Elysian Triathlon ends after 35 years

The longest running triathlon in Minnesota is coming to an end.

After 35 years, the Elysian Triathlon will not be held in 2019.

According to long-time organizer of the event, Jeanne Zwart, it just seemed the right time to end the event which was held the Saturday after the July 4th celebration.

“35 years was a good run,” Zwart said. “It just seemed like 35 was a good quitting number.”

In late February Zwart met with a number of the volunteers and it was decided to put an end to the triathlon.

One of the big reasons for the end of the triathlon was being able to get enough volunteers at the time of the year the event was held, with summer activities and vacations, etc.

Zwart said she has had a lot of very good volunteers over the years, but she wasn’t sure she would be able to get the numbers this year due to many conflicts.

“We just didn’t want to take a chance,” Zwart said of not having enough volunteers to man the event. “We looked at getting a company to run it but we would still have to supply all the volunteers so that defeated the purpose.

Another key to the cancellation of the event was the......

To see more on this story pick up the April 4, 2019 print edition of the Life or Enterprise papers.