Race Coverage
Shattered Records, a Plethora of PRs & a Mongoose Named Milo.....
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Sunday, 09 April 2023 00:10
HOPKINS ROYAL TRIATHLON COVERAGE - Saturday was a perfect day for a racing as evidenced by shattered records and a plethora of PRs. The pre-race favorites lived up to expectations, both turning in stellar efforts. Remaining undefeated in regional racing this year, ANDY ZABEL used his superior bike/run skills to turn in a time of 1:02:46, a personal best on this course and the second fastest men's clocking in the eight-year history of the HoRT.
Zabel, the 2022 Male Master of the Year frontrunner, now has fifteen career multisport wins.
Then there's HEATHER LENDWAY whose Hopkins debut produced a seemingly untouchable--untouchable by anyone other than herself, that is--course record 1:03:17, which landed her in 2nd place overall. As expected, she outswam the entire field and outbiked all of her female peers. Less expected was the fact that she not only outran the women's field, only three me turned in faster run splits....
Heather is undefeated in five starts since returning to Triathlon after a four-year absence. All of those wins were Performance of the Year-nomination worthy.
Finishing 2nd and 3rd for the men (3rd and 4th overall) were MICHAEL WEISSENBORN (1:05:15) and tri-rookie SEAN PICKLE, 17 (1:10:13).
Finishing 2nd and 3rd for the women were 2021 HoRT winner CATHERINE LEE, whose 1:11:12 was a 32-second PR, and likely Most Improved nominee BETTE ROWLEY, who's 1:12:04 lowered her previous personal best here by 2:29.
Six Age Group records were rewritten, starting with the men's and women's 55-59 group. ROD RAYMOND, 57, the outright winner at Moose Lake and Shell Lake this season, placed 5th overall in 1:10:16, bettering the previous AG mark by 2:07, and South Dakota's TERESA VAN HYFTE, 56, whose 1:19:43 was 1:37 faster than the old record. It should be noted that Van Hyfte, who also owns the women's 50-54 mark, placed 9th in the women's race, one place in front of fellow star 55-59er AMY WOOLSEY, who also posted a time--1:20:19--that beat the old AG record.
LUKE HARNED, 69, lowered his divsion's record, also set by him, from 1:18:56 to 1:18:37. BETHANY COLLINS, 67, turned in a time of 1:34:38, which was 8:40 faster than the old record. JOEL WILSON's 1:30:58 was a 1:26 70-74M AG improvement, and DANIEL KIRK, 76, unsurprising bettered his AG's mark, doing so by a hefty 18:30.
The majority of the almost 400 entrants came away from the HoRT experience with happy faces and great memories, the poster children for this being STEVE GUNTHER and ROBERT "Hang Loose" KRAUSE (top photo), who each celebrated their 100th triathlon finish.
Apropos of nothing, DWIGHT LARSEN spent some pre-race minutes sharing phone photos and videos of his trip to Zimbabwe, which featured a locally famous mongoose namd Milo. Milo was drawn to Dwight and followed him around, which is both very scary and very cool.
Does anyone know the plural of "mongoose?"
