ROGERS — Claudia Spooner was just looking for some trails to run Sunday. She found a win in the area’s first Olympic-distance triathlon.
Spooner won the women’s division of the Shark Olympic Triathlon at Horseshoe Bend Park on Sunday, just a week after finding out about the event.
“I called a running shop to find a trail and they said this was going on, so I jumped in,” Spooner said. “I’ve run like 30 miles worth of trails last couple days, so I was beat and didn’t know how this was going to go.”
Spooner, a multisport coach from Austin, Texas, finished the 1,500-meter swim, 25-mile bike ride and 6.2-mile run in 2 hours, 30 minutes and 14 seconds. She had the best times in the Olympic-distance bike and run among the women.
University of Central Arkansas student Maxwell Sawyer won the men’s division in 2:10:43, also turning in the race’s best times in the biking and running.
Sawyer ran his first triathlon at the Shark Sprint two years ago and began competing competitively last year. He’s competed in longer races before but was still surprised with his time.
“It went a lot better than I thought it was going to,” said Sawyer, who was the third man out of Beaver Lake before leading the rest of the race. “I thought the hills were going to be worse than they were.”
Sawyer is gearing up for another big weekend of triathlons in Arkadelphia. He plans to compete in sprintand Olympic-distance races next month.
Spooner is also preparing for more triathlons but was just visiting Northwest Arkansas when she entered Sunday’s race.
“I thought well I’ve got my bike but I don’t have most of my race stuff but I’ll give it a shot,” she said. “It was a good training day. The course is great. I can’t wait to go back to Austin and tell everyone because this is a perfect course for Austinites.”
Spooner said the swim through Beaver Lake — where she was fourth — was beautiful.
Rogers Heritage swim coach Julie Sakalares was the first woman out of the water and f inished her second triathlon fourth overall.
“The swim was great,” Sakalares said. “Swimming is my background so it wasn’t hard. I’ve been working on my biking since (the Ozark Valley Triathlon). My bike was better. The run — you just have to gut through it because it’s hard.”