Race Coverage

Uncluttered By Facts...

Monday, 10 September 2012 06:30

(Photo - Angie Schmidt's legs. Ang loves her designer M-Dot flip flops.)

By Al Bumin

Square Lake Halfish IM - We told a guy that we would post a story about the Square Lake Long Course race on Tuesday. Today, to you. But it's Monday afternoon, yesterday to you, and results have not been posted.

We don't know what happened on Sunday, but we promised the guy we would write something. Besides, when has not having correct information ever stopped us before? This will not be a lengthy post. It

We had a Facebook chat with Sean Kaneski earlier today, yesterday to you, and he said he was happy with his performance at Square Lake. He thinks he came in 3rd. That would make sense. Sean's pretty darn good at the long stuff. Heck, he placed in the Top 5 at Liberty earlier this season after a nine year absence from the multisport scene.

Sean didn't tell us his time. And we forgot to ask. We guess that it was in the low-4:20s.

We did ask Sean if he knew the guy that won. He didn't. Sean's been away, you see. We asked if his name might have been "Arlandson." He said that that sounded right. Ergo, for the sake of this post, Dan Arlandson, who also won this race in 2010, was the triumphant men's champion. And because the weather was really, really nice, we guess that he had a smokin' time; say, a 4:12:18.

In that someone had to come in 2nd, our guess is that it was Chap Achen, whose cool name was on the reg. list we saw. He's a monster biker and is having his best season ever. Let's give him a 4:19:52. Sure, it's ambitious, but when you make stuff up you should include exciting things, don't you think?

Thus, Dan Arlandson, Chap Achen and Sean Kaneski filled out this year's Square Lake LC podium! Way to go, guys!

Who won for the girls? We know that Angie Schmidt planned to race. She's a total sweetheart AND she won here last year. So, of course, we think she repeated as champion. And she doubtlessly soundly beat the 4:56 she turned in 12 months ago. 4:49:47! A PR for Ang! Hooray!

Now for the tough part. We have to select two girls to round out the Top 3. Excuse us while we look at the non-updated start list. GRAVID PAUSE.

Okay. We think that Julia Lyng, who has cute Otter-loving kids (photo above), switched from the short course to the long course (we didn't find her name in SC results) and totally came in 2nd. A 5:05:31. (She popped a 5:12 here in 2009.) Shelly Ostrander's having a great season, so we think she should be 3rd. Something in the 5:15ish range. FYI, Shelly has a small dog (photo L).

Well, there you have it. A Square Lake LC race report. All it lacks are facts. We usually punctuate these stories with a results link. We'll do that when said results are available. Maybe they'll be ready tomorrow. That's today to you.

UPDATE: Race results have been posted. (We're seeing them at 7:10 PM today, yesterday to you.) We were totally right on about the dudes. Not so much with the girls, though. Angie Schmidt placed 2nd, not first, but her time rocked socks: 4:48:52. The winner was Diane Hankee, whose 4:44:35 might be a course record. Diane, a Canadian Hoot!, now has four wins this season, and as a result, a likely spot on Team Minnesota 2012. Third went to former Rookie of the Year Joyce Bourassa, who now has blond hair and it looks real good. In three starts this season, Joyce has two wins (Lakefront Days and Lake Marion Sprint) and her 3rd here at Rectangular Pond. RESULTS