Hamptons triathlon draws older athletes

In nearly 30 years as a recreational endurance athlete, Dr. Steven Jonas has completed 223 triathlons and duathlons. Many of those races have faded from memory. But not this one:

"Sept. 17, 1983," he says. "The Mighty Hamptons. That was my first tri and, believe me, I will never forget it."

Jonas, a professor at Stony Brook University Medical School, was near the back of the pack that day: he finished 456th out of 489.

That didn't matter.

Completing the Mighty Hamptons, despite not having a competitive sports background, convinced Jonas that the swim-bike-run endurance challenge, known as a triathlon, was within reach for the average person, as well as for the super-fit.

That day, Jonas says, he was inspired to write a training book for those who wanted to share the same experience and reap the same rewards he did from training for and completing his first race. "Triathloning for Ordinary Mortals" was published in 1986 and became one of the best-selling triathlon books of all time (it has been updated and rereleased twice). The '83 Mighty Hamptons race, and the doctor's experience in it, rated a whole chapter.

Jonas would go on to complete the Mighty Hamptons 11 more times -- the last one about eight years ago. "It's an absolute icon," says Jonas, now 74, who still competes in shorter triathlons. "It's a great race."

That race -- now consisting of a 1.5-kilometer (. 93-mile) swim, a 23.8-mile bike ride and a 10K (6.2-mile) run, starting at Sag Harbor's Long Beach -- will celebrate its 30th anniversary tomorrow. It's one of the older events in a sport that is still relatively new: Triathlons first emerged in California in the 1970s, and only became an Olympic sport in 2000. (The run-bike-run duathlon, sometimes called biathlon, developed in the 1980s).

Yet, while triathletes have a reputation for being the fittest of the fit (with good reason, given that they go nonstop for hours in three different sports), the makeup of tomorrow's Mighty Hamptons field of competitors also sheds light on an interesting demographic trend. While triathlon may be relatively young, many of its participants, chronologically, are not.

According to race officials, 19.8 percent of the nearly 1,200 participants in this year's Mighty Hamptons are 50 or older. That's considerably higher than the norm. According to USA Triathlon, the national governing body for the sport, 13 percent of its 133,876 members are 50-plus. What's more, the organization notes, the older segment of its membership has more than doubled in the past five years, from 8,278 to 17,930.

Among those who have aged with the sport: Steve Schloss, 74, of Muttontown, who heard about triathlons around the same time Jonas did. "I was 47 or 48 when I did my first one," he recalls. "So back then, I was already one of the older guys."

He did his first Mighty Hamptons in 1985, finishing with his son Jeffrey, then a college student. Schloss was impressed by the course, which starts in Noyac Bay, then takes competitors though the rural areas of the South Fork. "The swim is beautiful, the surrounding countryside, the farmland that you bike and run through . . . it's a lovely, lovely part of the Island."

Doing the Mighty Hamptons, he says, "became a tradition," while triathlon and training became a lifestyle.

Although it might seem excessive (and there are certainly those who take the training to excess), tri-training, by its nature, is more balanced, which, says orthopedic surgeon Dr. Dorothy Scarpinato, makes it ideal for older adults who want to stay fit and enjoy the benefits of competition.

"The bottom line in these kinds of activities is doing it without getting hurt," says Scarpinato, a member of Premier Orthopedic Sports Medicine group in Melville. "Some of my older patients want to just run, or just play tennis. I like it when they do more than one activity, which is what you have to do in triathlon. You work different muscles groups, so you don't get injured as often."

That may be one reason that triathletes like Schloss and his friend and training partner, Charlie Wittman of Amityville, are able to continue competing in the sport decade after decade.

"I think it's sort of a rising tide kind of thing," says Wittman, 66, who did the first Mighty Hamptons in 1982, as part of a cadre of Jones Beach lifeguards who decided to take on what was then an unusual new challenge. "My cohorts are the ones that were doing it then, and they're still doing it now. People who got into it stayed with it."

Both Schloss and Wittman swim, bike and run together several times a week with other members of Team Total Training, a local tri team. The team's coach, Steve Tarpinian, who was the Mighty Hamptons race director from 1994 to 1999 and is now a race consultant, has noticed the change in the sport, too. "There are certainly more older people in the sport," Tarpinian says. "You need more time to train, and disposable income, so it's not surprising."

Depending on when participants register, it costs $150 to $195 to enter Mighty Hamptons. Everyone who finishes receives a medal, but that's not the only benefit of training for the event.

Athletes like Schloss, Wittman and the other 227 50-and-older adults who plan to compete in Mighty Hamptons tomorrow have made an investment in their fitness -- one far greater than the cost of a wet suit, a racing bike or a pair of running shoes. And it's noticed by the younger athletes. "The young people on our team see guys like Steve and Charlie and realize it's not just about winning a race," Tarpinian says. "It's about being healthy in your 60s and 70s and still enjoying the sport."

Or, as Jonas wrote on the day he finished the Mighty Hamptons Triathlon in 1983: "I have seen a new me, and I like what I see. When's the next race?"

For many older triathletes on Long Island, the answer to that question is: Tomorrow.

Honoring those who died

In the 30 years since the Mighty Hamptons triathlon began, the race has been held 29 times. It was canceled only once, in 2001, when it had been scheduled for the weekend after 9/11.

In more recent years, the race has been held the Sunday after Labor Day. This year, that day falls on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Mighty Hamptons race director Reuben Kline explains why promoters decided the race should go on: "We considered changing the date this year, but . . . we decided to keep the date for two main reasons. One, if we stop living our lives to the fullest, then the destruction of 9/11 continues. The second reason is to honor those who could not compete in the 2001 event because they lost their lives in the World Trade Towers; three people died on 9/11 who were registered for the Mighty Hamptons in 2001.

Though we officially canceled the Mighty Hamptons in 2001, over 100 of the racers came out to do a noncompetitive swim/run event in honor of those who died. We were able to donate $10,000 to the families of the fallen . . . and all the shirts of the racers to the rescue workers. Just as surfers gather in the water to honor lost friends, athletes honor fallen comrades by being athletes."