Dubbed the "largest duathlon in the world," the second Team Ortho Minneapolis Duathlon is in the books! Downtown Minneapolis was the site for a breezy and slightly warm duathlon this morning. Almost 1,400 athletes finished the duathlon, 340 finished the "fun course" duathlon, 153 teams did the relay, 45 cyclists finished the time trial, and nearly 100 runners finished the 5K. That's a total of around 2,200 athletes, and all these events were going on at the same time! That's a lot of athletes taking over downtown Minneapolis.
Make sure to check out all the photos below and on page 2 of this article!
The duahlon consisted of a 5K run, an 18 mile bike, and another 5K run. The announcer stated at the finish that 65% of the racers today had never done a duathlon before!
In the men's race, Matthew Payne (Columbia Heights) took the overall win. He finished the first run in second, but came off the bike first and never looked back. He finished nearly 2 minutes ahead of Chad Millner who came in second. Millner (Eden Prairie) had a strong first run, but was caught by Payne on the bike. Millner gave up a little more ground to Payne on the final run, but held on for second. Third place was Joshua Riff (Edina), who was just a few seconds behind Millner. Riff doesn't appear in the official results yet (at time of publishing), but I was there as Riff came in 3rd - as the announcer noted, his chip didn't read at the finish line.
In the female race, it was fun to watch Julie Hull back in racing form in her first race back after crashing and breaking her wrist at Lifetime in July. Jenny Wilcox (Cottage Grove) came into T1 first, with Marlo McGaver (Duluth) right on her tail. But Marlo never made it back from the bike - hopefully just a flat and nothing more serious! Wilcox was first in off the bike, and she only extended her lead on the final run. Julie Hull (Farmington) made up some ground on the bike, but wasn't as strong as Wilcox on the run. Hull finished about 2 and a half minutes back. Over four minutes behind Hull was third place: Beth Shipston from Thunder Bay, ON.
Click here for the results of the duathlon, the fun course, the time trial, and the 5K.
Check out the photos below, and then go to page 2 to see more photos from the race >>
Follow Steve on Twitter (http://twitter.com/SteveinaSpeedo) or on his blog.
Comments