MATTAPOISETT — Three years ago, Heather Peckham’s son gave her a bicycle he found in a dumpster.

The bicycle, plus the suggestion of a friend soon after, catalyzed Peckham to compete in a triathlon for the first time.

“I got hooked, but it was my son getting me the dumpster bike,” the Middletown, Rhode Island resident said.

Peckham, 42, won her first triathlon Sunday, July 28 at a race across land and sea held by the Mattapoisett Lions Club.

More than 100 participants between the ages of 16 and 70 raced the quarter-mile swim, 10-mile bike ride and 3.1-mile run.

The first triathletes entered the waters off of Mattapoisett Town Beach at 8 a.m. It was low tide, so some of the beginning and end of the swim in actuality became a high-stepping gallop or walk.

The bikers then pedaled from Water to Main Street to begin the 10-mile tract. The run wrapped around Ned’s Point Lighthouse and back through village roads before ending back at the Mattapoisett Town Beach.

“This was just fun,” Peckham said. “It was beautiful.”

Peckham finished first for women with a time of 1:02:57.

Marion resident Tyler Young finished first overall at 54:07.

Young said he wasn’t expecting to win. Swimming isn’t “his strong suit,” but as a runner, he was able to make it up, he said.

“That really helps out at the end,” Young said.

A recent Old Rochester Regional High School graduate, Young is committed to run track for UMass Lowell, he said.

Sydney Leveckis said she’s run the Mattapoisett Lions Club triathlon 15 times since she was 13 years old.

Part of the run is “pretty gnarly,” she said.

“Picking it up a notch at the end was hard, but we made it,” Leveckis said.

Clark Luckhardt, of Carlsbad, California, said the triathlon is a “nice community event.”

“It was awesome,” Luckhardt said. “It was super lovely.”

Peckham said the people out along the course watching were “very uplifting” while racing.

“You don’t get this everywhere,” she said.