Triathlons offer personal test

The Ironman is the finished product in the three-sport test of chilly water, fragile will and shoe sole. It is what the triathlon has become.

But that doesn't necessarily mean every triathlete aspires to be one. In what has become an everyman's pursuit of personal fitness, there's a distance, demand and challenge that fits almost every condition, age and skill.

Where to start?

Let's just say it is a hop, skip and a jump from the steam, sauna and Jacuzzi that Charles Barkley once called his triathlon.

For Marc Rubin, the pursuit didn't start far from there. Rubin, a Valley attorney, was 325 pounds in early 2003. Without the triathlon, he might have been headed for triple-bypass surgery.

After he shed some pounds through diet and then working out in a gym, he attempted a sprint triathlon - quarter-mile swim, 10-mile bike ride and 3.1-mile run - nine months after the scales had shocked him with news that he qualified for the sumo division.

Sprint triathlons are where most people start, sometimes at even shorter distances. But some people are exceptions and will be in the field Sunday for the Ford Ironman Arizona in Tempe.

Mostly, there are former college swimmers. They are picking up where they left off.

"There also might be few people who had run a marathon and then go straight to the Ironman," said Lewis Elliot, a Tri-Scottsdale Foundation athlete and a former world-class cyclist who on Sunday hopes to improve on last year's eighth-place finish.

But neither Rubin nor Elliot recommends that anybody just jump off the couch and into the water for a 2.4-mile swim in a gantlet that continues with a 112-mile bike ride and ends - yes, it really does end - with a 26.2-mile run.

"Take a more logical start and then progress," said Rubin, who progressed all the way to the Ironman level, although he won't be in Sunday's field because of a shoulder injury suffered March 15 when he was hit by car on a Valley street while training on his bike.

Rubin and Elliot say the sport has become popular because of a variety. Triathlons are as personal and individual as shoe sizes. At shorter distances, there's also a way to make friends.

Rubin loves the Ironman for the personal challenge it presents. But it can become a full-time job, if not an obsession. Training consumes about 30 hours a week.

"Truth is, the Ironman isn't always that much fun, because you're always training," Rubin said. "You're kind of a loner. Not many people are going to listen to a lonely guy ask them if they want to head out for about 10 hours of swimming, biking and running. It's kind of the loner mentality, that Ironman silliness.

"You also can't do too many of them."

It takes months - maybe a lifetime - to overcome the physical stress of an Ironman. But it's possible to compete more regularly in shorter triathlons. That, Rubin said, also can lead to a regular group of friends who train and compete.

One result, perhaps, is a new series called "Ironman 70.3." It's the Ironman cut in half - 1.2-mile swim, 56 miles on the bike and a 13.1-mile run.

The goal is more attainable, in large part because the commitment in terms of time is more realistic.

According to estimates - including one from the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association - more than 1 million people competed in some kind of triathlon last year.

"I'm surprised by how popular it has become, but I'm happy that it has," Elliot said of triathlons.