by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Volunteers are needed for the Sartell Apple Duathlon races that will be held in Sartell from May 27-28. The children’s race will start at 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 27, at the Sartell Middle School grounds, and the adult race will take place with a start-off time at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, May 28, also at the middle school.
People are needed for staff registration, packet pickup, food tents, water stations, parking, directing races and other tasks. Any organization who can provide at least eight volunteers can earn up to $100 for the organization and receive free 2016 Apple Duathlon T-shirts. To volunteer, send an email to volunteer@appleduathlon.com. To learn more about the races, visit www.appleduathlon.com.
This will be the 34th annual Apple Duathlon, a prestigious duathlon that has earned rave reviews for many years from across the nation and even from other countries. Many hundreds of participants of all ages come to the event from cities throughout Minnesota, as well as from other states and even some from other nations, not to mention hometown folk. This year, as in years before, dozens of people from Sartell and the surrounding cities have registered for the kids’ and adults’ races.
The adult Sartell Apple Duathlon is a race that involves a 5K run, a 33K bike route, followed by another 5K run. There are numerous age categories for the race. Some duathletes choose to do all three segments of the race solo, others do it in teams of two (one doing the running, the other the biking) and a few teams opt for a trio (one running the first course, another biking and the third doing the final running part). The long, biking portion of the adults’ race starts at Sartell Middle School and winds its way all the way to St. Stephen, then back to Sartell along the Mississippi River, down Riverside Avenue back to the school.
The Kids’ Apple Duathlon also has several categories and age brackets. There is a short course, a long course and an Apple Seedlings race. The short course is a 0.3-mile run; a 2.65-mile biking route and another 0.3-mile run. The long course involves a 0.5-mile run, a 4.5-mile biking portion and another 0.5-mile run. The Apple Seedlings race, for children ages 3-6, is a short run in the Sartell Middle School parking lot.
A wave of runners takes off from the starting line at the 2015 Sartell Apple Duathlon.
