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A day meant to highlight the summer activities available at Tsalteshi Trails ended up highlighting the talents of the Skyview High School cross-country skiing coaching staff.

Kent Peterson, the head ski coach at Skyview, took first place at the first Tsalteshi Solstice Duathlon. The duathlon was a 5-kilometer bike and a 10-kilometer run at Tsalteshi Trails, which are located behind Skyview High School. The top woman in the race was Charlotte Harvey, who is an assistant Skyview ski coach.

Tsalteshi board members Peterson and Laura Pillifant hatched the idea of having the race. Peterson said the race is meant to highlight the summer activities that are available at Tsalteshi Trails.

Tsalteshi is known as a hot spot for cross-country skiing in the winter. Several race participants said the community is starting to use the trails just as heavily in the summer.

"In the summer, people use the trails for running, biking and walking their dogs," Harvey said. "In the wintertime, they're used mainly by recreational skiers.

"If you take out the ski teams, which just flood the trails, I'd say the trails get a little more use in the summer."

Justin Moore, who teamed up with Pete Sprague to win the team category, agreed with Harvey's assessment. Moore, who skis at Tsalteshi in the winter and tries to bike there every day in the summer, said the trails make it great to live in Soldotna.

"The trails are the gem of the community," Moore said. "They should be used a lot more than they are. They're safe, clean and only two miles from town.

"There's also nature here. In three years, I've seen six bears on the trail."

When Peterson set about creating a race that had both a running and biking element, he knew what he was doing because he left the run-to-bike transition zone in fourth place before storming back for the win. Mike Moerlein, who will be a senior at Skyview, finished the run about 27 seconds in front of Peterson, while Peterson finished the run in a group with Travis Semmens and Brayden Holt.

By the time Peterson changed into his biking shoes, though, he was fourth. He quickly got past Holt and Semmens -- the pass of Semmens coming when the chain fell off of Semmens' bike. Peterson made up nearly all of the gap on Moerlein in the first two kilometers of the bike, but after that gains on Moerlein became tough to achieve. Peterson finished in 48 minutes, 1 second, while Moerlein was 27 seconds behind.

"He's pretty serious about biking," Moerlein said of his ski coach. "I've done one other race on a bike."

Peterson said he used to do a lot of biking, but he doesn't bike as much now. He did say that all of his previous experience on the bike helped him in the race.

"I knew he didn't have a lot of biking experience, but Mike's a great athlete," Peterson said. "It took me a long time to catch him, and then when I passed him, I could always hear him back there when he shifted."

Harvey ended up with a time of 1:03:40.5 en route to a comfortable victory, but due to the teams on the course, she wasn't sure if she had won or not. She said the rain early in the day made the conditions at the trails perfect. There was not so much rain that the trails were muddy, but there was enough rain to pack down the sandy parts of the trails.

Moore used his experience to get the victory in the team category. Moore and Sprague, who have a combined age of 111 years, were 2:37 behind students Bree and Kailey Mucha after the run. However, Moore's bike leg got the squad across the line in 54:54.2, just over three minutes ahead of the Muchas. Moore came up short of his goal of catching Peterson. Peterson had a bike leg of 26:53, while Moore was at 28:07.

"Chasing Kent Peterson is like chasing a ghost," Moore said.

Peterson said he was happy with the race drawing 17 participants in its first year. Now, the plan is to make the race grow each year. He thanked all of the volunteers that made the race possible.

Tsalteshi Solstice Duathlon

Saturday

at Tsalteshi Trails

Individual results (5-kilometer bike, 10-kilometer run)

1. Kent Peterson, 48 minutes, 1 seconds; 2. Mike Moerlein, 48:28.3; 3. Travis Semmens, 50:16.2; 4. Brayden Holt, 53:57.4; 5. John Spielman, 1:01:23.6; 6. Charlotte Harvey, 1:03:40.5; 7. JP Bennett, 1:05:01.7; 8. Gaeden Ames, 1:05:05.6; 9. Janice Habermann, 1:09:13.4; 10. Brooke Ames, 1:10:19.4; 11. Kristine Moerlein, 1:12:34.1.

Team results (5-kilometer bike, 10-kilometer run)

1. Pete Sprague, Justin Moore, 54:54.1; 2. Bree Mucha, Kailey Mucha, 58:01.3; 3. Loren Hollers, Elisha Hollers, 1:03:39.6; 4. Alan Holt, Brittany Hollers, 1:05:02.9; 5. Connie Ferguson, Rob Sparks, 1:09:57.4; 6. Robin Spielman, Scott Habermann, 1:12:25.4.