It was a foggy start at the 33rd annual YMCA triathlon in Ottawa Metro Park.
Competitors swam, biked, and ran. There were also running teams with one member completing each leg of the race. The Lima YMCA and Kewpee co-sponsored the event, as they have for the last 33 years.
There's a reason the race has been put on every year since 1983, and that's a matter of the community that it hosts.
"There's a lot of tradition, as you can see by the amount of people that are here - we've averaged around 125 and 175 people for 15 years that I've been involved. I do this to give back to the community," said Dan Grime, Race Director for Lima YMCA.
And the first person to cross the finish line has a similar outlook on triathlons: "It's the community that's involved in this - not so much the communities that they're held in, the community of the triathletes. They're the nicest people you'll run into. I've been to races where somebody said, 'Oh, I won't race, you can just take my tire,' and wow, they're going to give up the race to give you a tire or something to race that race," said overall winner Sam Switzer.
Switzer finished the race at one hour, seven minutes, and 35 seconds.
