Kelly wins 3rd annual Iron Horse Triathlon

Benjamin Kelly faced some adversity during the 400-yard swim at Sunday’s Iron Horse Triathlon and knew he needed to make up time.
Fortunately for him, next in the three-part race was his strongest point — the bike.
Kelly, of Sulphur, made up enough lost time on the bike and had a strong enough time in the two-mile run to capture the third annual Iron Horse Triathlon in 54:25.3.
He was separated from second-place finisher Luis Iturralde (54:29.5) by about four seconds, and he was less than 30 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Jeremy Stagg (54:42.5).
While Iturralde was the first competitor to cross the finish line, because the event competitors competed in waves, crossing the finish line first doesn’t guarantee a win.
He and Kelly were in different waves.
Kelly finished the swim in 6:59.3 and the 14-mile bike ride — seven miles north on La. 70 and seven miles back — in 33:05.7. He had a transition time of 43.8 seconds between
the swim and the bike and a 32.8-second transition between the bike and the run.
He finished third in the swim, first in the bike ride and third in the two-mile run.
On the women’s side, Sofia Rossiter, 38, was the top finisher with a time of 59:07.8.
She had the second-fastest time in the 400-meter swim at 7:09.1 and the top times on the bike and two-mile run at 37:05.1 and 13:30.6, respectively.
She was not available for comment Sunday.
On the men’s side, Iturralde had the top time in the swim at 6:32.9, while Stagg had the top two-mile run in 12:15.8.
During the swim, however, among the adversity Kelly faced was a leak in his goggles.
He said he knew he needed to make up some time on the bike when he came out of the water. Luckily, biking is his strongest point.
“I pretty much gave it my all on the bike and just tried to hang on on the run,” he said.
During the run, he said in the last half mile, he looked over his shoulder repeatedly.
There was a competitor there, so it boosted him.
Kelly said he has run around 12 triathlons.
On the women’s side, Carleigh Kutac finished second with a time of 1:00:50.8, while Dawn Naquin was third at 1:04:53.4.
Kutac had the top swim among females at 6:12.9.
Overall, the triathlon went on as normal but certainly had a different feel to it as, instead of sunny skies in the first two years, this year’s event was overcast and included a persistent drizzle a portion of the race.
“Honestly, most people would rather race when it’s kind of sprinkling because it keeps you cooler,” head race director Clay Leonard said. “We had less people in the medical tent. Last year we had people dehydrated. They were getting IVs and things like that. This year I don’t think anybody was dehydrated.”
Leonard said he was pleased with how the event went.
The event is meant to raise money for the Blazeman Foundation, which looks to raise awareness and funds for the treatment and cure of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Kim Diebel and her husband, Stefan Diebel, of Collierville, Tennessee, ran in the race this year at the wish of
Kim’s mother, Glenda McFarlain.
McFarlain, who was diagnosed with ALS, attended last year’s event where she was honored by three competitors, Jay Duhon, J.D. Meche and Kevin Kennedy, who dedicated their races to her.
McFarlain asked her daughter to compete in the race. Unfortunately, McFarlain passed away and was not able to see her wish come true this year.
However, that didn’t stop Kim and Stefan, who were determined to train for the race after seeing how Kim’s
mother lived each day as if it was a party and didn’t consider ALS a “death sentence.”
“After she passed we said, ‘well, I mean if she could live that way, we could train for this,’” Kim said.
For Kim, that meant learning how to swim, something she undertook in February, taking swimming lessons.
While she had her struggles in preparation, Kim said after Sunday’s race, things went well.
“Absolutely fabulous,” she said. “Just every leg of it was wonderful. I couldn’t have asked for a better race.
Not very fast, but she never asked me to win it. She told me to do it.”
She said it was emotional crossing the finish line, where she was greeted by a sign with red birds on it by her
sister, Heidi Stagg. She said her mom loved red birds.
“We just took something very negative and tried to make something positive out of it,” Stefan said of participating in the event.
The Diebels have registered for another event in a month and plan to continue doing the Iron Horse Triathlon annually.