Race Coverage

Virgins Rule...

Wednesday, 26 June 2013 01:10

By Chris Crocker (President and unelected despot of the Greater Mankato Multisport Club)

The Inaugural St James Triathlon was a resounding success on what began as a stormy Sunday morning. This was a new race this year in what is becoming a burgeoning Triathlon community in Southern Minnesota. St James is just the latest town to add a triathlon to their summer events, and join the ranks of Mankato, Waseca, Fairmont, Albert Lea, Jackson, St Peter, and Rochester as great racing options south of the Twin Cities.

St James was well organized, and had enviable door prizes to include bikes, an iPod and other great prizes! The pool swim made the race a great way to break into the sport for tri virgins and nervous open water swimmers; which

brings us to our overall winner. Matt Busch, 42, of Mankato (photo) cut his tri teeth at St James on Sunday and absolutely destroyed the field. Before the race he expressed apprehension about his swimming prowess, so decided to compensate by ripping apart the field with a 24+ mph bike split on a stock road bike, followed by blazing run splits. I am sure we will be seeing more of Matt in the future. As an aside, this author is very disappointed with the turn of events as I am in his same age group! Nicole Maloney, 32, of Truman bested the female field.