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Highlands Today

Naples Resident Wins Triathlon

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By DOUG CARMAN

Highlands Today

Published: July 14, 2008

Updated: 07/14/2008 07:29 am

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SEBRING- It took Sunday's Heartland 2008 Triathlon winner Kevin Erndl one hour, one minute and five seconds to swim a quarter mile, bike 14 miles and do a 3.1-mile run.

A few seconds after Erndl breezed past the finish line, the skies opened up.

While Erndl, 29, celebrated in the rain, his friend and fellow competitor Steven Gust joined him at the finish line, placing third. Second-place finisher Kevin Grogan, 35, was 10 seconds ahead of Gust with a time of 1:02:30.

Erndl knew he and 31-year-old Gust, who are both from Naples, would finish close to each other at the triathlon. They had trained together for two years, and Erndl coached Gust on his swimming skills while Gust helped Erndl with his running.

Gust, on the other hand, wasn't as certain. "We knew it was possible, (but) we never did this race before and I haven't raced in a while... It was a nice surprise to see us finish this close together."

Until the rain started pouring down on Center Street a minute after Erndl crossed the finish line, neither one of them expected to finish first and third in the race. Gust finished at 1:02:40.

"By no means did we think we would dominate or win or even place very well," Erndl said.

The fastest woman, Mandy McLane of Windermere, completed the course at 1:06:15, making her the ninth-place finisher overall. It was her fourth triathlon overall but only the second one she said she seriously trained for in six months.

She used to do pole vaulting in college before running marathons. She started running triathlons because she said she wanted more variety, but, "I'm sticking with tri's for a while."

The best-showing Highlands County resident was sixth-place finisher Robert Aldredge, 28, of Venus, who came in at 1:04:52.

Further in the pack, 86-year-old Charlie Futrell of The Villages was cheered on, being the oldest competitor in the race. He swam, biked and ran through the 106th triathlon of his life with a torn rotor cuff, so he said he didn't try to push too hard. His finishing time was not in the records provided Sunday and he said he did not pay attention to the time.

He said the trick for him or anyone else to do it for that long is to simply set goals for themselves and expect getting hurt in the process.

"Set new goals every year... lose weight, be an Ironman, set up training schedules and follow it," Futrell said.

The 385 racers took off from the City Pier Beach at 7:30 a.m., swimming a quarter mile loop in Lake Jackson. From there, they mounted bicycles and rode 14 miles around Sebring, returning to Lakeview Drive for a 3.1-mile run downtown.

At least 100 people gathered at the City Pier Beach to cheer on the competitors as they stood on the shore before diving into Lake Jackson when the race started.

Several of the triathletes ran a good 15 to 20 seconds in the shallow lake before getting a chance to swim.

The crowds then followed the competitors as they jumped on their bikes, cheering everybody.

When the bike race was getting wrapped up, Don Elwell, Sunday's master of ceremonies, got the crowd to boo at the referee as a joke. As the racers started to finish, the rains started coming down hard. The crowd found shelter under trees and inside door steps although some kids were playing at the storm drains.

The race ended with an awards ceremony and a barbecue.

Reporter Doug Carman can be reached at 386-5838 or dcarman@highlandstoday.com

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