Age just a number: Local men continue to impress at Ironman events
Oct. 4—Just the thought of swimming two and a half miles, before then biking 112 miles and then closing with a marathon-distance run is enough to make anyone exhausted. The thought of doing it at 83 years old might be even more staggering.
Local athletes Robert Heins, 83, of Plattsburgh, and Jim Adams, 75, of Altona, have been smashing the norms for years now, and pushing their bodies to the limit. The two aren't just still competing in these excruciating Ironman events, they're winning them.
The two rose before dawn on Saturday, Sept. 13, at around 3:30 a.m. in Laconia, New Hampshire, set to compete in what is called 'Timberman,' which is half the distance of the Iron Man. They would see competitors trying to catch just a couple more hours of sleep in their car or making their way to the starting line at the bank of Lake Opechee.
While the water, compared to the air, must've felt like a hot tub, as it was 68 degrees in the lake and 48 degrees out of it. But even for men of their respective age, they don't shy away. This wasn't something new for either Heins or Adams, rather, just a part of their lifestyle.
"It is a lifestyle and I enjoy it," said Heins, "I can't say it's one where you're having a wonderful time, like when you go out and you're biking up and down a mountain. But I want to push myself, I've always been like that to try and see if I can continue."
Around seven hours later, they crossed the finish line. Adams would take first for the 75-79 age range with a time of 7 hours and 18 minutes. Heins would take first in the 80-84 age range, with a time of 7 hours and 50 being the oldest competitor to ever finish the course.
"I usually try to finish around 7:30," Heins said with a chuckle. "It's nice to be recognized as the oldest but I just want to be recognized as a finisher."
When Heins crossed the finish line, it was to the tune of an outpour of support from his wife and fans.
"You need a support team. My wife has been fantastic through all this stuff. She had a broken toe on this last race and she's bringing my bicycle pump, our little Yorkie dog that we take with us and all my gear and carrying it to the car," Heins said, "Now that I'm retired, if I wasn't doing this I'd be driving my wife crazy."
But Heins sees support everywhere and in many different ways. Both him and Adams, are seen as inspirations because they fail to let age confine what they can do.
"Some of the guys I've worked with would say, 'why do you punish yourself? Why do you want to go through that every year?," Adams said, "So I would just say, 'well, next year, I'm a year older. I want to see if I can still do it.'"
The two push themselves year round in their training, whether it's spending hours in the local YMCA lap pool, coming home at dusk after hours spent on a summer bike ride or even cross country skiing in the winter. All of this done with the drive of trying to prove to themselves that they can keep going.
This obsession didn't come from nowhere, both Heins and Adams, as most do in this sport, took their own path to get where they are today. For Adams, it was a way out; a way to reinvent himself and his lifestyle.
"When I was in my 20's, I made some really bad lifestyle choices. But by the time I was almost 30, I decided to change my life and turn things around. So I started running," said Adams emotionally. "I did a few marathons and then I heard about triathlons and I just thought that sounds like a more exciting sport than just running."
Heins found the sport in quite a different way. The former dentist, city councilor and county legislator was also quite the world traveler. At the young age of 67, Heins would have an experience, at the bottommost point of the world, that pushed him towards his new life.
"I was climbing the Seven Summits of the world and got frostbite in Antarctica. So I came back here to a friend that had just done an Ironman," said Heins, "She said 'why don't you just try and get yourself killed at sea level and do an Ironman.'"
Now, the sport is still leading Heins and Adams across not only the country, but the world. Hawaii, Texas, California and Florida are already checked off the list, but Ironmans in Switzerland, Finland and New Zealand still have yet to be conquered.
While it certainly is a grind to go from race to race, with even more training in-between, Heins and Adams have found a way to truly find joy and friendship in these experiences. The two could go for hours with each other comparing hilarious anecdotes from different races they've been a part of.
"One of the wildest things that has ever happened to me was in Lake Placid. I finished the swim and usually there's somebody that gives you a bag with your clothes in it for the bike. This time there wasn't so I grabbed a bag," said Heins.
"I opened the bag and the first thing in it was a sports bra. It was a woman's bag. They wouldn't want me to go back out nude."
It all goes to show that while Adams and Heins have made lifestyles out of this sport and the training that comes with it, they haven't lost their enthusiasm for it or their will to compete.
They don't exactly know when that time will come either. There's no specific age number, no exact race total, just the phrase, 'one more year.'
