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State Record...

Monday, 10 September 2012 07:30

(Photo - The Andres Family. Michelle is the girl.)

Ironman Stuff - There is no tri in our region that can match Ironman Wisconsin in the area of Transcendental Magnitudiosity. The vibe is big and buzzy; joyful and celebratory, yet trepidacious; the ether is packed tight with tummy-tickling, bladder-stimulating electricity. And though we didn't attend this year's event, we could sense and feel all that from here in St. Paul. It was like standing in the parking lot at the Super Bowl.

The race is over, but a happy hangover buzz is still palpable. So much inspiration. So much to get, and stay, excited about. This kind of stuff is not intended to be soon forgotten.

The star of the whole dang show, as far as us Minnesotans are concerned, was not the pro winners, though we believe that Liz Lyles' win was the first IM victory of her career, which is totally cool. The brightest star was Michelle Andres, the pretty 35-year-old hockey mom from the Brainerd Lakes area....

Here's what she did. She trained for a year with the goal of doing something special; of finally demonstrating her big-time IM potential. She intended to have a major impact on the women's amateur race, maybe even win it. But everything had to be right.

It was.

Michelle did win the women's amateur title, and in commanding fashion. Almost 22 minutes separated her from her closest peer.

Michelle's time was 10:05:30, which lowered IMOO's amateur CR by a blubbery 8:04. It landed her in 6th place overall and lowered her former personal best by 58 minutes. (And it was her 15th career multisport victory!)

And we believe that Andres' time is the fastest IM clocking ever by a Minnesota women. Our research strongly suggests that this is true. The only Loon State woman who may have challenged her time was Julie Olson, a podium finisher at the Hawaiian Ironman World Championships in the early 80s. Still, we suspect that Julie's fastest time was in the 10:20s. We hope she corrects us if we're wrong.

FYI, women did not begin to break the 10-hour mark until 1985, when Canadian Sylviane Puntous popped a then-outrageous