The SOS Triathlon is an 8-leg bike-run-swim-run-swim-run-swim-run event through the Shawangunk Ridge in Ulster County, New York.
Three lakes — Awosting, Minnewaska, Mohonk — in that order, with a summit finish on the Mohonk Preserve. Total distance: 30-mile bike, 16.77 miles of trail running, 3,057 yards of open water swimming.
There isn't much race intelligence online for this one. Here's what the course actually demands.
The Format and Why It Matters
Most multi-sport races organize fatigue linearly — you accumulate it, then manage it. The SOS is structured differently. The swims are active recovery intervals between run legs. Each lake entry resets core temperature, shifts muscle recruitment away from running, and clears accumulated leg fatigue. The architecture of the race means you don't just survive the run legs — you cycle through them with built-in recovery.
Understanding this changes how you approach the bike.
Leg 1: Bike — 30 miles, 2:06:47, 14.1 mph
The bike starts in farm fields and rolls through small towns around Ulster County. The first 25 miles are manageable — a mix of flats and rolling hills. The final 5 miles are not.
The closing climb is long, relentless, and will be the longest sustained ascent most athletes have done on a bike regardless of their race history. Strava flagged it as my longest climb ever — longer than anything I've done at Lake Placid. This matters for pacing: if you've spent your legs on the middle miles, the final climb will cost you in the run legs that follow.
Strategy: control power output from the start. Being passed early in the bike is fine. The climb is the actual test.
Nutrition on the bike: Tailwind every 15-20 minutes. By T1 I'd consumed enough to stay ahead of the deficit going into a long run-swim-run sequence.
Leg 2: Run — 2.87 miles, 39:56, 13:55/mile
T1: racked bike, changed out of cycling gear, put on Altra Superior 7s. Left with my goggles and swim cap. Downed two cups of water, one salt pill, grabbed two Honey Stinger gels to go before starting the run.
Note: construction on the course shortened this leg in 2024. The distance and layout may differ in future years.
The first run leg is a rough transition from the bike. Left quad locked up early — still in cycling recruitment patterns, not yet running. Stopped, gave it a self-massage, started again. It held.
There's an uphill section on this leg that's not runnable at a sustainable effort after a 30-mile bike. Hike it. The heart rate recovery is worth more than the time lost trying to run it.
By the crest, legs had started to come around. The first swim was close.
Leg 3: Swim — Lake Awosting, 1,631 yards, 40:29, 2:29/100 yards
Race-day decision: kept the trail shoes on for the swim entry. Not something I'd trained for, but the transition was faster and it paid off. Worth considering if you're comfortable swimming with shoes.
Water temperature: cool to cold — enough to feel like a reset, not enough to create a thermal problem at this effort level.
The course runs roughly straight for the first 1,000 yards, then makes a hard left turn. First-time swimmers will lose the line here. Sight early on that turn — look for the shoreline on the far side rather than a buoy. Once you reorient, the exit is straightforward.
The swim did exactly what the format promises: 40 minutes of water work cleared the quad issue, dropped core temperature, and shifted the legs out of running recruitment. I exited feeling substantially better than I entered.
Grabbed water and one gel at the exit before starting run 2.
Leg 4: Run — 5.56 miles, 1:01:54, 11:08/mile
More uphill. Walk the steep grades — forward momentum matters more than pace on this leg. There's a well-stocked aid station at approximately the 2-3 mile mark. Took water and one more gel here.
The legs fully came online somewhere in this segment. The swim reset worked. The downhill section toward swim 2 was runnable and I ran it.
Leg 5: Swim — Lake Minnewaska, 810 yards, 20:55, 2:35/100 yards
The buoy line runs along the right side of this course. If you only breathe to the left, this is the easiest sighting setup of the three swims. Follow the line, sight the exit, done.
Second swim reset: same mechanism as the first. Core temperature down, legs resting, mind cleared. Exited feeling ready for the longest run segment.
Leg 6: Run — 7.94 miles, 1:33:11, 11:44/mile
This is the deciding leg. Two things to know:
Trapps Bridge cut-off. There is a time cut-off at Trapps Bridge. Your entire strategy for the first half of this leg should be organized around arriving there with time to spare — not racing to it. Arrive comfortable, not blown. Once you clear it, you know you're finishing.
Godzilla. The Godzilla climb comes after the last aid station, which sits around mile 7. It is long and steep. Hike the entire thing. This is not a pacing choice — it's race management. Running Godzilla costs you the finish or the final summit run. Conserve what you have left for the push after.
Aid station at mile 7: took on fluids and one gel before Godzilla. Go into the climb fueled.
The downhill section before the final swim is runnable. I ran it.
Leg 7: Swim — Lake Mohonk, 616 yards, 15:52, 2:34/100 yards
Shortest swim, late in the race. The distance goes fast. Final reset before the summit.
Leg 8: Run — 0.4 miles, 7:33, 18:53/mile
The final climb to the summit is steep. Hike the majority of it — there's one runnable section near the top where you can open up. Save something for that section and run it.
Other finishers were making their way back down the mountain as I climbed. Every one of them said something encouraging. That's unusual for a race finish and worth noting — the culture at this event is genuinely different.
Total: 6:46:38
What the Format Teaches
The SOS works because it's designed around a physiological reality: running and swimming use different primary muscle groups. Each swim leg is a structured recovery interval, not a transition. If you race it like a standard triathlon — treating the swims as lost time between run segments — you'll miscalculate your pacing and your nutrition.
Race it as eight intervals with built-in rest, and the math changes. The final run segment at 11:44/mile pace after 30 miles of bike and 14+ miles of trail running is not possible on pure fitness. It's possible because the format builds recovery into the structure.
Key decisions that held
- Controlled bike effort early, accepted being passed, saved the legs for the final climb
- Hiked the uphill on run 1 rather than blowing up the quad issue
- Kept shoes on at swim 1 — one less fumble
- Cleared Trapps Bridge with time to spare by not racing to it
- Hiked Godzilla entirely — nothing left on the table before the summit
What to do differently
- Train specifically for the bike-to-run transition — the quad lockup on run 1 was predictable and preventable with more brick work on hilly terrain
The SOS is worth doing once to understand the format. Whether once is enough is a different question
Reflection
Every decision on this day held. The bike pacing, the quad management, the Trapps Bridge approach, Godzilla, the final climb — each one was made correctly under race conditions and each one paid off. That doesn't happen often. At any level, at any distance, a race where nothing breaks, nothing gets mismanaged, and nothing has to be survived rather than executed — that's a rare day.
This was a bucket list race, and it delivered the rarest possible outcome: a performance that matched the occasion.
Which is exactly why I'm not sure I'll do it again.
Repeating a race you've executed well is a different decision than repeating one you didn't. There's a version of this where I line up again in 2025 with more fitness, more course knowledge, and a better brick protocol — and I probably go 20 minutes faster. And there's another version where something breaks on the bike, or the quad gives out for real on run 1, or I miss the Trapps Bridge cut-off by 10 minutes, and the SOS becomes a different kind of story.
The question isn't whether I could do it again. The question is whether the risk of a different outcome is worth what this day already is.
Some races you do to find out what you're capable of. This one answered that question. What you do with a clean answer is up to you.
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