030: Billy Hafferty races the S.0.S. Triathlon

SOS stands for Survival of the Shawangunks which Billy tells me are called "the gunks." The S.O.S. Triathlon is a special race in upstate New York with a small but extremely loyal following. After hearing Billy describe the race I think for good reason.

Billy blogs at Race Reports from an Unconventional Endurance Athlete.

Like so many of us Billy started his road to endurance sports with the goal to lose a few pounds.

Before the interview started Billy and I tried to look up how to correctly say Shawangunks which is part of the Catskills Mountains in New York but we were not entirely successful in figuring it out. So I hope that somebody listening will correct my attempt to find the pronunciation.

Billy found the S.O.S. Triathlon through the American Zofigen Duathlon.

It took Billy a few tries to register for the SOS Triathlon because it has a unique registration tradition.

There are 8 stages to the SOS Triathlon.

Stage 1 is a time trial bike on the roads.

Stages 2-8 start with a quick trail run to the lake and then you jump into a lake for a quick swim. Then it goes back and forth swim -run, swim - run all the way to the finish.

We talk about each stage of the race. How he handled swimming in between running and what he did with all his swim stuff when he wasn't swimming and his run stuff when he was swimming.

We talk about how you handle that feeling that seems to come up in every long event "why am I doing this?"

We talk about my big question with swim-run events which is do you get leg or toe cramps?

And of course, we talk about the finish.

What's next for Billy Hafferty is Ironman Coeur D'Alene and he gives a good shout out to his coach Jeff at Breakthrough Performance. He is one of three people I know training for CdA so let's wish them all luck.

You can follow Billy at his blog: http://actas-if.blogspot.com/ He's also on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/haffatree/

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