Me? An Endurance Athlete!?

I am Ed Cortopassi, an endurance athlete! I am 51 years old, married 29 years, a father of five great children and a grand-father of two. In my first 40+ years of life the last thing I could be called was athletic. Being overweight most of my life, sports was not something that I even gave a passing notion to. That all changed in 2001 when my wife, Barbara, and I decided to join Team in Training to train for the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon.

            A co-worker of Barb’s had trained with the team while raising money for Leukemia research. She said anybody could to it, so why not?! Well, training for something as difficult as a marathon can teach you a lot about yourself and your capacities for digging deep. That year, 2001, Barb completed two marathons to my zero. That’s right, zero. In early training the coaches talked about dealing with injuries. Injuries? I thought this was just fun! Well, I learned that my bones were not happy with my running. I suffered three stress fractures that year. With one being so severe and inflamed that an MRI showed it as a cancerous mass. A cancer scare was NOT what I had signed up for!

            I could have quit right there but, due to my stubbornness, (got that from my Mom!), I became a race-walker and went on to complete five marathons. It was in 2003 that a friend suggested trying to do a Triathlon, that they were “fun” so, what the heck, give it a go! He failed to tell us about the long training hours and the addictive nature of the sport. Since that time I have completed four Half-Ironman races, seven Olympic distance races and too many Sprint distance races to count. I am addicted to the finish line!

            I am now signed up and training this year for Ironman Arizona. A race of 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run. I have a coach. I am just now coming to grips with calling myself an Endurance Athlete……………………………….