Race Previews
COLT XVI Preve...Amy's Race...
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Sunday, 30 April 2017 23:10
ED. Got back last night from St. Anthony's in Florida. Dididn't have time to write race coverage for today. Will post coverage and results links on Tuesday.
COLT PREVIEW - The Chain of Lakes Triathlon in Alexandria, a totally cool town with a big statue of a Viking guy, will celebrate its 16th anniversary next Saturday. COLT is a sprint race consisting of a 600 yard pool swim, a 13 mile bike and 2.8 mile run, excellent distances for newbies, and veterans who like red-line racing.
Attendance has dipped a bit since 2013, as has been the case with most multisport races universally, but this year's enrollment is looking good. The race had averaged about 70 finishers for the last three years. Next Saturday's race could double that. We hope this is a trend affecting all Minnesota multis.
The overall course records, which were set by Sam Janicki (55:11 /Marcus Stromberg posted a 55:12 in 2014) in 2010, and Heather Lendway's ridiculous 57:13, turned in in '14, appear untouchable. But that suggests that several athletes will compete for the top spots, instead of a single triathlete blasting off the front.....
Last year, for instance, only 27 seconds separated the top two guys. The year before, Nick Grundman nipped his closest rival, Travis Miller, by only five seconds.
According to the registration list we saw last week, most of the Top 10 finishers and the AG winners are returning. We expect several contenders to have signed up since we saw the list, and still others to be late registrants. Guys like David Jensen, last year's men's champ, local star Mark Storhaug, 2016 breakout athlete Ryan Wippler, three-time winner Angie Hop, who is a HOOT and looks just like her mom, who is also a HOOT and works part-time at a Tesoro Station store near Lake Miltona, which is a majestic inland sea, and Travis Miller and others from his LAMS club, could be among the later enrollees.
If the winner were to come from the list we saw, we'd predict that Corey Nygaard, who was 3rd here last year, will pick up his first career multisport victory. His 2016 resumes suggests that he'd ready to win.
Masters women have always rocked socks at COLT. In '16, the Top 5 women ranged in age from 50 to 63. Four of those women are returning. The winner was Amy Woolsey, 50, an awesome air guitarist (top photo) whose W was the 2nd of her career. (The other was at Green Lake.) Her margin over Pauline McJilton, 48, whose racing results have improved dramatically since she turned 45, was 2:38.
Will Amy repeat as champ? Unless Hopper, or some other credentialed triathlete, are late registrants, we think she will defend her title. She loves this race, and excels here. Check out her COLT results for the last half dozen seasons:
- 1st in 2016
- 2nd in 2015
- 2nd in 2014
- 5th in 2013
- 9th in 2012
- 6th in 2011
