I-Tri Festival at Long Beach
Tyler Pawlowski, 15, of Freeport, topping 124 finishers, three-peated as the winner of I-Tri’s youth triathlon (300-yard bay swim, 7-mile bike, and 1.5-mile run) Saturday at Noyac’s Long Beach in 30 minutes and 15.35 seconds.
A sophomore at Long Island Lutheran, Pawlowski also swims for the Long Island Aquatic Club at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow. A freestyler, his strongest distances range from 200 to 400 meters.
Asked after crossing the finish line, somewhat out of breath, if he were going to “warm down,” he replied, “I’m going to sit down.”
His time was a record, for the course was somewhat shorter this year, its race director, Sharon McCobb, said. She had been persuaded to shift everything eastward along the long beach so as not to interfere with town beach users that morning, thus shortening the bike course, which took participants through North Haven to the South Ferry landing and back. The out-and-back run spanned the beach.
McCobb, I-Tri’s athletic director, who, with about half a dozen others, has been training the fast-growing empowerment program’s junior high-age girls since February, said she changed the start time from late afternoon to early morning “because there’s less traffic.”
Just eight years ago, I-Tri (“transformation through triathlon”), founded by Theresa Roden, numbered 12. There were said to be 135 in the I-Tri photo taken before Saturday’s race began, a number of whom could not ride a bike or swim a stroke before McCobb, Diane O’Donnell, Amanda Foscolo, Jill Raynor, Daniela Medaglia, Alyssa Channin, and Natalie Sisco began training them at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter this past winter.
“Some of them couldn’t even put their face in the water,” said O’Donnell, who coaches East Hampton High School’s girls cross-country team.
“Now, they can all swim,” said Foscolo, who is herself a long-distance swimmer.
Besides the present large group of I-Triers, there were also numerous I-Tri alums — “coaches” now — on hand, among them Tali Friedman, a Ross School graduate and competitive dancer who won this race “a couple of times,” and who habitually was I-Tri’s top finisher.
“I-Tri gave me more confidence,” she said when asked what her experience with the empowerment program had been.
“But you were always athletic. . . .”
“I was athletic, but I wasn’t confident,” said Friedman, who, because of I-Tri, learned she could do whatever it was she wanted to do, and could, in turn, help others to do things they hadn’t thought they could do.
“It was so small when I was in it, only Springs and Montauk [Schools]. It’s so big now — it’s been amazing watching it grow. Theresa has been such an inspiration.”
David Powers, a veteran top-notch triathlete who now is a member of I-Tri’s board, advised Pawlowski, a competitive high school swimmer, to give triathlon, beginning with the sprint distances (half-mile swim, 20-kilometer bike, and 5K run) a try.
“You’re outdoors,” Powers began, “no longer staring down at a black line, the music is blaring . . . everyone’s doing the same thing together, it’s much more social.” Looking about him as finisher after finisher received hugs from friends and parents and exchanged high-fives, he concluded, “It’s more of a . . . festival.”
Caelan Clayton, 14, of Huntington was the runner-up to Pawlowski, in 37:26.54. Michael Benin, 14, of East Northport was third, in 39:56.88, and Bella Tarbet, 15, of East Hampton was fourth, in 40:47.87.
Dylan Cashin, 11, of East Hampton and Isabelle Caplin, 11, of Sag Harbor topped the 11-and-under group, and Leslie Samuel, 12, and Elijah Lam, 12, did the same in the 12-and-under division, which had 55 entries.
The awards keep coming for I-Tri, which uses triathlon as a fulcrum for boosting preteen and teenage girls’ self-confidence in general.
It is being considered by the International Triathlon Union’s women’s committee as a recipient of its “award of excellence.” Roden said she would learn whether I-Tri had won it later in the summer. The presentation is to made in September in Australia.
The I.T.U., triathlon’s international governing body, said of the award in a release, “Gender equality is a central element of the work that I.T.U. does, and has always been in the DNA of triathlon. . . . There are people the world over doing vital work that helps women, young and old, discover triathlon and to overcome the barriers to participation. This award shines a light on that work. . . .”
In addition, Roden has been invited to attend the U.S.A. Triathlon national championships in Cleveland next month with one of I-Tri’s girls, and is developing a science of triathlon curriculum “that will be integrated into all aspects of our training next season.”
“And we are also in the beginning stages of planning to take I-Tri to the national and, ultimately, to the international level,” Roden said.