October 08, 2020
###### Will Turner: [00:00:00]
The people with the most grit of whatever profession or pursuit they're going after taught myself to do is to cultivate my grit, to keep pushing through when I hit those obstacles. And when I failed to pick myself back up and figure out what I need to do differently next time and keep moving forward.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:00:21]
Hello, and welcome to the RaceMob podcast. This is episode number 16. I'm Kevin entrepreneur technology and fitness nerd, and the founder of race mob. I'm joined by master motivator, founder of two legit fitness co chair of the Taji 100. RRC a certified coach USA track and field certified official. The incomparable Bertrand Newson
Will Turner is a legend.
I should just drop the mic right there. We'll love to set big, hairy, audacious goal. When he turned 50, he completed his first iron man. And when he turned 60, he completed 60 Ironman in one year. Smashing the previous record of 44. He averaged an Ironman. Every six days, he even continued the journey and ended up completing 105 iron man distance triathlons over the course of two years.
And it was only slightly derailed partner and Uber Sherpa was diagnosed with kidney cancer and they took a few months off for surgery and recovery. This is a long way from his first race,
the half marathon
where he actually ended up in the hospital from dehydration. So what's an ultra endurance athlete, caliber like? Humble, warm, welcoming, awe inspiring.
A motivational speaker who talks at school assemblies, expounding, the virtues of live your bolt. And he's a national park lover who promotes conservation of the environment. This episode is brought to you by race, mob, and inclusive community for fitness enthusiasts.
Whether you're brand new to
fitness or you're veteran athletes, we all need support, motivation and accountability.
Our new community site just launched and you can find it at community dot race. Mav doc, Tom
###### Will Turner: [00:02:10]
here
###### Kevin Chang: [00:02:11]
will host online meetups challenges, giveaways, and live sessions with coach fee, myself and some of your favorite podcast guests also, we'll be launching online training, start with a group program like our campus 5k, or create your own custom program that suits your needs.
Head over to dot com slash training. Enter your fitness goals and schedule your free one on one coaching assessment with coach B, but you have to hurry. We've only got a few limited spots for this kickoff. This was just an amazing, amazing all encompassing conversations. And I really hope that you enjoy it.
We are so excited to walk home.
Will turn
to the race mile podcast.
###### Will Turner: [00:02:51]
Welcome. Will. Thank you. Awesome. Well, I mean,
###### Kevin Chang: [00:02:54]
you're most well known for shattering the world record in iron man triathlons. Over the course of one year and then two years when you continued it on. And I'm sure that we're going to get into it really, really deeply, but you're also known for this motto and it's live you're bold.
And so what is Livia bold mean to you?
###### Will Turner: [00:03:17]
Yeah, live. Your bold is just being your best self, pushing yourself, pushing your limits, pushing through your comfort zone, to live more boldly, to really not let things or yourself or other people hold you back for what your potential is.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:03:32]
Has a great motto. Can you walk us through how you got into athletics from a very early age?
###### Will Turner: [00:03:37]
I grew up on a farm in Virginia and, you know, we had cows and horses and at one point some pigs and.
You know, so it was a very active outdoors kind of lifestyle that I had as a kid. I played little league sports. you know, my, my parents definitely pushed us in that direction. So I played little league football and baseball, and I, I swam on a swim team and all that sort of stuff early on. I mean, probably by the time I was 12 or so I, I did have some, just an ability to run pretty good.
better than other things. I was always tall and lean and a skinny kid. And my brother was just the opposite. He was very stocky and muscular and my, my brother loved football. And so he wanted to play on a football team. So I got drafted because we always did things together. He was a couple of years younger than I was, but I got drafted to go out for a little league football too.
And I was awful
practice that I like, um, was that at the beginning of practice and at the end of practice. The coaches would make us run a lap or two laps around the football field. And I would always finish first among all the kids, you know, and I would look back and it'd be 20 to 30 yards ahead of everybody. And I just made it my mission just to like put some distance between me and everybody else.
Well, at one point, my football coach, you realize that I wasn't very good at football. No. After I got back from my lap, one time you said, well, you should really go out for the cross country team when you get to junior high, which I was a couple of years away from that. So that kind of planted the seed a month or two before cross country tryouts for.
At my junior high or equivalent to middle school these days, I was in a farming accident with my dad and literally riding on the, behind the tractor where a trail I hate track trailer was hooked up. My foot got caught between. A tow bar and the, the hits of the trailer. And essentially when my dad made a turn with the tractor, it caught my foot and literally squeezed it.
And to the point that when the pressure was released by foot split wide open. Oh my, and, and literally I. Felt this huge rush, heat and liquid, it was blood just rush through my body and through my leg. And I was wearing big old calf, high work boots. And my father helped me to the back of the trailer to lay me down, to check on things and.
Pull the boot off and it was full of blood loss story short. I ended up getting rushed to the hospital, getting hundreds of stitches in the bottom of my foot that ended my cross country aspirations at that point. Um, and it took me years to even be able to get back to, you know, just normal walking, running without feeling.
Discomfort or pain and that sort of stuff. So I'm definitely not if you want to have happened to you, but you know, something to get through along the way.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:06:35]
So throughout high school and throughout college, you probably didn't participate.
###### Will Turner: [00:06:40]
No, not really. Very, very low. My biggest sports accolades in college was.
I played intermural darts and made it to the semifinals.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:06:53]
That is not bad though. That's an field.
###### Will Turner: [00:06:57]
Exactly.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:06:58]
Talk to us a little bit about then. When did you actually get into sports and into running?
###### Will Turner: [00:07:04]
I decided when I was in my, probably my late twenties, probably about 27, 28. I decided on a whim that I want to do a half marathon and I started training, but didn't really know what I was doing.
And I went for longer runs for me, but I think the longest run I probably did up to that race was about a nine or 10 mile run. And I didn't do training any consistency. I, it just, I didn't know what I was doing. And that was, this was pre internet pre being. Okay. Well, you know, I didn't have any friends that ran and it was just like me trying to figure it out.
Well, long story short, I show up at race day and it ends up being the hottest day in record for this particular race. This is an embarrassing story. So I'm getting to the first water station on the course as I'm getting up. And I'm seeing all these old people grab water. I'm thinking, you know, I've never been in a race before.
I don't know what you do, but I'm thinking, okay, I need to grab some water. I'm like headed over to grab something. And this little, like 12, 20, some this little 12 year old kid, like starts running past me. That was around I'm thinking, what is
keep going, keep going. I know, stop any water stations I get to this. Pretty steep incline Hill. It's fine. About a 10% incline. That's about a mile from the finish line. At this point, the heat has gotten to me. I ended up like staggering up the Hill and the spectators literally stop me cause they were worried about me and made me lie down.
I ended up getting taken to the medic tent. I ended up from there being taken to the hospital to get some fluids in me and all that sort of stuff. At the time my wife and my mother were waiting for me at finish line. And couldn't imagine where I was when they started taking down all the signs and that the race was over were like talking to the officials.
Like my husband, my son hasn't shown up yet. Yeah. They find me at the hospital a couple hours.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:09:08]
Wow.
###### Will Turner: [00:09:09]
This is the first time that dehydration, you know, took the best of me. And, um, it wouldn't be my last .
###### Kevin Chang: [00:09:16]
Yeah. You said it wouldn't be your last, so I think the first couple you were running, it it's a dehydration issues. Right?
###### Will Turner: [00:09:22]
What got me into marathons years later, I had a friend who had a brain tumor and, um, he was married to one of my best friends and, and she had decided she was gonna run the Richmond marathon to run.
Raise money for the Virginia brain tumor fund. And she asked me if I wanted to run with her and I wanted to support them. But my running in those days was running two to three miles with my golden retriever just to get his energy out. And that was it. So running a marathon was like, Whoa, I hadn't tried it yet.
Anything of any long distance since my half marathon debacle. So, um, at this point I was like 44 years old. And, um, I, I decided to, to run the marathon for Tom and that started my more endurance focus at that point. And I had that race and several races years over the next several years where I really struggled with the whole dehydration thing.
Um, and ended up either in the medic tent or one other time in the hospital because of dehydration. I've gotten a little since then, but even we'll go out now, um, to this day on a, a one, two, three mile run and not have a water bottle with me. And if I am running or running a race, I'm not only running with a water bottle, but I'm stopping at every aid station and taking in whatever fluids that can just because.
I naturally sweat a lot. And if I'm not careful, I go off the rails with dehydration. So I've learned how to manage it and what the signs are before I get there. But I still struggle with it, you know, and something I have to overcome every time I go out for a long run, especially when it's hot.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:11:00]
And maybe we'll later in the conversation, we can go in a little bit more detail on some tips you may want to give our listeners.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:11:06]
Yeah, why not right now?
###### Will Turner: [00:11:07]
So on, on the journey, I had a couple dehydration moments as well. So I mean, I still struggle with it, but I have learned what are the signs? One of the signs that I get is my ear start popping. It's almost like an airplane, or you're traveling up a mountain side and you get the elevation popping in your ears, your ears, you don't hear as well.
And so to me, that's a sign that. Okay. I'm dehydrating. So I know that certainly taking salt tabs and other electrolytes, I'm much more focused on that. Always focused on the nutrition and the hydration part of, of it on the front end, but also during, and when it's really hot preparing a head, if it's on the course, you might have it on the course, but if you're going off for a training run or something, having ice.
And wet washcloth and things that you can roll up in ice to kind of keep your, your body and your core temperatures cooler, you know, putting it down your shirt, having a race belt on and running with ice, you know, against your belly and your chest is a great way to kind of help release some of the overheating that comes along with the dehydration tips.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:12:15]
And going back to your very first marathon, again,
###### Will Turner: [00:12:19]
you signed up
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:12:20]
because. A friend was ill. They could do that
###### Will Turner: [00:12:23]
because for me
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:12:24]
that very first marathon experience is unique and special in its own way. But when you're doing it for somebody else, it just takes on a different level of a much deeper meaning.
So if you can share that experience with our listeners,
###### Will Turner: [00:12:37]
Tom was. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor and immediately literally went from a doctor's office visit to you have to go to the hospital right now. And they ended up operating like two days later he had the surgery and then he was going through the recovery, but then he was.
Actually dealing with a lot of issues and not initially in the recovery, but within a couple months, things were not going well. So the marathon was actually scheduled in that timeframe. And my friend Beth had come to me and said, we'll do you want to run? And I'm like, Beth, you know, I want to do it. For you and for Tom, I said, I don't know if I can.
And she was partway into her training. I was early August at this point in the race, I think was early November. And so she was up to like an eight or nine mile run for her long runs. And so we planned to meet and go for a eight or nine mile run, which I hadn't done in years and years and years. And we, we did the run and I got through it and we, you know, we stopped a couple of times along the way, but at the end of the run, I said, I'm in.
So we started training together and getting ready for it. And the weeks and months before the race, Tom just started getting weaker and weaker. He's about my size, like six to 185 pounds. That's sorta framework a day or two before the race. He was so weak and he'd lost so much weight.
He was probably down to about 110 pounds. It lost so much weight that he didn't have the strength to walk anymore. And then part of the plan was. I was running with that then. And she had recruited a couple other folks and the four of us were running as part of the team to support Tom and raise money and all that sort of stuff.
The day before, since Tom was a week that ended up going out to a local medical rental place and renting a wheelchair. The marathon just happened to go by. Their house about two blocks from their house and was about the halfway point of the room. friends and family of theirs come in for the race and to support Tom.
And we were making a big celebration of it. And so everybody was supposed to meet the four of us that were running, kind of went off to start the race. They were all going to be cheering us on at the halfway point with Tom right there. And, you know, we had our, you know, our shirts on and all this stuff to really make it a big celebration.
We get halfway, we see best mom. We see all these friends that were there waiting for us. And there's no Tom. And we're like, where's Tom. And, um, best moms as he was. So weak that morning, he couldn't even get into the wheelchair wheeled up to, to watch us. So the four of us went off, the course ran to their house, had a beautiful moment with Tom, just to say, you know, we're in this together, buddy, where, you know, and just, you know, have like this little fast.
And then we went, ran back on the course and then, you know, finish there's the race. But that, you know, definitely just. If anything's going to get you to run a marathon, it's doing something for somebody that you love. And Tom ended up passing away a couple weeks later, but having that experience was wonderful.
Having all of his friends and family there was wonderful that a little prologue to the story a year later that says to me, she goes, you know, Tom was actually a marathon runner. He had run like eight or nine marathons. And the next year the Philly marathon was coming up and she said, well, the Philly marathon was one of Tom's favorites.
You want to do it this year? And so I'm like, absolutely. So that the following year we ran the Philly marathon and I've run many races, you know, since then, you know, in honor of Tom and. Definitely it's something that, that makes you push a little harder when you've got a good purpose for doing it.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:16:17]
Thank you so much.
Will
###### Will Turner: [00:16:19]
talk to us if you would,
###### Kevin Chang: [00:16:20]
about after that first marathon and how did you get into running after that? And was there a point where you started actually enjoying runs? Cause you said before that first marathon, you, you weren't enjoying it too much.
###### Will Turner: [00:16:34]
After that first half marathon experience, I had some more runs.
I started getting to running a little bit more, actually organized. Uh, Richmond's first stairwell race and did that for a number of years. And, um, got involved. I was involved with a bunch of nonprofits, so helped organize a bunch of five K's and did some running that way. It was the marathon experience that really opened the door for the more, the longer distance and endurance events.
And, and. I definitely love the challenge of the endurance piece and the fact that I ended up in the medic tent, the fact that I wasn't very good at it was actually the reason why I kept at it because it challenged me. It made me want to grow and the better. And so there was always, you know, whether it was nailing down nutrition or hydration or just building, you know, pace and the engine I needed.
Yeah. It definitely was something I found challenging. But at the same time, the struggle made you feel stronger and better and more confident. So it fueled me along the way. You know, at that point, after my first marathon, I was 44, almost 45 years old. I really started the more endurance. Path that I've been on for the last 20 years or so.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:17:44]
So talk to us about triathlons.
###### Will Turner: [00:17:46]
I did my first triathlon actually with Beth years before I did the first marathon with her, I actually was going, I'd gone through a divorce. So I was finding myself with some extra time and I didn't want to wallow in my self pity. And I thought, let me do a triathlon. This was like 96.
Three 94 and triathlons were not big back then. I mean, there were a few around, but you know, there, there definitely wasn't the craze that there is today. And so I signed up for my first triathlon and this was a shorter distance triathlon. And I remember Beth and I were at the award ceremony after the race, just hanging around and.
Yeah, we, of course were, this was our first one. We weren't getting any awards and we just wanted to kind of be there for the experience. And I remember this guy who went up to get his first place award. He was like in the 50 to 55 age category and he walks up to the little state and the setup for the stage.
And he's so fit and it looks so healthy and looked so young and vital and strong, and I'm thinking, that's what I want to be. You went up 50, some years old, right? I want to be that guy who, you know, is still out there doing it and pushing it and. So he became, you know, a very inspirational figure and he actually was a member of my gym.
So I used to see him on a regular basis. Yeah. Talk to them and that sort of stuff. Um, but that got me started on the path of triathlons and I was combining the triathlons with the running at that point. Yeah, being fairly consistent with it. And as I was coming up to my 50th birthday, I decided I wanted to be hag, which is a big, hairy, audacious goal.
I thought what would be a big, hairy, audacious goal? I can combine the endurance side of things with the triathlon side of things. And obviously the idea was I could do an iron man year. I turned 50, which. Yeah. At that point in my life, I thought that was huge. And it was, you know, and so I trained for my first iron man, actually at that point, Beth had moved to New Zealand after Tom had died.
She had some connections in New Zealand decided to move to New Zealand. And so I decided to do my first iron man in New Zealand and go visit her, which was amazing. And that just started the journey. It ramped up the journey even more. I mean, that experience was. Life changing and a lot of different ways.
And I started to really on that part of the journey really embraced, you know, the, the hard training, the discipline training, the commitment that I needed, definitely training harder than I'd ever trained before and really studying the art and science of what I needed to do to be the best athlete I could be at that point.
And, you know, that led to doing an iron man. Started every other year, then it started every year. Then it turned into a double and turned into a couple and then it turned into 105 iron mans over. It definitely was a slow build. You know, it's not something I went into and said, I got this, but you know, I haven't been over the last 10 years.
Before I started the 60 at 60, you know, and then onto the a hundred plus, you know, I had been testing myself more and more and getting to the point where I could get to today or get to where I needed to be.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:21:04]
And part of that success has been being injury free over all of these years. And so can you. Talk to that, talk to how you prevent injuries.
###### Will Turner: [00:21:14]
You know, it's definitely a lesson learned kind of thing. I tell people that I'm a Zen athlete, meaning that I'm very mindful and present, particularly with my body. And so I really pay attention to what's going on with my body and making sure if I feel something that doesn't feel right. Um, Yeah, looking at my form.
I'm thinking about what I can do. I'm making sure I'm massaging or doing whatever I might need to do. If there's a muscle issue, um, you know, working on core strength to make sure I've got that good form. You know, I'm getting plenty of rest and recovery. But again, lesson learned that the reality was one of my earlier marathons, not pride.
My third or fourth marathon, I was doing some biking and I felt something in my knee and I, the time I was training for the Richmond marathon. Yeah. Then I noticed after I felt this. Thing happened that when I ran it didn't get worse, but it didn't get better. I was in pain and I was in discomfort, but I could manage it.
And I knew if I went to my sports doctor, she would say, will you go lay off? We need to do something. We can't run the marathon. And I was being very stubborn and, you know, as many athletes
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:22:26]
wait, what
###### Will Turner: [00:22:27]
really, really? And so literally I prayed for the marathon and I cut back my training regimen to not train as hard or as.
Long but enough so I can get through the marathon. Okay. And I knew that I was just going to do this marathon for fun. So I wasn't going to try to do any PR things. So I had a company back then that was called dancing elephants achievement group. And, um, we had run a local Tenpay race and we had run in dancing, elephants t-shirts with tutus at one point.
And so I decided. For the marathon, I was going to wear a pink Tutu and on the back of my tee shirt, I wrote God above knee. Shouldn't really run, but the marathon is just too, too far.
So I, I ran a marathon with my Tutu. Um, and then shortly after that, I got an appointment with my sports doctor, went in to see her find out that I had partially torn my patella tendon. And I've done more damage and caused some extra scarring and things because I had been running on it for two or three months and hadn't gone to get help immediately.
And so that was the wake up call that I needed. That was like, you know, we'll, you knew you were injured, you were being stubborn. You know, this is time to take one of those life lessons and apply it. So ever since that point, that's what I've done with my running. And that's where I, the Zen athlete part of it comes into play is I, I don't want to, it ended up taking about 18 months from start to finish before I was back where I was pre-injury.
And like, I'm not going to go through that again. And so I do a lot, the things now that I didn't do before, just because I learned the hard way. So if anybody's listening out there, Dover. I need to repeat my mistakes, still learn from them. Hopefully it's a
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:24:12]
great takeaway. You know, that's an exceptional take away
###### Will Turner: [00:24:16]
looking at your time and your pace and all that sort of stuff.
You're trying to nail a race or you're trying to nail a workout. And sometimes because we're so focused on that, we're not paying attention to our bodies. I think most of us have enough awareness to realize that, you know, we can push ourselves and just mentally tough it out and give it everything we've got and that's okay.
But we, we shouldn't be doing that when they can cause physical harm or where we've got a damage that we can exacerbate and make worse. And so it's. Knowing that distinction and not just gutting it out regardless because you can, because it's going to cause more injury. My goal is, you know, I'm 62 years old now and I wouldn't be doing this when I'm 80, you know, I want to be doing this when I'm 90.
I w I want my body to hold up as long as possible. So I want to train hard and train smart. And I think you can do both. If you, if you're mindful of what you're doing and not letting your ego get in the way. Thank you. Well, if you could share
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:25:18]
the importance of nutrition and diet. Cause one thing that we see you are putting in the work, clearly you look fantastic.
So when you say 62 years young, not 62 years old. Um,
but if you could share and kind of peel back the curtain
on your diet and, and how that has helped sustain your health, um, as you continue to move forward in your fitness journey,
###### Will Turner: [00:25:41]
I've always been a healthy eater. But I, I'm not obsessed about it. I mean, I don't mind if I have a piece of pizza or a dessert, you know, I don't eat it every day.
So, I mean, I don't count calories or that sort of stuff. I just look at my overall diet and just make sure that I'm getting a good balance of, of foods that I need and not, you know, over critiquing anything at any given time. But, you know, I've gone vegan, I've gone vegetarian, I've gone back to, you know, I've kind of dabbled with a lot of different things, but I do try to eat a whole foods diet and try to be as healthy as I can, again, without obsessing about it.
And, and, you know, certainly that plays out with, you know, when you're racing long, you know, just making sure that in, in the world of iron man, they say, you know, it's four disciplines. It's, it's swim by run nutrition. And that, you know, if you mess the nutrition up, it can ruin your day. And, and take you out.
So, I mean really paying attention, nutrition and hydration is a big part of doing that. And with everybody, I mean, it's a lot of things experimenting what works well for you, right? Especially from a race and training perspective is, is really understanding what your body needs cause everybody's different.
I've got some friends who are great marathon runners. Who don't take a sip of water the whole time, which to me, it's like, Oh my God do that. And I'm down in as much as I can. And, you know, we're all different. So just finding those things that work for you that you know is good for your system. Luckily, I've got a cast iron stomach, so I can, I don't usually have any issues with, you know, digestive issues, but I know a lot of people do.
So you have to worry about, you know, what, if I'm taking this foo or this gel or this block, or this peanut butter and jelly sandwich, how's that going to affect me while I'm. Continuing on my, my ratio, my run. So just kind of experimenting to figure that out is part of, I think what every athlete's journey is to, to get to someplace where they can be performing at their optimal level.
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:27:36]
What about supplementation, vitamins, fish, oil, protein, powders, things along those lines that you've incorporated over time.
###### Will Turner: [00:27:45]
I've dabbled with a few of those things over time and never really stuck to any of them and really feel like I'm getting a balanced nutrition from what I'm eating. My only thing is that I've discovered for myself is at the end of a very long workout.
And I'm talking like a 20 mile run for, um, certainly an Ironman or a marathon or something like that. I've got a recovery drink that I use, and there's a lot of great recovery drinks out there. And you usually find what works for you and you like. Stick to it for me, it's Endurox are for, I get the chocolate and drops are for mix, combine it with almond milk and I down that and I feel great the next day.
I swear by it because I know how it works for me. I was talking to somebody recently and they said, you know, I was. I had this friend colleague come in from work from, and they just been this marathon and they're hobbling around and you know, here you are going on an Ironman and then you turn around to another iron man during my 105, I had, um, just when you say that, it's
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:28:45]
just
###### Will Turner: [00:28:45]
like, wow.
Back to back iron man. So one man one the next day. So four that were doubles and then I had one triple. So there were some days where I literally had to recover. And then, you know, wake up the next morning, you know, get four hours of sleep and do it all over again, type thing. So I have to have something that is going to help restore me as quickly as possible.
So that recovery drink to me. He is the godsend to help me do that. If I, if I didn't do that, I would feel a lot more discomfort and be struggling a lot more than I normally would. Yeah,
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:29:23]
we'll be sure to share, you know, the show notes, a link to that product. For sure. If you endorse it,
###### Will Turner: [00:29:28]
you can add water, you can add milk.
I drink almond milk and I love the combination of almond milk with the chocolate. It's like breaking chocolate milk, but better for you type thing. So
###### Kevin Chang: [00:29:38]
let's see. Let's go ahead and dive right into it. So what made you say. Okay. I can do for Ironman a year and say, let's do 60. Let's do 60 in a year. What?
Yeah. What sparked it?
###### Will Turner: [00:29:51]
Yeah. I told you about my P hag. When I, I did turn 50 was to do my first iron man. And while I was doing that, I came across a quote that just really resonated with me. And it said, you know, if your dream doesn't scare you, it's not big enough. And at that time doing the iron man was big enough.
You know, I struggled with some marathon, so I thought, yeah, I'm going to add. A 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and then a marathon that really scared maybe stuff. No, that kind of started that path. So as I was coming, actually it was about three years before I was turning 60. I just had this thought, you know, what should I do when I turned 60?
You know, I can commemorate it. Just like when I turned 50, I can do something big. And the first thought that came in my mind, Was, I could do six iron mans that year. I turned 60 and I thought, wow, that would be huge. And it would have been. And, um, shortly after I had that thought, how is that a local triathlon, a shorter distance triathlon in town.
And I was coaching some of the athletes that were competing. So I just went out to be a spectator and cheer them on. And as I was out there, I ran into, uh, another athlete that I was friends with that was watching the race. And she said, you know, Willie got any big race plans coming up. And I. I said, well, as a matter of fact, you know, it's a few years out, but I'm thinking about doing six iron mans a year turned 60 and immediately very matter of factly, she goes, Oh, like song.
And I'm like, what? And this guy is in the local triathlon community. I didn't know him, but I knew who he was. And I didn't know much about his story, but I knew he did RNs and it turns out he had turned 60 a couple of years before and done six iron man. Yeah. I give him all the props necessary because I don't know any other 60 year olds who have done six iron mans, but immediately it just took the wind out of my cell.
That's like I was thinking I had this huge big goal. And all of a sudden, the first person I mentioned it to, he said, Oh, I saw somebody else. Wow. I went a little depressed about it. And I'm like, what am I going to do now? I want this be half as big, hairy, audacious goal. And I think I need to think bigger.
And you know, you're thinking, what can I do when I turn 66 at 60, 60 at 60? What about, and then I thought of a quote, I thought of. If your dream doesn't scare you, it's not big enough. And that scared the crap out of me, I thought, all right, I'm on to something here. And, and so the good news is I had about two and a half years at that point before I turned 60.
And so I thought, okay, it wasn't like this switch that was like, Oh, I can do this. It was like, huh, this is really interesting. It scares the crap out of me. I wonder if I can do this? What can I do to prepare, prepare myself mentally, physically. To see if it's even possible, because I didn't have any role models to know, see if that was feasible, particularly at my age.
And, and so the next year I trained for a quintuple iron man, and I also did about 20 iron mans on my own, where I would just go out for a day and do an iron man. And so I was just testing my body more and more just to see what it was capable of and see if I could prevent injury and all those sorts of things.
And I did. And so I, I started getting more competent that, okay, I can do this. And then about probably nine months before I was actually going to start the journey, I started sharing it with some of my friends and I actually have a lot of friends in the running from UT locally. And I started sharing it with them and I thought.
Yeah, I'd get this, like, that's awesome. Well, this is great, you know, and all I got was the naysayers. I got the people saying, these are my best friends. They're saying, are you crazy? You can't do that. You're going to hurt yourself. You're too old. You're too. They started throwing up all the excuses. Why it couldn't be done.
And why it's never been done and all this summer stuff. And, you know, at first it disappointed me and frustrated me, cause I'm thinking, you know, here are the people that I expect to support me and they're like throwing crap at me, you know? And then I realized, you know, that they were speaking of their own limits, not mine.
They were projecting how they felt about it for themselves and saying that it couldn't be done. Wasn't where I was coming from, and I didn't need to, I didn't need their support. I mean, I wanted their support, but I didn't need their belief in me. The only person I needed to believe was myself. And so I just needed to continue to fortify myself mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, to get ready for what would be the biggest challenge of my life.
And, and, um, most of those people came along for the ride once I got going. But it was one of those things where you realize that, you know, it's your dream, not theirs. And so you can't expect them to jump on and be all excited for you, right. From the get go. And that's okay. As long as you believe it, as long as you want it badly enough.
You know, and I, I knew that there was a, certainly a, a pretty good chance of failure, but I was going to go and give it everything I had. If I failed, I was going to learn a lot about myself and if I didn't fail, it would be, you know, one of the biggest accomplishments I've ever done. So no harm, no Valley either way.
So
###### Kevin Chang: [00:34:48]
talk to us about the planning, what went into the planning for that first year and who helped you? And
###### Will Turner: [00:34:54]
there aren't actually 60 Ironman races in a year, right? All over the world. There's not 60 Ironman races. And so I was basically focused on from logistical standpoint. So I was focused on racing in the U S.
And I wanted to do a combination of actual races. The ones that I could work into my schedule and then everything else that'd be on your own. So I would follow all the race rules and guidelines as far as times and cutoffs and distances and all that sort of stuff. And whatever, like in, in a triathlon, you can't draft off another biker, you know, in, in the bike.
And, uh, most of the time I was biking my myself, a couple of times I would have people that want to join me. And I would say, you can join me, but you have to ride behind me because I'm not going to draft off you. You're not typing. Everything I did was like up to race standards and rules and that sort of stuff.
But anyway, so I had a bunch of braces that I picked that out. I wanted to do. And then I turned to my partner and I called him my Uber sharp up. I told him, I said, I'd like your help on this. If you want to commit to doing this, and he's like, what do you have now? I'm like, well, you know, we've got a, he's a, a really strong cyclist.
And he, he loves to cycle mountain passes and up in high elevation and all, and he cycled all over the country. And so in his mind, we should go to the most Epic places. Darn it.
Okay. Conceptually. That sounds really good until you think about the logistics here. What's menthol, I'm doing iron man, but I'm not only just doing it. And I'm running and cycling. Climbing mountain passes with elevation and elevation falls is dehydration and it makes, you know, loss of oxygen. You know, there's a lot of other athletic things.
I've got to keep in mind that I've got to now survive. Not only an iron man, but iron man. And he's always in places that are also, you know, some of the toughest places in the, in the country. So, um, I used to swear out and say, you're trying to tell me, you always have to remember dad or has what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.
And so, as, as we went along, I got stronger and stronger because I was doing these races. And a lot of our national parks, Yosemite glacier grand Tetons, red Canyon, big Sur coast. I mean, some of the most beautiful scenery in the country. I did a bunch in Colorado, a lot in California, death Valley. Just all over and they were challenging, you know, I mean, they weren't easy iron mans.
I mean, when I look at the courses we created and, and Chris really laid out the, the course logistics for me, particularly on the writing part, you know, they're tougher than any other race I've ever done. You know, the races that were I doing on my own were much tougher than them. The races I signed up for, but they were also, they brought a whole different element to the experience that, you know, I don't have any regrets at all about, but it definitely was a, a logistical challenge to, to put it all together.
And I relied heavily on Chris to help me pull all that together and really figure out what are the best places to go. And what time of year do we want to go? Where and. Sometimes you're making adjustments on the fly. I remember we were headed for what was going to be number 25 in the journey we're headed up.
We were on the central coast of California. We just finished one on the central coast and we were headed to Lake Tahoe to do one there. And as we're driving. Chris is looking at his phone and seeing that there's rain in Tahoe for like the next week and just like heavy rain all week and was like, that doesn't sound good.
You know what we do instead, and maybe go back to Tahoe the following week. So he's like, and a few seconds later, he's like, I know we can go to the grand Canyon. Wow. I'm like, really? And he's like I said, where are we going to swim?
And was like, you can swim in Flagstaff. We'll find a pool and you can swim in Flagstaff. And then you can bike up to the grand Canyon, which was about 70 or 80 miles. And then you, which is mostly going. Up an elevator and then you can finish the ride in the park and then do your run in the park. It's like, okay.
So we're off in Canyon and not that one, but yeah, it took a lot of just figuring things out and being flexible along the way to make other things work. As we need to do. Are you enjoying the show?
###### Kevin Chang: [00:39:22]
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###### Bertrand Newson: [00:39:40]
Well on this journey, were you a sponsored
###### Will Turner: [00:39:41]
athlete? Did you have corporate support
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:39:43]
through this journey as well on the back end or is that all self-supported itself?
Subsidized
###### Will Turner: [00:39:48]
99% self subsidize. I'll put it that way. I had a local fleet feet owner offered a. Surviving with our running shoes for the duration, which was amazing. I had somewhere along the line, I was doing an Ironman army in Santa Rosa in California. And, um, Rudy project had heard about what I was doing shortly before that.
And they met me there. They had a booth there and I was running the race there and they, um, gave me a, uh, Rudy project helmet and some racing glasses. And, um, I had another experience where I ended up getting a blue, 70, gave me a free wetsuit. And so I had some, some in kind support along the way. This is very nice, but I'd actually tried to get some sponsorship before it all started.
And you know, who wants to sponsor a 60 year old guy who says he's going to do 60 iron man? Apparently they didn't believe I could do it either. So I think I'll have better luck when I turned 70.