Race Previews
YWCA's Aluminum Anniversary...
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Wednesday, 09 August 2017 19:10
Photo - The Lendways, Heather & Lisa
YWCA WOMEN'S TRIATHLON - This iconic experience will celebrate its landmark 10th ananiversary (Aluminum) on Sunday. With 1500ish participants, it will probably be our state's largest multisport event of the year.
It will not only be a large race, it will be more competitive than ever. There will be twelve athletes in the Elite Wave, led by pros HEATHER LENDWAY, a two-time champ and course rcord holder, and HALEY CHURA, former USAT National Champion and one of America's premier long distance triathletes (IM PR - 8:56, half IM PR - 4:10ish). We're sure that these two stars will better the 1:03:16 that HL set in 2014.
CHRISTINA ROBERTS amateur CR is also in jeopardy, and yes, we think that Christina will take it down a notch. She'll be challenged by LISA LENDWAY, who was victorious last weekend at Brewhouse Sprint, and like Christina, has broken 1:10 twice here. (No other amateurs had cracked that time.)
Does this mean that we're picking Roberts and LL to go 1-2 in the amateur race? Not necessarily. Sure, it could happen, but DIANE HANKEE may be more fit right now than Lisa. She (Diane) has also turned 40 this year, so we're predicting that ANN SNUGGERUD's masters record (1:13:16 - 2014) will go down...
Another challenger is SUZIE FOX, who has won 39 multis in her stellar career. Suzie, however, has had health issues for the better part of the last two seasons. We'd love to see her back at full strength, and who knows, maybe she'll be ready to rock n roll like she did in 2015, when she won 11 races and was the runaway winner of the Triathlete of the Year award.
As all these great athletes duke it out for top spots, the championest of the champs in our hearts and minds will be JUDY RYKKEN, now 79. No one brings a brighter smile and a more robust love of life to the starting line of races than Judy. To us, she, and awesome race director NICOLE CUENO, are the YWCA Women's Triathlon's greatest amabassadors.
