Leading the pack

There will be kicking, shoving and punching as the Nautica New York City Triathlon gets under way July 20, says Charles Macintosh "" sort of like a day on Wall Street. "Triathlons are a lot like the markets, but at least the suffering on Sunday will only last two hours," said Macintosh, 30, a mortgage trader at Merrill Lynch & Co.

Macintosh will be among 3,000 triathletes swimming 0.9 mile (1.4 kilometer) in the Hudson River, biking 24.9 miles through Manhattan and the Bronx and running 6.2 miles in Central Park. Things tend to get rough as contenders jostle for position at the start of the first leg, the swim, he said.

 

He's also one of the Wall Street triathletes who will vie against each other in a special division, called the Janus Corporate Challenge, for the financial services industry. UBS AG has 11 employees signed up for the Challenge, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. eight, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co. seven each.

About 167 men and 24 women will compete in the division, now in its second year, said Casey Cortese, director of corporate sponsorships at Janus Capital Group Inc. in Denver. The youngest is 27-year-old Benoit Le, a quantitative analyst at Dexia Credit Local, and the oldest is Joseph Dowling, 69, president of Dowling Group, a tax consultant and financial adviser in Stamford, Connecticut.

Women's Leader

Kristin Santora, who works in mortgage sales at Deutsche Bank AG, finished first among women in the Wall Street group last year with a time of 2 hours, 38 minutes, and she says she intends to finish on top again.

"New York City is the race that I gear up for every year," said Santora, who plans to get up two hours before the event's 6 am start. "It's a sport that really goes hand in hand with a personality type. There's a lot of people even on my floor at Deutsche Bank who do them and they are really competitive."

The New York event, sponsored by Nautica, a sportswear unit of VF Corp., covers the same distances that triathletes will face at the Olympics in Beijing next month. So-called iron-distance triathlons call for a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run.

New York's triathlon, which started in 2001, becomes more popular every year, said John Korff, president of Korff Enterprises, an event management company that is organizer of the race. Registration this year sold out on the first day, he said.

The city is part of a broader US trend. About 100,674 people joined USA Triathlon, the sport's national governing body in Colorado Springs, Colorado, last year, a 19 percent increase from 2006, according to USAT's Web site. About 223,600 people bought one-day memberships, required for races sanctioned by the group, up 13 percent.

Income for Sport

About 88 per cent of USAT members have a college degree and 41 per cent earn more than $80,000 a year, the group's data show.

That income level isn't surprising, said Mikael Hanson, director of performance at Cadence Cycling & Multisport Centers in New York. After working as a fixed-income manager for 14 years, he now coaches cyclists and triathletes.

"Triathlon is not a cheap sport by any means," Hanson said. "I've sold bikes in excess of $20,000. It's not uncommon for us to see a $10,000 or $15,000 bike in New York City go out the door."

Merrill Lynch's Macintosh, who finished second in his age group with a time of 2 hours, seven minutes last year, said he will be riding his $10,000 Cervelo P3C. Triathlon bikes can cost as little as $700.

Racers also need good running shoes and many prefer to wear a wetsuit, adding to the expense, Hanson said.

Similar Challenges

Triathlons require some of the same strengths as working in New York's financial services industry, said Todd Hoffman, an associate at investment bank TM Capital Corp. who says he arises at 4.30 am weekdays to train.

"Wall Street is a very intense and focused environment and triathlon is very intense," said Hoffman, 28. "You have to have the mental will to drive through triathlon and through investment banking."

Wall Street participants training at Cadence Cycling are among the strongest athletes he has ever met, mentally and physically, Hanson said.

"In New York City, they're all A-type personalities," Hanson said. "It amazes me, the hours these people work and the amount of time they still train."

Nicolette Corrao, 26, who works for hedge fund Satellite Asset Management, is racing for Team In Training, which raises money for research into finding a cure for leukemia and lymphoma.

"My strength might be raising money," she said. "My weakness is the last mile of the run."

Bruno Otero, 36, who handles corporate derivative sales at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA and a triathlete since age 17, said the expense is a good investment in his mental health.

"It's the time I have for myself, away from family, work, et cetera," Otero said. "It's a better way to spend my money instead of spending it on a shrink."