Big Lake hosted the Graniteman Triathlon last Saturday, the last race in the Graniteman Triathlon Series that began with the Buffalo Triathlon.

Since 2010, the Graniteman Triathlon in Big Lake has grown to be one of Minnesota’s favorite triathlons.

Big Lake’s race took place at Lakeside Park located right along Hwy. 10, just 30 minutes from the Twin Cities and St. Cloud.

The Big Lake Triathlon offers both sprint and Olympic distances, with participants swimming .33 miles in the clean and clear waters of Big Lake to start. Athletes then get their season’s PR on one of the flattest and fastest bike rides in the state, cycling 14.45 miles through the city.

The race is finalized with and enjoyable lakeside run of 3.1 miles that starts and ends in the park. Families who come to cheer on their competitors also had a new playground for the kids to climb on, great music to listen to and plenty of food.

Two hundred and sixty-two participants crossed the finish line — 166 were male and 96 were female. The average time to finish was 1:29:05.

Josh Monk, 37, of Lino Lakes was the top overall finisher at 1:03:07. He was followed by Andrew Manning, 32, of Fargo (1:03:37) and Kyle Swenson, 18, of Rogers (1:03:50). The top female was Jenna Horner, 22, of Eden Prairie, who finished 24th (1:11:31).

Nathan Overby, 40 of Big Lake finished 32nd (1:13:56) and Owen Layton, 14, of Big Lake finished 41st (1:15:05).

Other local participants were, Tom Rettig, 57, of Big Lake (1:21:30), Salene Krueger, 21, of Big Lake (1:24:02), Jaden Anderson, 17, of Big Lake (1:27:22), Jason Anderson, 53, of Big Lake (1:30:09), Spencer Vold, 15, of Big Lake (1:31:40), Alyssa Eckstein, 19, of Big Lake (1:32:47), Matt Mork, 37, of Becker (1:32:57), Grace Mork, 13, of Becker (1:32:57), Jonah Overby, 16, of Big Lake (1:34:32), Leslie Figenshau, 37, of Big Lake (1:46:05), Phoebe Figenshau, 13, of Big Lake (1:46:06), Natasha Gerwing, 37, of Becker (1:47:48), Jeremy Schuman, 46, of Big Lake (1:52:37), Valerie Childs, 19, of Big Lake (1:55:01), James Smartwood, 59, of Big Lake (2:25:56), Kelsey Nelson, 32, Clearwater (2:26:40) and Shannon Reagan, 43, of Monticello (2:33:51).

Thank yous go out to the organization founding sponsors: Williams Integracare, Viking Coca-Cola and Granite Equity Partners. All part of the non-profit organization Active Central MN, committed to sustaining quality events in our communities!