Race Coverage

Fun and Fancy Glasses....

Tuesday, 15 January 2019 23:10

YWCA Indoor Tri Series #1 - The 2019 indoor tri season was launched last Sunday at the Midtown YWCA. The event boasted a record 72 finishers, 10 more than 2017 record-breaking numbers for the January event. Cool Beans.

A glance at athlinks.com revealed that a significant percentage of the entrants were avid runners with little or no outdoor triathlon experience. We'd love to see more indoor tri-ers make the transition.

We reached out to a few of the participants, asking them to comment on their experience. KAITLIN RANDOLPH (photo), overall winner of the Sprint tri (500 yd - 5 mile - 2 mile) who is a devoted cat lover, former track runner at Carleton College and a very nice person, had this to say: 

This was my first indoor tri, and I had a blast. The volunteers and other participants were incredibly supportive and welcoming, and I’ll certainly be back for more.

We asked her if she had done any prior tris: 

I did a couple student-run outdoor triathlons back in college (for Carleton and St Olaf), but none post-college. Hopefully I’ll have the courage to take that step one of these years! ...

We sure hope she does. Her aptitude for the sport is obvious. She significantly outsplit the other 16 Sprinters in every discipline. Her final margin of victory was an elephantine 9:41.

Speaking of outsplitting, 2016 Minnesota Rookie of the Year nominee MICHAEL WEISSENBORN threw down hard on his Long Course peers. He sent us a mini-race report: 

I really enjoyed the event. I've been off for nearly two years and this was a fun way to get back at it. The YWCA event is different than other indoor tris. Most are timed events which replace transitions with 5-10 min breaks. You can really smash the first two legs if you want and still have time to recover. This one operates like a standard outdoor triathlon with T1 and T2, so I had to remind myself to dial it back on the swim and bike just a bit. Personally, I was satisfied with the first two legs. I thought I paced them reasonably well. I was not happy with my run. At all. It actually felt pretty good, but I expected it to be much, much faster based on recent workouts. I'm sure it'll come as I work my way back.

Right now I'm just happy to be competing again. Oh, and they gave me a fancy cup.

Winners were not the only ones who received drinking glasses. Check out this perk, as described on the Series site:

New for this year!

Collectible and stylish drinking glasses to remind you of your hard work all year round!

Every registered participant will receive one drinking glass at each race. Each glass comes with its own unique design to represent the Swim, Bike, Run, and YWCA. They will be given out in that order (Jan. will be the swim design, Feb. will be the Bike, etc.). Sign up for all 4 races to collect all 4 of the fun and memorable glasses!

Results should be available on the Series website soon. The second event in the four-race Series will happen on February 10.

Seventeen of the 72 finishers were men (24%). The YWCA and MTN encourage more men to participate, and for more entrants to use their experience as a springboard to outdoor tri participation.

Here are the overall Top 3 in each event:

MINI (S- 400 yard - B - 4-mile - R - 1-mile) - 1. NATALIE RICHARD - 32:28, 3. SARAH ISDAHL - 33:11, 3. KATE VARNS - 34:24.

SPRINT - 1. KAITLIN RANDOLPH - 40:30, 2. WILLIAM DANAHER - 50:11, 3. AMY YOUNG - 52:34

LONG - (S - 600 yards - B - 6-miles - R - 5K) - 1. MICHAEL WEISSENBORN - 43:47, 2. McCLELLAND LEGGE - 51:17, 3. NOAH DANAHER - 52:00, 4. EVALYN CARBREY - 55:29.