Race Coverage

Outracing the Brunt...

Tuesday, 29 May 2012 04:50

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The brunt portion of a non-wimpy-ass storm is, simply put, the worst part. The part where the rainfall is most torrential. And the winds are most violent. The brunt is the get-your-butt-indoors-you-moron part of the storm. The part where, say, your PA system is blown down and broken beyond repair and you're gonna have to go to The Guitar Center in Oakdale on Sunday and grudgingly buy a new unit.

We digress. girls

The 30th edition of the venerated Apple Duathlon was launched last Saturday during the wimpy-ass pre-bruntal portion of a storm. At that time the storm was in the impending stage. Conditions included dead entrails grey skies and wear-an-extra-layer cool temps, and stiffening breezes, though not enough to ruffle your arm hair, and extremely humidity. It was gonna rain, but how soon? How many folks would finish before the heavens began regurgitating in an intrusive way?

That was the question.

A light rain started to fall as the leaders approached T1. No big deal. By the time everyone had saddled-up, the raining increased and winds became quasi-belligerent. No brunt yet.

Shortly after Patrick Parish arrived in T2 and fretfully lost several seconds trying to locate a hiding running shoe, though, the FRONT arrived. Not quite the brunt of the front yet, though.

PP, who would have run the second 5K shoeless if need be, ultimately splashed his way to a brilliant amateur record 1:21:04, lowering Dan Hedgecock's year-old AMREC by 28 ticks. (Hedge, now a pro duathlete, scratched before Saturday's race due to an injury thing.)

At this point, the cats-and-dogs rainstorm had still not reached the bruntal stage. But, as the statuesque Amy Woolsey and shorter friend Erin Lemke (photo R) climbed the final gentle hill to the finish, the storm's brunt lowered it's boom. The winds were now tornadic, albeit without, thankfully, rotation (50-60 mph?). Most of the venue staging had fallen or was airborne, heading for Kandiyohi County. The finish line inflatable strained at it moorings, threatening to pull loose and leap over the middle school. Tall Amy and regular-sized Erin had a decision to make. They could either run into the flailing canvas balloon, which would have done them no good, or zig to the left, where the edifice used to be. That was the wise choice, and because both girls are VERY smart people, they zigged.

Erin and Amy, both of whom would podium in their AGs, were the 77th and 78th individuals to finish (17 teams had also crossed by this time). This meant that more than 140 pre-finished or pre-DNFs athletes would have to race through the storm's bad-ass brunt. A few would get blown off their bikes. And dreams of fast times were abandoned in favor of mere survival.

And, as multisport athletes do, most soldiered on, unwilling to let the weather beat them. One such person was 88-year-old Bob Powers. When he later received his award amid bruntishly thunderous applause, he reminded the crowd that he was a Marine, and "Marines don't quit." Bleeding from a crash would, he supported this remarkable fact by announcing, "I have NEVER DNFed."

How cool is that?

girls As epic as Parish's record was, Ruth Brennan Morrey's new record may have been a teeny bit epic-er. She not only lowered Marlo McGaver's seemingly untouchable six-year-old race record (1:32:26), she did so by almost two minutes! (1:57, to be exact!). Ruth opened with a 17-flat 5K (!), out-biked everyone but cycle-mistress / defending women's champ Suzie Fox, though Suz's split was only 4-seconds faster, then closed with a 17:56! Brennan Morrey placed 9th overall. Previously, no woman has ever finished better than 18th (Marlo in 2006) at Apple.

In three du starts this season, Ruth has posted three wins and set three course records by a combined total of 17 minutes. She's like an untamed storm, who unleashes her Krakenesque brunt at every race she enters.

Gosh, this athlete is special. (Photo L - Ruth, Claire and Suz, the women's elite podium.)

Many pre-storm-brunt finishers turned in amazing efforts. (For everyone else, simply finishing was amazing!) Fox, for instance, placed 2nd and went 5:08 faster than her winning time in 2011. Demonstrating that his six-day-old half-im legs weren't totally trashed, Matt Payne (amateur champ at Florida 70.3! His totally cool Florida race report posted yesterday) podiumed, placing 3rd in 1:23:36, a 58-second improvement on his prior PR at Apple. In Matt's other du appearance this year, he placed 2nd overall behind PP at USAT Du Nationals.

Finishing 2nd for the guys was former Collegiate XC All American Jesson Baumgartner from Waukee, IA. Runner-up at Du Nationals in 2011, Jesson's 15:16 opening 5K most certainly pulled Parish (15:28) to an ultimate record. Baumgartner's final 1:22:00 is the 3rd best amateur clocking in the nine years that Apple has utilized the present courses. COMPETE RESULTS

BONUS STUFF - Check out the St. Cloud Time's Apple story and slideshow. It's awesome. LINK

Check out Saturday's studly and studettely Top 10s:

Apple XXX (5K-33K-5K)