Race Previews

Another Busy Weekend Ahead...

Tuesday, 11 August 2015 06:10

This weekend's racing schedule is as insane as last week's. There are seven events for the Minnesota triathlete to choose from, if you'll excuse our ending a phrase with a preposition....

On Saturday, there's the 12th edition of the Young Life Olympic and Sprint triathlons in Detroit Lakes and Day One of the HITS-Multisport Weekend in Waconia. We haven't seen a start list for these races but we believe that Sean Cooley will defend his multiple titles at Young Life and do so in a time that challenges Sam Janicki's long-standing CR.

As for HITS, their venue is awesome, as is their transition resources and set-up, and the people who produce the series are totally cool. The MTN Guys strongly encourage our state's multisporters to support the HITS Series.

On Sunday in Palo, Iowa is the 18th Pigman Half, which will feature its most talented field ever. A preview of that annual classic, our region's oldest ongoing half IM, will post on MTN tomorrow. We hope you check it out.

Also on Sunday are the St. Paul Triathlons at Lake Phalen and the bombastic Burrito Union 5 & 10-Hour near Duluth. BU is a HOOT! We haven't seen registration rosters for these events, so we apologize for not being able to preview them here. Yes, we highly recommend both of those races.

The 8th annual YWCA Women's Triathlon and Lake Marion races, also celebrating their 8th anniversary, are happening next Sunday. We have seen their entrant lists.

Due to the plethora of events clogging the weekend, the Lake Marion Olympic and Sprint will be a tad smaller than in years past. They're expecting between 350 and 400 participants. We expect to see past champs Andy Wiberg and Bette Rowley at or near the top of the final results in the sprint, and unheralded, but not undeserving, Brian Gorman, to win the Olympic race. We're convinced that the women's Olympic winner will be a late registrant, perhaps Katie Buhr, who placed 2nd at LMT in 2014 and iscoming off a win at North Mankato last Sunday, or former Rookie of the Year nominee Olivia Bagnall.

The YWCA Women's Triathlon, lovingly directed by Nicole Cueno (photo), is arguably the coolest tri  in our state. It will feature its best field ever. Heather Lendway is returning to defend her title and lower her already ridiculously fast course record.

Because HL is a pro, there will be two overall winners this year: a pro champ and an amateur one. Who will that amateur winner be? It could well be Heather's sister Lisa, who is coming off a PR performance at Nationals. The Lendways went 1-2 last year.

The women who have the best chance, on paper at least, of breaking up the sister act, are Christina Roberts, who was victorious at Heart of the Lakes and 2nd at Minneapolis, Nicole Heininger, a three-time winner this season, and Diane Hankee, whose career multisport resume boasts 22 wins.

Let's also toss Stephanie Dellaria, nee Solfelt, into the mix. She's raced only once this season (that we're aware of--oops! another prepositional faux pas), and she was victorious there (Liberty Olympic).

We're also expecting to see great performances from Anns Snuggerud and Grabowski, who will battle for the masters title, as will the amazing Jan Guenther, who at 56, is one of the best 40-plus endurance athletes in the US.

If you're not currently registered for one of this weekend's races, please visit the events' websites to see if registration is still open.