First-timers pound their way to finish line at Naperville triathlon

Patty Rollason isn't a natural-born athlete.

"It used to be hard to get her off the couch when she was younger," said her father, Mike Gibbons.

Gibbons was at the finish line of the HRMS Naperville Sprint Triathlon, waiting for his daughter to finish her first race. After more than three and a half hours, she nearly collapsed into her father's arms.

"I'm just tired," said Rollason, a physical therapist who made her way with a co-worker from North Carolina to compete in Sunday's triathlon.

More than 2,200 athletes competed in the three-stage race, in which participants swim 400 meters (1/4 mile), bike 22 kilometers (13.3 miles) and run 5 kilometers (3.1 miles).

For many participants, like Rollason and Mark Olsen of Naperville, Sunday was their first foray into the world of triathlons.

Olsen initially started training for Sunday's race as a way to support his wife Beatrice's own goal of finishing the race. After a few weeks of training, he decided to just compete in the race alongside her.

"I'd do it again," Olsen said while cooling off under a tree near Centennial Beach. "Hopefully it will be a little cooler next year, but I guess you can't count on that in August."

Charles Hicks of Winfield waited until the week of the race to register. Although he had done little more than weight training in preparation, Hicks finished in just over two hours, a respectable finish for a newbie.

"I started cramping up during the run," he said. "My buddy passed me up on the second loop of the bike ride while I was still finishing the first lap, so that was kind of an ego blow. But I'm an adrenaline junkie, so I'll probably be back here next year."

Mike Feeney of Wheaton spent Sunday morning lounging on a chair toward the end of the foot race waiting for his wife, Kelley, to finish her first race.

Their three children, Michael, 6, John, 5, and Kate, 3, took turns holding a sign that read "My mom is the pretty 1."

While Feeney did some of the training with his wife, the race was a neighborhood effort that belonged to her and three other mothers from the neighborhood.

"It gives stressed out moms something to look forward to other than changing diapers," he said. "This race was all about them."