Race Coverage

Great Racing in Soggy Buffalo...

Tuesday, 03 June 2014 06:10

BUFFALO XI - Slightly more than two-thirds of Buffalo's 1100ish enrollees (800ish) showed up at soggy Sturges Park last Sunday. Some were prepared to race despite inclement weather, others had faith that the rain would cease, or at least lessen. These sturdy folks were rewarded with very raceable weather. An hour or so before Wave 1, the storm system that had buffeted the area for the last 24-hours, pushed off to horth and east. The next system, which was sneaking in from South Dakota, wouldn't arrive for another two and a half hours, and what did come was weak and brief. The result for the faithful 800 was a great racing experience, one that produced some awesome performances.

May Athlete of the Month, Matt Payne, was in a league of his own on Sunday. A solid swim and a huge bike split kept his pursuers out of sight. Despite taking an estimated 20-seconds to rescue a turtle on the run course--Matt is a well-known Turtle-o-phile--he arrived at the finish line 4:20 ahead of co-favorite Jon Balabuck of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Matt had time to drain two cans of PBR before his Canuck counterpart made his effort official....

Payne's time was 1:55:51, which was 15-seconds faster than Balabuck's 2011 amateur course record. Matt's win was his third in three starts this season and 26th of his impressive career. He plans to blog about his experience and MTN will also post his pithy words.

To the surprise of no one, Buffalo's own Marcus Stromberg rounded out the Top 3. Fourth and fifth, also unsurprisingly, were earned by Thad Ingersoll (photo) and Nate Hoffman. We suspect that Hoffman will pick up a Most Improved nomination at season's end.

The women's Olympic race was won by Duluth's Elaine Nelson, whose 37:20 run sealed the deal for her. Her time was 2:12:41, and her margin of victory over runner-up Suzy Fox was 2:28. 2013 Rookie of the Year Nicole Heininger placed third. Out-of-staters Kayla Kjellman (pronounced "Jell-man") of Thunder Bay, and Jennifer Groos (pronounced "Grose") of Norwalk, Iowa, rocked the 4th and 5th spots.

For Nelson, it was her 8th victory in 10 starts.

Don't be surprised if John Heinlein, like Nate Hoffman, gets some Most Improved consideration, as well as Team Minnesota consideration, this season. He was able to fend off Brian Sames for the win in Buffalo's companion sprint course event. John's time was awesome, a 57:01. Only Eric Ellingson (56:13 in 2008) has gone faster on this route.

Sames' time was 57:33--4th fastest ever. The final podium spot went to North transplant Carolina Lance Leo (58:12).

The women's winner was 49-year-old Cheryl Zitur, who placed 2nd here in 2013. It was Cheryl's second career tri-victory. Her first was at Chase the Police in Walker last July.

2008 BS winner Laura Swartz placed 2nd on Sunday, and former Junior of the Year nominee Katie Oden placed third.

Arguably, the AG performance of the day in the sprint belonged to 14-year-old Lauren Steinke of St. Cloud. She placed 4th overall in her gender and her time (1:10:00) lowered her own Junior record by 1:17.

The AG performance of the day in the Olympic race was turned in by 59-year-old Greg Taylor, who will turn 60 in a couple of weeks. He broke his own 55-59M CR--from 2:09:35 in 2011 to 2:09:01 on Sunday--and finished 10th overall. Had Buffalo been a USAT-insured event, Taylor would have broken Ben Ewer's 60-64M record by 12:23.

Greg could win this year's USAT Grand Master of the Year award, if he stays healthy. We'd be surprised if he didn't.

To repeat what was said in the beginning of this post, Buffalo Tri was not a washout. It was, in fact, a great event. By-and-large, the weather cooperated and most enjoyed a great racing experience. RESULTS