Crest’s James Grauel Runs Where He Can, Bikes Indoors and out, and Swims in Pools, the Ocean and Bay
According to Forrest Gump, when he started running, he never thought it would take him anywhere.
Wildwood Crest’s James Grauel, 26, is finding out that running, as well as biking and swimming, is taking him to Kona, Hawaii, for the Ironman World Championships on Oct. 26.
Grauel earned the spot after competing in the Lake Placid, New York, Ironman event for the third year in a row, finishing seventh in the 25 to 29 age group and 87th overall out of nearly 2,500 competitors.
He completed the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run in a combined 9 hours, 57 minutes, 39 seconds.
Grauel, the son of Jim Grauel of Wildwood Crest, said he was inspired to try Ironman competitions after attending an event in Lake Placid in July 2021. In December of that year he started training for such competitions.
He had participated in athletics in high school. He grew up in Wildwood Crest, attending Crest Memorial School and Wildwood High School and graduating in 2016. While in high school he played football and baseball.
He went on to Rowan University and walked on to play baseball in his freshman year, but dropped it due to other factors in his life, including an academically challenging engineering major. After speaking with a friend who told him, “Accounting is the language of business,” he changed his major to accounting, and it worked out because he is currently enrolled in an MBA program at Rowan.
Before he started on his MBA, Grauel had been working to support his Ironman training, coaching individuals in endurance sport training and working as a member of the Diamond Beach Beach Patrol.
Over the four years or so that he has been out of college he has been trying to save money and support his training. He quit working in the beginning of the year to train for the world championships. Asked about the training in lieu of work, he said, “It’s not exactly a full-time job, but it gives me a richer life.”
Grauel spoke about how the Ironman training and competition helps provide for that richer life.
“I use Ironman for other aspects of my life. Training is always harder than everything else you would go through in a day,” he said.
Grauel runs where he can, bikes indoors and out, and swims in pools as well as in the ocean and bay. The swimming portion of the Ironman in Kona will be in Kailua Bay, so the training in moving water is beneficial, although, as an extra element, he will be swimming with a crowd when he goes to Kona. Nearly 5,300 people are expected to compete there.
“The water temperature will be nice, but there will be a lot of people. You just have to try to not be swam over,” he said.
Grauel said he has had to adjust his training to accommodate hilly courses, as there was in Lake Placid and will be in Kona. To replicate the hills he rides an 8-mile circuit from Ocean City to Somers Point, to Egg Harbor Township, and back to Ocean City. The course has three bridges, and he has ridden as many as a dozen circuits, or about 96 miles. When one is on a bike that long it gives the rider plenty of time to think.
“I solved a lot of personal problems while on the bike,” he said.
Grauel said that part of the enjoyment of the ride is that he feels he gets to see more, and he enjoys going fast. That helps make it cooler for the athlete.
“I like to go fast,” he said, sounding like a young Ricky Bobby from the movie “Talladega Nights.”
He has a bike specifically designed for triathlons. “They keep you aero and comfortable,” he said, adding that when riders are aero and comfortable they go faster.
He said it would be ideal if he could be consistent in all three Ironman events.
Grauel said he doesn’t have a regular training partner, although he does sometimes run with friend Nick Holland and Wildwood Crest Mayor Don Cabrera, who also competes in Ironman events. He said he will participate in group run events to keep up to peak.
He said his most consistent running partner is his girlfriend, Amanda Basantis. He said he was a surfer, but that was only developing his arms, so he took up recreational swimming about four years ago. After attending the Lake Placid Ironman, he said, he fell in love with the idea of being a participant. He just didn’t know when or where.
That question was answered with Lake Placid, and it will again be answered on Oct. 26 in Kona. Grauel said his goal for the world championships, which draws contestants mainly from the United States and Europe, is to finish in the top 100 in his age group.
“That would put me in the top 20% in the world,” he said.
Grauel is in the process of raising the approximately $12,000 he will need to get to Kona and compete. Anyone interested in donating to his participation in the world championships should contact Don Cabrera at 609-374-4937 to find out how to contribute.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
