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LAFAYETTE, Colo. -
When Hank Kaplan dives into the Hudson River in New York on Sunday to compete in the Nautica New York City Triathlon, he'll be one of only six men out of 5,000 competitors who are 70 or older.
And to think: A couple of years ago, the Lafayette resident didn't even know how to swim.
"Running is second nature to me," said Kaplan, who turned 70 last week, and has completed five New York City Marathons. "And biking I could do, but I just never learned how to swim."
The mean age of the competitors in Sunday's race will be 37 â and only 191 men will be 55 or older.
Kaplan took swimming classes at the Flatirons Athletic Club, where he has been training twice a day for about six months â swimming, running, cycling, lifting weights and doing yoga.
"It wasn't easy. I did not realize how technical swimming is," Kaplan said.
Similar to other technical sports, such as skiing, until you get comfortable, it's very demanding and physically exhausting, he said of learning to be in the water for an hour or more.
Kaplan also sought coaching help from local professional triathlete Brad Seng and ran regularly with the Boulder Road Runners. And sometimes he ran with his daughter, a middle school science teacher in Westminster.
Sunday's triathlon â Kaplan's first â is Olympic distance, which includes a 1.5-kilometer swim, a 40-kilometer bike ride and a 10-kilometer run through the water, streets and parks of Manhattan.
"This, to me, is more of a life experience than it is about performance," Kaplan said.
Since moving to Boulder County from Manhattan seven years ago, he has run the Bolder Boulder five times, with a top time in the 55-minute range.
The Nautica New York City Triathlon is part of the Life Time Fitness Triathlon Series that includes races in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago and Dallas. Registration for this year's event reached capacity 22 minutes after opening at 12:01 a.m. one night in early November. Professional triathletes and elite amateurs must qualify, but anyone can join the main field.
Water temperatures are expected to be 75 degrees in the Hudson on Sunday and air temperatures at 80 degrees with mild humidity, so the weather should not be too much of a factor, according to race organizers.
Kalpan is the CEO of a Boulder video game software company called Mentor Interactive, originally founded in 2004 by University of Colorado faculty members. Before that, he was in the children's interactive entertainment business in the New York area, served as an executive at CBS and started several companies.
Kalpan ran cross country and track in high school and college, but gave up running entirely for 25 years before running his first marathon at age 50.
"Work and family are always the trade off with training," he said. "It's important to find a balance."
That said, Kaplan re-injured his hamstring and hip flexor last week, and is not totally confident he'll finish Sunday's event.
"I'll be at the starting line, I'm just not sure if I'll be at the finish line, too," he said.
That's awesome.I hope he gets to the finish.Colorado is a great place to use the high altitude training.Once you come back to sea level, it seems like the training literally puts you back twenty years in "athletic years."I graduated from high school in 1987.But I come back to Colorado or Northern Arizona for high altitude training.Then I go back to my home in Tallahasse, FL and play FSU campus basketball with guys half my age.I was the intramural team captain for three years.Although I graduated with my 2nd master's degree, those guys want me to play again next year.They are literally half my age born in the mid 80s to early 1990s.High altitude training works!I am going up Pikes Peak next month.
physicist
7/19/2009 6:53:40 PM