St. Anthony's Triathlon aids Bay area economy

Monday, April 30, 2007

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This deli benefited from the St. Anthony's Triathlon being in the St. Petersburg-Clearwater area this weekend.

The St. Anthony's Triathlon is the second largest triathlon in the nation. That means mega money for hotels, restaurants and shops in the Bay area.

"Hotel, food, drinks, gifts, beach chairs, beach towels, yeah anything," said Pennsylvania visitor Denise Rossi on what items she purchased.

The triathlon is bigger than ever, bringing in more than $4 million to the St Petersburg-Clearwater area last year.

"I think that's awesome," said Melanie Shelton, assistant manager of Happy Feet Place. "Now if they could bring that four million right to here we would be even happier. But we are very happy with our sales this morning."

Shelton sold lots of shoes to all those who needed to give their feet a rest from all the walking and shopping. And with people from 15 countries and 46 states in for the race, that's a lot of potential achy feet.

Though the race is officially over, the economy still hasn't reached the finish line, with visitors expected to stay in town a few more days.

This year it took only seven hours to sell out entries to the race.

The triathlon is sponsored by St Anthony's Health Care.