The Not-So-Impossible
James Lawrence, a Utah resident with five kids, was already a two time world record holder for running 22 half ironman races in 30 weeks and 30 full ironman races in one year. After expressing his desire to achieve both of those goals, he was told, “That’s impossible, you can’t do that!” After those two achievements, he decided to do something really crazy.
Lawrence decided that in 2015 he was going to embark on what is known as the 50-50-50. He would run 50 full ironman races, in 50 days, in all 50 states. Even for a man that made the impossible not-so-impossible twice before, others didn’t see this feat as doable.
To do so, Lawrence would have to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles everyday for 50 consecutive days.
The Making of the Iron Cowboy
Lawrence hasn’t always done ironman races. In an interview with Gloria Liu he said,
It all started when I was challenged to do a 4-mile fun run one Thanksgiving with my wife. She was amused at how much I struggled and without my permission signed me up for the Salt Lake City Marathon the following spring. After an awful experience there I wasn’t going to let the defeat define me.
At age 28, Lawrence started down the road to his world records training for short distance triathlons.
He earned his nick name “Iron Cowboy” for sometimes running the marathon portion of ironman races in colorful and patterned cowboy hats his four daughters would pick out for him before each race.
Why the 50-50-50?
As shown in the video, Lawrence took on the 50-50-50 challenge to promote awareness of childhood obesity and get families and children more active. But, also to show his family and others they can do hard things.
Change is hard. It’s really hard, but hard things come with incredible rewards.
-James Lawrence
On June 6 of this year, he started his first race in Hawaii with not many skeptics; however, on July 25 in Lehi, Utah, Lawrence yet again made the impossible not-so-impossible with many supporters looking on when he completed the final race of the 50-50-50.
In 50 days, Lawrence swam 120 miles, biked 5,600 miles, and ran 1,310 miles averaging around four hours sleep per night. In other words, he could have gone from Seattle to Miami and back with still 430 miles left to go.
