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Hard as Stone
When Mark Stone competed in his first triathlon in 2001 he was the weakest link in “Team Stone,” a three-member squad consisting of him, daughter Sarah, then 13, and son Alan, then a high school student (and now a Furman sophomore).
A casual runner, Stone, who teaches philosophy at Furman, completed the 12-mile bike leg of the race, which was held in Clemson. Sara, a competitive, year-round swimmer, opened with the 800-meter swim, and Allen completed the event with a 5K run.
“It was an incredible amount of fun, but I was the only one to lose time,” laughs Stone. “They really gave me a hard time.”
Three years later, son and daughter are probably sparing dad the good-natured ribbing.
After that contest, Stone went on to compete in several other endurance contests. And last fall, he completed the ultimate test of human endurance: an Ironman race, which consists of a 2.4-mile ocean swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a grueling 26.2-mile run.
The competition, held November 6 in Panama City, Fla., attracted about 2,000 participants. A 1978 Furman graduate, Stone completed the race in 12 hours and seven minutes, finishing “in the middle of the pack.”
Of course, finishing the race at all is a milestone for any athlete.
Stone began training in late 2003 shortly after paying $400 and registering for the event. He followed a strict six-day-a-week regimen, logging hundreds of hours in the pool, on a bike and pounding the pavement. Scott Murr, a health and exercise science instructor and five-time participant in the Ironman World Championships, tutored Stone on the importance of nutrition, consistency in training and the dangers of overdoing it. He also guided Stone during his final 18 weeks of training.
Stone says the most punishing part of his preparation came in early October, about three weeks before the race, during his final week of intensive training. That week Stone estimates he ran, biked and swam a total of 25 hours. During the days leading up to the race Stone tapered his training to allow his body to recuperate and rest for the event.
In addition to good instruction, Stone says his involvement in Aikido, a Japanese martial art, helped him prepare for the Ironman. Mental discipline, a cornerstone of Aikido, kept him focused and disciplined.
“Being consistent in your preparation is important,” he says. “Sometimes it's easy to think that you'll catch up tomorrow, but if you get behind a couple of two-hour workouts, you can't.”
After completing the swimming and biking leg of the Ironman, Stone found the first two hours of the run to be the toughest part of the event. “I wasn't able to eat enough while I was riding the bike and I had a bit of a carbohydrate crisis,” he says. Some high-carbohydrate bars helped Stone weather the storm, and he says, “The last couple of hours were OK.”
Stone is sometimes asked why he would sacrifice so much time and suffer so much pain to compete in an Ironman. There is, after all, little glory in endurance events.
“It's a source of tremendous personal satisfaction, knowing that you reached a personal goal and are as fit and healthy as you can possibly be,” he says.
So will he be returning for the 2005 race?
No. For now Stone is giving his legs a rest. But he's not ruling out future events.
“It does take up a lot of family time,” he says. “You're always training. Not this year, but maybe in 2006.”
(FUnet writer Todd Mayes contributed to this article)