Race Coverage
Racing Can Be Fun....
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Wednesday, 07 March 2012 02:00
The Most Fun I've Had in a Race
By Dan Hedgecock (danhedgecock.blogspot.com)
This weekend I raced the age group draft legal race at the Clermont Challenge. It was a short trip down to Florida and back. I arrived in Orlando at 2:45 on Friday afternoon and flew back out at 6:30 the next day. Even with the quick turnaround I had a great time.
The race on Saturday was unlike anything I've ever done. I lined up with 75 other people, much more than the 20-30 that I'm used to. The swim was very physical. Most of the guys were at least decent swimmers because of the draft legal style of racing, and I swam over a few people, a few people swam over me, I choked down a lot of water and got kicked in the face. I came out of the water 42nd, still a lot of work to do there....
De-Rusting in Clermont...
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Tuesday, 06 March 2012 02:30
(Cell Phone Photo - Kevin O'Connor. The shot was taken by Kevin's sister. Who knew?)
Race Coverage - For most Minnesotans the 2012 multisport season won't get underway until May. For a few, however, the outdoor season has already started.
Three of our state's premier guys--2011 Triathlete of the Year, Dan Hedgecock, 2010 Triathlete of the Year, Patrick Parish and 2009 US Duathete of the Year, Kevin O'Connor--and three of Minnesota's most decorated junior girls--2010 Junior of the Year, Kate Lowrey, 2011 Junior of the Year Runner-up, Greta Danielson, and 2011 JOY nominee, Paige Danielson--plus promising newcomer Trisha Bachmeier--treked down to Clermont in central Florida last weekend for the 2nd annual Clermont Draft Legal Challenge. Seventy-seven amateur guys and 37 amateur girls, a significant percentage of whom sport elite creds, and some of whom have pro aspirations, gathered on the mucky, receding shoreline of Lake Louisa last Saturday. The course length was "official sprint," i.e. half-Olympic (750m-20K-5K), and conditions were, for better or worse, a bit more sultry (temps in the mid-80s) than the northern and Midwestern entrants were used to.
The draft legal format favors strong swimmers and the Minnesota contingent are best known for their cycling and running prowesses. Sure, Kevin's and Kate's swim skills are estimable, but on Saturday KO chose to swim with Dan, allowing the Gear West Bike duo to work together during the bike segment; and Kate, who was in 10th pace out of the water despite being whacked by a kayaker's paddle, DNFed in T1 on the advice of her coach....
Three Times the Fun...
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Saturday, 03 March 2012 02:00
ED. This totally cool story originally appeared in the Rosemount Town Pages (LINK) on March 1.
By Nathan Hansen
Nathan Ilse (photo L) knew before last weekend that he liked running triathlons. He just didn
Weekend Event Coverage...& Stuff...
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Tuesday, 28 February 2012 02:00
* THE ICEMAN COMETH - The 2012 Iceman Triathlon, which is really a quadrathlon--xc skiing, mountain biking, running and sledding--was staged at Lincoln Park in Grand Forks last weekend. Nearly 90 athletes participated. Unsurprisingly, ND's numero uno multisportsman and total horndog, Sean Cooley, cameth across the finish line firsteth for the dudes. Comething in firsteth for the girls was Alison Kelly who has blond hair, lives in Bismarck but grew up in West Fargo and has 366 Facebook friends. RESULTS
* Life Time - Maple Grove - The best-attended of the first three 2012 Life Time Indoor Tris was held last Sunday at LTF's Maple Grove club. Eighty one swim-bike-runners participated. Leading the way was Nick Shultz, who grew up in Cokato and likes "30 Rock" and "Bananagrams."...
Indoor Tri-ing...
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Sunday, 26 February 2012 02:00
Event Coverage - We intended to post coverage of last Sunday's Life Time - St. Louis Park Indoor Tri on Thursday. We spent about 90 minutes writing and laying out the story then we clicked the "Save" icon, but the post didn't save!
Our computer lied!
This has happened to us a half dozen times over the last year and it makes us so angry that we could just spit! And yes, we could have written the story in a word doc first, so we wouldn't have to rewrite the dang thing, but we didn't. Our bad.
Well, a few days have passed, we've taken our meds and are ready to write the story again....
An Intimate Event...
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Thursday, 23 February 2012 02:30
Event Coverage - The first of this year's OptumHealth Performance Indoor Tris (Jan. 22) was an intimate event, drawing 14 participants, all of whom made friends, got a great workout and later went out for pancakes.
The second OHP event, which was staged at their Eden Prairie facility last Sunday, was even intimater. Nine people registered and seven eventually participated. Our guess is that they all enjoyed the experience even though Coach Kris, who is a total hoot!, was in San Diego doing unspecified, yet vitally important stuff.
Here are the results and some Facebooky stuff about some of the participants.
ERIC BOYUM - 500 yd swim (7:45) - 5-mile Bike (18:00) - 2 mile run (15:14) - 40:59 -
* Eric likes wine and basketball. He speaks Spanish, but not all the time. He plays golf sometimes and his favorite TV show is "South Park," which is really irreverent and funny....
