Sports

GUIDE TO THE NYC TRIATHLON

It started small three summers ago, a Sunday morning for New York City to boost its Olympic bid and boast its athletic amenities to a new crowd. Sunday, it comes again, the fourth New York City Triathlon, the only event of its kind held annually in a major city. More than 2,000 amateurs (known as agegroup athletes) will join a few dozen professionals and the United States Paralympic Team as they compete in an Olympic-distance race – a 1,500-meter (almost a mile) swim, a 40-kilometer (25-mile) bike trek, and a 10K (6.25-ile) run. he elite professionals will compete for $30,000 in prize money as part of the Race to Athens Series. Here’s a step-by-step look at the journey.

In the Hudson

The age-group race begins at 6 a.m. on one of two large barges anchored in the Hudson River at West 98th Street.

In waves of about 80, they will wade down gangplanks into the river and swim south to 79th Street. It can be a fun journey.

Swimmers accidentally kick and slap each other as they battle for room in the 30-yard-wide swimming lane. And once in the drink, there’s no telling what treasures await them on and below the surface.

“I heard there’s some interesting things in the Hudson,” said women’s favorite Loretta Harrop, who also owns a black belt in karate.

“But nothing I can’t handle so long as I swim fast.”

Change-overs

Easy to overlook, the transition areas, where athletes switch sports, are just as important as the racing stages. Most triathlons use two transition areas, but New York’s uses just one – at a baseball field near the 79th Street Boat Basin – for the switches from water to bike, and then bike to running shoes.

Think pit row. The athletes take time to grab new equipment that fits and functions properly, but still hustle to save precious seconds.

The Athens-bound pro – who practices the transition as much as the swim, bike and run – can make the adjustments in a few seconds. Others will enjoy a few minutes of respite before the next leg.

West Side Highway

The bike course features the still-wet competitors racing 12 miles up the West Side Highway into The Bronx, then re-tracing their tread marks back to the 79th Street ballfield.

The highway will be closed from 57th Street to Gun Hill Road for much of Sunday morning.

In past years, the bike highlights took place before the race. The out-of-town athletes, many of whom stay at the Marriott Marquis, will rise at 3 a.m. to begin their warm-ups with bike sprints on Broadway.

“I thought they were crazy,” race director John Korff said. “We had to tell them that just because it’s the middle of the night doesn’t mean there aren’t cars on Broadway.”

At the finish

Last comes the run, which starts near the Boat Basin, heads south along the West Side Highway and then cuts east to Central Park, ending near the Band Shell on 72nd Street.

The past two men’s winners have rallied in the run’s final miles to grab the lead for good.

“I can’t wait to run in Central Park,” said Canada’s Carol Montgomery, who qualified for the 2000 Olympics in the triathlon and 10,000 meters.

“For a 10K runner, Central Park is like Wimbledon.”

Three competitors are blind. At least two others are confined to wheelchairs. One has just one leg.

As many as 10 of the best American paralympic triathletes will compete, facing different obstacles – for instance, the blind competitors swim with a guide and run tethered to a person trained to pace them.

And they all bring different stories – such as Carlos Moleda, who lost use of his legs on a Navy SEAL mission in Panama.

SO YOUNG AT HEART

By MIKE FORDE

Getting into shape wasn’t the only reason Joseph Puma, now 74, started jogging back when he was 49.

“When you’re married, you try to figure out a way to get out of the house,” Puma, a retired construction company owner from Brooklyn, said with a smile.

Then a funny thing happened. The jogging turned into running – and the hobby became less an escape and more a way to quench Puma’s thirst for competition.

But the running wasn’t enough. At 63, Puma hopped on a bike and went from a one-dimensional runner to a biathlete.

Then last year, at 73, he competed in his first open-water triathlon.

Sunday, Puma will be the oldest competitor in the fourth-annual New York City Triathlon.

“Apparently I’m very inspirational to a lot of people,” Puma said. “I look young for my age and I have a better body then most young people.”

But there’s an asterisk: When Puma signed up for Sunday’s triathlon, he was worried his surgically repaired knee might not hold up during the 10K foot race that ends in Central Park. So he gave a call to his longtime running partner, 59-year-old Ann Makoske, and a plan was set.

Puma will compete in the 1,500-meter swim and the 40-kilometer bike race, then will hand off to Makoske for the 10K run.

“I’m not going to stop competing until I can’t do it anymore,” Puma said.

Another 70-something competitor, 73-year-old Dr. Paul Kiell, will follow a similar relay plan.

A psychiatrist from Far Hills, N.J., Kiell swims and runs for fun. He’ll do the swim leg of the triathlon, while his two sons-in-law will take the run and bike competitions.

Kiell, who will be the second-oldest competitor, doesn’t find his feat all that special.

“I don’t think it’s remarkable that I do it,” Kiell said. “What’s strange is that more people don’t do it. … It’s play. No matter how old you are, you can’t forget that. You can never grow up in that way.”