Eric Nielsen of Williamstown, Ontario, won the overall Tinman title — a 70.3-mile race that combines a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile half marathon — with a total time of 4 hours, 21 minutes, 22 seconds at the 43rd annual Tupper Lake Tinman on Saturday.

While Nielsen took home the top honor, he wasn’t the first in his division to cross the finish line as Scott Bradley of Rochester did so ahead of him. However, Bradley was later disqualified. Nielsen said he didn’t care what his result was.

“I don’t think place really matters when I’m an old man, but I just wanted to come out and run,” he said. It’s nice that they put on events like this.”

Nielsen said he took part in the Tupper Lake Tinman a while ago and the last time he did, he got lost, so when it came to racing on Saturday, he was hoping to not run into the same problem.

Eric Nielsen competes in the biking portion of the Tupper Lake Tinman on Saturday. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

Until he got lost on the bike course this year.

“I went too far, so I got an extra two kilometers of bike in, but that’s OK,” he said, with a smile.

Kalem Hanlon of Ithaca finished in second place in 4:35:14, while Ryan Lawrence of Union City, Pennsylvania, was third in 4:46:25.

Having competed in numerous amount of triathlons over the years, Rachel Markoe of Lagrangeville had never won a race before. However, that changed on Saturday when she topped the women’s field with a finish time of 5:03:34.

Markoe said that the toughest part about racing in this Tinman was just staying mentally tough.

Tupper Lake Tinman triathletes compete in the swimming portion of Saturday’s race. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

“It got hard, but, all the athletes on the course and everything were really positive and supportive,” she said.

Markoe added that she was a little surprised with the hills on the new bike course that went toward Long Lake, as opposed to Cranberry Lake.

“But that’s the Adirondacks,” she said. “The run was nice, getting on the trails, except I was a little slow, but I’ll take you into the wind on the swim made it really tough.”

Jasmine Canse of Montreal, Quebec finished in second place in 5:21:20, while Barbara Cheifet of Livingston, New Jersey, was third in 5:26:32.

In addition to the regular Tinman-distance triathlon, there was an Olympic distance triathlon of 33.1 miles, a sprint distance triathlon of 16.2 miles, and an aquabike race involving a 1.2-mile swim followed by a 56-mile bike ride. There was also a team relay in which one member of each team competed in a different leg of the race.

The Olympic division race featured a pair of multiple-time full-length Tinman winners, including the 2023 and 2024 women’s champion, Jennie Hansen of Rochester.

Hansen was competing in the middle distance because she was dealing with a foot injury and didn’t want to run a half-marathon. But that didn’t slow her down as she claimed the women’s Olympic title in 2:21:59.

“It was fun,” she said. “I haven’t done a shorter race in a long time, so a little bit one gear.”

Hansen said she really enjoyed swimming in the choppy water and was a fan of the new bike course.

“A couple of people said all the pavements were off, but I didn’t really have that much of an issue with it,” she said. “It was a little bit flatter, so that was nice.It was fast in the second half.”

After her finish, Sidney Swormstedt of Laconia, New Hampshire crossed in 2:26:37 for second place in the women’s race, while Molly Heinzelman of Pittsford was third in 2:36:10.

The men’s side also featured a previous Tinman winner in Joshua Korn of Albany, who topped the men’s Olympic division field in 2:11:32. Korn had previously won the full-length Tinman in 2022, and had signed up pretty much every year since 2019.

“But the last two years, I’ve failed to finish,” he said. “Last year I got a flat (tire), so I was like I need to come back this year and get redemption.”

Korn said he was goal going into this race was that he wanted to see how hard he could go for as long as he could, and he just so happened to win.

“It just means that all the hard work I’m doing is working. I do a lot of training, and it just paid off.”

Jared Lamson of Selkirk placed second overall in 2:13:50. Third place went to Jacob Erdman of Gouverneur in 2:20:57.

Daniel Papes of New York won the men’s sprint division title in 1:26:23.23. Keven Bordenave (1:26:37.62) of Carthage was second, while Utica’s Dale Seaton (1:28:38.07) was third.

On the women’s side, Joanne Murray of Kanata, Ontario, was the overall winner in a time of 1:33:33.82. Claudette Mainville of Carthage placed second in 1:33:42.12, and Paige Sherwood of Morris was third in 1:36:17.33.

Simon Roy, the Gatineau, Quebec native, who won the past two sprint division title, claimed the aquabike in a time of 3:46.08. Simon Woods of Pittsford was second in 3:11:17, followed by Rachael Mallory of Rochester in 3:44.08.

There were nine teams that took part in the relay race,e as Fueled by Ubu won the title in 4:09:09.86. They were followed by the Megan Andy fan club (4:53:47.87) in second and Tri Me Later (5:10:07.16) in third.

Complete results can be found at tinyurl.com/5adhzje9.