Race Coverage

A Hard Place to Leave...

Tuesday, 31 July 2012 04:00

(Photo - Frightfully good looking ex-Marine, Matt Radneicki turned in the best performance of his young multi career in Walker last Saturday, setting a Peacekeepers Course Record in the process.)

Chase the Police Triathlon - A clear summer sunrise on vast Leech Lake can make you wonder if a more beautiful place is even possible. And it is on the western shore of Walker Bay, a portion of Leech that dwarfs most of Minnesota's signature 10,000+, that he Chase the Police Triathlon begins and ends.

The unique format allows not only cops, but fire fighters and past and present military personnel, to launch in the first wave, thus allowing the non-protectors and servers to chase them down. It's a cool deal....

Last Saturday morning in Walker was warm, not hot; humid, though not oppressive. Leech mirrored the blue sky. It was a near-perfect day for a triathlon, as the finishing times would clearly illustrate.

Overall records were not rewritten, though Jenny Wilcox came darn close to matching Michelle Andres' course best. This is a big deal. Andres OWNS the Northland racing circuit. Several AG marks did fall and, significantly, the general performance bar was raised. In 2011, for instance, a span of eight minutes separated the first and the 10th place guys. On Saturday, the gulf was only four minutes wide. A 1:12 was needed to crack the Top 10 this year, whereas that was a Top 4 clocking in 2011. Significant.

For the girls, almost 13 minutes was the 1-10 range last year. This, of course, was skewed dramatically by Andres' six-minute margin of victory. On Saturday, Wilcox, who recorded her milestone 15th career multi win and came within 26 seconds of tying Michelle's 1:12:30, outraced the woman who finished in the 10th position by 11 minutes.

Baxter's ex-Marine Matt Radneicki was the first dude to cross the finish line, which was staged next to the cutest little lighthouse, a "lighthousette," perhaps, you'll ever see (photo R). As a Wave One Protector and Server, he only held that lead for a handful of seconds before 2nd waver Sean Kaneski, Radniecki's LAMS teammate and bud, claimed the overall