{"id":44719,"date":"2021-09-11T22:44:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-12T04:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/preston-wins-inaugural-lake-nighthorse-triathlon\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:21:08","slug":"preston-wins-inaugural-lake-nighthorse-triathlon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/preston-wins-inaugural-lake-nighthorse-triathlon\/","title":{"rendered":"Preston wins inaugural Lake Nighthorse triathlon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"David
David Preston smiles after winning the inaugural Lake Nighthorse Sprint Triathlon on Saturday. Preston\u2019s winning time was 1 hour, 11 minutes and 8 seconds. (Cody Olivas\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The inaugural Lake Nighthorse Sprint Triathlon took place on Saturday, challenging competitors with a 750-meter open water swim, a hilly 20K bike ride and then a 5k run featuring even more climbing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool that they have a local race here; it\u2019s a fantastic venue,\u201d said the race\u2019s winner, David Preston of Durango. \u201cThe lake was perfect and the bike and run were super challenging with ups and downs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preston ended up winning the race in 1 hour, 11 minutes and 8 seconds.<\/p>\n

Brian Miller crossed second in 1:12:00.<\/p>\n

Kathryn Ross finished third overall and won the women\u2019s crown in 1:16:00, just under 2 minutes ahead of Annamaria Kostarellis who finished fourth overall.<\/p>\n

\"Kathryn
Kathryn Ross pedals up the final hill of the Lake Nighthorse Sprint Triathlon on Saturday. Ross finished third overall in addition to winning the women\u2019s division. (Cody Olivas\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s really cool to be out here in this community of people that\u2019s really stoked on triathlons,\u201d Ross said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great group of people, and they put on an awesome race.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event attracted 71 participants, including five relays, for a total of 61 entrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hoping for 35 to 40, so it exceeded our expectations; I\u2019m pleased with that,\u201d said race director David Rakita. He said the race had a regional draw, attracting athletes from Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Utah and throughout the Four Corners.<\/p>\n

The race began with a swim, with two waves starting two minutes apart. The competitors swam in a giant triangle in the lake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s way different than a pool because there\u2019s no line to follow,\u201d Preston said. \u201cWe\u2019re fortunate here; it\u2019s calm and was pretty easy to sight today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preston was the second triathlete to complete the swim, only trailing his wife, Lauren Preston.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always fun to swim with her,\u201d he said. \u201cI just followed her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauren\u2019s split was 13:31.9, about 10 seconds faster than her husband\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\"Lauren
Lauren Preston takes the lead in the swimming portion to start the Lake Nighthorse triathlon on Saturday. She would finish ninth overall. (Cody Olivas\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

David Preston, however, took the lead during the bike portion. The bike section featured 800 feet of climbing over the 20 kilometers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bike course was challenging with all the hills,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n

Ross, who said she hadn\u2019t done a triathlon in about 10 years, borrowed her friend\u2019s bike for the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt really fast,\u201d she said. \u201cThanks, Brad!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Brian
Brian Miller pedals up a hill before transitioning to the running segment of the Lake Nighthorse triathlon. Miller finished second in the race. (Cody Olivas\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After that, the athletes still had a to run a 5K.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe run was the toughest,\u201d David Preston said. \u201cIt got hot out there and it was all on gravel road. The bike was tough, too; you go straight up and straight down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller challenged Preston for part of the run, but Preston was able to hold him off to win the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a good feeling, even at a local race,\u201d Preston said. \u201cLocal ones are some of the most fun; it\u2019s special when you know people. Ultimately, that doesn\u2019t matter. It\u2019s all about the lifestyle sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mack
Mack Martin flies up a hill during the running segment of the Lake Nighthorse Sprint Triathlon on Saturday. The athletes started with an open water swim, then biked and finished the race with a run. (Cody Olivas\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cEveything has gone as well as it could have,\u201d Rakita said, thanking the race\u2019s committee, the Durango Tri Club and all of the volunteers who helped.<\/p>\n

colivas@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

women\u2019s crown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,2216,4185],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-lake-nighthorse","tag-triathlon"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86201,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44719\/revisions\/86201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44719"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}