Race Coverage

Sister Act...

Monday, 09 June 2014 06:10

(Photo - A bunch of Lendways.)

RACE COVERAGE - On a morning that was as beautiful and cooperative as the day before was yucky and dispiriting, a pair of sisters, the Lendways, Heather and Lisa, dominated their respective events in lush Winona. Less than 24-hours after the particants at Liberty contended with rain, wind, mud, cold and standing water deep enough to support small fish, the Lendways, and nearly a thousand others, raced at Trinona beneath a blue sky and bright sun. Temps were in the 60s. A perfect day to climb The Bluff.

While women's course record holder Ruth Brennan Morrey was busy in Manhattan, Kansas, winning her first major 70.3 Series race, Heather was busy erasing her (RBM's) CR. From the get-go she disengaged from her gender and pursued the few elite men who managed to stay in front of her. Despite what appeared to be a slightly long swim and the fact that she was feeling so sub-spunky on the run that she even walked briefly at times, HL reached the finish line in 2:09:50 (11th overall!), a full 4:45 ahead of RMB's 2012 record. Moreover, almost six minutes...

passed before runner-up Cathy Yndestad's timing clip burped for the final time. CY's time was a good one, 2:15:54, and was only slightly slower than her winning clocking (2:15:23) in 2013.

The final women's Olympic podium spot went to Diane Hankee (2:19:29). Fatigued from weekly racing and suffering from various owies, she had hoped to switch to the Sprint event, but chose to retain her Olympic registration after she drove the awesome bike course. She is a lover of hills, something that are in short supply around her ancestral homehown of Saskatoon, Saskatewan, and couldn't pass up the opportunity to climp to the The Bluff.

Meanwhile, in the Sprint, Lisa was unleashing her Lendwayian domination. She covered the .25-11-5K routes in a brisk1:02:30, the 2nd fastest women's clocking in race history. More siginificantly, her marginn of victory over 2nd-placing Jennifer Knutson was more than two-and-a-half minutes. Knutson had to be pleased with her effort. She placed 4th here in 2013 in a time that was more than two minutes slower than her Sunday clocking.

The final women's podium step was earned by Laura Greer (1:05:38). We'd love to say more about Laura, but we don't know anything about her.

Now for the guys. Unsurprisingly, David Thompson won for the 5th consecutive year. Rocking a great mohawk and steadfastly maintaining that Trinona is his FRF (Favorite Race Forever), DKT's win--the 89th of his storied career--avenged the disappointment of the previous weekend, when a flat tire derailed his almost certain course-record victory at Pigman Sprint. His eventual 1:54:58 in Winona was 2:12 faster than his closest challenger, Wisconsin pro Adam Bohach, who seemed to be a really cool guy. The final money spot went to Dan Hedgecock, whose hair is kinda long and very curly. It looks good.

Formerly from Eau Claire, but now residing in Plymouth, Minnesota, John Taipale (pronounced "Type-ah-lah" - it's a Finnish thing) won the men's Sprint title. A great guy who was married not long ago and is still very, very happy, John's time was 57:25, which was 1:17 faster than Winona's Garrett Ping, who placed 2nd, and 1:44 ahead of 3rd-placing Nicholas Pergande, who is also from Winona.

As always, Trinona was an excellent event and will doubtlessly garner a ton of "Race of the Year" support. RESULTS