Race Coverage
Olivia & Dani Lead the Way at One Last Tri...
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Sunday, 15 September 2019 23:10
Photo - The Four Musketlessteers (L-R) - Tom Krueger, Luke Harned, Michell Sanders and Tom Couillard. Harned, Sanders and Coulliard were AG winners.
ONE LAST TRI - A pair of insanely talented women that we don't see often, stole the show last Sunday at the 14th edition of One Last Tri. Taking the women's title in the Sprint was OLIVIA MELHORN, formerly Olivia Bagnall, whose last triathlon appearance was at Lake Minnetonka in 2017, where she placed 3rd.
A former collegiate and pro soccer star (and current soccer coach), Olivia started dabbling in triathlon in 2013, a year in which she won two of the four tris she did and was runner-up behind NICOLE HEININGER for Rookie of the Year. Since then, she's raced in 13 multis, including OLT, winning seven of them and finishing outside the Top 5 only once.
Why haven't we seen more of her in the last few years? She's been busy coaching and starting a family with her former college football player husband. They have a baby girl who is totally cute!
Melhorn's time at OLT Sprint was 1:04:56, which landed her in 3rd place overall among the 227 finishers, just 1:12 behind the men's winner DEREK PARKER, and 1:02 after men's runner-up JASON FISCHER, who had a breakout season in 2019, highlighted by his win at Fairmont Sprint and his 3rd at Trinona Sprint.
Second place in the women's Sprint was earned by SIMONE LUNDQUIST, a performance that made the day, her 17th birthday, all the sweeter, and likely helped her nab first Junior of the Year nomination....
Good Times...
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Sunday, 15 September 2019 12:10
By Doobie Kurus
And the winner is…”blah, blah, blah” Who cares? (Other than the winner I guess) Don’t get me wrong. Someone’s got to win, and it’s pretty impressive when they do. BUT, for every winner, there’s hundreds of “finishers”, many of which rarely, if ever, get recognized. At the Hopkins Royal Tri (HoRT), we strive to make the winners and the finishers, and really anyone who’s a part of the event, including volunteers and spectators, feel welcomed and appreciated. After all, the only time that really matters, is whether or not you had a good time! And it looked and sounded like a good time was had by many, if not all.
So, first off, thank you to the various youth groups (Hopkins HS Gymnastics, Theatre, Girls Soccer, and Pep Band) plus Team RWB (an armed forces veterans group that promotes fitness amongst injured vets) that volunteer at the HoRT. From setting up/taking down equipment, to course marshaling, to handing out food and water, we would not be able to do the event without them. We also would not be able to have donated over $50,000 back to the local community over our first 6 years. Thank you to the fans/spectators that come out to cheer everyone on. We hope that having names on the race bibs helps you so that you can even encourage people you didn’t know. We also hope the later start times, the playground for the kids, the free post race food (for all) and the great sightlines, made it enjoyable for you too.
Here’s some little known facts about the race this year. We had at least 18 people that registered for the HoRT each of our first 6 years. To thank them, we are giving them a free entry into HoRT for “lucky year #7”. It’s the least we can do for believing in us that first year, and sticking with us ever since. We had participants from 9 different states, which is nice to see people come travel to be a part of our event. Our oldest participant was 81 years young (Judy the “T-Rex” Rykken). Judy, the recipient of our #1 race bib and person that started off our event, displayed such good sportsmanship that she took the time to...
"Every Step, Lap, and Bike Pedal Had a Purpose"....
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Friday, 13 September 2019 23:10
Post-race Report/Reflections...
@ Madison, Wisconsin
By Caryn Herrick
I have wanted to do an Ironman ever since my freshman year of high school when my swim coach, Mark Larson, was training for Kona. When I learned about the event, it was absolutely awe inspiring to me. I said definitively to myself: “I am going to do an Ironman one day.” Every year, my dad would record the Kona Championship on NBC and I would watch it all the way through. Again I thought, “I can do that one day. I will do that one day.” I never thought that it would take me until age 29 to make this dream happen.
This was my very first triathlon season and it has been one hell of a learning process. I signed up for IM Wisconsin the first day registration opened and every day for a year now, this race has been in the forefront of my mind. I went into this year of training without riding a triathlon bike in my life and without any sort of training/nutrition plan or coach. It wasn’t until May of this year when I took my tri bike to the road for the first time…it was like riding a bike for the first time! Fortunately, I did have a background as a competitive swimmer. And because I would run during off seasons of swim and after I graduated college, I maintained a good running base. I knew that if I were to just add in the biking, I could actually make this Ironman thing happen.
And I DID make it happen. On September 8th, I officially became an Ironman....
"Stay Committed, No Regrets"...
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Thursday, 12 September 2019 23:10
ED. Rachel Mensch grew up in Edina, was college educated in Virginia and currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin. After her stunning victory at USAT Age Group National Championships last month, we asked her to write a race report. Here it is:
By Rachel Mensch
Pre-race:
Race morning I had my alarm set for much earlier than any person should be waking up. I dragged myself out of bed and had my usual pre-race cup of coffee and overnight oats, and got my stuff ready to head over to Edgewater Park. Luckily, my boyfriend Vant is from Cleveland Heights, so we were able to stay at his parents’ house for the weekend, which is about 15 min from the race venue. Vant's dad dropped us off so we didn’t need to worry about parking or shuttles. Once in, I overheard some speculating about the swim getting canceled, but I tried not to worry about it. The...
"Jake, You're In!"...
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Wednesday, 11 September 2019 23:10
By Jake Braam(Facebook)
Ironman Canada Race Report 1/3
Here are the categories:
1. Planning (hills, nutrition, weather, tips)
2. Race Execution
3. Post Race
Planning (for you non-triathletes this will probably be boring):
I'm not big on planning or studying course maps or meditating. I find the more I study the course, the more anxious I become during race week. It's better for me to study the course a day or two before and more or less wing it. That being said, Coach Anthony Jagielo had me well prepared for the brutal climbing on the bike course with the training plans he produced. We also drove most of the bike course two days prior to race day....
"...The Hardest Course I Raced This Season."
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Monday, 09 September 2019 23:10
SQUARE LAKE SPRINT RACE REPORT - Sunday Sept. 8th 2019 was what was most likely my final Triathlon of 2019 unless I sneak a travel trip in some place? I decided 3 days before the race to enter Square Lake Sprint Triathlon as a way to end what has been a great 2019 season for myself and for my daughter Bella who has 4 junior female course records this season and a bunch of podium finishes including some overall wins! Bella did not race since she is now into high school cross country season.
Race morning the calm before the storm! I woke up and looked at the weather said well it’s not raining, awesome! But then looked at the temperature and said burr! I’ve raced Duathlon in cold weather, but I’ve never raced Triathlon in cold weather like this, where the water is much warmer than air temp! I will admit I was not sure about this race and kept asking myself why did I sign up for this 3 days ago? But the venue at Square lake park is beautiful! The lake is one of the nicest lakes we swim in around here!
For Square lake Triathlon the athletes self-seed themselves based on how fast they swim, so I was going for the win and put myself up front maybe 4th guy into the water? My friend Jon who is an excellent swimmer went when I did as well and my goal was pace and sight off him, well that worked for a bit but coming back to the beach the buoys were off, there was no on-shore structure we could see and sight our way back in so I was all over the place and ended up coming to shore down beach from the entrance to transition and had some extra running to do....
