Kirk Nelson beat the heat and blew away the competition Saturday in the Prairie Rose State Games triathlon.

With temperatures already nearing the 80-degree mark at the 8 a.m. start, Nelson - a 26-year-old Hettinger native who now lives in Boulder, Colo. -shot out of the gate. He swam, biked and ran the 16.14-mile course at McDowell Dam east of Bismarck in less than an hour. He was clocked in 57 minutes and 25 seconds to be exact.

So how dominant was Nelson? He was the only individual competitor in a field of nearly 100 to post a sub-hour time. Melanie Carvell of Bismarck was a distant second at 1:10:44, and Tim Stroup of Mandan followed at 1:11:38.

"I was hoping to finish it in under an hour, and I feel good knowing that I did that," said Nelson, who placed second overall in the 2004 PRSG triathlon. "It was a good day to run, and it was a good course all around. The weather could have been a little cooler, but I've done this sort of thing in a lot worse. It didn't affect me at all. We started early enough, and (the temperature) didn't change drastically in an hour's time."

Nelson swam 0.62 miles in 9:57, biked 12.42 miles in 31:13 and ran 3.1 miles in 16:15. He had a 2:22 advantage coming out of the first leg of the race - swimming.

"I think of myself as a better biker and runner than a swimmer," Nelson said. "I had a good start to this, and that's what you want to do. You want to go out and set the pace."

Nelson is in his third full year competing in triathlons. It is a passion that began several years ago at Concordia College (Moorhead, Minn.), where he first got involved in cross country. He never participated in the sport while he was in high school. Hettinger doesn't have a cross country program, but friends who were members of the Concordia team encouraged him to go out.

"I was in track at Hettinger, but I was in the long jump, the 200 and the 400 … nothing long distance," he said. "Actually, I was a better football, basketball and baseball player than I was a track athlete.

"When I got to Concordia, I decided to start running with my friends, and it just took off from there. Over the last couple of years I've tried to get to as many triathlons and iron man competitions as possible. I just like the challenge of it all. It's very fulfilling."

For the 40-year-old Carvell, the second-place overall finish capped off another successful PRSG triathlon.

"I've been a triathlete for 25 years, and I've competed in most of (the 20 Prairie Rose State Games)," Carvell said. "I've medaled in most of them, but that's not what makes it fun for me. It's the people and the competition I see year after year."

There was a time when Carvell wasn't sure she would be ready for this year's Games. She injured her back last winter and wasn't able to devote much time to the running portion of the triathlon.

"I'm not in the shape I'd like to be, but I still wanted to compete," she said. "Overall, it went pretty well. I had a good swim and a good bike ride today. … That helped put me in the lead pack. The running? I just hung on. By that time, it was starting to get hotter. That made it a little more difficult."

Carvell was pleased to see the large turnout for this year's triathlon.

"It's amazing," she said. "In the past, we would see 50 to 60 participants at most. This year, there are well over 100, and for most of them, this was their first triathlon. The sport is growing and that's exciting."

By the way, when the last competitor crossed the finish line at about 10:30 a.m., the thermometer was fast approaching 100 degrees.

"It's a good thing we started when we did," Carvell said.