Beau Garufi Wins Fifth Straight Nantucket Triathlon
David Creed •
Nantucket native Beau Garufi won his fifth straight Nantucket Triathlon, and ninth overall, early Saturday morning with a time of 58:10. The next fastest finish was Ty Gill of Weston, Massachusetts, who clocked in at 1:04:56.
"I would say from when I first started this race in 2013 it's not just me who's going faster, everyone is," Garufi said. “I raced pro for a few years and I'm racing faster now as an amateur with a life and a full-time job than I was as a pro when I was working a part time job and mostly full-time training. A lot of it is sort of the science and the training and the fueling. A really big thing for me was, it doesn't matter so much for this race, but in training I have a really high sweat rate, really high sodium loss. Just knowing how to reabsorb that can let me train and recover more effectively. So that's definitely a big part of it. I'm just sort of training smarter. It's an endurance sport. A lot of it is about just sort of putting in the time, putting the hours, and building that aerobic zone.”
Garufi, who began competing in 2013, now has Nantucket Triathlon titles in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. The triathlon was not held in 2020 or 2021. The course for the triathlon begins at Jetties Beach with a quarter mile swim. The participants then embark on a 13.4-mile bike ride from Bathing Beach Road all the way out to Millie’s in Madaket after taking several other roads. After turning around and re-racking their bikes, the participants then run along a 3.4-mile course
Garufi still holds many swimming records at Nantucket High School and said he enjoys the swim to kick things off.
"The swim is fun because everyone's right there and there is a big crowd coming out," Garufi said. "I love biking. I can really just rip it down Madaket. You don't have to worry too much. Just put the head down. You don't have to worry about cars or anything like that. So that's fun. I'm usually not a huge fan of the run because there's pretty much people everywhere, except for that home stretch, which can be a little brutal.”
Garufi, who turns 35 later this year, finished the 2024 triathlon with a time of 59:11 and 2023 with a time of. 1:00.52. He said he is hoping to continue stacking up strong showings at future triathlons but admitted more goes into preparing himself for the event.
“You look at guys out here who are crushing it into their late 30s,” Garufi said. “I definitely feel older. When I was 25, I could just go rip it and walk away. Now I have to stretch, warm up and do all that stuff. I had a hip injury, so I was actually not really running at all from October through April.”
The next fastest finish by a Nantucket runner was the island’s iron man himself, Jim Congdon, who at 63 years old completed the course in 1:06:57. The fastest female finish was Meghan Weiler, 36, of Somerville. She completed the course in 1:13:59 and placed 28th overall. The fastest female Nantucket participant was Danielle O’Dell, 48, as she completed the course in 1:15:08 and placed 36th overall.
The triathlon had 605 registers participants with 598 completing the course. One notable triathlete this year was Dante Bruschi, the 20-year-old son of New England Patriots legend and Nantucket summer resident Tedy Bruschi. Dante finished the triathlon with a time of 1:31:15, which was good for 284thout of 598 participants. His father was in attendance supporting not just his son, but all of the other triathletes vigorously shaking his cow bell and yelling words of support for those completing the final stretch of the run.
This year’s event marked the 15th anniversary of the Nantucket Triathlon, which is among the largest athletic events of the year on the island. More drone photos taken by Kit Noble and triathlon photos from the ground taken by Chris Tran are below.
