When I last did an Ironman in 2017, I thought for sure that was my last time doing the race. I knew I needed to get both of my hips replaced and figured my days of doing long runs were over. I was OK with that and had accepted that racing an Ironman just wasn’t going to happen.
Fast forward to summer of 2022. I was 2 years clear of my last hip replacement surgery (one in 2018 and the other in 2020) and I just wasn’t doing as well physically as I thought I would be doing. If I tried to run 3-4 miles I would end up sore and limping around for a few days. I wanted to be able to do all of the running I used to be able to do, but I just couldn’t. The truth was this – I hadn’t put as much effort as I should have into my recovery. That was something that I could control and I had come up short. That bothered me.
Around that time I had a good friend who was doing the Lake Placid Ironman in July 2022 and I decided to track his progress during the race. I watched the livestream of him crossing the finish line. In my opinion, the finish line of an Ironman is one of the most powerful moments in sports and it got me pumped up to see my friend finish. The next day I signed up for the 2023 Lake Placid Ironman.
I had no plan for how I was going to finish this race that consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike up and down crazy Adirondack mountains, and 26.2 mile run. In my head, my goal was to get to the starting line healthy and just finish the race. The smartest thing I did was hire a triathlon coach – something I had never done before. He guided me through all of my workouts and added a component of accountability – I had to report to him how my training sessions went so bailing on a workout wasn’t really an option.
My training didn’t include much running at first – it was mostly swimming and biking with short runs mixed in. Eventually, I had to start running longer distances and when I did I was just waiting for my hips to start to hurt. The amazing thing is the pain in my hips never surfaced. I could run for close to 3 hours and felt pretty good the next day. As the race got closer, my goal changed from just finishing the race to being close to what my time was on my Ironman races before my surgeries. I knew I was in really good shape and had trained better than I had for my previous races.
Finally, race day came and with a combination of nervousness and excitement I jumped in the water and off I went. Even though the actual race takes most of an entire day it goes by surprisingly fast. I had a bunch of family and friends supporting me and cheering me on which really helps, especially when I was climbing some of those hills on the bike and when my legs were cramping during the run.
The best part of doing Ironman is the finish line, not just because you are finally done with the race but also because they make the last 200 yards a truly memorable experience. My wife and kids were right there screaming for me and it felt so good to finally be done running. My hips were not an issue the whole race – something I consider a miracle.
I’ve had a good number of people ask me before and after the race why I decided to do it. There are a bunch of reasons but I’m going to use a simple quote from David Goggins for my best answer.
“My biggest fear in my life is knowing that I could have done something but didn’t.”
When I signed up for the race I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do another Ironman. I knew I wanted to try and would have a hard time living with myself if I didn’t.
I finished about an hour and 15 minutes slower than my previous Ironman. I’m fairly happy with that. I’m doing another Ironman in November and I know I can go faster.
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