Watching his son complete a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and then a 13.1-mile run at the inaugural Amica Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island last summer, Vincent McAteer Sr. was thoroughly impressed.

 “The level of commitment, the level of dedication that is required is genuinely something to behold,” he said.

As soon as Vincent McAteer Jr. crossed the finish line at the State House in Providence –– almost 7 hours after he dove into the ocean at Roger Wheeler State Beach in Narragansett at 6 o’clock that morning –– he turned to his father and said, “You can do this.”

“I don’t think so,” the elder McAteer replied.

Then he started thinking about it some more.

When the former Cranston police chief turned 50, he and some buddies climbed Mt. Washington in the middle of winter.

With his 60th birthday coming up in August, completing a half-Ironman would certainly be a great challenge to conquer in honor of that milestone, he thought to himself.

McAteer would end up doing a lot of swimming over the winter as part of his rehabilitation from knee surgery last fall. So in late January of this year, he changed his mind and said, “You know what, let’s see if I can do this.”

And so on Sunday, two Vincent McAteers – both father and son - as well as Vincent Jr.’s wife Kristina, will take the starting line in Narragansett for the second annual Amica Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island.

“It’s definitely fun to do as a family,” said Vincent Jr., whose mother Linda and three siblings will be cheering them all on along the race course. “That’s probably the most rewarding part.”

Being able to train with his wife – with their 8-month-old son Vincent IV along for the ride in a jogging stroller – has been “a cool bonding time for the three of us,” he said.

The past several months have also allowed Vincent Jr. to see his father in a different light.

“He’s always been a driven person,” said the 34-year-old McAteer, who has followed his father’s career path and is a lieutenant on the Cranston Police Department. “He’s always been highly motivated and his work ethic is something I’ve tried to emulate. But I’ve never seen him apply that to athletics. So to see that work ethic he displayed as a police officer now applied to something like training for and completing a half triathlon is interesting to say the least and pretty impressive.”

Training with his son and daughter-in-law has been a very positive experience, “this whole mutual support system that we’ve created for each other,” says Vincent Sr., now an investigator for the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth & Families. “The training process has been about taking one step after another, confidence building, with my son being there saying, `Yes, you can.’ “

During his training, Vincent Sr. has done segments of the race –– the swim and the bike portion in one of his workouts, for example, and the swim and the run another time. The question left to be answered, he says, is “Can I put it all together?”

“I’m trying to keep it as low key as possible,” he said. “Break it up into segments, that’s the idea. One of the things I noticed in Vin last year is that you have to reach in and find some depth. So when you get to the bottom of College Hill and look up, you’ve got to reach down and find the resources to climb that hill.”

His son’s advice on how to approach race day? Don’t worry about the other competitors who will inevitably go zipping past. Remember that it’s you against the course. Make a plan, stick to it and look at Sunday as a “celebration of our training.”

 “After mile 6 (of the run), your legs are starting to fall off,” he recalled from last year’s experience. “But once you manage to get down College Hill for the final time and you can see the State House, the pain starts to go away. And then when you make the final turn onto Francis Street, every ounce of pain goes away and there’s a feeling of just pure joy. You see the finish line and you think about 70.3 miles and you say, `Holy Jesus,’ and when you finally complete it, it’s an indescribable feeling that you can’t duplicate.”