For years, Rich Donnelly has arrived in darkness at the old Olympic speedskating oval in Lake Placid, New York, and crossed the finish line of the Ironman triathlon held there each July. Each time he said to his wife, “Never again.”
He would say it once more walking — hobbling, really — back to the hotel after the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, and 26.2-mile run made his aging frame feel like the goo he had been slurping in packets for sustenance along the course.
Then something always changed his mind.
“You get a good night’s sleep,” Donnelly said. “And you realize how rewarding it was and how much fun the accomplishment was.”
That is how, year after year, Donnelly, 55, of Tuxedo Park, New York, persuades himself to enter yet another Lake Placid Ironman, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary Sunday. Donnelly is one of only four entrants who have completed the race every year since its introduction in 1999 as the first Ironman event in the continental United States. The original Ironman, of course, was held in Hawaii back in 1978, moving to the Big Island in 1981.
The four, all men, are being called the Legends of the Oval, for the location of the finish line. But the title makes Donnelly chuckle. They aren’t professionals. They don’t have coaches or train with triathlon clubs. Donnelly’s preferred form of workout? Mowing the lawn.
“I figure my heart doesn’t know what I’m doing, if I get my heart rate up to 140 mowing the lawn,” he said. “An hour of sweating is an hour of sweating.”
They might not buy into the latest nutritional trends, and their conditioning strategies are decidedly old-school. But since 1999 — before some of this year’s entrants were even born — they have made the annual pilgrimage upstate for what could amount to 15 or 16 hours of physical and mental agony to complete the world’s most prestigious triathlon.
Jeff Gura, 59, an engineer for Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Florida, ran that first Lake Placid Ironman in 12 hours 33 minutes.
Over the years, a chart of his times would begin to look more like a V, dipping to 10:52 in 2003 before steadily increasing year by year (he finished in 15:48 last year). Likewise, his mindset has changed since his late 30s.
“Goal No. 1 is to finish, No. 2 is to finish and No. 3 is to finish,” Gura said.
A racer must complete the course in under 17 hours for the time to be officially counted.
“As the years grow, it gets more challenging,” Gura added. “I’m getting older, and not bigger and stronger.”
As one might expect, Ironman is a pursuit that heavily tips toward the young. This year, two of the legends — Brian Delaney, 63, of Lake Placid and Andrew C. Fried, 61, of West Orange, New Jersey — are also two of 149 competitors who are older than 60, out of a total 2,900 entrants.
As such, they have certain habits, some of which might conflict with the recommendations made for other competitors. Say, on-course nutrition. Gura packs turkey sandwiches; Fried eats bananas. In an age with countless energy-drink and nutritional-bar options, Delaney, who has owned an outdoor sporting goods shop in the village since 1983, steps on the course on the day of the race with nothing but a bottle of water.
“On the course, they hand you everything you need every 10 miles,” he said.
Not once, Delaney said, has he been faced with a difficult decision about whether to keep his streak alive. But he is fortunate.
Donnelly once competed in the race while dealing with a painful heel condition known as plantar fasciitis. He was so worried about the injury that he left a walking boot at the special-needs station at the halfway point of the marathon in case he needed it to complete the run.
And three years ago, Gura was dealing with Lyme disease, which sapped his strength and damaged his joints for months when he should have been building up his training program.
Asked why he did not take the year off, Gura said it was not “in my DNA.”
“To me, when you sign up for something a year ahead of time, you put it on your calendar, and that’s a goal,” Gura said. “To say I’m going to give up on achieving that goal, I don’t want to ever feel like I can do that.”
It is hard to go 20 for 20. Two other men, Larry Lewis and Woody Freese, who have completed 18 of the 19 races so far, and hope to go 19 for 20, are being honored by Ironman this weekend.
There is another less obvious obstacle in the pursuit of such a streak: boredom. How does one remain engaged in grueling year-round training for the same objective year after year?
For Donnelly, there is always a lawn to be mowed. When asked this week how he felt ahead of the race, Delaney admitted, without a trace of regret, “I’ve had no time to train.”
Is he worried? Hardly. His primary passion is Nordic ski racing, which he says keeps him fit.
“A lot of the guys that swim, bike, run only don’t get it,” he said. “You get bored. When you can mix it up, it just makes the journey that much better.”
It was only a few years ago, the men said, that they became aware of the significance of their streaks (or that anyone was keeping track). But now that they have reached 20, there is no sign of Ironman fatigue.
Gura has the date marked on his calendar: July 21, 2019, the 21st Lake Placid Ironman.
“I’m just doing what I can do for as long as I can do it,” Gura said. “When it comes to a point when I come to a race and I can’t finish in 17 hours, then I’m not going to sign up for next year. If my body said I couldn’t do it anymore, then I would stop.”
© 2018 The New York Times Company
