Race Coverage

The "Certs" of Special Events...

Sunday, 23 June 2019 23:10

GEAR WEST DUATHLON - In the 60s and 70s , pre Tic-Tacs, Certs had a popular and successful advertising campaign in which one impossibly good-looking person stridently asserted to another impossibly good-looking person, "It's a breath mint!" The other good-looking person then argued, "It's a candy mint!" Then an unseen announcer halted the argument, claiming: "It's two, two, two mints in one." Visually punctuating the two-two-twos were two rolls of Certs smacking together....

Well, the new Gear West Duathlon is like the "Certs" of the special endurance events world. It was two, two, two events in one.

We're not simply talking about events of different lengths, e.g. like races with sprint and Olympic options. We're talking about a serious race paired with a social event that included some casual running and cycling. Draft legal? No, draft encouraged!

And this concept worked beautifully.

Serious racers were finishing when a small but growing group of "Friends & Family" wave folks started to collect on a rise about eighty yards from the finish line. Those folks had jogged and ridden their bikes together, encouraging others along the way. When they got close to the finish, they stopped and "hung out." As long course folks streamed by, they cheered for them. As F & F participants caught up to them, they too stopped, then cheered for finishers and invited other F & Fers to hang out with them until there group was at least half the size of the entire Friends & Family field.

In a happy herd, chatting. laughing and encouraging each other, they jogged to the finish line.

It was so cool. While the long coursers (5K-30K-5K) were seriously going about the business of racing, most of the F & Fers were playing like carefree kids. 

Thanks Gear West for insitutionalizing the Friends & Family wave concept. More events should follow your lead. 

The "breath mint" portion of the event--F & F was the "candy mint" portion--featured "see you later" performances from the pre-race favorites. Racing like the reigning duathlon national champion that he is, PATRICK PARISH strung together stunning splits--16:11 - 41:20 (27 mph) - 16:55--en route to a clocking (1:15:18) that gave him enough time to hoover several grilled hot dogs before his closest rivals, BROOKS GROSSINGER (1:19:35) and JACOB KEEHAN (1:19:39), made their podium finishes official. The victory was Parish's third of the season and 38th of his multisport career.

For Grossinger, it was his sixth Top 3 performance at the GWD.

ANDY WIBERG and MIKE BUENTING rounded out the men's Top 5. Pretty good guys' field, huh?

The other "see you later" performance was turned in by a woman who just may be the fastest over-40 amateur multisportswoman in the country right now. For BECKY YOUNGBERG, 44, the GWD was her fifth race in as many weeks. This period was bracketed my major duathlon victories (Apple and Gear West), with two 2nds and a 3rd in between. Every effort had produced a new masters record.

BY's time at GWD was terrific, a 1:28:54, which gave her a 7:16 margin over runner-up ANDREA MYERS, a three-time MInnesota Master of the Year nominee who has won five races in the last two-and-a-half seasons.

The bronze medal position was earned by KRISTEN NORDBERG, a veteran runner who according to our research, hadn't done a multisport event since 2014, yet had done an Ironman or two prior to that. Her 1:37:53 at GWD was impressive, and we hope she adds more multis to her 2019 racing schedule. 

While the turnout wasn't large (109 registrants), and the weather (misty, temps in high 60s) was fine for racing, though not great for picnicking or dog-walking, we are convinced that the GWD will grow into an iconic event.

It was too darn cool not to.  RESULTS

Photos courtesy of Drew Frakes.