Even though I am an 'old dog' I consider myself an endurance athlete. I have climbed 40 plus mountains including Longs Peak in Colorado which was over 14,000 feet. I swim several times a week and love to bicycle and have ridden across several states. Last winter I participated in a 13 mile cross-country ski race in Michigan so, to a degree, I know how to suffer.
I suspect that every endurance athlete, even the 'old dogs' like me look at a triathlon, even the full length ones and wonder if they could do that. Two of our outstanding athletes at our YMCA just did this very thing, Ginny Phillips finished her first Ironman triathlon and Suzie Walsh her fifth in Houston Texas recently. So, in my attempt to 'get real!' I realistically looked at each event in the Ironman to see where I would possibly rank.
The 2.4 mile swim: Now in an Ironman competition the swimming is way tougher than in a pool. You are in open water so you need to look up frequently to keep your bearings and to keep from wandering left or right, after all 2.4 miles is long enough. This is not to mention the fact that you are side by side with other racers and this is similar to being in a washing machine. Ginny's time for this event was 1:26 and Suzie's time was 1:21. Where would I have finished? While I almost swam a mile once but had to get out for a bathroom break, ordinarily I swim 1/3 of a mile in a tad less than 20 minutes and since I mix up my freestyle and breast stroke I feel that I can go quite a while at that pace. Still, my fastest pace for that length of swim would be two and a half hours and I can tell you, "I don't want to swim that long!"
112 mile bicycle ride: Now here is an event that I can relate to. I have ridden 100 miles three times; once in my 40s, once in my 50s and even once last year at age 63. Now this was with lunch, breaks and friends and my average speed all three times was around 12 mph. In a true race I might be able to add one or two miles per hour to that but then without breaks my speed might go down, not up. Now to extrapolate that to 112 miles means that I would be on a bicycle nine hours; ouch! Oh yea, I forgot to mention that this would be without restful night's sleep but following a two and a half hour swim. What did our YMCA triathletes do in this event? Ginny did this in seven hours averaging 15 mph which is a speed that I can sometimes manage . I once did a 60 mile tour averaging 15 but ordinarily at that speed in an hour I'm toast. Suzie, who must have had a motor secretly hidden in her bike, averaged an amazing 18 mph taking a little over six hours. So, these girls are just flying along and if you are keeping track, I am at 11 1/2 hours now.
The 26 mile marathon run: I don't even want to think about this! I finished one of these when I was 22 years old and swore "Never again!" My wife Ann is an excellent runner but I simply am not built for this. I need wheels, skis or skates under my feet to really go fast. My finishing time at age 22 was five and a half hours and realistically I couldn't match that now. I might be able to do one is six hours, and that would be of course with nothing preceding this. Eight would probably be more like it. You total all this up and add in the transition times and I am up to 20 hours. It would be pitch dark, all the finish line signs would be down and the ambulance crew would be out looking for my body. Ginny did the triathlon in my six hours bringing her total time to just under 15 hours. Suzie moved that motor from her bike to her shoes and ran a 4:12 marathon, honestly not a bad time even without the torture preceding in and finished the total marathon under 12 hours, just a few minutes actually behind many of the professional women.
I might be able to do these three events individually, although I truly feel my legs, hips, feet and most everything else would probably give out if I tried to run a 26 mile marathon now. I could probably swim 2.4 miles, but I wouldn't want to. After being that long in the water I would probably develop gills like Kevin Costner in the movie Waterworld. I wouldn't mind riding 100 miles again, but racing that far is a little intense and to do all of these events back-to-back in one day; "Let's get real!"
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