2 Thousand Oaks Athletes Hit Their Stride in Long Distances

Jack Nosco and Scott Willis have been eagerly planning their Thanksgiving weekend trip to Hawaii, but their agenda doesn’t include indulging in turkey and an afternoon in front of the television watching football.

Their itinerary:

Day 1: Fly to Hawaii.

Day 2: Swim six miles. Ride bicycles 60 miles .

Day 3: Ride bicycles 172 miles.

Day 4: Run 52.4 miles.

Day 5: Return home, sleep.

The flight home will no doubt be a restful one for Nosco and Willis, Thousand Oaks roommates who measure athletic success in hours and miles rather than meters and minutes.

For them, an Ironman triathlon (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, 26.2-mile run) isn’t a challenge.

They would rather double the distance, or run 100 miles.

“There’s a feeling of anxiety there,” Willis said.

“Because you don’t know if you’re going to finish. You might doubt yourself, but deep down you keep saying, ‘I know I’ll make it.’ ”

The three-day Hawaii ultra-triathlon is one of several ultra-distance races that have been scheduled in the last year.

On Labor Day weekend, they competed in a double triathlon in Huntsville, Ala.

Nosco finished 14th out of 46 with a time of 27 hours, 30 minutes. Willis was 22nd in 30 hours, 30 minutes.

One of their recent excursions was the Angeles Crest 100-mile run. They ran on a winding, rocky path from Wrightwood to the Rose Bowl.

“Whatever someone can dream up, Jack and I will say, ‘Yeah, we can do that,’ ” Willis said.

They’ll try just about any distance, over any surface, in any conditions. They speak of running a 50-mile race in a downpour and 100-degree heat as if it were an early-morning jog through the neighborhood.

“We’re a little different than the average runner,” said Willis, an aerospace engineer. “We could care less about conditions. We just run through them and see how we do it.”

Willis and Nosco, both 27, have a variety of reasons for trying these distances, money not being one of them.

A T-shirt or a silver belt buckle is usually the only reward in ultra-distance events, which have yet to lure the corporate sponsorship and interest of biathlons and triathlons.

Competing can be expensive. A local bike shop donates parts and other equipment, but Nosco and Willis pay for their own shoes, gas, entry fees and hotels.

Entry fees can be as much as $200.

Nosco, a fireman, and Willis have run nearly a dozen 50-mile races and four 100-milers in the past three years. Willis has finished every race. Nosco has dropped out of two 100-milers because of swollen feet.

Their injury list is short, but painful--swollen feet, lost toenails and sore muscles are most common. “People say that when I’m 35 my knees will go and I’ll start paying for doing this,” Nosco said.

“But they don’t realize that most of the people doing these (distances) are 35 to 55 years old. It’s almost like people don’t want to accept these distances.”

Willis said he burns about 1,000 calories in an hour of racing and has lost up to 10 pounds when competing.

He and Nosco eat and drink a variety of foods, some nutritious, some not, during a race.

“We eat a lot of cookies and candy bars to get a lot of sugar early in the race,” Nosco said.

“You get kind of sick of that food. We even tried baby food.”

Their biggest concern is to keep nutrient and energy levels at proper levels. Parents and girlfriends supply them with food, sodas, split times and encouragement. “I think our family and friends are into it as much as we are,” Willis said.

Neither Willis nor Nosco had much interest in running when they were young.

They played football at Newbury Park High--Nosco was a tight end and defensive end, Willis a guard and linebacker.

“I hated running in high school,” Nosco said. “The furthest I had run in high school was the 40-yard dash, or maybe a lap if I got in trouble in football practice.”

But Nosco started running at age 20 in an attempt to stay in shape. He also swam and rode his bike, eventually working up to the triathlon distance.

Two years later he bought a condominium with Willis, and convinced his roommate to start training with him.

“We ran in a 10-miler in 1986 and Scott was really sucking wind,” Nosco said. “But one month later we ran the San Diego marathon.”

Both finished, and they tried a 50-mile race a few months later.

And they’ve been running ever since.