MIGHTY NORTH FORK TRIATHLON
Ventura runs race without regard to place
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Pete Ventura of Glen Cove did not look behind him, and won the 10th annual Mighty North Fork Triathlon in 50 minutes 33 seconds on Sunday morning at Cedar Beach.
Ventura, 30, of Glen Cove had a bit more left in him, so he went back onto the course and reran the 3 1/2-mile run with his mother, Christine, who was competing in her first triathlon. In the Ventura family, Pete had to take second billing. The Ventura headline of the day was not Pete's victory, but his mother's first foray into the sport. "This was a big deal for her," he said.
Still, winning a triathlon is a big deal, too, and Ventura did so handily on Sunday morning at Cedar Beach. He completed the run following a 500-meter swim and an eight-mile bike ride in a time of 50 minutes 33 seconds. Ironically, his time was slower than the 49:19 that brought him fourth place in last year's event. Still, he won by a comfortable margin on Sunday over the next closest finisher, Jim MacWhinnie of Southampton, who was timed in 52:22.
The first wave of swimmers kicked and splashed when the Mighty North Fork Triathlon began with a 500-meter swim.
Jennifer Place, 34, of New York City was the first female finisher in 55:57. She posted a time that was almost two minutes faster than what she put up in last year's race, which saw her finish eighth.
It wasn't until nearly three minutes later when the next woman, Christie O'Hara of Cliffside Park, N.J., finished the race. Her time was 58:49, and was 15 seconds faster than third-place Jessica Fasulo of Las Vegas. Rounding out the top 10 women were: Jessica Swanson of Nesconset (59:22), Katie Dipietro of Floral Park (59:35), Elizabeth Kralick of East Northport (59:37), Kelly Pickard of Oyster Bay (59:56), Nicole Skidmore of Syosset (1:02:00), Denise Thuilot of Stony Brook (1:02:06) and Kristin Eberhardt of Lindenhurst (1:02:23).
Bikers headed up a hill during the start of their eight-mile ride during the Mighty North Fork Triathlon.
Ventura learned from last year's Mighty North Fork Triathlon not to look behind him and be too concerned about his place. On Sunday, he just forged ahead.
"There's a difference between running for a place and running your own race," Ventura said. "You could bike and turn around and look and say, 'I'm comfortable here,' and put it in neutral, or you can just bike as hard as you can."
Jennifer Place of New York City took nearly two minutes off her time from last year's Mighty North Fork Triathlon, and was the first female finisher in 55 minutes 57 seconds.
"I knew in the back of my head that I would be the fastest biker here, so I just took off," Ventura said. "I didn't want it to become a race."
As Ventura pedaled away, one of the race officials told him there was no one in sight behind him, but Ventura kept pushing. He wanted to open up some breathing room for himself in the run. He said: "I'm thinking, 'I don't care. I don't want to know who's behind me or whatever. I just want to keep going straight ahead.' "
This is the latest in a string of successes for Ventura, who got hooked onto the sport soon after he took it up two years ago. Earlier this year, he won the Carl Hart Mother's Day Duathlon in 49:50 and the Mini Mighty Man in 32:42.
Ventura became the pre-race favorite when Will Iaia, who set a course record of 44:12 last year in Southold, withdrew from this year's event two days beforehand. That left Ventura wearing the No. 1 tag, representative of his seeding. Ventura lived up to it, too.
"He looked good, he looked strong," Ventura's coach, Steve Tarpinian, said. "He looked relaxed. I'm sure he feels the same way, he would have liked to have somebody pushing him. It's always a little more fun to go head to head, but when you don't have any competition, you enjoy being out front."
Although Place wore a watch, she forgot to turn on the timer at the start, so she had no idea how fast she was going. That might have actually helped her push harder to her first victory in four career triathlons. She was cheered on by her own personal fan club of eight family members, including her camera-carrying husband, Robert, and parents, Pat and Al Sznurkowski, who live around the corner from the beach. "Thanks to them I had a comfortable bed to sleep in last night," said Place.
Place's strategy was to go especially hard on the bike and gain as big a lead as possible going into the run.
"I cycle in Central Park, and that's one of the most competitive places to race because even if you're not racing, everyone feels as if they are," Place said. "I was like, 'Pretend you're riding in Central Park, and you'll be fine during the race.' "
Place said she felt relief once she crossed the finish line.
She said, "I'm doing the New York City tri next weekend, and I have no chance of winning that, so I figured I would just go all out here."
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