Coleman, Hertberg win the Aukeman long course triathlon
- Klas Stolpe
- Aug 4, 2025
- 12 min read
Garger, Falberg win Olympic; Schumacher, Hughes win sprint
By Klas Stolpe
Sports Editor
South Carolina’s Will Coleman trailed coming out of the water and off the bike but found a surge five miles into his run to overtake Juneau’s John Bursell and win the men’s Aukeman Long Distance Course on Sunday in a time of four hours 56 minutes and seven seconds.
“Overcoming adversity was key,” Coleman said. “There wasn't as many people as there is in a 70.3 usually, so I had to sight more and I'm not good at sighting. So I probably swam more distance than I should have or needed to. And then I got on the bike and my aero bars were loose, so they were shaking all 56 miles, and I had to be careful so I wouldn't crash. And the run, it went better. I took a wrong turn out of transition but I just stuck with it."
"So overcoming adversity was the key for today... It's a real small, fun, grassroots event. And I don't think it's intimidating for first timers, so I'd encourage everybody to jump in and just enjoy triathlon...I did forget how rainy and brutal Juneau could be. It was just like Ironman Alaska, and that was tough.”
A misty swim (1.9 kilometer/1.2 mile) start gave way to a rainy bike (90K/56 mile) and partially rainy run (20K/13.1 mile) that ended with the sun appearing.
“The run was the most difficult part,” Bursell said. “I came out of the water ahead of Will and at the turnaround at the glacier I calculated I had about five minutes on him. I figured he would catch me by the halfway point, but he didn’t, so I kept riding harder and wanted to see if I could hold him off and I did, but I think I paid for it the second half of the run.”
Coleman took the lead 5.3 miles into the run portion.
“I couldn't see him when we came off of the Brotherhood Bridge Trail,” Bursell said. “I looked back and I couldn't see him, so I had this hope, maybe I had a big gap and I could hold it. But less than a mile later I could hear his footsteps and he just went flying by. There was no hope anymore.”
Bursell’s advice for those thinking of doing the sport is, “They should just do it. Start swimming and get a bike and start running, maybe find a coach or somebody to help guide them. It's just a blast, a fun thing to do.”
Bursell, a physician at and a founder of the Juneau Bone and Joint Center, donated the Aukeman’s raffle prize of a full-body MRI scan as part of their proactive healthcare.
Washington’s Emily Hertberg, 27, won the women’s long course despite a timing chip malfunction as she crossed the finish.
She said the key was “just keeping the mentality of, ‘if it was easy then everyone would do it. We're already here, we might as well get it done.’ I’ve been training for this about four months. I did open water swim, and then pool swimming, and just biking around the farm roads where I'm from.”
Hertberg is a nurse working 12-hour shifts and said, “Making time for training and work and a social life is hard. It’s how bad you really want it to take the time out of your schedule to sacrifice those things to swim, bike and run…I made a list of ’30 by 30’ — 30 things I wanted to do by the time I turned 30. I want to do a full Ironman so I was like, well, our friends live in Juneau. Juneau's a beautiful place. You could bike past the glacier, so I might as well do the half, see how it goes, and really enjoy my surroundings while I'm doing it… It's really not that bad. Pain is mental. A lot of it is just a mental aspect. If you train, your body is capable of doing it. Just like mentally … reminding yourself you're capable of doing it and trusting your body.”
Steve Garger was the top Olympic Distance male finisher, covering the 1.5K (0.9-mile) swim, 40K (24-mile) bike and 10K (6.2-mile run) in 2:54:54.
“I felt pretty good on the bike and I just kind of got in a good groove,” Garger said. “It was my first triathlon so I didn’t really know what to expect. My friend Sydney, who was the first female sprint finisher, did it last year, and I said I was going to do it last year, and then I flaked out at the very end. I promised her I'd do it this year, so we were kind of training together and kept ourselves accountable. My advice to others is just do it. Give it a go. It’s fun to train all summer, especially when the weather's nice, get out on the lake and swim. It is a fun experience. I would say like halfway through the run, all those trails and the twists and the turns on the tired legs was kind of tough, but it was still nice to be running through the trail system.”
Alisha Falberg was the top Olympic female finisher and third overall individual, in 3:01:27.
Mitchell Schumacher, 38, was the top Sprint Distance male, covering the 0.75K (0.47-mile) swim, 19K (12-mile) bike and 5K (3.1-mile) run in 1:17:31.
“This is my third year doing it,” he said. “I’m in the Coast Guard and we just had a kid on July 9. One of the reasons we stayed so long before we moved — we're moving to Seattle later this summer — was to have the baby here because we've heard such great things about Juneau and then I was like, ‘Well, if we're going to stay that long we might as well stay long enough for me to do the Aukeman one last time.’ Every year it is a whole bunch of fun. This one was a little more soggy than years past, but it was still great, and it's just so cool to see so many people come together and put this on, all the sponsors, all the people. It's such a strong community, and it just makes Juneau so much better.”
His advice is, “Just get out there and try it. I would say if the barrier is doing all three, try and find two other people to do a relay. I think that's a very great way to get into the sport if you are a little hesitant to swim or you're a really good biker but you aren't as strong of a runner. Find two other friends who have those skill sets and get after it and then I'm sure they'll catch the bug. I swam for the Coast Guard at the Coast Guard Academy and I've tried to keep up with it, and now that I've gotten a little older I'm trying to branch out into some of the biking and the running a little bit more. Those are my weak sports, but yeah, it's a whole lot of fun.”
Sydney Hughes, 28, was the top Sprint Distance female and third overall, in 1:22:56.
“It’s fun and it's great and they do a really good job,” she said. “Best triathlon ever. Anyone can do one, you can do it. It’s all in your head. Your body knows what to do, and you can and it’s fun. The hardest part today was probably the run because it’s the last thing, and my legs are a little dead, but heck yeah, people were cheering and it was awesome.”
Sprint relay winners were Team Tri-ing Times (Emily Haskell, Chelsea Steffy, Camille Jones) in 1:31:30.
Olympic Relay winners — setting the Olympic relay course record of 2:47:11 — were the Dimond Park Divas (Caitlin Sanders and Jenna Wiersma).
Long Distance relay winners were Team Secon (Isaiah Campos and Bryce Iverson) in 5:31:00.
“It was a little rainy out on the bike and run, but it felt really great doing a course that's close to home,” Wiersma, 39, said. “I’m on the Aukeman Race Board so it's a race I'm really passionate about so it was awesome to race it today.”
She said her advice for future triathletes is, “Go for it. I come from a long-distance running background and tried triathlon. It's really fun to do three sports instead of just one. So if you like any of the three try the other two, you might like it…The hardest part today was probably the bike. We hit a little bit of a headwind and hard rain coming back, but honestly, the whole course was great.”
Dino Vivanco, 27, is working remotely for two-month stays in various cities across the United States. He placed fourth overall in the sprint with 1:25:56.
“This is my seventh triathlon,” he said. “Honestly, I grew up a runner, but like running every day is just hard because you put so much miles on your feet. You just get a lot of injuries. So I like triathlons because you do a lot of cross training. I mean, it’s just like you're not doing the same event every day. You get to mix it up as you're training.”
Robert Langer, 36, had to drop from the Olympic distance to sprint due to sciatic pain, but continued through the event as he tries to do a triathlon in every state. He finished in 1:46:40.
“I at least wanted to get the 49th race done,” he said. “So I just still did the run, even though it was ugly, but it was beautiful out. Wyoming's my last one. I started because I just enjoyed traveling and just really wanted to do something unique, and I figured, why not try to do one in all 50 states? Alaska has this special atmosphere, just the peace and beauty of the entire state is really so inviting and welcoming and feeds the soul…The hardest part is starting it. Once you start it, it's all downhill from there. The training is more mind-boggling than the actual race itself and that's kind of where you just get to finally relax and enjoy it. It's something I think everyone should at least try once because you never know if you'll like it or not.”
Claire Geldhof, 36, finished the sprint distance in 1:29:13.
“I really enjoy being outside and the community,” she said. “It’s a really nice combination of trying different things — swim, bike, run — and you get to try out all three of those activities. If you get tired of running you can always swim. It’s a nice way to find balance with activities and being in your body.”
Geldhof recently finished her doctorate in nursing, training for the triathlon and studying full time.
“You train early mornings or just you squeak it in when you can,” she said.”But it's a nice blend to kind of quiet your brain… It’s like a meditative balance between working and doing school full time and then just finding time on the bike or out swimming or running. It's a good blend.”
Richard Olson, 50, entered the Olympic distance with daughter Aspen, 20, and son Hunter, 21. Richard hit 3:26:26, Aspen 3:26:32 and Hunter 5:18:27.
“Aspen and I did it last year,” Richard said. “We did the sprint and we just wanted to up it up and do the Olympic this year and then Hunter's like, I'll do it, so we just all jumped on it.”
Said Hunter, “It was my first one and, honestly, it’s pretty brutal. The swimming is pretty tough. When I got in I started to hyperventilate and had to calm down. Once I got out of the swim, I was already tired but I was like, ‘you got this.’ I just kept telling myself I could do it. Once I got to the run, I ran with another person, which is pretty cool. Just running and talking with them and then the last mile I just did the home stretch run. My opinion of my dad has changed a bit.”
Said Aspen, “It was just so much fun to go and compete and it's really cool because there's more women than men who compete. I'm not hating on men, but it's really fun and I enjoyed every second of it. The bike was very rough today with all the rain, but it was so much fun and I just think it's a great way to just be part of the community and to have fun and to challenge yourself.”
The family has bragging rights at home.
“Last year I beat Aspen by three seconds,” Richard said. “She killed me on the swim. I caught her on the bike at, like, mile 21, and then she passed me on a run at, like, mile two, and I don't know where she got it from so I had to chase her down, but I beat her by six seconds today. So it was like everything we had, we were the two sprinting, just racing each other.”
Lisa Jones, 65, and son Trevor Jones, 28, entered the sprint distance, finishing in 1:56:43 and 1:36:02, respectively.
“I've never done something like this before, and my mom and my sister have done it a lot,” Trevor said. “So I just wanted to try it out one time and I just wanted to do it with her. I haven't swam competitively in a long time, so that was nice to do again.”
Said Lisa, “I haven’t done it in a while, but want to keep doing it because it is fun and it’s local. I was really happy that he went and did training with me. My advice is for people to just have fun with it, know what the course is beforehand and know that you’re not going to know it all in the beginning. That’s kind of the fun part of it.”
Nicole Linse, 28, finished the sprint in 2:12:19 amidst cheerful signs from her significant other. One referenced her bib number: “#37 on the course, #1 in my heart.” The back side read: “Smile if you peed on the swim.”
Said Linse, “That’s my boyfriend. He stood out on the bike course and got a few laughs out of it, which is great motivation for everybody. This was my first triathlon, and I would tell people to just get out there and start training and go have fun with it. If you walk 75% like I did, you’re still going to have a blast and finish. So it’s worth it, every second of it.”
One athlete enjoyed the course many seconds longer than any other.
John Kirk, a doctor at Bartlett Regional Hospital, earned the Red Lantern Award as the last finisher.
“That was tough,” Kirk said. “The bike was hard. It was cold and windy at the turnaround, I couldn’t feel my feet. Bless their heart, one of the workers opened my Uncrustable (snack) because I didn’t have grip in my hands.”
This was Kirk’s fourth race equivalent to doing a half Ironman, but first Aukeman aside from doing the Olympic distance last year.
His advice is, “Start with the sprint. Get to know your training, know your pace, do your race. It's fun to get awards, but I don't do it for awards, even if it's a cool one. I do it because I enjoy working hard and enjoying keeping my body healthy. I enjoy the camaraderie, the High Cadence Tri Club team. And at every aid station I heard people yelling, that was super motivating…Keeping yourself healthy and active is good, it's important as you get older. You don't recover as quickly when you're in your 40s versus your 20s, so you've got to keep steady at it, just keep plugging away, but it's better than sitting at home on the couch.”
Race director Daniel Wiersma thanked the many volunteers and sponsors.
“I’m absolutely thrilled,” he said. “The volunteer support this year was able and beyond. We had organizations like Glacier Swim Club, Juneau Bone and Joint, and Bartlett put together teams to run aid stations pretty much independently, which saved us a ton of work. We had absolutely phenomenal support from our sponsors. There's a long list on the website (https://aukemantri.com) you can check out."
"The sunshine that's out right now is a very pleasant way to end it, for sure, so everybody got to kind of experience the full spectrum of Juneau weather, which is fun… I don't have the final numbers yet, but I'm pretty sure our actual show up and participate number is higher."
"We had an eye on the glacial outburst flood because our course would be interrupted on both the bike and the run with any overtopping of the Suicide Basin ice dam, but outside of that I think goals for next year are continued growth. I think if we can pull off more activities at the end for people and families that come out to this event and will bring their kids, definitely the more we can make this an enjoyable event for spectators as well as the racers, I think that's where we're going to be focusing on. And otherwise I think we are offering a really quality product for a local race.”
Complete race results and splits are available at https://aukemantri.com.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at kstolpe@juneauindependent.com.
Photo gallery from 2025 Aukeman
(All photos by Klas Stople)
