Published: May 20, 2007 12:10 am         

Record time recorded during 2007 Terre Haute Triathlon

Professional athlete Kirk Nelson wins event’s 22nd running

TERRE HAUTE — Self-admittedly, Kirk Nelson stated swimming was not his best event, but the Longmont, Colo., resident more than made up for that “deficiency” in the bike ride and run. Nelson easily won the 22nd Terre Haute Triathlon in and around Hawthorne Park on Saturday morning.

Nelson, 27, was invited to Terre Haute to run and speak at the group’s pre-race dinner on Friday. He completed the 800-meter swim/40K bike ride/8K run in a record-time of one hour, 34 minutes, 24 seconds of ideal weather conditions.

Nelson, a professional triathlete, shaved off nearly three minutes from the previous best time since the present course distance commenced in 1992.

“The race really went well. The race course is pretty awesome. I’m from the Midwest originally, my wife is from Minnesota and I’m from North Dakota. So it brings back some memories … having a lot of trees,” Nelson laughed.

“Colorado is a bit more open and dry.

“I don’t normally race this short of a distance, I usually race longer distances. So this one really hurts, you’re going harder. I came out of the water, I think, fourth and had a quick transition and I was in the lead on the bike.

“I do mostly half-Ironman and full-Ironman racing. Which is about twice the distance roughly.

Nelson was followed by Mike Smith, 46, of Brownsburg at 1:36.29, Steve Johnson, 31, of Chicago third at 1:38.20, then John Paul Severin, 22 of Chelsea, Mich. was fourth at 1:39.18

Nick Waninger, 23, of Santa Claus was fifth overall (1:40.27) and had the fastest run of 5:19. That Waninger was the fastest runner is not surprising. While at the University of Evansville, he earned all-Missouri Valley Conference and MVC Scholar-Athlete team honors for the past three years in succession.

The top female finisher was Debbie Hodgett, 40 of West Chicago, Ill., in a time of 1:59.36. She was 51st overall and well short of the course record.

“A great start-to-the-season race, it had a little bit of everything,” Hodgett noted. “The weather was chilly enough to get you moving and enough hills and straight-aways. Just an enjoyable race.

“I wanted to go someplace that was a little bit warmer than Galena (Ill.) up north and closer than Memphis in the south. So this was a good in-between. I’m not a good swimmer, so it was perfect. Shorter swim, longer bike and run.”

The event had a total of 306 entries, with 266 officially completing the race.

While not one of the top finishers, West Terre Haute resident Troy Charters was just happy to be able to compete in two of the three events.

Charters explained he was on a bicycle training ride on Aug. 21, 2006 and was struck by a truck. He was airlifted to Indianapolis after sustaining 11 breaks in his leg, losing four inches in his tibia and his lower leg was a compound fracture.

Despite that setback, he was making good progress until he had a steel plate break in his leg and that set him back a couple of weeks in January.

“I’m just now starting to walk without a limp,” Charters stated. “Everything is going really good right now. My goal after getting hurt was to compete in the Terre Haute Triathlon … I did two-thirds of the Triathlon, my wife Heidi is doing the run for me today.

“But the swim and bike ride went great, better than I thought it ever would. It’s just great to be here.”



Top 20 finishers

1. Kirk Nelson (Longmont, Col.) 1:34.24, 2. Mike Smith (Brownsburg) 1:36.29, 3. Steve Johnson (Chicago) 1:38.20, 4. John Paul Severin (Chelsea, Mich.) 1:39.18, 5. Nick Waninger (Santa Claus) 1:40.27, 6. Dave Riggs (Ann Arbor, Mich.) 1:42.34, 7. Andrew Mueller (Champaign, Ill.) 1:42.43, 8. Matt Inch (Ann Arbor, Mich.) 1:44.31, 9. Jay Church (Indianapolis) 1:44.52, 10. Bill Harkins (Indianapolis) 1:45.08, 11. Mark Hiskes (Brownsburg) 1:47.04, 12. Joel Gaff (Traverse City, Mich.) 1:47.36, 13. Chase Baraczek (West Lafayette) 1:47.50, 14. Louis Di Guiseppe (St. Louis, Mo.) 1:48.12, 15. Lance Benedict (Towanda, Ill.) 1:49.17, 16. Greg Boyd (Okemos, Mich.) 1:50.01, 17. Todd Meredith (Holland, Mich.) 1:52.01, 18. Chris Parker (Algonquin, Ill.) 1:52.05, 19. Tom Schaper (Western Springs, Ill.) 1:52.06, 20. Jay Searles (Champaign, Ill.) 1:52.15.

Top Female

51. Debbie Hodgett (West Chicago, Ill.) 1:59.36.

Other top Wabash Valley finishers

46. Ethan Page (Terre Haute) 1:58.12, 56. Jim Nichols (Terre Haute) 2:00.35, 73. Brent Noble (Terre Haute) 2:02.57, 80. Steve Black (Sullivan) 2:04.00, 81. Scott Thomas (Terre Haute) 2:04.09, 89. Martha Whitacre (Paris, Ill.) 2:06.20, 93. James Twitchell (Terre Haute) 2:06.50, 92. Erin O’Connor (Terre Haute) 2:07.39, 100. Mitch Kaiser (Terre Haute) 2:07.40.