Carleton had its third annual triathlon on May 31, the first of the reading days. The triathlon was composed of the usual three events, a swim, a bike ride, then a run. Most of the action at the triathlon centered around West Gym. The swim leg of the race took place at its pool, lasting 1500 yards, or the better part of a mile. After the swim, students and faculty ran out to the front of the gym where their bikes were parked and went on a 26.8-mile bike ride out into the surrounding corn and soybean fields. The route looped back to the West Gym, where they prepared for the final leg of the race: a 5-mile run in the Arb. The run was also a loop, with the finish line in front of the gym where they started.
Both students and faculty could register for the race, as either individuals or a relay team. The races were in heats, so the first person to cross the finish line did not necesarrily have the best time. By 9:30 am the racers were going through the swim-bike and bike-run transitions at a fairly steady rate, and some runners were even starting to trickle into the finish line. Volunteers stood by at each transition to record each racer's time.
When they finished, Carleton's student and faculty athletes got to enjoy a well-earned snack of bagels, bananas, and water inside the gym. Perhaps the coolest part of participating in the race was having your racing number marked in black waterproof marker in large print on your bicep and calf all day. Or it could just possibly have been the Admissions Office support team. The Admissions Office, which fielded two relay teams and three individuals, all came out to the gym on race day wearing matching t-shirts. They cheered on not only their people, but all the runners, with pom-poms.
The overall winner of the triathlon was a co-ed relay team composed of John Nowinski '08, Mark Dyson '07, and Karin Brown '08, at 2 hours 4 minutes. The women's winning team was Clare O'Connor '08, Megan Kelville, and Jennifer Keville '08 at 2 hours 28 minutes, and the men's winning team was David Selassie '09, Jonathan McMurry '09, and Dan McDonald '09, at 2 hours 44 minutes. You can find out more about the triathlon at http://carletontriathlon.googlepages.com/.
