Race Coverage
Epic Promises Kept...
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Saturday, 09 May 2015 06:10
OOPS! "Dave's Gift" linked here by mistake. Here is the correct LINK.
Steve Stenzel Photo - Fast Girls (R - L) - Diane Hankee, Suzie Fox, Nicole "Heiney" Heininger and Jenn Scudiero.
OAKDALE DUATHLON - Last Thursday, Suzie Fox posted these words on Facebook:
"Excited for a big battle with my Gear West teammate Diane Hankee on Saturday @ the Oakdale Duathlon! Our best times on this course are only 7 seconds apart & our best times on another course (Falls Duathlon) are only 2 seconds different...hoping for multiple lead changes, a sprint finish in either order, & a shiny new PR for us both! Not sure who else is racing but there is still time to join the party! Weather looks perfect for one of my all time favorite MN courses, come join us!" ...
The match-up between Suzie and Diane promised to be Epic. Those women are two of the very best amateur female duathletes in the US.
Did their actual battle live up to the hype?
Oh yeah!
If anything, the battle was even Epic-er than anticipated. As expected, Diane and Suzy went off the front and did that multiple lead change thing along the way. What made it more exciting was that Jenn Scudiero and Nicole Heininger also threw down. In the end, only 1:02 separated 1st from 4th place.
In the final half mile of Run #2, Hankee pulled ahead for good. Her win, her 2nd in a row here, was the 22nd of multisport career. Her time, though not a CR or PR, was brisk: 1:11:39. Suzie, who was coming off a course record win at Falls Du two weeks ago, finished twenty seconds behind Diane.
The final podium spot went to Scudiero, who waited until the final turn to surge past Heiney. The former US DOY (2013) finished in a PR 1:12:34. Heiney, who won at Cinco Du Mayonnaise the previous weekend, needed another seven seconds to reach the timing mat.
Entering T1 sixteen seconds behind Nate Hoffman, Patrick Parish asserted his authority in the first two miles of the bike course. Unlike the women's race at the front, the pack of lead men thinned out during the ride. Winner of three duathlon national championships, PP pushed to a 1:05 win over Hoffman, whose margin over the final podium guy--Bennett Isabella--was 1:06.
Adding to the Epicosity of the morning was the awesome weather (55-60 degrees, sunny and breezy), and the bet that spectator Ross Weinzierl had with participant Steve Stenzel. Steve, who is an Elite DILF and Devon Palmer's BFFFN, bet Rossy that he (Rossy) couldn't chug a PBR Tall Boy faster than the time he (Stevie) needed to get into-and-out of T2. Ross totally won that bet and expelled numerous malodorous beer burps thereafter.
ALSO: Here's what Suzie posted on her FB page immediately after the race:
Now that was a race! The elite amateur women put on a show today at Oakdale! All 4 of us in T2 together making Jer Bear tinkle in his drawers & sprint all over the run course for a sneak peak waving his clipboard yelling, "Epic!!!! Epic!!!! This is Epic!!! Ross are you getting this?!!! Pictures!!! Pictures!!!!" I've never gone back & forth with someone so many times in a race as I did with Diane today, at least 7+ lead changes until she finally channeled her inner Ruth Brennan Morrey & ran away to a :20 victory with Jenn & Nicole ending in a sprint finish less then a minute behind me. That was the most painful but fun race, thanks ladies for the excitement & competition, congrats! Thank you Randy Fulton for a wonderful event, we had Uncle Randy in a sweaty women's podium sandwich, all giving him a hug at once but there was no picture on my camera roll : -( so we have to do it all over again next year & recreate the moment. Thank you Momma Heiney for the photos! — with Nicole Jean, Diane Hankee and Jenn Jereczek Scudiero.
