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Sports

Triathlon Win A Pleasant Surprise for Golden Valley Resident

Sarah Mercer, 43, was the top female finisher Saturday in Clearwater.

Sarah Mercer is no stranger to competitive racing. The Golden Valley resident estimates she’s competed in more than 100 running, biking and triathlon events in the past 20 years.

But even with all that experience, she still gets a pleasant surprise out of winning a race. She got that thrill again Saturday by being the top female finisher in the Graniteman Triathlon at Warner Lake Park in Clearwater.

“I do about six or seven races a season, and it’s always nice to win,” Mercer said. “It’s always nice to win, but I certainly don’t go in thinking that I will win. I’ve tried to place in the grouping, but it’s nice to come out with the win.”

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Mercer, 43, finished first among females with a 1:13.25 time. She finished 10th overall out of 319 finishers who completed the .46-mile swimming, 15-mile biking and 3.1-mile running course.

Mercer said it was her fifth triathlon victory overall—spanning two decades since she began racing in the early 1990s.

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After swimming in high school, Mercer said she started running with friends during college and began doing short running races. From there, she tried a “few local fun triathlons” and liked it.

She said she’s done close to 40 triathlons in that time period, despite taking a few years in the late-1990s to focus exclusively on running races.

A finisher of 15 marathons, Mercer got back into triathlons in 2000 because the long-distance running was taking its toll on her body.

“I was running two-plus marathons a year and running exclusively,” she said. “Year after year, it was hard and you start to get injured. For me, I just couldn’t do it anymore.”

Now, she’s back to cross-training and is enjoying each race she attempts. Saturday was just the latest challenge, and this one just happened to turn out with a first-place finish.

A welcome surprise for Mercer.

“I definitely go hard during the race,” she said, “and see where that puts me.”

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