Man to complete 30 triathlons for world record
By Stephanie Grimes
November 29th, 2011
LINDON -- James Lawrence is a real-life Iron Man - he
swims, he runs, he cycles. And every once in a while he
breaks a world record.
The 28-year-old Lindon man already holds a Guinness World
Record for completing 22 half-iron distance races in just
30 weeks. Now, styling himself the "Iron Cowboy," he is stepping up his game and aims to
complete 30 full Ironman triathlons in 2012 to set another world record and raise funds for charity.
Each race will consist of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike and a marathon 26.2-mile run, all to be completed within 17 hours. Completing an Ironman triathlon often requires months or years of training, and recovering afterward can take a month. But Lawrence will have less than two weeks between each race to prepare for the next.
It's something he has dreamed of, and something most people would not even consider. The physical strains are incredible - your lungs are on fire, your arms and legs jelly. The emotional strains, though, are more difficult, and more telling.
"It's the longest conversation you will ever have with yourself," Lawrence said. "There are incredible highs that come along with it, but there are some real lows out there. Preparation alone is a huge mental sacrifice."
It could be said that Lawrence has been preparing for this since 2005, when he ran the Salt Lake City Marathon five months after he was embarrassed by his mediocre performance in a four-mile fun run.
We want to inspire people to live an active and healthy lifestyle. We love what we do and want to pass that on to as many people as we can.
–James Lawrence
"I ran that marathon and I absolutely hated it," he
said.
Two weeks later, though, he had a change of heart.
"I told myself, ‘You know what, I'm better than that … I can't let this defeat me."
He did not start training for the love of the sport. He started because he felt defeated. Here was something that had beaten him, something that had humiliated him but that was always there, waiting to be tamed. So he went for it.
"I'm not one to lie down and get run over," he said. "I had assumed it would be easy because I was healthy, but just because you look healthy on the outside does not mean you are healthy on the inside."
As Lawrence fought a battle with his body, pushing it further in a year than many do in a lifetime, his wife, Sunny Jo, was by his side, cheering him on.
"My wife loves it," he said. "It's now a family goal. It would have been 100-percent impossible for me to come close to this without her 200-percent approval and support."
The couple hopes the experience will benefit others, and Lawrence has turned his knowledge into a personal-training business so he can pass his knowledge and experience on to other like-minded individuals. The future is a bit mysterious, but he has in mind a speaking tour aimed at reshaping America.
"We want to inspire people to live an active and
healthy
lifestyle," he said. "We love what we do and want to pass
that on to as many people as we can."
That goal extends beyond the American border. With his new
world-record attempt, Lawrence hopes to raise funds for In
Our Own Quiet Way, a non-profit organization owned by his
father-in-law and dedicated to providing clean water to
people in Kenya.
Lawrence said he thought of "raising money through races while working for the charity - he did not originally set out to break a world record.
"My initial idea was to bring awareness to the cause," he said. "It just kind of grew from there."
He has a race in South Africa in April, and is going to visit north Africa while on the continent to witness for himself the change Quiet Way has brought to the people of Kenya. He wants to remind people of what it means to live in the United States and of the challenges people in developing countries face.
"We have it so good here in the U.S.," he said. "I know we have our own struggles, but what makes us any more special than anyone else? We have so much opportunity -- if you're not seizing the moment here, it's your own fault."
Lawrence's goal is to motivate and inspire people to action, each in his or her own way. His way took him to two world record attempts, and he does not plan on stopping anytime soon.
"This is the pinnacle in endurance racing," he said. "That's a bucket list thing for people to do. I like to think I will be satisfied, but who knows where it will take me."
Stephanie Grimes, ksl.com Reporter
Stephanie Grimes is a feature writer and reporter for ksl.com.
Related Links
Related Stories
No comments:
Post a Comment