So much for tired legs.

Local triathletes Zach Stroud and Jennifer McDonagh are in the final stages of training for national-level triathlons set for later this month. While both admitted to feeling a bit fatigued, they still had plenty left to dust the competition in Sunday's Charleston Sprint Triathlon Series Race No. 2.

Stroud, 27, of Charleston, won the men's open/elite division by nearly two minutes in a time of 55 minutes and 21 seconds. The medical student is training for Ironman USA in Lake Placid, N.Y., on July 22 and is aiming to qualify for the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.

The 25-year-old McDonagh, an instructor at the Naval Weapons Station, put more than five minutes on her competition and finished in 1:03:54. She is one of five female triathletes representing the Navy in the Armed Forces Triathlon Championship on July 28 in Ventura County, Calif.

McDonagh, who swam and ran competitively for Georgia Tech, is relatively new to triathlons.

"Once I started doing this last summer, I was hooked," she said. "I haven't trained for triathlon specifically until this May."

That was when she qualified for the Armed Forces championship at her first Olympic distance triathlon, which features a .9-mile swim, 24.8-mile bike and 6.2-mile run, in Atlanta. While McDonagh posted a personal best for a Charleston sprint, she noted it was primarily due to shortened bike course.

Because of construction on Grimball Road, the bike course was re-routed and subsequently shortened to about 12 miles, a mile shorter than the usual distance. The sprint also features a .3-mile swim, followed by the bike and then a 3.1-mile run.

Stroud said Sunday's triathlon "felt hard for me" due to the training for Lake Placid and to an upset stomach he had during the bike segment.

While he was somewhat on the fence on whether to race Sunday, he chose to do so because he wanted the option to skip the July 29 sprint and still be eligible for the series championship. It is determined by accumulating points on three of four of the races. The finale is Aug. 12.

Stroud also maintains that the race is a chance to fine-tune his training — providing a speed-oriented workout to compliment his mostly slower, endurance-oriented training for the Ironman, which includes a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run.

"Races like these sharpen you," said Stroud. "Plus, the local races are important to me. (The races) are fun because you are racing with all your friends."

In fact, all top five male finishers — Stroud, Dawson Cherry, Eric Ruckel, Mark Rutledge and David Thomas — are very familiar faces on the area endurance sports scene.

Perhaps one of the most surprising finishes on Sunday was by Rutledge, a 41-year-old swimmer who set a world age group swimming record last year, but who hasn't competed in a triathlon since 1993.

Rutledge not only had the top swim split at 7:02, but had a very respectable sixth place bike split at 31:57 and the 30th fastest run split at 20:43.

Of the 318 entrants at the triathlon, 315 finished it. Complete results are posted on www.rmssports.com.

Top results

OPEN/ELITE: Male — Zach Stroud 55:21, Dawson Cherry 57:15, Eric Ruckel 58:37, Mark Rutledge 59:40, David Thomas 1:00:09. Female — Jennifer McDonagh 1:03:54, Laura Dechamplain 1:09:08, Stacy Mark 1:15:53. OPEN MASTERS: Male — Jim Daniel 1:02:44. Female — None. AGE GROUP MASTERS: Male — Lance Leopold 1:00:43. Female — Caroline Sinkler 1:10:02. CLYDESDALE — Dave Hunter 1:08:05. ATHENA — Melanie Stuart 1:09:55. AGE GROUP (top male and female only): 15-under — Stephen Harvey 1:04:44. Elizabeth Kovarik 1:26:22. 16-19 — Mike Lambert 1:06:28. Katie Anderson 1:23:08. 20-24 — Jefferson Musgrave 1:03:14. Mary Paulsen 1:06:00. 25-29 — Oliver Sendall 1:03:03. Karen Courington 1:14:44. 30-34 — Clinton Adams 1:02:46. Tara Saville 1:09:15. 35-39 — Michael Owens 1:01:05. Christina Meyer 1:07:32. 40-44 — Tommy Rogers 1:02:01. Jana Glover 1:11:10. 45-49 — Steve Stubbs 1:04:33. Cindy Ezdon 1:17:41. 50-54 — Rick James 1:01:47. Janet Thiel 1:15:00. 55-59 — Rick Widman. No female. 60-64 — Neil Jacobs 1:16:21. Brenda Ellis 1:25:41. 65-69 — Richard Weatherford 1:15:01. No female. 70-74 — No participants. 75-79 — William Boulter 1:21:02. No female.