Crawford Is Ready for Ironman Test

He has jumped out of airplanes and served in Vietnam, but nothing scares Bob Crawford like the Ironman Triathlon World Championship.

Crawford has never competed in any Ironman triathlon, much less the king of all Ironmans.

At age 51.

He is one of the 150 people--out of 5,000--who were selected in a lottery to compete in the sport’s most prestigious and grueling event, a 2.4-mile ocean swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. In all, 140.6 miles.

It’s a long way to go for a T-shirt.

“The T-shirt is what it’s all about,” Crawford said. “They hand them out to you when you cross the finish line.”

It was Crawford’s first time in the lottery. “Extreme luck,” he called it, since many people go years without ever getting selected.

Extreme luck, maybe dumb luck.

“When I called [on May 1], they confirmed my biggest fear--I had been drawn,” Crawford said. “It was like, ‘We regret to inform you that you have been chosen to . . .’ ”

So Crawford has spent every day since then thinking about his approaching Oct. 18 date with the Hawaiian elements and his limitations.

“It’s overpowering. Every waking moment, I’m thinking of training, or I’m getting the training in,” Crawford said. “It encompasses your body and soul because it’s such a big event. I went over in 1983 when my wife [Sally] did it. The electricity and energy is still with me from seeing the competition back then.”

Sally, who finished fifth in the 35-39 age group in the 1983 Ironman World Championship, had continued competing in triathlons. Her husband typically was her support and training partner.

In mid-1996, Crawford toyed with the idea of participating in a full triathlon. He got a new bicycle on his 50th birthday, Sept. 15. last year, and participated in a Tinman triathlon--a .9-mile swim, a 24-mile bike ride, a 6.2-mile run.

“It was just one of those things--New Year’s Day, you start thinking about resolutions, and Sally said, ‘Why don’t you put your name in the lottery to see if you get picked?’

“I said, ‘Sure,’ knowing that my chances were slim. To me, it was a safe bet, even though a little of me wanted to be accepted.”

He was. And his stomach hasn’t been the same since.

As a requirement, he had to complete a half-triathlon. He finished the Wildflower event in Paso Robles in 6 hours 50 minutes, “a very slow time,” he said, and the Vineman, in Santa Rosa, in 5:40.

“I’m not going to win any medals,” Crawford said. “I’m not fast, I’m not slow. I’m right in the middle.”

But winning is hardly the goal. Finishing in the allotted 17 hours is good enough for most of the 1,500 competitors who will descend on Kona, a city of 60,000 on the big island of Hawaii that will swell to 90,000 on race weekend.

“I’m nervous about the swimming,” said Crawford, who joined a masters swim program to develop his skill. “I’m not going to be that fast, but I feel confident I can swim 2.4 miles. It’s not the distance that concerns me, it’s the 1,500 people in the water at the same time.”

Crawford is a land surveyor and partner in a civil engineering and survey firm. He and Sally began running 19 years ago when they quit smoking, “and started running around the block.”

“It’s been a lifestyle for us,” said Crawford, who has since competed in 45 marathons. His first, the Leatherneck Marathon at El Toro, was completed in 4:18--two minutes slower than his wife.

They raised two daughters. Laura, 30, has competed in three triathlons, and Kris, 27, ran this year’s L.A. Marathon, her first.

Sally said their passion for running has helped their marriage.

“It has made us much closer because we can train together; having the same interests really helps,” she said. “We’re up at 4 a.m., running at 5 a.m., doing everything we can before work and after work.”

Before tapering his workouts two weeks prior to the race, Crawford spent about 16 hours a week training. A typical weekend? A 105-mile bike ride on Saturday and 8-mile run, followed by a 17-mile run on Sunday.

Those months leading up to the race took its toll.

“You want to start the competition instead of continuing to have to train,” he said. “It’s hard not to do too much because you want to train, train, train; in your mind, you think you can never train enough for this. You always want to do more.

“It grows inside you. It’s just like a small bit of energy that gets larger and larger. Just the training is a very emotional experience, knowing you’re going to be going over there.”

Crawford, a county resident since 1969, even said the anticipation of the Ironman caused him more anxiety than any of his other life experiences. More than marriage, more than jumping out of an airplane, more than going off to war.

“I’m a lot more mature and can appreciate anxiety more,” Crawford said. “Or maybe it’s fear. There’s still a sense of fear you don’t recognize when you’re young. Going to Vietnam, I had the attitude to kick butt, take names, nobody can hurt me.

“When you’re younger, you don’t have that fear of injury or defeat. I think that even though we’re more mature when we get older, we appreciate those hidden issues we take for granted as a youth.”

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Ironman Triathlon Championships

* What: A 2.4-mile ocean swim, 112-mile bike race and 26.2-mile run.

* Where: Island of Hawaii

* When: Saturday, Oct. 18

* Orange County participants: Jack Boyster, 50, Laguna Beach; John Brazelton, 29, Aliso Viejo; George Brenseke, 35, Laguna Hills; Bob Crawford, 51, Laguna Niguel; David Gault, 32, Laguna Niguel; Chris Johnson, 47, Laguna Niguel; Ryan Patch, 37, Laguna Niguel; Tina Pauley, 27, Irvine; Michael Pugh, 40, Costa Mesa; Jon Sterkel, 37, Dana Point; Thomas Townsen, 49, Irvine; Rick Van Kirk, 37, Irvine; Kirk Waymire, 38, Trabuco Canyon; David Weisenthal, 48, Laguna Beach.

* Notes: The Ironman Triathlon began in 1978 with 15 competitors. The field is now limited to 1,500 contestants from the nearly 20,000 from 50 countries who annually attempt to qualify. . . . Last year’s men’s champion, Belgium’s Luc Van Lierde, 27, racing in his first Ironman Triathlon, set a course record of 8 hours 4 minutes 8 seconds and became the competition’s first European champion. . . . Paula Newby-Fraser, 34, and from the United States, won last year’s women’s race, finishing in the fifth-fastest time ever (9:06.49). Newby-Fraser has the competition’s top five times.