Conditions to be perfect for St. George Triathlon

ST. GEORGE — A warm morning, clear skies and a soft breeze — conditions are expected to be perfect when hundreds of athletes hit the water at Sand Hollow Reservoir bright and early on Saturday.

The St. George Triathlon kicks off a strong season of triathlons in the Beehive State. More than 1,000 brave souls from across Utah and throughout the region have registered for the event. It is so popular organizers had to reopen registration in order to satisfy the demand of hundreds of athletes hoping to get into the race.

Part of what is called the SG Trifecta, the St. George Triathlon features two race distances and allows triathletes an opportunity to gauge their times on the same course three times in a season. The other two races are the Utah Summer Games in June and the Kokopelli tri in September.

"We think this is one of the best triathlons in the West," Brogg Sterrett, owner of BBSC Endurance Sports which runs the event, said. "It seems to get bigger every year, and we want to keep that going."

With so many athletes taking to the water at the same time, BBSC has split the field into nine waves. The longer, Olympic distance racers will start things off at 7 a.m. with three waves while the sprint distance athletes will hit the water 30 minutes later.

Between the Olympic and sprint distance waves, though, will be a special wave of athletes participating in the memory of one of last year's athletes, Chris Eborn, a 34-year-old Kaysville man who died of a cardiac failure during the swim portion of the race.

Nearly 40 family members and friends were given reserved spots in the field and will compete — some less seriously than others — in his memory.

"We heard that a lot of the family wanted to come down and finish the race for him in his memory. We got a hold of the family to make sure we didn't step on any toes," Sterrett said. "and they said they thought it would be a great idea to have a memorial wave in his honor. We thought it was the least we could do."

The Olympic distance has a swim of 1,500 meters, a 40-kilometer bike ride and a 10K run. Sprint distance athletes will go 750 meters in the water, 20K on the bike and finish things with a 5K run.

Dave Ference is the defending champion in the Olympic distance with a total time of 2:03:47.47. Sarah Jarvis finished with the best time among the women at 2:24:35.62.

B.J. Christensen took top honors in the spring triathlon a year ago at 1:09:28.43, while Alli Gardner was the fastest woman, crossing the finish line at 1:17:39.38.

Note: Jared Eborn is the cousin of Chris Eborn and will be participating in the St. George Triathlon.

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E-mail: jeborn@desnews.com