Race Coverage
Slinkies on a Staircase...
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Monday, 29 April 2013 03:10
(Chad May Photo -Fall's Du runner-up Brian Sames.)
Falls Duathlon Coverage - Records tumbled at the fifth annual Falls Duathlon last Saturday like Slinkies on a staircase. If you can think of a better simile, pretend that we used it here, okay?
Great weather may have had something to do with why the times were so fast.
It started with Devon Palmer, who is sporting the "Scruffy-But-Not-Quite-Homeless" look these days. He bracketed his signature bullet-fast bike split with un-signature-isticly brisk run splits, which he totally needed to do because his closest pursuers, 2012 Rookie of the Year runner-up, Brian Sames, which is pronounced "psalm-us," not "saymes," and three-time Falls winner Chad Millner, are fleet afoot guys....
Ben's First Race of 2013...
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Wednesday, 17 April 2013 01:10
ED. Ben Ewers is a three-time Minnesota Grand Master of the Year.
LEADMAN 125 EPIC MARQUEE, first TRI of 2013 season (Race day account)
By Ben Ewers (benewers.blogspot.com)
Yesterday (4/14/13) I raced the Leadman 125, hosted by Lifetime Fitness. Tempe Town Lake, Lifetime, and Red Rock Racing hosted a whole weekend series of races starting with the Collegiate Draft Legal Championships on Friday, the Collegiate non-drafting Championships on Saturday, and three triathlons run concurrently on Sunday (a Sprint, Olympic distance, and the 125K). Amazingly, Red Rock and Lifetime pulled off a very excellent Tri Festival, especially challenging as it took place in an urban setting.
The 125K race is an attempt to host an equivalent to a half Ironman that doesn't leave you with as much of a post-race hangover. Consequently it has a slightly longer swim (2.5K), longer bike (109.5K), and shorter run (13K) compared to a half Ironman. The theory is that it's the run that leaves the most post-race hangover. It takes about the same total time to complete. Judging from how I feel this...
Ruther & Rossing Rock...
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Monday, 08 April 2013 01:10
(Photo - Jess' legs.)
Race Stuff - Minnesota women rocked socks last weekend. 2012 Minnesota Triathlete and Duathlete of the Year, Ruth Brennan Morrey, raced in her first pro contest yesterday, the British Elite National Duathlon Championships. Ruther is currently living in England, you know.T'was her first pro race and she finished a stellar 3rd overall. The winner was Vanessa Raw (photo below R), a total hottie from Loughborough (she is a model, we think?), which, fortuitously enough, is in England, and has a long history of ITU success in Europe. Runner-up was 2012 British Olympic triathlete Lucy Hall, who rides a black Felt bike and enjoys bangers and mash, which is an English deal.
That Ruthie-BM rocked with the aforementioned girls demonstrates that she is arguably America's premier female pro duathlete. Remember, duathlon is taken seriously in the UK and throughout Europe and their athletes have dominated ours for the last decade....
Two in a Row for Wiberg...
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Monday, 18 March 2013 01:10
Race Coverage - Andy Wiberg had a breakout season in 2012. His outdoor campaign featured two wins and two seconds. The previous year his best effort was a third place finish at Lake Marion Sprint. His 2012 rise began during the indoor season when he won the Life Time Fitness Eden Prairie race. He returned to this year's event on March 10 and won again, significantly improving on his distances in all three sports. (Points are issued for distances covered.) Andy is a nice guy who dresses well, has been to California and his wife looks great in her black and white dress. (photo L)
Andy was challenged at LTF EP by Josh Flynn, who swims like a banshee. In the end, Andy won by a single point, the same margin he had in 2012 over Rick Nordvold. This year's third place male was Matt Johnson, who finished just two points behind Flynn....
Putting Fears to Rest...
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Wednesday, 13 March 2013 01:10
By Dan Hedgecock (danhedgecock.blogspot.com)
Race Report - 2013 is officially on! Every winter I spend months training without any real racing and for some reason at the end of every winter I have an absurd fear that I won't be fast anymore. I know that it doesn't make any sense but I even have dreams about it. What if I'm doing all these workouts and think that I'm going to be faster than last year, but when I step up to the starting line I just don't have it anymore?
Putting this annoying fear to rest is always a priority for the first race of the season and this weekend I was able to do that at the Clermont Draft Legal Challenge. The race was early Saturday morning, 8:30 eastern time. It was a sprint distance of 750m swim, 20k bike and 5k run. There was 75 people in the race. 75 guys doesn't sound like a lot, except that all 75 of us start at the same time, and the distance to the first buoy was only 300m, and it was a U25 Elite Development Race, so almost everyone was fast all things considered. On top of all of that I put off registering until the very last minute and each person gets to pick their position on the start line based on when they signed up, so I had a terrible start position right in the middle of the field trying to squeeze in half a step behind two other guys. The first 200 meters was closer to a wrestling match than a swim, complete with swallowing plenty of lake water, getting kicked in the face, swimming over people and getting swum over....
Gut Trusting...
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Friday, 08 March 2013 00:10
February Disappointment and Despair
By Suzie Fox (from suz--news.blogspot.co.uk)
February is already over, I can't believe it is March! I started out the month of Feb with a VERY VERY disappointing 3:28 marathon in FL that turned into a training day. In the month leading up to the race I ignored many red flags and I did the race anyway. I am a very optimistic person and kept thinking everything would be fine but it wasn't. I am not surprised with my time at all just VERY VERY disappointed because I know that I can run much faster and I will, this just was not the time or the place. On a positive note, even though my time was a major bummer I did accomplish the one goal I needed to at this race which was a Boston qualifying time for 2014. Three of my training partners and I are planning to head to Boston next April and I can't wait to have a girls' trip and run the streets of Boston with these three fun and talented women. My sister and her in-laws were all over the 2 loop marathon course so it was really fun to see them so many times during the race which was in their home town so they knew tons of places to spectate and were also waiting at the finish line. The weather was also ideal, everything was perfect except for my performance....
