Race Previews

Protectors & Servers and Toughmen...

Thursday, 23 July 2015 06:10

MINI RACE PREVES - There are five races next weekend and we'd love to preview all of them. But alas, we cannot. We only know who is racing at two of those events--Saturday's Walker Tri and Sunday's Toughman Minnesota, formerly the Chisago Half and Sprint. The other three races are Uncle Randy's Shell Lake Tri in western Wisconsin, the Moose Lake Tri south of Duluth, and the long-running Hoot Lake Tri near Fungus Falls, which is actually "Fergus Falls," but Angie Hop calls it Fungus Falls. We certainly hope that all these races enjoy great weather, good turnouts and satisfied participants....

Now, for the predictions pertaining to the races whose entrant lists we've perused.

WALKER TRIATHLON, aka CHASE THE POLICE - Celebrating its 6th running at its spectacular venue on Leech Lake's Walker Bay, this race will draw between 250 and 300 participants. Who will win? We expect 2014 Minnesota Master of the Year CHERYL ZITUR to successfully defend her women's title. Will she lower her CR? Only if the weather--i.e. heat and wind, especially wind--allow. We do expect her to dip under 1:13 on the .25-17-2.8 route.

We think the men's race will be won by MATT RADNIECKI, who has a very pretty wife and a cute dog (photo L). His 4th place finish at CPT in 2013 marked the beginning of his emergence as a regional star. He's coming off amateur wins at Heart of the Lakes Sprint and Trinona Sprint.

The MTN Guys will be there giving Fun Size Milky Ways to newbies and people with bikes that have kickstands and/or require two hands and some grunting to lift. Last year we passed out Snickers bars, Fun Size, of course. When you think about it, a Milky Way is a Snickers without the peanuts. A lot of folks have peanut allergies, so we're going with the Milky Ways this year.

To see if you can still enroll, visit the race's website - LINK.

TOUGHMAN MINNESOTA - Based solely on the list we saw, this event, which will celebrate its diamond anniversay on Sunday, should draw about 1000 participants. Here's our podium picks for the Half IM: MEN:

1. TOM GERLACH (Pro-Tucson, AZ/Madison, WI) - Loves the long stuff.

2. JON BALABUCK (Thunder Bay, ONT) - Jon won the 2006 version of this race. His time was 4:05:48.

3. DANNY MORWOOD (Kenora, ONT) - Former pro. Won Square Lake in 2013.

Weather permitting, we expect to see personal best efforts from MIKE WARD (Duluth), ERIC ENGEL (Madison, WI), PAUL ROCKWOOD (Superior, WI), JASON CRISP (Carlton) and CASEY MILLER (Baxter).

WOMEN:

1. KELLY TROM (Minneapolis) - This girl is special and we predict a sub-4:40 for her on Sunday.

2. MAGGIE FOURNIER (Onalaska, WI) - On the podium here in 2012 and 2013. 4:42 PR at Chisago.

3. ERIN HYNDEMAN-FARRENS (Maple Grove) - Former Square Lake Champ.

The companion bike heavy sprint event has gotten us excited and very confused. We have a clear choice for men's champion: KEVIN O'CONNOR. As for the women, we have no clarity whatsoever. BRIDGET MCCOY could win, but the short swim does not play to her strength. A .25-mile swim is good for DIANE HANKEE, whose needs a big win to resurrect her injury and bad luck riddled season. Then there's SUZIE FOX (photo R) , who's won more races this season (7!) than any other Minnesota woman. A win would be a milestone, the 30th of her career.

Now, will HEINEY be sufficiently recovered after her fine effort at Race 70.3 last Sunday?

We are not going to predict a winner here, but we can't wait to see how the competition unfolds. We hope you'll be be there, too, if not as a participant, as a volunteer or a spectator.

To see if you can still get in: RACE WEBSITE

UPDATE: We just learned that course-record holder Heather Lendway is racing. Oops! We've wetted ourselves.

ED. Apologies for the typos that weren't fixed unti after 4 PM. Our Bad.