Northport Man Runs Triathlon For His 60th

When Dave Ruedeman ran in the Nautica New York City Triathlon for his sixtieth birthday on Aug. 7, he signed, sealed, and delivered on the adage that age ain't nothin' but a number. 

Ruedeman left young bloods in the dust as he ran and biked an equivalent of 30 miles through Manhattan and swam nearly a mile down the Hudson in under four hours-- all on his first shot at an Olympic triathlon. 

“I’m probably in the best shape of my life," he said. 

Regardless of whether his endurance surpasses some men half his age, Ruedeman is not one to brag or get caught up in competition. He takes a deeply introspective, almost cathartic, approach to training and participating in the events: he trains alone, he keeps diaries, and (an engineer by trade) he incorporates high-tech monitoring devices that plot his movements on Google Earth. 

Somewhere in cyberspace Ruedeman is a thin red line dashed across Northport where he's done the for the past two years and out to Montauk where he did the Montauk Century bike ride. 

Ruedeman said he's not a born runner and readily admitted that he "tends to plod," but this year he hopes to beat his old time and make it through the Cow Harbor Race in under an hour. With any luck, a double decker blister on his foot from sprinting barefoot for a half-mile in NYC, won't interfere with his two to three practice 10k's each week.  

Ruedeman said cycling is his strength. In fact, his journey to the Nautica NYC Triathlon began with a bicycle. 

"It all started five years ago. I was very heavy. I wanted another mountain bike and my wife said, 'if you want it, you have to get below 200 pounds.'"

With that challenge, Dave and his wife, Mary Ahern, were born anew. Both made major lifestyle changes and lost a significant amount of weight through conscious eating and increased physical activity. Their journey also led to a profound shift in perspective. 

“This has transformed us. You get married later in life and you’re carving out a whole new existence for yourself. It makes you ageless in a sense. We’re not saying, 'we’re this age, we can’t do this anymore.' We’re forward looking, not backward. We’ve got a brand new start," said Mary.