Maryland Alum Completes the Ironman Triathalon

A little over four years ago, Dr. Donna Howard passed out a health behavior modification assignment to her Health 230 class. It’s a challenging assignment, as each student has to identify some personal health behavior they want to modify and actually work on this change over the course of the semester.

“I don't judge or grade based on whether they were successful or not in making the behavior change, but rather their thoroughness and the thoughtfulness with which they completed the assignment,” Dr. Howard said.

One of her students, Jon Dosik, took this challenge to change his personal health far beyond the one semester. On Nov 1, Jon completed the Ironman Triatholon in Panama City Beach, one of the most grueling races in the world today. In a recent email to friends, Jon had this to say about his journey to becoming an Ironman finisher.

It was a little more than four and half years ago that Dr. Howard gave out the Behavior Change Modification assignment that set me on the path that eventually got me to the finish line of this year’s Ironman Florida Triathlon on November 1^st. When that assignment was given out I could barely run across the street without being out of breath and 13 days ago I finished an Ironman. So THANKS Dr. Howard and thanks to everyone else at the University of Maryland who helped out along the way.

For those who aren't aware, the Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike ride followed by a marathon (26.2 miles). Four and a half years ago, if some one had said "Jon you are going to do a full Ironman one day" I would have told them to seek medical and/or mental help. So here I am an Ironman finisher. It is said that only 1% of 1% of 1% of people can do an Ironman, so I feel pretty special and I have the people at the Univ. of Md. to thank for getting me off the couch and eventually across that finish line.

Jon and his wife Dana have been gracious enough to share his Ironman journey (as well as some great photographs) with The Healthy Turtle. See below for part one, and you can find part two in a separate posting. Enjoy:

So finally after 9 months of basically non-stop training and alienating Dana (Iron-widow) we finally made it to Panama City Beach (PCB). I shipped my bike out a week before we left and it made it to my Dad’s house in 2 days from Boulder!! We first flew into Tallahassee and stayed with my Dad and June at their house in Apalachicola for the first 2 nights before finally leaving for PCB.

On Thursday we drove to PCB where I registered and got all my bike numbers and info for the race. We went to dinner and went back to the race hotel to attend the racers meeting where the rules are all laid out for us and most of the basic questions are answered.

On Friday we left for PCB after attending the annual Apalachicola Seafood Festival in the morning and I started to panic because I had not thought the whole day through in my head and didn't take into consideration the time difference and I had to get my bike into the transition area by 3 p.m!! Once in PCB, we had to rush to the race expo to get my bike into the shop because a piece had disappeared during shipping. 20 minutes and $7 later I got my bike into the transition area at 2:58 p.m.

For those who have no knowledge of how this all works we have to place our bikes in an assigned spot in the bike transition area then we have to put out bags that contain our Swim-to-Bike gear (bike shirt, bike shoes, helmet, gloves, sunglasses, etc) and a Bike-to-run Gear (running shoes, hat, etc.) in assigned areas. After doing all that we made our way to the evil Wal-Mart and bought supplies for dinner and race day breakfast.

On race day, I had set my alarm for 4:30 a.m. but--surprise surprise--I was up at 3:30 so I just laid there and thought about my morning and what I had to do. After breakfast and making sure I had all my stuff my Iron-sherpa (Dana) drove me to the transition area. I got my bike set up and into my wetsuit and made my way down to the beach with all the other racers at 6:40 am.

To say it was cold is a bit of an understatement. The water was warmer then the air temp so a lot of us spent time in the water to keep warm. At 7 a.m. the gun went off and 2,500+ swimmers waded into the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico. I am not one who is a fast and strong swimmer and I do not enjoy the maelstrom that is the mass swim start so I hung to the back and to the right and just waded slowly in.

When I thought it was safe, I started swimming and had what was for me a good swim. It is a long swim, 2.4 miles, but in the warm and calm Gulf and wearing a wet suit it was not so bad. The swim is actually 2 2,000 meter loops and after my second loop I waded out of the water and onto the beach, across the timing mat, and into the chute leading to the transition area. About 20 yards into the chute I am pulled to the right by a group of volunteers known as "strippers' Because they tell me to lay down and they pull my wet suit off and then help me stand and send me on the way to the bike-to-run transition area.

In the transition tent, I get my bike gear on and drink some water and take in some nutrition and head out to get my bike. I hand my transition bag to a volunteer who yells out my number and then it gets yelled again and then another volunteer brings me my bike! I walk my bike out of the transition area across another timing mat and out onto the road and out for the 112 mile bike leg.

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Check back for part two of Jon’s amazing Ironman journey!