“Iron Sharpens Iron”

By Herb Terns

There’s something different about triathlon. Some of it is the gear: the slick wetsuits and the bikes with aero bars. Some of it is the terminology: “nutrition plans” and “bricks” and “T1” and “T2.” It’s like a secret, sweaty world.

I knew Colden MacIntyre, the main character of my novel “Iron Sharpens Iron,” was going to be an athlete, and when I knew he would be an athlete, I knew he would be a triathlete.

Swimming is swimming, biking is biking, and running is running. But because triathlon is all three things, it’s a sport most of us enter with areas of strength and areas of weakness. Even the really good triathletes often floundered in their early races. This bakes a sense of humility into the sport and makes it so appealing.

The steeper learning curve is a reminder that we are incomplete, a work in progress. That every morning is a chance to take a step closer to being a better version of ourselves. That whatever our weak area of triathlon is, it’s really a gift, because it lets us see the most dramatic progress.

For those of us like me, who found triathlon later in life, this is the greatest discovery. We tend to think of having formative years when we’re younger, and by the time we arrive in our 30s or 40s or whatever age that we are fully formed, we’re already who we’re going to be.

I was a decidedly bad swimmer in my first triathlon and that may actually be an insult to bad swimmers. I’d done miles and miles of training in a warm, clear swimming pool but it didn’t prepare me for a race in the murky waters of the lower Hudson River. After unexpectedly being jostled by other racers and freaking out after having pieces of seaweed (or something else) stick to my arms and head, I reluctantly and painfully climbed into the “safety boat.” I was disqualified. 

My triathlon dreams were either shattered or put on hold. This was the choice. 

A friend suggested the weekly open water swims hosted by the Capital District Triathlon Club. I swam and I ran. I found other people who had gone through the learning curve and they encouraged me.

This was the change I hadn’t understood when I started. That as we get older, we want to be the one who knows, not the one who has to ask. I found there is an underappreciated bravery in being willing to start at the bottom again, to be the newbie, because this is how growth happens. 

A few years later, I was “wild swimming” with my niece in a lake in the Adirondacks. We swam from one small island to the next as we made our way across the lake. I was now a swimmer. My form wasn’t beautiful and I’d never be the first one out of the water, but I was someone new, someone I wasn’t sure I could actually become.

This is the power of sport we sometimes forget in the modern age. Too often, we think about “sports” as being billionaire owners and millionaire players, as something we watch on TV instead of something we do.

We forget that sports can transform us. That we can admire Meb Keflezighi and Shalane Flanagan and Lebron James, but that, in the end, we should be our own favorite athlete.

I saw myself change from a “DQ” at my first race to finishing a sprint triathlon. Then to finishing some Olympic distances, and then finishing a half-Ironman. 

I applied those triathlon lessons to other parts of life. Maybe I could go from someone who writes an occasional outdoors column to someone who writes a novel.

Colden MacIntyre is someone whose past weighs so heavily on him that he’s unsure he can change. Even if he can, he’s not sure other people in his small town will ever be able to see him as something different. The Lake Placid “Iron” comes through his town every year and maybe it’s the big, bold thing that can reinvent him into something else. Maybe 140.6 miles of sweat and effort will help him drop the ghosts.

From page 139 of Iron Sharpens Iron – The day was a test and I knew there would be others. Saying you want something is easier than actually putting your feet on the floor every day to make it happen.

I battled sanity on my walk to Rassmussen’s icy waters. Excuses and weakness nibbled at my resolve. This was about how bad I wanted it.

Forget the easy thing, forget comfort. Take your weakness out, put that weakness on the anvil and hammer away until your arms give out. You might see it take shape, you might not. It doesn’t matter. Every day the hammer comes out again until you become something better.

Herb will be at the Local Author Fest at the Schenectady Trading Company on July 10 from 1-3pm. He’ll also be the “Author on the Porch” at the Lake George Book Cabin on July 11 at 2pm. “Iron Sharpens Iron” is available at local bookstores, on Amazon, and at: herbterns.com.

Herb Terns (trailhed@verizon.net) of Schenectady is an outdoors writer at the Albany Times Union. He enjoys hiking, biking, cross-country skiing, paddling and camping.