Ready for challenge

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dthompson@journalnet.com

INKOM - Shane Damron found half-marathons to be a worthy challenge for a few years.

But after six Pocatello Marathons, the luster faded.

''I started getting really bored,'' the 42-year-old said Friday, ''so I bought a bike and thought maybe I'd try triathlons.''

Two years after coming to that conclusion, Damron is on the eve of his greatest athletic challenge yet: the Ironman 70.3 Boise, a grueling combination of swimming, cycling and running in which he'll compete with more than 1,000 others on Sunday.

Four others from the Pocatello area will join Damron in the inaugural Boise event: Dean Rose, 51, who works for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game; Gary Azevedo, 49, a veteran Ironman competitor from Idaho Falls; and first-time Ironman racers Juan Leon and Jacob DeLaRosa, who are both doctors at Portneuf Medical Center.

All five of them train with the Pocatello Triathlon Club, and they're all quite aware of what they're getting into.

Triathlons and Ironman competitions are essentially the same race, but their distances vary. Boise's event is a half-Ironman, and requires 1.2 miles of swimming, 56 miles of cycling and finally a 13.1-mile run. Triathlons are half that length, and full Ironmans are twice as long.

Like Damron, Rose has completed triathlons but never an Ironman 70.3.

But why do it? Why face three tasks consecutively that are each intimidating in their own right?

''It's just the challenge. I don't know how else to put it,'' Rose said. ''It's a cool thing to get through it.''

The Boise race's course is contained in the capital's eastern sector, starting with a swim in the 50-degree waters of Lucky Peak Reservoir. Wet suits are required.

After emerging from the water, Damron and the rest of the field will mount their bikes and weave toward and then south of the airport before heading north on South Capitol Boulevard.

Once in the Greenbelt, competitors get off their bikes and run a half-marathon along the Boise River.

The finish line is downtown, at 8th and Broad Street. Two weeks ago at an Ironman 70.3 in Orlando, Fla., winner Paul Amey finished in 3 hours, 52 minutes and 51 seconds. Others needed up to nine and a half hours, but most completed it in seven.

Damron, a Marsh Valley High graduate who now lives on Old Highway 91 in northwest Inkom, said he hasn't been in Boise in nearly 20 years. He's never seen the course. But he's not worried.

Well, not about the biking and running.

''That swim's tough,'' said Damron, who works as a machinist. ''It's by far the toughest part. I could always run and bike, but the first triathlon I did, I really wasn't prepared, and I had a panic attack in the water. It took me forever to be able to swim a mile without completely fatiguing.

''You think you're a good swimmer? Try swimming in a triathlon.''

Damron said he started training specifically for the Ironman 70.3 in January and devotes about eight hours to training each week.

Sometimes Samantha, his wife, will accompany him, biking while her husband runs. But even with that advantage, there's only so long she can keep up with him.

''He's in such good shape, he doesn't get tired,'' Samantha Damron said. ''It's amazing to watch.''

Every Ironman competitor needs a pickup crew, and Samantha will fill that role Sunday. She'll be ready with her husband's bike when he climbs out of the water, and she'll be there to take it back, 56 miles later.

Damron's goal is to finish the race in six hours, but short of that, he'd be happy just to finish. He figures once he completes one Ironman 70.3, he can do a second, and a third, and so on. And should he ever grow bored with half-Ironmans, no worries.

He can always double the mileage.

Ironman 70.3 Boise

What: a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run, in that order.

Where: Boise

When: Sunday morning

Competing members of Pocatello Triathlon Club: Shane Damron, Dean Rose, Juan Leon, Jacob DeLaRosa, Gary Azevedo

By Dan Thompson

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