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Ex-Shores Coach Runs Away With Top Honors

Monday, July 03, 2006

By Scott Brandenburg
CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT

The inaugural North Muskegon Block 58 Triathlon was a smashing success for former local athletes.

Tom Trout made the biggest splash. The Mona Shores track and cross country coach from 1996-2000 lives in Grandville now, but didn't hesitate to come back to take part of the Block 58 debut.

Trout's strong swimming in Muskegon Lake gave him the early lead and the veteran of six ironman triathlons cruised from there to take the long course triathlon title in 2:31:55, nearly eight minutes faster than runner-up Kevin Miller.

"It's fun to go out and try a new course," said the 35-year-old elementary school principal who's competed in the Hawaiian Iron Man twice.

"It's always nice to have some excuse to come back to this area, too."

Close to 170 competitors hit the water and pavement in the Block 58. It went off without a hitch except for a few bruises and cuts suffered coming in from the swim on rocks or zebra mussels.

North Muskegon's new triathlon, organized and sponsored by Endurance Sports, featured a long course triathlon, a sprint course triathlon, a duathlon and 10 relay teams which could break up the long course into individual swimming, biking or running segments.

The long course featured a 1,000-meter swim, a 34-mile bike and a 7.1-mile run. Trout had no problems in any of the segments.

"Overall, it was flatter than I expected except for (Block House Hill)," said Trout.

"I'm usually a pretty strong swimmer. I try to find someone who's pretty fast and try to stick with them, but today I took the lead early and after I circled the buoy just kept going because the next guy was 20 yards back."

Nina Johnson is another veteran of big, tough triathlons. The Muskegon native, who has a summer home in West Michigan but lives in Granger, Ind., didn't have any problems with the Block 58 either. The 43-year-old Johnson was the 15th competitor of 46 to complete the long course, but beat the next closest female by almost seven minutes to claim the title.

"It was a very fast course," said Johnson, whose winning time was 2:58:59. "I'm used to some very hilly courses. For a first-time race you can't beat the job these guys did though. It was a very nice venue."

Some of the more novice competitors thought the course, especially the featured Block House Hill, was plenty challenging.

Almost twice as many competitors took part in the sprint race, which included a 500-meter swim, 12-mile bike and 3.1-mile run.

Dale Mosher made himself at home on the sprint course. The 53-year-old South Carolina ressident came to West Michigan visit friends and family and could've left a couple days earlier.

When Mosher heard about the Block 58, he decided he'd stick around and help support Don Correll, one of the race organizers who trained with Mosher for 15 years here before Mosher migrated south.

Mosher not only competed he ran away with the sprint course title.

"I would've liked to have competed in the long course, but a bike accident 10 weeks ago only left me four weeks to train," said Mosher, a 1970 graduate of Orchard View who started competing in triathlons in the very first "A 'Shore' Thing Fitness Race" in 1983. "This is my first race back and I felt pretty good."

Mosher bested Adam Castonia, a former Ludington student currently in the Coast Guard, and Steve Leatherman, a 2006 graduate of Mona Shores, by 1:51.

Renee Jackson of Holland won the women's sprint race, beating Masters champ Margaret Hoag by one second. Hoag's husband, Brad, finished fourth and was also crowned Masters champion.

The team of Maribeth Harris, Stan Andrie and Colin Harris won the relay competition. Greg Gould captured the duathlon, comprised of two running segments, one to replace the swimming segment, and a biking segment.