At 71 years of age, Parksville’s Barry Carr is looking forward to taking on his final Ironman triathlon when he competes next month in Hawaii.
And this time, he means it.
Carr earned a coveted spot in the Oct. 8 Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Kailua-Kona last month in a qualifying race in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. In completing the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and full marathon run of 26.2 miles, he spent nearly 17 hours on the course.
“Like I said at Whistler last year, ‘I’m never doing this again,’” Carr said with a laugh. “Then, after Coeur d’Alene, I said ‘I’ll never do this again.’
“I’ll keep on doing triathlons, but I think I’ll be done with the Ironman.”
If he keeps his word this time, Carr will be going out at the pinnacle of the sport. The legendary Kona Ironman is the race that kicked off what has become a worldwide tour of the three-sport endurance events, and has become a prestigious target for the triathlon community.
“I would put it up as the equivalent of runners wanting to qualify to race the Boston Marathon,” said Rob Williamson, Carr’s teammate with the Oceanside Triathlon Club. “And the only way to get there is to qualify.”
In Carr’s 71-74 age group, there was only one berth available in Ironman Coeur d’Alene Aug. 21 — and it goes to the winner of the age group.
Carr actually placed third, in a time of 16 hours, 43 minutes and 58 seconds. But the first two finishers, both U.S. triathletes, declined the Hawaii trip in a post-race “drop down” to determine the world championship qualifiers, bumping Carr to the top spot.
“I’ve taken the last man standing philosophy,” Carr joked.
Carr is a retired businessman who owned Prime Fasteners, a construction supply business that still operates in Vancouver. Like many retirees, he said, he golfs and plays senior men’s hockey with the Parksville Panters club. In 2007 he began entering small triathlons, and while vacationing in Florida in 2008 with his wife Sue, entered his first Ironman.
“It was the Ironman in Florida that got me hooked,” Carr said. “It’s a very emotional experience, especially right near the cut-off time of 17 hours when some people aren’t going to make it. You’ve got family members and friends at the finish line and there’s people crying. Then, the husband shows up five minutes before the cut-off and there’s such a sense of relief.”
Carr took aim at qualifying for the world championship a year ago, when he moved into the 70-74 age group and entered Ironman Whistler. That turned into a near-miss, in which he fell just 10 minutes short of qualifying.
He later learned about Ironman Coeur d’Alene from Williamson, who had raced the 2015 event, and set his sights on the Idaho race this year.
The biggest challenge for Carr in Hawaii will be the short turnaround between Coeur d’Alene and the Kona race. The normal training period for an Ironman, he said, is 14 weeks, and he’s still essentially recovering from Idaho.
“The good news is, you’re already in shape for the last one,” Carr said. “But you don’t want to hurt yourself while maintaining that conditioning while you’re getting ready for the next one. There are articles on recovery training out there, but there’s no magic solution — especially for someone my age.”
Sue Carr, a former dietician, serves as her husband’s researcher, travel agent and trainer.
“She makes me eat right,” Barry said. “All the potato chips have been hidden.”
Carr said the authority on quick recovery may well be Williamson, who competed in three Ironman triathlons this year, including the Whistler event and Ironman Vineman in Windsor, Calif., just six days apart.
But Williamson, 51, said Carr’s accomplishments are on another plane.
“If I can manage to be at half of where Barry is in 20 years, I’d be happy,” said Williamson. “It’s amazing what he’s doing at that age. I wouldn’t want to be out there (on the course) that long. It’s a long day.”
Williamson and his wife Kim have served as race officials in Kona for several years, and booked accommodations for this year’s championship when they were there a year ago. When Carr qualified and needed to arrange his Hawaii travel plans on short notice, the Williamsons elected to forego their trip and offered the room to the Carrs.
“Hawaii has three tourist seasons,” Williamson said. “Summer, Christmas and Ironman. And Ironman is the busiest.”
As a triathlete, Carr believes his strongest element is the running portion of race, which comes last. In Coeur d’Alene, with 33-degree temperatures and smoke from nearby forest fires in Eastern Washington forcing many people from the race, he completed the swim in 1:45:46; rode the cycle in 8:37:42 and ran the marathon in 6:05:24.
“I’m not a natural swimmer,” he said. “My strategy always to come out of water the best I can without being exhausted, then start catching people on bike and, hopefully, catch more on the run.”
In Hawaii, Carr will be facing an open-water ocean swim, which can be subject to high waves, and a bike ride and marathon which are both run partly through blistering lava fields.
Williamson called the Kona cycling leg the toughest he’s seen in an Ironman — “And I’ve only done it on a motorbike,” he added.
Carr, one of just two Canadian qualifiers in his age group, according to his wife’s research, will be happy just to get through it under the cut-off. And then turn his attention to more modest triathlon pursuits.
“I might do half-Ironmans in the future,” he said. “When you compare them, the full Ironman is twice as long, but it’s four times as hard.”
