Race Coverage

Cruser's Debut Yields Course Record. Nelson Takes 4th BH Title...

Monday, 06 August 2018 23:10

ED. Check out the great Brewhouse Olympic race coverage that appeared in Monday's Duluth News Tribune. MTN will post coverage of the Brewhouse Sprint later this week.)

By Louie St. George (duluthnewstribune.com - great phtos by Stee Kuchera))

Wade Cruser and Elaine Nelson took decidedly different paths to the 32nd annual Brewhouse Triathlon on Sunday morning at Island Lake.

Men's champ Cruser awoke at 3 a.m. for the 160-mile drive from his home in Sauk Rapids, Minn., which took the 31-year-old about two and a half hours....

Nelson, meanwhile, lives 15 miles from Island Lake. A breeze — just like her fourth Brewhouse victory.

The 39-year-old Nelson successfully defended her 2017 women's title Sunday, coming through in 2 hours, 13 minutes and 28 seconds, almost seven minutes ahead of second-place Kayla Kjellman of Thunder Bay (2:20:16).
She was all alone over the final leg, a 6.2-mile run amid suffocating heat and humidity.

"That's tricky," Nelson said. "You're so used to playing chase and catch on the course, but when you're out front by yourself it's easy to hold back."

While Cruser similarly won comfortably, his margin wasn't quite as robust over runner-up Josh Blankenheim. Cruser opened up a 30-second lead over Duluth's Blankenheim coming out of the water, which he expanded en route to a finishing time of 1:57:46.

Cruser didn't know what to expect from his Brewhouse debut. Only a week prior, he was fourth in the half-ironman distance — 1.2-mile swim, 56 miles on the bike and a 13.1-mile run — at the Chisago Lakes Triathlon.