Longboat Key Triathlon covers it all

Six races of various distances and disciplines took off from Longboat Key Club Resort on Sunday, Dec. 1 as part of the First Watch Longboat Key Triathlon. 

Racers could participate in either a sprint or standard distance triathlon (swim, bike, run) and duathlon (run, bike, run), a 5K or a 10K.  

Hope Frost, a high school runner from Virginia, took the sprint duathlon by about five minutes with a total time of 57:13.0 despite confusion with the distance of the first run portion. Many athletes thought the distance would be 1.25 miles, followed by a 10-mile bike and a 2.5 mile run, but the first run distance was doubled. Frost, 16, also ran in the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in Cary, N.Cc the day before. 

“I did not have a good Foot Locker race, so I was fueled to run fast today, and I felt OK,” Frost said. 

In other race results, Bego Lopez won the sprint triathlon outright. Maurycy Lewicki won the standard distance triathlon, Tina Johnson won the standard duathlon, Dereck Rock  won the 5K and Maxine Bedat  won the 10K. 

It took a while for all the races to finish up, so some finishers were enjoying breakfast from the Resort while others raced to rack their bikes to finish the last run leg of their races. Medals for the top finishers in age group and overall were given out.