What Ironman competition did you participate in?
I was signed up for the Ironman in Lake Placid, NY at the end of July. The actual event (quite reasonably) got canceled but I was living in the area so did an Ironman on the Lake Placid course on my own with my parents and two friends supporting.
 
Had you done one before?
No - before this spring I had only done a couple fun sprint triathlons and run a few half marathons on my own.
 
What does the race entail?
The Ironman involves a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and then a 26.2 mile run. In Lake Placid the swim is in Mirror Lake in the middle of the town, the bike goes on a loop out of town on some great mountain roads with over 6,000ft of climbing, and the run goes in and out of town along the Ausable River. In the actual race you finish on the 1980 Olympic long track ice skating rink, but I just ended up finishing in a parking lot nearby.
 
Why did you become interested in competing in this race?
I grew up going to the Adirondacks every summer with my whole family to stay with my grandmother. It's a place that has a huge amount of emotional significance to me, and is where my twin brother and I discovered how much we loved being outside and competing with one another. My grandmother's cabin is about 40 minutes from Lake Placid and we'd go and see movies there on rainy days so I always heard about the Ironman in Placid growing up. I've known since I was pretty young that it's something that I wanted to do at some point in my life.
 
What charity did you support and why?
It was really difficult to choose a single charity, since there are so many needy causes right now, both in the U.S. and abroad. I chose the International Rescue Committee's relief effort in Yemen because I felt it was the most under-funded and high-impact cause that I could find. Two thirds of the Yemeni population are at risk of starvation and are dealing with COVID-19 with very few functioning healthcare facilities upon which to rely, so providing the IRC with resources for basic healthcare, food and sanitation can save a lot of lives. Given how much people have to worry about within the US right now, the crisis in Yemen hadn't (and still hasn't) received much press so has been really under-funded.
 
Did competing for a charity add a level of motivation for you?
Definitely. I was pretty bowled over as I was fundraising by the generosity of family and friends in donating to the IRC. Seeing people, especially fellow college students, donate their hard-earned money to a cause I cared about really motivated me to deliver on what I'd promised them I'd do. In addition, knowing during the race that what I was doing was having a positive impact beyond myself was deeply motivating.
 
What was training like?
My training really just involved swimming, biking and running as much as I could. I ran a marathon in training and did a couple 100+ mile rides but most days I'd just try to do one or two of the three sports for a total of between two and six hours at varying intensities. I was really lucky to be living in the Adirondacks where I had lakes to swim in, mountains to bike up and woods to run through so it wasn't hard to motivate myself to train.
 
What were some challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?
In preparation for the event I had a lot of hamstring and foot issues while running since I built up my mileage way too fast. As a result, I had to really dial back my running training for the last month before the race, so I didn't really know how my running ability would be. In addition, the day of the event it was pretty hot and sunny so about 80 miles into the bike I started overheating and feeling quite dehydrated and dizzy, which was a little worrying only halfway through a ten and a half hour race. I focused on keeping it efficient and drinking as much as I could and ended up coming off the bike feeling much better and having a really good run. I think with endurance races you just have to be able to talk to your body and mind and know what each of them need.
 
 
What kinds of feelings or emotions did you experience at the end of the competition?
I think most of all I felt incredibly grateful. My parents and two friends had woken up at 4:45am, spent the entire day driving around, handing me water bottles and energy bars and cheering me on, just to help me do something that was important to me. One of my friends, Jordan, ran half of the marathon with me and chatted to me the whole time, while the other, Kenny (a teammate from the crew team), biked alongside me for the whole run, handed me water bottles and played music from our team erg playlist to keep my spirits up. My twin brother, James, Facetimed in from his work in London to cheer me on. In addition to that, so many people had the generosity to donate to an extremely needy cause. So in the midst of what, for most of us, has been a really terrible year, all those people I just listed were still able to be really selfless and kind. So I felt incredibly lucky to be surrounded by people like that. I also felt a little tired and sore.
 
Any other events on your radar for the future?
I'm signed up for next year's Ironman Lake Placid. If it goes ahead I'm excited to see how I stack up in a real race after another year of training.
 
Any other charities you'd want to support?
Sport has had such a positive influence on my life and I believe really strongly in the power of sport to change lives. But, especially in America, there are a lot of sports like rowing, cycling and triathlon that are really hard to access for lower-income kids. So I think I'd love to support a charity that makes sport more accessible.