Race Coverage

Devon's Giant Stones....

Monday, 23 July 2012 02:30

(YndeCam Photo - Two days. Two races. Two wins for Suzie Fox.)

Race Coverage - Devon Palmer is a great triathlete. As a polka-er, well, not so much. But the dude had the heavy stones necessary to give it a try after the 7th annual Chisago Lakes Sprint Triathlon, a race he won in course record time. Told ya he's a great triathlete.

At the post race polka fest, a prize money event that several had registered for, only Devon came forward and agreed to dance with Race Director Gloria West, who totally has her polka do-do together. (She's done this before.) No one else had larger-than-average stones, though Ross Weinzierl was almost talked into it.

Was Devon really that bad, you ask? Well... Yeah. But that's what made it sooooooooooo cool. Way to rock, Dev, on the course and afterward.....

Suzie Fox was awesome. In fact, we've never seen her awesomer, and we've seen her be awesome plenty of times. She followed her dominating win at drenched-out Chaska on Saturday, with a course record (amateur CR) effort in the heat on Sunday. She wasn't around to polka later. Se was busy helping a fellow triathlete (and good friend) whose legs had seized up violently on the half IM run course and required transport back to transition where medical attention was available.

The back-to-back-weekend-wins, which we haven't seen since Dan Hedgecock did it 54 weeks earlier (Lake Geode and HOLT), were the 9th and 10th of Fox' career, which has truly taken a meteoric turn this season.

Back to the guys.

Runner-up to Devon (photo R) was rookie pro Tom Gerlach from Madison, Wisconsin, a totally decent fellow with impressive creds, especially in long distance races. Placing 3rd and winning the overall amateur title was 21-year-old Kyle Serreyn, who like Suzie, also won at Chaska the day before. We see a Most Improved nomination at season's end for the med student (Creighton University) from Lakeville, whose parents did the half and were celebrating their 28th wedding anniversary. Good stuff.

Back to Suzie. Like Kyle, she was actually the 2nd athlete of her gender to finish. The first was 1st-tier pro / late registrant Lauren Goss of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, who remained in The Cities after her 5th place finish at Life Time Fitness Tri - Minneapolis eight days ago. Goss currently tops the pretigious Rev 3 Series leaderboard.

Filling out the men's and women's amateur podiums were dudes Kevin O'Connor and Brett Lovaas, and dudettes Cathy Yndestad and Andrea Myers, who has demonstrated remarkable consistency all season long. There should be a place for Andi on Team Minnesota 2012.

The Chisago Lakes Half had more highlights than you can shake a stick at, if, that is, you are inclined to shake sticks at stuff. We're too tired to write about that right now, but will post many, many words and great images on Tuesday. For now, check of the results for both of the Chisago Lakes VII races, which registered at total of 1521 athletes this year. RESULTS

PS - Check out the fantastic images captured by Kerry Yndestad (YndeCam) and Nick Morales (TriJuice.com) on their respective Facebook pages.