Race Coverage

Brad's Peeps....

Sunday, 31 July 2016 05:10

Photo - Brad Mitchell and his talented peeps, Gaby Bunten and Lisa Lendway.

TURTLEMAN - In our preview of this resurrected event we did not make any predictions, other than guessing that several of our state's elite triathletes would register late.

We we soooo right. Elite late registrants included eventual women's champ Gaby Bunten, women's runner-up Lisa Lendway, and winner of Manitou and Blaine in 2015, Chris Tatton, who would have to settle for 2nd on Saturday, though only by 14 seconds....

Tatton worked his buns off trying to make up the two-plus minutes he trailed after the swim to leaders Josh Mork, also a late registrant, and Bunten. No surprise that Gaby was first woman out of the water. On Saturday at Turtle Lake, though, she led the entire field, into T1.

Mork's stock has been rising for the last two seasons. He had also given Tatton some great competition in '15, losing to him by only eight seconds in their last meeting at Maple Grove Olympic, where Chris placed 9th and Josh 10th.

On Saturday, though, Mork put together his best race ever, claiming the fastest men's swim and bike splits. Though Tatton would outsplit him in the run by 2:41, he would come up a bit short. Fourteen seconds short, to be exact.

Both guys posted awesome overall times for the course that's listed as 1 mile swim - 25 mile bike - 5mile run: 1:52:10 and 1:52:24.

Third place went to Bunten, whose 1:59:41 might have translated to a sub-2:10 on a true Olympic route. The win was her third of the season, and seventh of her tri career. Gaby certainly appears to be on  pace to receive a Triathlete of the Year nomination at the end of the season.

Second in the women's race went to Lisa Lendway, whose last tri was at Lake Waconia a month ago. Lisa has been unable to race frequently in multis lately because she's been busy being in love and having fun. Rock on, Lisa!

Finishing 4th and taking the masters title was flamboyant Kiwi Brad Mitchell, who had this to say on FB after the race:

Turtleman Olympic in the books! Perfect day to race and awesome course and volunteers. SO GOOD to be cranking short course again (and see some of my peeps (photo), including two of the fastest and nicest gals in Minnesota)...

The race had 90 individual finishers, many of whom, like Brad, had high praise for the venue and the execution of the event. RESULTS