Race Previews

Weekend Preves...

Monday, 12 August 2013 06:10

PIGMAN HALF XVI - Our region's oldest half IM will be happen next Sunday at Pleasant Creek State Park near Cedar Rapids. For the second straight year the event will also feature an Olympic distance race. Visit Pigman's WEBSITE to see if registration is still open.

As usual, the half will be ultra-competitive, featuring past champs David Thompson (8x winner) , Kortney Haag, Julie Hull and Suzy Fox. Also returning will be AG course record holders Kevin O'Connor (40-44M), David Lyon (50-54M) and Greg Taylor (55-59M). Yes, we believe that DKT will chalk up his 9th victory here which will be his 17th career half win. Also, we expect 2012 women's champ Suzy Fox to repeat. Because we were impressed with Wisconsin guy Scott Bowe at Ironman Coeur D'Alene, where he was 2nd amateur in 9:12, he's our pick to place 2nd in the men's half.

We're picking a pair of Iowans--Dan Bretscher (2007 US AOY) and Daniella Williams--to win the Olympic race, though we'd love to see former Rochestererian, Joanna Hall steal the women's title....

LAKE MARION VI - This is a great event, staged at one of the coolest tri venues in The Cities. You can still get in, but you have to hurry. Online registration closes sometime tomorrow. RACE WEBSITE.

Let's do some predictions. The LM Olympic will be celebrating its 3rd anniversary on Sunday and we believe that past champs Kyle Serreyn and Dennis Dane will duke it out for men's title. We expect Kyle's "friend," Olivia Bagnall to win for the women. The list of entrants we looked at did not specify which athletes were doing which race, thus we are reluctant to predict the winner of the LM Sprint, which is turning six on Sunday. If last year's sprint winners, Andy Wiberg and Joyce Bourassa are enrolled in the shorter event again, we think they'll repeat as champion. *

UPDATE - A glance at the updated reg. list shows that Wiberg and Bourassa are signed-up for the sprint.

YWCA WOMEN'S TRIATHLON - (Excepted from press release) Grandmothers, teenagers, CEOs, mothers, coworkers and friends converge to celebrate women