Race Coverage

Fast Times in Pig Country....

Tuesday, 23 August 2011 03:30

dkt kort kevin

Or was it Kevin O'Connor's lowering of Brian Bich's Masters Record?

It certainly could have been the continued rise of amazing tri-rookie Ruth Brennan Morrey, who placed 3rd in 4:37:44?

Storylines like these make it easy to overlook other good stuff, like how well Sam Janicki raced. He placed 6th in 4:13:09 and proved what most already knew, i.e. he's good enough to bark with our region's Big Dogs. Sure, he'd won nine races in less than two seasons, but he had yet to beat established stars. On Sunday he outraced the likes of Alex Hooke (8th), top Illinois guys, Dana Reiderer (7th), Mark Johnson (10th) and Rick Lapinski (11th) and rising jen sloan Wisconsin star Todd Gerlach (9th).

Way to go, Sam-inator!

Perhaps the biggest story is that it was a great day, a fast day, of racing in central Iowa last Sunday.

David Thompson's previous CR was 3:58:17, set in 2009. How did he manage to knock off 5:16? Perhaps his 24:18 swim, 2:11 bike and 1:14 run had something to do with it? The win was his 7th here and 71st of his impressive career. His margin of victory was 15:39 over Tulsa, Oklahoma's Chuck Sloan, who claimed the 2011 amateur title. Sloan's 4:08:40 knocked 29 seconds off Wisconsonian Joe Kurian's previous amateur CR, set in '09.

Kevin O'Connor, 40, placed 3rd overall in 4:09:56, which lowered Bich's 2008 MR by a chunky 1:32. The 2nd fastest 40-plusser on Sunday was Iowa's seriously handsome Barry Breffle (photo L), who finished 12th in 4:25:14.

It has been a long haul back to top form for Kortney Haag, thus her PR here had to feel really, really groovy. Her previous best on a accurate course was 4:49:37, posted here under extremely windy and occasionally rainy conditions in a victorious effort in 2009. Furthermore (great word!), she finished only 37 seconds behind the women's winner, Jennifer Sloan (photo R) of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sloan, who popped at 10:11 at Kona last fall and has podiumed in two other major 70.3s (Austin and Galveston) in the last year, carved 3:57 from Jan Guenther's long-standing (11 years!) amateur women's race record.

Yes, Jennifer is Chuck's wife. And sure, the fact that a husband and wife team were the overall amateur champs and both set records may, to some, be the BIGGEST story of the day. Certainly their Sooner peers would think so. But this is a Minnesota website, for and about our state's multisporters, goshdarnit!

What can we say about Ruth Brennan Morrey, the decorated runner / rookie triathlete? Four races, two wins (Falls Du and RochesterFest Olympic State Champs) and two 3rds (Chisago Half, where she was 1st Minnesota women, and Pigman Half, which featured a 1:26 run split).

Let's come right out and say it! Ruth is pretty dang good!

Four Minnesota dudes Top 10ed. Six of our state's fastest girls cracked their gender's Big 10. They are:

GUYS -

1. David Thompson - 3:53:01 - CR

3. Kevin O'Connor - 4:09:56 - MR (just seven seconds off his 2009 PR)

6. Sam Janicki - 4:13:49 - PR

8. Alex Hooke - 4:15:03

GIRLS -