past champions--Brooks Grossinger, Brett Lovaas, Patrick Parish, Steve Sander and Tony Schiller for the men; Jan Guenther, Heidi Keller-Miler and Sarah Mercer for the women--are returning....
