The third time was the charm for Doug Robinson.
The 43-year-old from Indianapolis was the overall winner of the River City Triathlon Saturday at France Park with a time of one hour, five minutes and eight seconds.
Despite an early-morning rain Robinson didn’t run into much difficulty with any part of the course.
“It was a little wet on the course but I didn’t really have any problems except on the trails when I had to turn,” he said. “It was a little muddy at places in the turns.”
The rain stopped shortly after participants entered the water at France Park for the first leg of the race, but damp conditions prevailed during the biking and running stages making for sloppy conditions before the humidity started setting in.
“Things went really well. Despite the rain we had over 180 people show up for the race,” River City Triathlon director Stacey Lods said.
Following Robinson with a time of 1:07:34 was Kokomo’s Mark Massengill, who uses races like the River City as a tune up for bigger events.
“In the fall I’ll be going to Branson, Missouri to participate in an Ironman competition, and I use races like this to get ready,” he said.
This was Massengill’s first River City and he was impressed with the course that he had to cover.
“The roads were a little rough in spots and the trails were a little muddy, but they were marked really well and it was a lot of fun to run on them.”
Winning the women’s division and finishing 18th overall with a time of 1:17:23 was 24-year-old Anne Marie Iddins from Minneapolis, Minn. Iddins was visiting her father who lives in Fort Wayne and came to town for the race. Though she came in as the first female she admitted that a part of the course gave her problems.
“I’m a runner, so any time I compete in a triathlon I usually have troubles in the water and it’s a bit discouraging to get out and be so far back, but that pushes me to catch people the rest of the way,” she said. “I’m always glad when I get off the bike.”
Iddins is a former college runner for the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and is used to running with less-than-ideal conditions.
“In college we used to run in the mud quite often. I wish I would’ve worn some spikes instead of tennis shoes but everyone was dealing with the same conditions,” she said.
Lods was grateful to the France Park staff for allowing the use its facility for the triathlon.
“Without them we wouldn’t be able to have such a nice triathlon,” she said. “A lot of the people participating really love the trail runs. Of course we have a lot of people help sponsor this event and we wouldn’t be able to do it without them either.”
Lods added that she’s seen a trend developing in people becoming more aware of personal fitness.
“This year we have had more people in a couple categories than we ever had before, so I think the fitness trend is big and people are wanting to do things that are physically and mentally challenging,” she said. “And this triathlon is a way to do that.”
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