April 29, 2012 was a beautiful Spring day and over 200 athletes of all abilities came together at the Cape Bubble for the Steamboat Triathlon, one of Cape's two annual multisport events. The Steamboat Triathlon has a history of jumpstarting the outdoor triathlon season for many of the multisport athletes in the Cape Girardeau area.
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| Over 200 individuals and teams prepare for the start of the 2012 Steamboat Triathlon. (photo from Brigitte Kinnaman) |
Race Director Patrick Watson did a great job organizing the event and, as with most outdoor activities, surprises come up at the last minute. Downtown construction on Broadway Street forced a minor change to the run portion of the triathlon and the bike course was also altered from 2011. Many athletes took advantage of the change in the biking course from last year and cranked out some incredible times on the 15.5 mile course.
This race consists of a 450 meter swim in the Cape Bubble pool then moves outside for a 15.5 mile bike course and finishes off with a 5 mile run down and around the river area of Cape Girardeau. OK. Enough of the preliminary information. Now for the race results.
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Jay Orr............The amount of time it took to read his name was approx 1/2 of one second. What? Why does that matter? Well, as Paul Harvey used to say, "And now for the rest of the story."
Jay Orr, who resides in the St. Louis, Missouri area, is a former collegiate distance runner and now a seasoned Master's multisport competitor. He competes for the strong Swim,Bike,Run team in the St. Louis area.
Most people who compete in the triathlon scene knows exactly who he is as he consistently finishes at/near the top of standings in his races. Jay likes to compete in the Steamboat Triathlon. I am not sure how many times he has competed but I do know it is at least 6 times. Why? Because he has been the runner-up at this event 5 times prior to this year. He was back again in 2012 working to capture the elusive title of Overall Champion. And this year he accomplished his goal. And what a finish it was with Jay's elapsed time from start to finish an exceptional 1:16:56.9. One half of one second back was Andrew Person of Kirkwood, MO with a chip-time elapsed time of 1:16:57.4. Amazing!
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| Jay Orr makes a haul by adding awards for fastest bike and run split to his Overall win. (photo from Brigitte Kinnaman) |
The women's overall title was also a good battle. Jennifer Meyer of St. Louis, Missouri came in first with a time of 1:28:37 to edge out Cape Girardeau's "premier" lady triathlete Brigitte Kinnaman who posted an elapsed time of 1:29:41. Both of these women finished in the top 20 overall finishers in this deep and talented field.
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| Overall Female: Jennifer Meyer. (photo from Jennifer Meyer) |
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| Female Second Place Overall and top local female finisher Brigitte Kinnaman. |
The top local male finisher from the Cape Girardeau area was Taylor Vaughan. He finished 6th overall and first in his age group with a time of 1:22:50 and looks to be primed for another strong triathlon season in 2012.
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| 6th Overall and top local male finisher Taylor Vaughan prepares to dismount as he heads into the transition area to begin his run. |
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| Overall Relay Team Winners: Team Hoops for Life -- Barbara Mueller (swim), Shannon Aldridge (bike), and Kevin Hammes (run). |
One half of one second. Transition time adjustments, not slowing to take water at a water stop, one small hesitation prior to beginning another portion of a three event competition. There are alot of ways to make up or lose one second. Congratulations to Jay for finding the one additional second he needed to win the title. Great job to him and the scores of other athletes who competed in the 2012 edition of the Steamboat Triathlon. It was a great success. The newly formed SEMO Tri Team of Cape Girardeau and the St. Louis based Swim/Bike/Run team both competed well as indicated by the many impressive individual times with many age-group winners from each respective team.
- Jay Orr, St. Louis, MO 1:16:56.9
- Andrew Person, Kirkwood, MO 1:16:57.4
- Michael Ross, Paducah, KY 1:20:03
- Elias Hunerdosse, La Harpe, IL 1:21:00
- Kyle Ryan, Paducah, KY 1:22:33
- Taylor Vaughan, Cape Girardeau, MO 1:22:50
- Randy Murdick, Imperial, MO 1:23:52
- Doug Havlin, St. Louis, MO 1:24:36
- William Moore, Paducah, KY 1:25:22
- Chris Beuer, Eureka, MO 1:26:06
- Matthew Parris, St. Charles, MO 1:27:20
- David Welker, Cape Girardeau, MO 1:27:59
- Team Hoops For Life (Mueller-Aldridge-Hammes) 1:28:25
- Ken Pettry, Ballwin, MO 1:28:32
- Jennifer Meyer, St. Louis, MO 1:28:37
- Jason Banderman, Cape Girardeau, MO 1:28:57
- Steve Sterling, Paducah, KY 1:29:12
- Dennis Kempf, Jackson, MO 1:29:15
- Chris Martin, St. Louis, MO 1:29:19
- Brigitte Kinnaman, Cape Girardeau, MO 1:29:41
---KHammes
