Local product is top amateur at Princeton Ironman
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Coming off his best race of a busy season, Iain Alexandridis wasn’t going to miss out on the inaugural Princeton Half Ironman Triathlon.
Alexandridis grew up in Princeton, and got into doing triathlons when he was still a student at The Hun School. He’s found the half ironman to be his best distance, and having one close to his hometown made it a no-brainer.
”I’d definitely do it again,” said Alexandridis, who is now a junior at Virginia Tech University. “I had no problems with the race again. The one road stretch was bad. I enjoyed it too. It was nice to sleep in my own bed, and good to see my parents, who are my biggest supporters. If they didn’t support me, I’d be struggling for sure. My dad giving me splits and was letting me know where I am in the race. It was good to see them. I saw a couple people from Hun. I swim at Princeton masters, and I saw three of them race morning. It was nice to catch up with them. You see a lot of local people. It has a feel of a local race, but it still attracts pros.”
Alexandridis was the top amateur finisher Sunday at Mercer County Park, ninth overall, in 4 hours, 15 minutes, 31 seconds over the 70.3-mile distance. He did the 1.2-mile swim in 28:24, the 56-mile bike in 2:24:09 and the 13.1-mile run in 1:19:37. It was just what he and his coach, Matt Kemple, had worked out as a goal.
”We spoke the day before the race and made the goal of not putting a time on it,” said Alexandridis, who competes for Team Zoot. “We said, let’s try to win the amateur race. We accomplished that. It wasn’t my best race, but it was what I wanted to do.”
Professional Viktor Zyemtsev of the Ukraine was the overall winner. A professional who lives in Florida, Zyemtsev finished in 3:54:37. He edged out Jesse Thomas of Bend, Ore. Alexandridis was the top amateur finisher, almost three minutes ahead of Doug Clark of Mendham.
”The course was flat,” Alexandridis said. “The road surface was a little rough. There were quite a few turns. I slowed a bit on the turns. I just rode poorly. The bike course was nice. Once you got out of Hamilton, the bike course was excellent. It was nice and quiet. The volunteers did an excellent job. I never had any problems with traffic.”
Alexandridis picked it up on the run, his top discipline of the three in the triathlon, as it finished in Mercer County Park where it started.
”It’s the only thing that’s been consistently there at each race,” Alexandridis said of the run. “I did 1:19 this weekend. I ran a 1:19 at worlds. That’s been pretty consistent. This weekend, I was a little bummed. I thought I had a bad ride, and the first loop, I wasn’t mentally in it. After the first loop, my dad told me everyone’s been riding slower, and my run was fine. I’m happy being consistently under 1:20, which is nice.”
His 1:19 finish at the World Championships in Mont-Tremblant capped off a 4:08:43 finish on Sept. 7. It landed him third in what is a very competitive age group. Alexandridis is doing a dozen races this year, but that was the biggest, and it turned out to be the best. It set him up for a no-pressure Princeton Ironman.
”I came off 70.3 Worlds, which was two weeks before Princeton,” Alexandridis said. “That was my big goal for the season. I trained hard specifically for that. I did 4:08 there and got third in my age group, which was I stoked about. I knew I was going to do Princeton, but wasn’t sure how I was going to recover coming off worlds and the training. Luckily I had some good workouts and felt good.”
Alexandridis has returned to Virginia Tech. He has a pair of races left in October, including his conference championships for Virginia Tech.
”I’ve been really happy with how my year’s unfolded,” he said. “I train with Team Zoot Northeast Region. We have a real strong group of guys there. We had another guy on our team win Ironman Maryland. We have a really fast team.
”I joined up with them about December. That set the ball rolling. I get a lot of support from them which is awesome. I did about three weeks in Florida doing consistent base training. I raced a few times in Florida in March. It’s also my longest season. I was racing the second weekend of March until the last weekend of October. I wasn’t sure how I’d respond to that.”
Alexandridis found that he could handle it well. He has had some tough days like the Collegiate Nationals in April in Arizona, but he returned in May with a strong showing at the Ironman St. George in Utah.
”That qualified me for worlds,” Alexandridis said. “I did some local races. There have been some bad results, but overall I can’t complain.”
He peaked in time for his target race, and finished just 53 seconds behind his age group winner at worlds. He came back to race well two weeks later for the Princeton Ironman. He has high hopes that he will finish the season strong as well after doing what he wanted and enjoying his race at Princeton. It had everything that appealed to him.
”With Princeton, we had a lot of Team Zoo guys originally,” Alexandridis said. “It was good to get some of the guys from the Northeast racing and represent it well. It was going to be put on locally. I wanted to go there and do well locally. My parents would be there. I’m somewhat familiar with the course.
”After worlds, I was thinking, let’s shoot for overall amateur. I got close at St. George in Utah in May. I knew this could be a goal. Once worlds happened, I thought I could do it. I was excited for the race. I recovered well mentally and physically. I was very excited to race on Sunday.”
A history major at Virginia Tech, he is back to his routine while in school. It’s much like being a Division I student-athlete.
”It’s 20-25 hours a week if I’m really training hard,” Alexandridis said. “I have to get up early, 6 o’clock in the morning. A lot of the triathlon team will swim before class. If I get another workout in the middle of the day, some days I do three a day but most days I do two. Being a student, you can definitely handle both.
”We have a decent amount of races in the fall. We have a collegiate race in a couple weeks. Our big race in the spring is going to be at Clemson. It’ll be a lot easier to drive out there (than it was going to Arizona).”
When his season ends in October, Alexandridis will evaluate it as he looks to continue to develop as a competitor. He’s only been in the sport a little more than five years.
”I’m progressing how I’ve wanted to,” Alexandridis said. “I’m happy where I’m at. I’m racing well. The focus is on getting better every year, and I want to do well in school. I want to see how good I can do in triathlon.
”I’m better when it comes to halfs,” he added. “That’s more my strength. A season goal for next year is to do well at college nationals and target that race early on. The past two years, freshman year I had a decent year, and last year it was a race to forget, and this year, I want to do well. It’s definitely an early season goal.”
Later in the season, Alexandridis will consider again coming home to compete in the Princeton Ironman.
”It was definitely really cool,” he said. “There were rumors about it for a while. I always thought it would be great. I prefer the half. I just jumped on it when I saw registration was open. I knew I’d be racing worlds two weeks before, but I had to do the race.
”It attracted people from the Northeast, and people from New Jersey and even people from Canada. It’s a good area to put it, it’s between New York and Philly. I think it’s great for the area. Hopefully New Jersey State (Triathlon) will get more recognition in the area.”