BANGOR – Athletes will have to swim, cycle and run their way though the first Pine Tree Triathlon, planned to start at Brewer Lake and weave through Orrington and Brewer next summer.

The Bangor Triathlon Club, a recently established club that encourages participation and enjoyment of the three sports, will sponsor the race. The new triathlon is scheduled to start 8 a.m., Aug. 20.

“There are four main distances in triathlons and this is the shortest – it’s called a sprint triathlon,” race director Ron Lawson said Wednesday. “There are also Olympic triathlons, which are twice as long, half-Ironman and Ironman.”

An Ironman triathlon is 140.6 miles. The Pine Tree Triathlon is 15.6 miles.

“We’re starting at Brewer Lake with an out and back half-mile swim [from] the boat launch,” Lawson said. “People will come out of the water and the swim-to-bike transition area will be in the parking lot [across the street]. The bike portion is 12 miles and it weaves through Orrington and into Brewer. The bike-to-run transition will be at the [Pendleton Street] track.”

Once athletes reach the track, they’ll have a 5-kilometer run (3.1 miles) ahead of them. The tentative route starts at the track, travels to South Main Street and north to Maple Street, located beside the police and fire departments, and then to Robertson Boulevard, to Parkway South and then back to the track.

Lawson, 28, is a 1995 Bangor High School graduate and is a triathlon competitor. He is the store manager of Triathlete Sports of Bangor, which sponsors the club, and has been thinking about hosting a triathlon since the new downtown store opened in April.

“I’ve been doing it for about four years, all over the country,” he said. “I grew up in this area and I came back recently” to open the store after serving with the U.S. Marines and spending a few years in college.

The Bangor native is planning to participate in the Ford Ironman Wisconsin, in Madison on Sept. 10, 2006.

The Bangor Triathlon Club has gained unanimous approval for the sporting event from Orrington Selectmen and has received approval for the race from the Brewer Parks and Recreation Department.

“There is nothing like it in this area, so we decided to go for it,” Lawson said.