Race Coverage

A Superior Exerience...

Monday, 31 August 2015 06:10

SUPERIOR MAN - After a lumpy swim in the nippy bay, the 400ish half IM and 41.5 participants got a nice push out to their respective bike turnaround points. The wind was their friend.

Then it wasn't. Turning back into the wind really blowed, even more than the stiff breezed themselves.

But triathletes love that kind of challenging stuff. Sure, they bitch while they're doing it, but all that negative stuff goes away when they cross the finish line. That's when they talk about loving the experience, planning to return next year and patting the race director on the back for a wonderfully executed event.

It seems contradictory to the non-triathlete. But it is soooo not! The internal juxtapostional stuff is an essential part of the deal. Train for an endurance event, then do one. You'll understand.

While the wind was a tad on the extreme side, the conditions were not as extreme as athletes had endured in the event's three prior runnings, especially  2013.

But as we noted, triathletes love challenge, and this challenging event is already a two-time "Triathlete's Choice Race of the Year."

Dr. Sean Cooley had won the first three editions of the SM Half, and his winning streak here continued as he and his gingersnappy girlfriend Hanna, who runs like a banshee, teamed up for the fasted time ever at this race: 4:05:00. They did it with Sean's silly-good swim (28:26) and his even sillier bike (2:07:44!) splits. Hanna (photo at bottom) then strapped on the timing chip and ran a 1:26:01, the second fastest run of the day by either gender (only Nick Nygaard was faster), to seal the deal.Good stuff.

Cooley's individual CR, set in 2012, was 4:24:06. It survived the tropical heat and humidity of 2013, and last year's event, of course, which had it's swim course shortened. Despite the win, most assumed that Matt Payne's participation in this year's SM would result in a a new course best.

It did. Though Matt (photo R with his family on a train) surmised early on that his goal of breaking 4-hours was OOTQ ("Out of the question." We made that up.) and NITC ("Not in the cards." We made that up, too.), he pushed himself to a 4:10:44 and didn't throw up once, though he almost did at one point. The victory was his 8th of the season and 41st of his career, six of which are half IMs.

Payne wasn't the only guy to dip under the old CR. Much to the jealous chagrin of his friend and training partner Mike Ward, who was busy timing the event, 2014 Minnesota Rookie fo the Year Nick Nygaard popped an impressive 4:17:58, which was exactly two minutes faster than Ward's PR time at Toughman. Both Nick and Mike are focused on their IM debuts at IMOO in a few weeks, and both are being considered for Most Improved nominations.

The final podium spot for the men was taken by Dan Arlandson, whose time was 4:25:14.

Winning the 7th half of her career was Kortney Haag, who despite a crash and an uncooperative derailer that cost 3-4 minutes, set a course record. Her time was 4:43:08. Twas her second win of the season and, according to our records, the 15th of her career.

Kelly Trom also broke 4:50 (4:49:30) and her resume at the 70.3 distance boasts one win (Toughman '15) and two 2nds (HITS-Waconia '14 and Superior Man).

The final women's podium spot was earned by YWCA Women's Tri director Nicole Cueno (5:02:31 after having flatted), who ate several semi-melted Fun Size Snickers on her drive home after the race (photo above L).

The companion 41.5 mile race was won outright by Diane Hankee, who joins Heather Lendway, Becky Youngberg and one or two others on the list of Minnesota women who have "chicked" the entire coed field in a multisport event. Hankee has won 23 races in her multisport career.

Also cracking the overall Top 10 in the 41.5 were Lisa Lendway (4th), who has a new boyfriend, and Jessica Rossing (7th).  RESULTS