Alan End, 80, of Woodbury, has competed in more than 50 triathlons. He has no plans to stop anytime soon.

Alan End has competed in more than 50 triathlons in the past 14 years. At 80, he had hoped to add the 2023 New York City Triathlon to the list — but it wasn’t meant to be.

The Woodbury resident was attempting to be the oldest man from the field of 1,800 to finish the multisport competition, held on Oct. 1. The race is usually an Olympic distance event — a 1,500-meter swim, a 40-kilometer (24.8 mile) bike ride and a 10-kilometer (6.2 mile) run. But because incessant late September rains created unsafe conditions in the Hudson River, race officials canceled the swim the day before the event.

Instead, competitors were expected to complete a one-mile run before hopping on their bikes and riding nearly 25 miles on the Henry Hudson Highway, then finishing with a 10k run in Central Park.

End made it through the first run and the bike ride, but two miles into the longer run, he started to feel dizzy and unsteady. Race officials saw he was in trouble, helped him off the course and into an ambulance.

Speaking from a bed at Lenox Hill Hospital — where he was treated for dehydration and released the same day — End acknowledged that he may have overreached in his two-year build-up plan for the race.

“Maybe at age 80, those distances were too long for me,” he mused. “But I’m trying to learn from it. Next time I’ll do a shorter race.”

The operative words being “next time.” Because for End, there was no question in his mind that he would keep competing.

That resilience, that willingness to explore new avenues and push boundaries, has characterized End for most of his life. Even if he fell short this time, experts say his story is one all Long Islanders can learn from.

“When it comes to aging and physical activity, the challenge with goal setting is that at some point we won’t be able to continue to increase the intensity of our goals, and, inevitably, how much we can accomplish will backslide,” said psychologist Sherry Pagoto, a professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Connecticut. “That is the natural course of things.”

But inevitability shouldn’t mean inactivity, she argued. Pagoto applauds End for what he did — despite not finishing the race. “I think when we don’t meet a goal, like he did, we have to keep setting new ones and keep forging ahead, like he is!”

Changing it up

The ability to make a quick pivot, to adapt, is part of End’s makeup, as evidenced by his willingness to change — his career, his sport, his life — at an age when many of his contemporaries tend to stick with the familiar.

“It’s really a testament to his perseverance and resilience,” said triathlon coach Jose L. Lopez, of Mineola, an acquaintance of End.

Consider that End didn’t even start competing in triathlons until he was 66. He entered the New York City Triathlon just four years later, when he turned 70. Now, 10 years later, other men in his age group have stopped competing, for various reasons. (He was the only person in his age class for this year’s New York City triathlon.) But End keeps on ticking — “80 And All Original Parts” is the assertion on his white racing cap.

Of course, End is not making himself out to be some sort of aging Superman. While he does indeed have all of his body parts, End said he has had some health issues. And, as was made clear earlier this month, time has taken its toll on his race performances. “I’m slow,” he admits. “Particularly in the run. I’m really run-walking.”

A career pivot

His willingness to shift gears extends to his professional life, as well: After years as a technical illustrator — the last 12 of them at Northrop Grumman — End switched careers in 1989, leaving the aerospace giant as the Cold War era wound down and making what he calls a “midlife vocational reassessment.”

It was quite a detour: He enrolled in the Swedish Institute massage school in Manhattan and became a professional masseur — work he said he continues to do, part-time, at a spa in Woodbury.

But it isn’t the only new career End took on: A decade ago, he became certified as a Nassau County Track and Field official and has been officiating varsity track meets ever since. At one point prior to the COVID-19 pandemic he had a third job as an usher at the Nassau County Coliseum, which enabled End (who in yet another chapter of his life collected and sold vinyl records) to catch many of his favorite acts.

“I just can’t see staying in the same job, or the same place, or the same sport your entire life,” he said.

Perhaps that is why, at an age when most people are ready to retire, End was taking up a new athletic challenge.

Organizing runs

End had started running in the late 1970s and began training with a group of people who would form what became the largest running organization in Nassau and Suffolk: The Greater Long Island Running Club. Some of their innovative events at the time included a 50-mile, Jones Beach-to-Oyster Bay race, the Ocean to Sound Relay, which End directed for 23 years — from its inception in 1986 until he made his switch into a related but new sport in 2009.

He joked about what finally compelled him to take up the triathlon, a sport he had watched in the Olympics on TV and as a volunteer at local multi-sport races.

“I had a bike, I knew how to swim, and I could run,” he said. “I ran out of excuses.”

Those who know him well were hardly surprised when End announced that he would be doing a short-distance, beginner’s triathlon in Eisenhower Park.

His last race before the New York City triathlon was in August, when he competed in the TOBAY Triathlon. In that competition, he swam half a mile in Oyster Bay Harbor, rode his bike 12.3 kilometers (7.6 miles) through Oyster Bay and Oyster Bay Cove, and then ran 5 kilometers (3.1 miles). End won his age group.

“I’ve kind of followed his path since he started doing triathlons,” said Mindy Davidson, who served on the Greater Long Island Running Club’s board of directors with End for several decades, and who herself competes in multi-sport events. “I think it’s great. He finds a lot of joy in it, and it keeps him in great shape as he gets older.”

Said Robin Lynch, one of End’s two grown daughters, “My dad is a champ when it comes to reinventing himself. He’s always surprising us with his physical prowess year after year, and the way he just emerges from adversity by finding new and different ways to challenge himself.”

End may not have finished this year’s New York City triathlon, but it doesn’t mean he’s finished with racing. End is already making plans for a shorter distance triathlon later this fall in Florida. Typically, these so-called sprint distances consist of a quarter- to half-mile swim, a bike ride of 10 to 15 miles and a 5k (3.1 mile) run.

No one who knows him is shocked to hear that he isn’t hanging up his wetsuit or running shoes yet.

“I fully expected him to bounce back from this minor setback,” said Lynch. “He’s always pulled himself through previous challenges, and this is no different. He will find a way to reinvent himself from an athletic standpoint.”

As for himself, End intends to just keep moving forward: “Of course I’m going to continue,” he said when questioned about his athletic future. “I don’t see giving up triathlons until I can no longer do them.”

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