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She's Done it All....

Sunday, 28 February 2016 06:10

ED. Terry Lee, a great friend of MTN and influential member of Minnesota's multisport community, sent us this article. Enjoy.

By Doug Williams (espnW.com - 2/18)

Jan Guenther has raced outrigger canoes in California and Hawaii, done a three-day cross-country ski race in Greenland and completed six Ironman triathlons. She has trekked across Finland on skis just for the experience, and paddled in flat-water canoe races across the Midwest. In nearly 30 years of competition she has tackled both the serious (the 1994 Olympic cross-country ski trials) and the odd.

One of those oddities was the Mountain Man Triathlon in Colorado, a now-defunct one-of-a-kind snowshoe-ski-speed skate winter race at more than 7,000 feet. She never won it, but it used to leave her with a smile affixed to her frozen face. It might be her favorite event ever. "It was just very colorful, very different," she says. "It was fun." ...

At 56, Guenther continues to be serious about having competitive fun. The woman for all seasons skis in the winter and runs, cycles, swims and paddles the rest of the year around her home in Long Lake, Minnesota.

In January, she added another experience to her resume by winning the Winter Triathlon national championships in St. Paul, Minnesota, a USA Triathlon event that features a 5K run on snow, 15K ride on fat-tire bikes and a 7K cross-country ski course. She was eighth overall and beat the female runner-up by more than two minutes. She'd never done an event like this, and definitely didn't expect to win.

"I don't necessarily think I have a chance to win anything anymore," she says, laughing while citing her age. "But I did go into it thinking, 'I better stay up with the girls on the fat-tire bike,' only because [the event] was really aimed at triathletes, and triathletes don't ski."  READ MORE