There were profiles in courage and heart-warming stories galore, from athletes wearing prosthetics to paralyzed wheelchair competitors to near Olympic-class racers to locals of various ages testing themselves against an elite international field.

They came from as far away as Dublin, London and Ottawa and as near as the Rye YMCA on Locust Avenue to compete in the 26^th running of the Jarden Westchester Triathlon in and around Rye on Sunday.

At the end of a grueling event covering more than 32 miles over land and sea, Long Grove's Andrew Starykowicz, 28, a triathlon pro, won for the second consecutive year, breaking the tape in 1:51:15 at the finish line just off Oakland Beach.

Starykowicz was among the first of more than 1001 competitors to come out of the water among the first wave of swimmers to plunge into Long Island for the opening 1.5 kilometer swim (just short of one mile) off Playland Beach shortly after 7 a.m.

He took the lead almost from the outset of the 40 kilometer cycling leg (around 25 miles) and finished more than two minutes ahead of the pro division runner- up Jordan Jones of Golden who sprinted in at 1:53.47.

Other top finishers included Bridgeport's John Kenny, Chicago's Jared Woodford and Dayton's Eric Linkemann of Dayton, all of whom finished a minute apart from one another at just under two hours (1:56.43, 1:57.25 and 1:58.52, respectively) to round out the top five in the premier triathlon event on the East Coast, a qualifier for the world-class Run-to-Alcatraz triathlon.

The top four female pro finishers, the only female tri-athletes entered, gave the males a run for their money, with New Paltz's Laurel Wassner, Boulder's Kristen Peterson , Wilton's Amy Bevilacqua and Boston's Jocelyn Petrella finishing in the top 15 overall. Their times ranged from Wassner's 2:06:24 (11^th place) to Petralla's 2:17:12 with only Mexico's Javier Cuevas, 26, of Villa Juana, the 12^th place finisher, breaking up the female runners parading across the finish line in the 11-15th spots.

But the Westchester Triathlon isn't just about the pros and the additional thousand or more relay participants—it is even more about the local runners and the profiles in courage that emerged during the event.

There was, for example, Rye's Michele Wolfson and Noga Ruttenberg finishing first and second out of all the non-pro female runners in the triathlon, clocking 2:15:22 and 2:16:34 respectively, to wind up more than two minutes ahead of the next leading female runners, Amanda Nauman of California's Mission Viejo, Shana Marshall of Mamaroneck and West Point's Lauren Looper.

Looper was just one of the outstanding runners from West Point, the dominant team in the event, the second-ranked triathlon team in the Iron-Man competition worldwide and the national triathlon champions.

That West Point depth showcased in the way West Point scored with the top fourth and fifth place male non-pro finishers overall, Romedy Murr and Brendan Fox; the top two finishers in the female 15-19 age group, Kelly Kingma and Sarah Height; and the third-place finisher in the male 15-19 group, Zachary Short, who said half the Cadets' triathlon team was away competing in the national age group championships the same day in Tuscaloosa.

Rye did well in the various age group categories in events ranging from the male 50-54 age group, with Phil Gormley, the Westchester triathlon chairman, finishing the runner up in 2:18:53, to the 60-64 male age group where Rye's William Curran, 61, was the first-place finisher.

"It was a great day for the Westchester Triathlon, from the weather to the number of participants and volunteers to the various charities that benefitted from the race," Gormley said.

Rye's feel good stories varied as well, from the Rye YMCA triathlon team sending more than 100 athletes into the event, to Rye's Mark Sullivan, a Credit Suisse financial advisor and a half-mile champion at Scarsdale High who just missed making the U.S. Olympic team as a 1:46 half-miler at Villanova, running the 6.2 mile leg on a triathlon-relay that included his wife Joan swimming the opening mile, and his Fairview Avenue neighbor Sander Spiering cycling the 25-mile plus for the NFL team (the initials an acronym for Not Finishing Last). Spiering's wife, Stephanie, was part of another relay team that included Mindy Grigg and Lee Sanford, who runs a boot camp at Rye Town Park.

"It's a great way to involve the entire family in training together," Sullivan said.

Profiles-in-courage stories ranged from Ben Simmons, 36, of London, an amputee racing with a prosthetic leg, competing for Team Step-at-a-Time, to New Rochelle's paralyzed Dan Tratt, 31, in a wheelchair since he fell down a flight of stairs a decade ago, winning the event in his category in 3:21 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation while his father cheered him on.

Challenged Relay team results were represented by the captain's name: Amy Palmiero-Winters and John Tartaglio of A Step Ahead teams #2 and #1 that finished first and second place, while Minda Dentler represented Team Dantler/Yannick in third place.

The triathlon's organizers presented all the day's awards at noon while a band played in the background. However, competitors kept coming in across the finish line until about 1 p.m., six hours after the event started. The triathlon wasn't about winning or losing because everybody who finished got a medal, no matter how long it took them to make it to the finish line. Just going the distance showed that every competitor was a winner.

For complete race results, visit www.superracesystems.com or www.Active.com.