There aren't usually 400 people standing in the sand at Hole-in-the-Wall beach in Niantic at 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday. To some, it seems even more ridiculous for a person to swim, bike and run successively - and at their own volition.

The ninth annual Niantic Bay Triathlon took place last weekend, and I was disappointed to see that the event had not been mentioned in the Aug. 4 paper. Not only did athletes travel from as far as California to participate, but hundreds of local men and women also competed in the spirited swim-bike-run challenge.

Second-place finisher John Babcock, a University of Connecticut student and East Lyme graduate, was less than three minutes away from the course record and was followed by triathletes from Mystic, Waterford, East Lyme, Stonington, Old Lyme, Ledyard and Salem.

It's an impressive athletic feat, an exciting event for the town of East Lyme, and a shame that the athletes who worked so hard were not celebrated by regional newspapers.

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