It started with a hug and ended with a rose.

In between came 500 meters of open-water swimming, 10 miles of cycling and a five-kilometer run at the Rose Brooks Women’s Triathlon.

And while those might not be Ironman distances, the Rose Brooks Women’s Triathlon was by design a real triathlon.

“It’s a harder course than the one we have in Manhattan,” said race director Clay Myers-Bowman. “We didn’t water it down. It was a real race. We didn’t water it down just for women. It was the same run course as the age-group national championship, the same swim, just a little shorter. It was a real triathlon. We didn’t market it as an easy one to come and try. I wanted to have a real race, so women could say afterward, ‘I did a real triathlon.'”

Close to 300 women could do just that.

The Rose Brooks Women’s Triathlon – run by Myers-Bowman’s Blue Hills Adventures, sponsored by Garmin and a benefit for the Rose Brooks Center, a domestic-violence agency and shelter – was held Aug. 12 in Smithville, Mo., just north of Kansas City. All told, there were 273 competitors.

And not a single Y chromosome.

In its first year, the Rose Brooks Tri became at once the largest event ever put on by Blue Hills Adventures and the second-largest field for a swim-bike-run event in the K.C. metro area.

No. 1? The U.S.A. Triathlon Age-Group National Championship, which drew 284 women.

“And that event,” Myers-Bowman said, “drew from around the country.”

First-timer focused

So why a no-guy tri?

“We knew, because of the nature of triathlon in the Kansas City area that there probably were very few first-time women coming and trying them because they’re big and pretty intense,” Myers-Bowman said. “Promoters are always talking about how intense they are. They’re called, ‘Hotter Than Hell,’ ‘Midwest Meltdown,’ ‘Midwest Mayhem.’ A lot of first-time women aren’t going to do an event if it’s called ‘Hotter Than Hell.'”

Thus, the Rose Brooks Tri was born.

Of the 273 women who started, almost exactly half – 136 – were first-time triathletes, including Eudora’s Natalee Beck.

Beck turned to triathlons after running started bothering her knees. She shoehorned training around raising her four children.

Her swim training, for instance, came during the 10-minute safety breaks at the municipal pool.

“I’d see how many laps I could get in before they started doing cannonballs,” Beck said. “I went to Shawnee Mission Lake one time for an open-water swim. It wasn’t that bad, but it was a lot dirtier than the pool.”

Beck said the fact the Rose Brooks Tri was all women was a selling point.

“The fact it was all women made it nicer,” said Beck, a 42-year-old who placed 23rd in her age group in 1 hour, 29 minutes, 40 seconds. “It wasn’t as intimidating as standing by some 20-year-old guy who had done them before. I looked at some that were coed, but the fact it was all women swung the pendulum to it. It was fun, a really friendly atmosphere. It seemed there was a lot more camaraderie, not so competitive.”

Group hug

That was evident at the start, when Myers-Bowman, to comfort the newbies, suggested each competitor turn to a neighbor, give her a hug and congratulate her on toeing the start line. At the finish, each woman was presented a rose.

“I told a male friend of mine who does triathlons about that, and he said it was a chick thing,” Lawrence’s Amelia Wilson said with a laugh. “But it was kind of nice. I think a lot of women don’t want to do this with men. They’re self-conscious if they haven’t done it before. I think this was great, especially for someone doing her first one.”

Wilson was not among the rookies. The Rose Brooks Tri was Wilson’s fourth of the year and sixth or seventh overall.

A former competitive swimmer and track athlete in high school, Wilson followed a friend’s lead and competed in her first tri last summer.

At Rose Brooks, she placed 12th in the 25-29 age group in 1:14:18.

“It was a really fun triathlon,” Wilson said. “It wasn’t super-competitive compared to others. Men are more competitive, and it makes for a more competitive feeling. It’s a really neat experience. I’d never done an all-women’s triathlon before. I like both. I like the competitiveness at coed triathlons, but this was pretty competitive, too. There were some really good women at this one.”

Falling somewhere between Beck and Wilson in terms of experience is Wilson’s friend, Jennifer Ryschon-Knight.

‘It’s really addictive’

Ryschon-Knight last year decided to try to run a marathon and started training up to half-marathon distances. The mileage wreaked havoc on her knees, and she decided to switch gears.

Earlier this year, in February or March, Ryschon-Knight decided to give tri a try, in part on the recommendation of her chiropractor.

Her goal was to finish three triathlons by year’s end. She already has done four and plans to do a fifth.

“It’s really addictive,” said Ryschon-Knight, who placed 17th in the 30-34 age group in 1:24:56. “It’s just really great. Everybody’s living a really good life. Everybody’s very positive, full of energy. Everybody’s eating well, drinking well. You don’t feel a lot of negativity at triathlons. And it’s a very personal thing. There’s a saying in triathlon: ‘It’s my race.’ And in a sense it really is. Ninety percent of the people aren’t there to play in the top three in their age group. They’re there to finish, or get a certain time. It’s their race in a very special way.”

Ryschon-Knight has done both coed and all-female tris, and she picked up on an unusual vibe at the female-only versions.

“They’re a lot of fun, and I’d encourage any woman to do it,” she said. “The cool thing is, you go to their Web site, you see women of all shapes and sizes, all ages. It’s such a personal thing. I think it just took a lot of women a lot of courage just to get out there. Some people think you have to be some sort of superfit ironman to do it. Well, no. Very few athletes do Ironmans. You don’t have to be that way.

“It was a very good experience. I wish every woman would do one.”