Laurel Lake Triathlon

Corbin’s Mark Ramsey finished sixth place overall at the triathlon with a time of 5:31:35.

Over 150 participants from all over the country showed up at the spillway at Laurel Lake Saturday to compete in the first-ever Laurel Lake Triathlon, a race that combined a 1.2 swimming route, followed by a 56 mile bike ride through the Daniel Boone National Forest, followed by a 13.1 mile run along the shoreline of the lake and Holly Bay Marina.

Aside from some thick fog on the water that hindered the athletes’ visibility somewhat during the swimming portion of the race, it was a beautiful, sunny day for the event. Temperatures were comfortable when things got underway at approximately 7:30 AM, but heat did become a factor for many of the participants before the first runners began to cross the finish line about five hours later.

47-year-old Rob Allison from Nashville, TN, who has two decade’s worth of experience competing in events such as this, was the triathlon’s inaugural champion. He said that he may very well may be back if the event is held again next year, as he was a big fan of how the course was laid out. “Every race that I’ve been a part of so far in Kentucky has just been great,” he said. “This was a great course. I feel like it was very fair to cyclists, and it took away a lot of the advantage to the runners because it wasn’t all flat. I liked that. It was certainly a difficult course, but it was also beautiful. I actually think I enjoyed the running portion most because it was mostly shaded.”

Among the large group of competitors were numerous Kentucky athletes, including some from our local area, like Corbin’s Lance Freeman and Sam Brown.

Freeman, 24, said that he hopes to see even more people come out and compete if the event is held again next year, but whether or not he himself will compete in it will likely be determined by how much time he spends training. “This was a very difficult race,” he said. “There were three very big hills that were just brutal, and there were rolling hills the rest of the way. It was miserable.”

Freeman said that he has competed in even longer races in the past, but since he was late signing up for this particular triathlon, he didn’t have an adequate amount of time to properly prepare for the grueling course that had to be completed under a hot July sun in southeast Kentucky.

Brown, 18, said of the race, “It was hard. I had only ever ridden about 25 miles at a time on a bike, so doubling that, plus adding a little more, was definitely a challenge. I really hadn’t ever swam that far either, but I powered through that. It was mostly the biking portion that I had trouble with.”

When asked if he would return to compete again next year, Brown said, “Yeah, I think I will be back, but I need to practice a little bit more.”

The Laurel Lake Triathlon was the brainchild of Andy and Susan Kossen, a husband and wife team from the Cincinnati, OH area. Between them, they have a lot of experience with these events as competitors, but this was their first time working as race directors.

Susan Kossen was upbeat when talking about how everything came together, and she is hopeful that the event will return in 2015. “We’ve been boating down here since I was a little girl,” she said. “We’ve also had a houseboat here for the past 18 years, and we just love this lake. Everyone that we’ve talked to has commented about what a beautiful area this is.”

“Getting all of the proper permits was probably the hardest part of this whole process, and then we had to organize the event itself and get the website up and going, but it’s been good. I hope we can do this again next year.”

To get more information on the Laurel Lake Triathlon, including full race results, go to laurellaketri.com.

Continue to scroll down the page to see more photos from Saturday’s event.

Swimmers take to the water at the start of Saturday’s triathlon.

The first swimmer emergaes from the lake.

Bikers begin their 56-mile ride.

Runners begin the last portion of the race.

Winner Rob Allison (Nashville, TN) speaks with race director Susan Kossen.

Shannon Florea was the first female to cross the finish line.

All photos by TREVOR SHERMAN