Episode 202
Ep. 202- Hibiscus Tea and Ironman Dreams: Chasing Records and Recovery
In this episode:
Tom's story unfolds against the backdrop of the triathlon community, where camaraderie and competition intertwine. The episode explores his encounters with friends and family along the racecourse, where support comes in many forms—from a simple high-five to the presence of loved ones at the finish line. As he recounts the grueling yet exhilarating moments of racing, he emphasizes the importance of having a support system. The discussion also touches on the broader implications of inclusivity in triathlon, as Tom reflects on the changing landscape of the sport. He highlights initiatives aimed at making triathlon more accessible to underrepresented communities, showing that the journey toward inclusivity is ongoing. Through his personal anecdotes and community involvement, Tom inspires listeners to pursue their own goals while uplifting others in the process. In addition to Tom's personal journey, the episode delves into the science and health aspects of triathlon, featuring a segment on the benefits of hibiscus tea, a drink popular in many cultures, including Tom's own background. The conversation shifts to the medical mailbag, where the hosts explore whether hibiscus tea can aid in exercise recovery. Through a light-hearted yet informative discussion, they break down the evidence behind the claims, providing listeners with insights into nutrition and health for athletes. The episode masterfully intertwines personal narrative with scientific inquiry, leaving listeners with not only inspiration for their triathlon goals but also practical knowledge about their health and wellness. Tom's infectious enthusiasm and the hosts' engaging banter make this episode a must-listen for anyone in the multisport community.
Segments:
[7:18]- Medical Mailbag: Hibiscus tea
[34:44]- Interview: Tom Scheer
Links
Thomas 's Facebook page@Xxltri on Instagram@Rahlowjenkins on X
Transcript
I had chased Kona for 12 years at that point.
Speaker A:I entered the lottery every year.
Speaker A:I've had friends that went to the lottery and I kept trying to go, tom, you're sending the lottery.
Speaker A:I'm like, I have so many times.
Speaker A:And I knew people whose friend bought them a lottery ticket as a joke and they got in and I'm just like, oh my God.
Speaker A:But I had seen that race on TV when I was a kid at the Boys and Girls Club and said, I'm always gonna, I'm do that race one day.
Speaker A:And it was a weight loss journey for me.
Speaker A:I had owned a pizza restaurant and was £350.
Speaker A:And that's how I got into try.
Speaker A:But the goal always was to try to go to Kona.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:I'm your host, Jeff Sankoff.
Speaker B:The Tridoc, an emergency physician, triathlete, triathlon coach, and multiple Ironman finisher.
Speaker B:Coming to you as always from beautiful sunny Denver, Colorado.
Speaker B:At the top of the program today, you heard the voice of my guest for this episode and that was Tom Shear.
Speaker B:Tom is an incredible individual who I had the pleasure of meeting several weeks ago at the 70.3 race in Victoria, British Columbia.
Speaker B:He was at that point in the midst of a record setting streak, working his way towards a positively absurd number of half Ironman distance races in a calendar year.
Speaker B:A record that he has since set.
Speaker B:As I learned at that time.
Speaker B:And since there is much more to Tom and I wanted very much to have him as a guest on this program to introduce him to you all, I am really happy to share that conversation with you today.
Speaker B:I know that you will enjoy getting to hear his story and learning yet again how multisport can be such a great force for good in so many people's lives.
Speaker B:Before we get to that interview, I will have a medical mailbag subject to discuss.
Speaker B:On this episode, we will take a look at the value of tea made from the hibiscus flower.
Speaker B:This is apparently a popular beverage in Hispanic culture and is renowned for its medicinal properties.
Speaker B:My very own intern, Sarah Lopez, brought the question to me by way of her dad, who wanted to know if there was any truth to the notion that hibiscus tea could provide benefits for exercise and recovery.
Speaker B:As he had been told for a very long time, we set out to answer that question with evidence and we're going to have that coming up shortly.
Speaker B:Before I get to that, I do want to mention that, as many of you probably already know, I was in Salem, Oregon this past weekend for the 70.3 race that took place there.
Speaker B:This is a very popular event and it is so for very good reason.
Speaker B:Of course.
Speaker B:It has the blazing, fast and very fun downriver swim, but it is also renowned for a quite picturesque bike course and a shady and beautiful run course as well.
Speaker B:It also has what I consider to be some of the best community support of any of the races on the Ironman circuit and that for me is not only very much welcome but a selling point of its own.
Speaker B:I also want to thank those of my listeners who took the time to say hello while they were at the race and encountered me.
Speaker B:It means the world to me when you stop even for a moment to let me know that this program is resonating with you and that all of the effort going into putting it out every two weeks is appreciated.
Speaker B:You have my very sincere gratitude for taking the time out of your day to come up to me and let me know that you have enjoyed hearing the program and tell me a little.
Speaker C:Bit of your story.
Speaker B:I really appreciated it.
Speaker B:I especially want to call out Ron Cawthran.
Speaker B:Ron has been working hard at bettering himself through fitness and together with his son they took on the challenging of completing a 70.3 some time ago and this past weekend they both completed the Oregon race and I got a chance to say hi to Ron as he made his way through T2 out onto the run.
Speaker B:He's a good man and embodies so much of what is great in this sport and the people who partake in it.
Speaker B:I also got to meet some other folks in a cafe in Salem, not listeners of the show, but they gave me palms for a different reason.
Speaker B:I encountered a group of men from California who together had started training and racing in 70.3 and full Ironman events a couple of years ago.
Speaker B:Now they shared how doing these events had become a shared source of commitment to health and well being and how they worked together to ensure that they stay balanced in their approach to life in general and I thought it was a great story.
Speaker B:At one point though, one of their wives casually mentioned how she had seen so many positive changes in the men and she had learned a lot about training and recovery and that she was learning about injury rehabilitation techniques like all of the peptides that these men were now using as part of their injury recovery strategy.
Speaker B:Now it was that last part that stopped me cold and really made me realize yet again just how prevalent and pernicious the Health and Wellness Industrial Complex continues to be.
Speaker B:I have spoken at length about how peptides, like so many other supplements that do not work, continue to be pushed by people with no understanding of science or medicine, but with a very vested financial interest in seeing these products succeed.
Speaker B:And now with an anti science champion in the form of RFK Jr in charge of the very government agency that should be regulating these things, we are instead seeing changes to exactly the regulations that are supposed to govern these kinds of entities that will result in an exponential increase in their availability, promotion and the use of these agents across a wide spectrum of disease agents that continue to have scant animal evidence for their benefits and exactly zero evidence for benefiting humans.
Speaker B:As to the potential harms that they may cause, that remains to be seen.
Speaker B:Right now we're not aware of any, but given that these things are being taken by so many for dubious reasons, it's only a matter of time before something comes up.
Speaker B:Now, the absence of evidence has not stopped those who seek to profit off of this craze and consequently the rush to make a buck off of the gullible and easily persuadable is about to get significantly more voluble.
Speaker B:So please, I urge you, beware and do not succumb to the urge to inject yourself with unproven, potentially detrimental and definitely expensive agents that promise a lot but offer little more than the opportunity to claim membership in a confederacy of no more than guinea pigs.
Speaker B:Save your money.
Speaker B:Let others be the lab rats for this societal experiment and focus on the things that really matter.
Speaker B:Smart training, recovery and dedication to your nutrition and of course, your sleep.
Speaker B:With that out of the way, let's get to this episode's Medical mailbag on the rumored value of hibiscus tea.
Speaker B:Is it all that it is?
Speaker B:Steeped to be.
Speaker B:Couldn't help myself.
Speaker C:We're going to take a look at.
Speaker B:The evidence and that's coming up right.
Speaker C:After this short break.
Speaker C:Here we are virtually again.
Speaker C:Juliette Hockman, my friend, my colleague, coach at LifeSport coaching and the overall age graded women's winner at Oregon, 70.3.
Speaker C:Congratulations Juliet, and welcome once again to the Medical Mailbag.
Speaker C:How are you feeling after another great event?
Speaker D:Thanks for asking.
Speaker D:I'm actually feeling pretty good right from the get go.
Speaker D:I really didn't have any residual soreness, fatigue.
Speaker D:Usually I'm pretty sore for a couple of days after or doll's kicks in on kind of a Tuesday or Wednesday.
Speaker D:But I think maybe it's I just didn't run hard enough because I'm really not very sore at all but really enjoying a Week of nothing and eating what I want and drinking what I want and sleeping in and, you know, just forwarding off Thursday.
Speaker D:So now I'm like, okay, I'm getting ready to move more intentionally again.
Speaker D:How about you?
Speaker C:Uh, yeah, I feel pretty good.
Speaker C:It was, as we've talked about since the day.
Speaker C:It was an interesting day for me.
Speaker C:I.
Speaker C:My training, as everybody knows, I've talked about this at length, so my training's not the same.
Speaker C:It's been an interesting kind of journey for me this year.
Speaker C:I'm much more invested in what's going on with my kids, getting in their last year of high school, heading off to college, a lot of recruiting stuff with Lauren and her pole vault, and so I've just not been able to train the same way.
Speaker C:I've had this ankle injury.
Speaker C:I love the Oregon race.
Speaker C:This one is obviously a great thing for me, and I actually had one of my faster swims, so I feel like the extra effort I've been putting into the pool is maybe paying off.
Speaker C:It's kind of hard to tell when you have such a fast swim, but, yeah, I do feel like I was faster there this year than I was last year.
Speaker C:And that Scott, account for something, so I'm, I'm taking that to the bank.
Speaker C:I felt amazing on the bike.
Speaker C:I've had a really good year biking, and although I think you and I both were slower, I think we felt like the conditions were tougher.
Speaker D:I think the wind was brisker this year for sure.
Speaker C:My power.
Speaker C:My power was the same this year as it was last year.
Speaker C:And then out on the run, I tweaked my ankle again, unfortunately.
Speaker C:And I think I was saying to you, our friend Megan was out there on the course.
Speaker C:She gave me a split early.
Speaker C:She's after about three and a half miles.
Speaker C:She said, oh, you're two minutes off the podium.
Speaker C:And I just was like, oh, I don't really want to push that hard.
Speaker C:I'm like, I just don't feel that motivated.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker C:And, and I, and I, I just kind of held the same pace.
Speaker C:And when I came back and saw her again, she's three or four minutes down.
Speaker C:I was like, okay, good, because I just stopped feeling it.
Speaker D:I'm not taking four minutes back.
Speaker D:Yeah, let's just coast.
Speaker C:Now I can just sort of do what I want.
Speaker C:And I just, I think that it's been an interesting kind of journey this year.
Speaker C:I, I, we have a lot going on, me and my wife.
Speaker C:We're.
Speaker C:As we head towards retirement, and so I think I'M going to step back a little bit.
Speaker C:I think I'm going to do worlds at Nice.
Speaker C:Then after that, I need to take some time off of running, off of triathlon for a little bit, let my ankle really heal properly, continue to focus on biking because I.
Speaker C:Absolutely, I'm enduring my time in the saddle.
Speaker C: eeds to be and then hopefully: Speaker C:We'll see.
Speaker C:We'll see.
Speaker C:I.
Speaker C:And honestly, if I don't, if I just decide to do cycling and other things, that's okay too.
Speaker C:I feel like as long as we're moving and finding joy in, in that movement, that's really the most important thing.
Speaker C:But.
Speaker D: to come back to do Washington: Speaker D:Because that's.
Speaker D:If you.
Speaker D:Yeah, that might be a great sort of restart race for you.
Speaker D:It's, you know, it well.
Speaker D:It's.
Speaker D:You could do a lot for the Ironman while you're there.
Speaker D:I don't think I'm going to be there next year, unfortunately.
Speaker D:So, yeah, that's something we should talk.
Speaker C:About because that would be a great race and.
Speaker C:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:A race that I really enjoyed doing and love to get back to.
Speaker C:So maybe we'll see how that one goes.
Speaker C:But Currents to Kicks, also an inaugural kind of event.
Speaker C:How did that work out?
Speaker A:Yeah, you know, I always.
Speaker D:So, so at Oregon and planned for Washington, which is the end of September, Ironman is hosting a Friday night event called Current to Kicks and it works particularly well for these downriver swims because the SW element is so short that you can actually do the whole swim course in advance.
Speaker D:The race.
Speaker D:And so the Oregon race that they didn't have a lot of time to plan for, they still had 200 entrants.
Speaker D:Hopefully they'll have more for Washington.
Speaker D:I participated and talked about it and kind of led athletes through it and I thought it was a fantastic event.
Speaker D:I, I loved the sort of perfect balance between.
Speaker D:It's a chipped race, you get a number, you put on your race shoes.
Speaker D:You know, it's actually even on the tracker, et cetera.
Speaker D:And so it feels like a real race, but at the same time when you get down to the swim start.
Speaker D:Instead of this kind of high octane, high pressure, get in the water, let's go, let's go, let's go.
Speaker D:You get down there and the guy's like, just get in whenever you're ready.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:And so it's really nice.
Speaker D:So for those really anxious swimmers who really have to take a moment to think about it, they could walk down and stand on the ramp for a while.
Speaker D:They could take their time, it didn't matter.
Speaker D:And that was really nice.
Speaker D:And then out there on the run course there's a.
Speaker D:It was a swimming the course and then a 2.1 mile run just along the waterfront.
Speaker D:It was now back so you could see people and cheer people on.
Speaker D:It was very clear there were a number of beginners there and they got to practice a transition which was great.
Speaker D:They got to practice taking their wetsuit off so they got some of that out.
Speaker D:And I think you and I both agree that you just have to swim that course once to never be nervous about it.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:Because it's just so iconic and fun.
Speaker D:I'm just delighted that Ironman did that and I hope that they have similar success at the Washington one.
Speaker D:I'm a big fan.
Speaker C:There are two things about it.
Speaker C:Number one, I think it's wonderful that it's Friday evening because a lot of people, I think I know me, I go and I always do the swim on Saturday morning and I always feel conflicted about it because I don't love doing a big effort in the water on Saturday morning.
Speaker C:I prefer to kind of go nice and easy Saturday or even not do anything.
Speaker C:So having it Friday evening is great.
Speaker C:It gives you an extra 12 hours or so for your wetsuit to dry.
Speaker C:I think it's great.
Speaker C:The one sort of caveat is that you're not getting the same conditions lighting wise.
Speaker D:No, they were different.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:For both Oregon and Washington you're swimming right into the sun and you don't get that when you do the evening swim.
Speaker C:That's a minor sort of thing.
Speaker C:I think the important elements are what you've mentioned as so many people, especially the first timers get a chance to do that swim in a non pressure environment and really check out their open waters and get all of those nerves out.
Speaker C:And so when they show up Sunday morning they can feel so much more relaxed.
Speaker C:I think it's great.
Speaker C:And I know, I know there are going to be people out there going 70 bucks for this.
Speaker D:I know, I saw this on social media.
Speaker D:It's a money grab by Ironman.
Speaker A:And I'm thinking, like, you know what,.
Speaker D:You guys, you don't have to do this.
Speaker C:Yeah, don't do it.
Speaker D:Stop it.
Speaker C:The fact of the matter is, is like permitting.
Speaker C:You've got all of these people out on the water supporting it.
Speaker C:Metal.
Speaker C:I know metal doesn't cost 70 bucks, but come on, folks.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:You know, a lot of people right now, a 5k costs, like 60 bucks.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:So you could take your complaints.
Speaker D:And I'm glad you brought that up, because I saw that on social media, too, and I thought.
Speaker D:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker D:I thought, you guys, you know, it was really valuable to a lot of people.
Speaker D:I know.
Speaker D:I don't.
Speaker D:I know.
Speaker D:It's a money grab by Iron Man.
Speaker D:Come on, you guys, seriously.
Speaker C:Anyway, even if they made 30 bucks a person, they didn't make that much money.
Speaker D:Come on.
Speaker C:And I guarantee you they did not make 30 bucks a person because of the outlays for the permitting on the water.
Speaker C:We know that because we worked with the person behind the scenes, and she told us how hard it was to get this thing gone going.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I just don't have patience for people who find something to complain about continuously, all the time.
Speaker D:I will say.
Speaker D:I mean, there are a couple, really.
Speaker D:Oregon is always a fantastic race.
Speaker D:I mean, I'm a big fan, as you know, as are you.
Speaker D:But this year, it was the highest percentage of female participants of any 70.3 ever anywhere.
Speaker D:And that was amazingly cool.
Speaker D:It was high 30s.
Speaker D:I have to go back and look it up.
Speaker D:But it was.
Speaker D:It was published.
Speaker D:That was cool.
Speaker D:And then they also said pink porta Potties just for women, which I thought was great.
Speaker C:I did see that.
Speaker D:I love that.
Speaker D:And the line was no shorter.
Speaker D:I mean, it still stretched way back and moved incredibly slowly, but it was just kind of nice.
Speaker D:It was a nice little nodding.
Speaker D:And the.
Speaker D:At one of the athlete briefings, the man who led the athlete briefing, Ironman guy, was, like, so straightforward.
Speaker D:He's like, look, guys, I don't want to hear about it.
Speaker D:You've already come of you.
Speaker D:Some of you have already come up and complained about this.
Speaker D:Take it somewhere else.
Speaker D:He was like, don't even come at me about this.
Speaker D:We're doing this.
Speaker D:It's the right thing to do.
Speaker D:We're delighted about it.
Speaker D:Step away.
Speaker D:And it was just.
Speaker C:It was really porta Potties.
Speaker D:The pink porta Potties.
Speaker D:About the pink porta Potties, I guess there were men complaining about the big porter fighting.
Speaker C:Oh, my God.
Speaker C:You know what?
Speaker C:People just get people who can find some plane.
Speaker D:Exactly.
Speaker D:And the.
Speaker D:The race was.
Speaker D:Did have more participants this year, and that was noticeable.
Speaker D:I will say that was the one.
Speaker D:The.
Speaker D:If I did have to offer feedback about something, it was more congested out there.
Speaker D:It was congested earlier on the bike than it typically is.
Speaker D:It was congested in the aid stations, on the run, on the second loop.
Speaker D:And I did notice that because they had.
Speaker D:They had more people out there.
Speaker D:And so that's.
Speaker D:That's just a challenge.
Speaker C:My only quibble was I almost got creamed.
Speaker C:You know, no pass zone under those little underpasses.
Speaker C:And then they had flag guys there, and I got passed by a pickup truck who got stopped by one of those flag guys.
Speaker C:So I was coming down at speed, as you know, and I'm trying to see, do I go to the left of this pickup truck?
Speaker C:But I couldn't because it was an oncoming car.
Speaker C:So there was a gap on the right between the pickup truck and the flag guy.
Speaker C:Yeah, the flag guy sees me coming and he turns the sign to let the pickup truck go.
Speaker C:So the pickup truck now starts moving and closes my gap.
Speaker C:So I slammed on the brakes, and basically I'm in a big gear.
Speaker C:So I'm in the wrong gear.
Speaker C:Yeah, I slammed on the brakes, came to an almost complete stop start trying to turn the pedals.
Speaker C:And all these guys that I had just passed, they all came up and they're like, fight.
Speaker C:Oh, my gosh, I can't believe that just happened to you.
Speaker C:And then they're all gone, right?
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:But again, the guy said he was sorry, but I'm like, sorry all you had to do is wait two seconds.
Speaker D:I would have been, Yeah, I think.
Speaker D:I mean, there's so many things out there that happen.
Speaker D:There's so many entries to every bike course and every run course.
Speaker D:Yeah, you were safe.
Speaker C:It's all fine.
Speaker C:It was.
Speaker C:It was my own personal minor thing.
Speaker C:And honestly, it's over.
Speaker C:Didn't affect my.
Speaker C:Didn't affect my day, and it's all good.
Speaker C:Yeah, I. I agree.
Speaker C:Great event.
Speaker C:Love it, and I hope one day to go.
Speaker C:My son is turning 18 next year.
Speaker C:He's very anxious to do a race with me, and he's.
Speaker C:We're coming here, dad, because I can't swim.
Speaker C:And this one is.
Speaker D:It would be a great one for him.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:And life support athletes did great.
Speaker D:They were in the.
Speaker D:One of the younger men's categories.
Speaker D:They were first and fifth, which is exciting.
Speaker D:We had a woman who was third in her category.
Speaker D:You know what?
Speaker D:I misspoke when I told you that.
Speaker D:Yeah, he wasn't an overall reader, but I think he was top three.
Speaker D:He won his age group, but he wasn't the overall winner.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker C:And then great races.
Speaker C:I mentioned at the top of the program in my monologue, I talked about meeting Ron Cawthrin.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker C:We were talking before we started recording about his son who also competed.
Speaker C:So just tell us a little bit about Ron's son.
Speaker D:Yeah, so Ron's son.
Speaker D:So this is a guy who just had a really compelling story coming into 70.3, Oregon.
Speaker D:He's a longtime listener.
Speaker D:He's just had to weather a number of personal challenges that kind of just kept hitting him down and hitting him down and hitting him down.
Speaker D:I'm gonna get all choked up even telling the story.
Speaker D:But he.
Speaker D:He had a son.
Speaker D:Kyle decided to come do 70.3, Oregon.
Speaker D:And we said, okay, come and find us.
Speaker D:We wanna meet you.
Speaker D:We're so inspired by this sort of, you know, ability to rally and to keep believing and kind of keep pushing on.
Speaker D:And I.
Speaker D:He found me first and we had a nice little chat.
Speaker D:And then he found you mid race, as it turns out, a little bit later.
Speaker D:And they both finished.
Speaker D:Kyle finished in 5.28- which is a very respectable first 70.3 time.
Speaker D:And his dad finished.
Speaker D:Took him.
Speaker D:He just over the cutoff, but he got his medal and he finished the race.
Speaker D:And just huge congratulations to.
Speaker D:To both of you.
Speaker D:Cough rins.
Speaker D:Good job, gents.
Speaker D:Really good.
Speaker C:And from what I understand, it won't be the last for either of them.
Speaker A:Good.
Speaker D:It's glad to hear it.
Speaker C:Look forward to seeing them out there again.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Great job.
Speaker C:Great job for both.
Speaker D:Awesome.
Speaker C:All right, well, I think we've bantered quite a bit.
Speaker C:We do, believe it or not, have a question.
Speaker D:We do.
Speaker C:Medical mailbag question.
Speaker C:It's coming from a very special place.
Speaker C:Who's asking the question and what is it today?
Speaker B:Julia.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:So this actually comes from the dad of one of your intrepid interns, your intern, Sarah Lopez.
Speaker D:Her dad, who I guess has been a huge proponent of hibiscus flower tea for years, really believes it gives him some solid health benefits.
Speaker D:It helps him with exercise and recovery.
Speaker D:And I guess Sarah's dad said, hey, could you ask the ty doc about hibiscus tea?
Speaker D:Because I believe for decades that this has really aided me.
Speaker D:And is there any evidence that supports that?
Speaker D:So what did Sarah and you find out?
Speaker C:Sarah did a great job of looking into this and I like, I always encourage questions from the listeners.
Speaker C:I tell my interns, hey, if you have Anything that's interesting, please bring it.
Speaker C:I would love for you to research questions of your own.
Speaker C:And this was an example where that's exactly what happened.
Speaker C:So I was really happy for her to do this.
Speaker C:She did a great job at looking at literature.
Speaker C:She tried very hard to find something that would support her dad's assertion.
Speaker C:But in the end there wasn't really much there.
Speaker C:There was evidence that she could find though.
Speaker C:There was quite a bit of research that's been done looking at this.
Speaker C:And this is another example of a natural product, a natural substance, really no downside to using it whatsoever.
Speaker C:It is apparently.
Speaker C:And listeners who would know different or who know more about this, I would urge you to let me know.
Speaker C:But in my conversations with Sarah, whose origins are from Venezuela, she tells me that this is a culturally popular drink that they keep a like a pitcher of chilled hibiscus tea pretty much in the fridge all the time.
Speaker C:It's a very tart flavor.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker C:And it's a very deep purple color.
Speaker C:So quite a lovely drink.
Speaker C:And it's just something they consume in large quantities.
Speaker C:And the health benefits are something that I think has just been passed along from family to family and it's just something they've come to believe over time.
Speaker C:There is some biological premise to it.
Speaker C:It turns out that there are some degree or depending on how you prepare this tea, there is some amount of chemicals called anthocyanins which you may or may not recall we talked about as being found in black currants.
Speaker C:And anthocyanins were being marketed as currans or currans, I can't really pronounce it.
Speaker C:But the feed was promoting this supplement as a New Zealand black currants extract which is also very high in anthocyanin.
Speaker C:But because of the way the extract of those black currants are prepared, it's much higher in anthocyanins than is this hibiscus tea.
Speaker C:But the premise is the same.
Speaker C:Anthocyanins are an naturally occurring anti inflammatory, they are a naturally occurring analgesic and they have properties that you could conceivably believe would lead to some kind of improvement in recovery and improvement in the ability to perform exercise on a repeated basis.
Speaker C:So we looked at it, we did find a couple of different studies.
Speaker C: y the first of these was from: Speaker C:It's a pretty small study.
Speaker C:32 Untrained healthy normotensive adults, 44% of them were actually overweight and at the starting point had very poor estimated VO2 max.
Speaker C:They did this YMCA step test.
Speaker C:I'm not entirely sure what that is.
Speaker C:And they were.
Speaker C:The VO2 max was not done actually the way we see it done frequently in high performance athletes.
Speaker C:There was no actual metabolic cart being used, but they actually basically used a chart where they looked at their height, their weight, their pulse when they did this test and they ascribed a VO2 max to them.
Speaker C:And if they took this hibiscus tea after four weeks, they seemed to have a slight change in their blood pressure.
Speaker C:Their blood pressure actually went down and there was a categorical upward shift for average VO2 max.
Speaker C:But again, this was not an actual measurement, this was a tabular assignment.
Speaker C:And because it wasn't a continuous performance value, it was something that was just assigned as, oh, you're in this group versus this group.
Speaker C:They couldn't really determine if this was a statistically relevant kind of result, but they seem to think that there was a, at least a me, not a clinical improvement in blood pressure, but more of a sort of a test.
Speaker C:What am I always calling it?
Speaker C:It's a clinically relevant.
Speaker C:And they're.
Speaker C:Oh my God, I'm blanking.
Speaker D:Like anecdotally relevant or.
Speaker C:No, no, I always say there's patient related, disease related.
Speaker C:So it's a disease oriented outcome where the blood pressure number seemed to tick down a little bit, but the magnitude of that change is so small it really doesn't matter to the patient.
Speaker C:So the patient oriented outcome is not affected.
Speaker C:But you could argue that maybe there's a slight disease oriented outcome here.
Speaker C:So nothing really dramatic here.
Speaker C: Another study in: Speaker C:Sounds delicious.
Speaker C:Very fair.
Speaker C:On university athletes.
Speaker C:Aerobic power and blood lactate.
Speaker C:Basically they did this called a yo yo test.
Speaker C:Nothing to do with an actual yo yo, but some kind of test of basically like suicides on floor, the run back and forth.
Speaker D:Yeah, I remember those very well.
Speaker D:Yep.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Basically no difference really.
Speaker C:No changes with no change.
Speaker C:No effect on aerobic power?
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:No change in blood lactate, no change in heart rate or blood pressure.
Speaker C:So hibiscus somewhat delicious but nothing going on there.
Speaker C:And then some non performance evidence because there is this question of health related benefits.
Speaker C:Effective green tea and sour tea being the hibiscus tea supplementation on oxidative stress and muscle damage in athletes.
Speaker C:Again, this is one of these things where we're looking at markers to determine whether or not there is a biologic change.
Speaker C:And we can't say whether or not that actually relates to a performance outcome here.
Speaker C:There was people who got t. Had no change in their biomarkers and no change in their performance really seemed to have any major benefits here.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker D:Okay, sorry, Sarah.
Speaker C: muscular performance trial in: Speaker C:And so at the end of the day, hibiscus tea can remain a part of a delicious beverage.
Speaker C:If anthocyanins are contributing in any way to health, then why not?
Speaker C:This is one of these things where it's like, doesn't cost much, there's no downsides, it brings happiness and joy for whatever reasons.
Speaker C:And so I say go for it.
Speaker C:If you enjoy it, why not?
Speaker C:But I certainly wouldn't go out of your way to stop at the health food store and get this thinking that you're going to get anything.
Speaker C:So Sarah's dad, by all means, continue to enjoy your black currant tea.
Speaker C:But any athletes who are thinking that this is giving them any kind of boost, it.
Speaker C:Probably not.
Speaker D:Probably not.
Speaker C:I want to point out Sarah was taking a course on.
Speaker C:I think she told me she was taking marketing course.
Speaker C:And she did this lovely diagram that basically looked at how the evidence was structured and she looked at how there was evidence for performance and physiology.
Speaker C:There were dosage, some of the evidence, looked at acute versus chronic dosing and then looked at some of the alternatives to anthracite, to blackcurrant.
Speaker C:Sorry, to hibiscus tea.
Speaker C:And the.
Speaker C:The alternatives were interesting.
Speaker C:I mentioned the black currants already, but the other one is green tea.
Speaker C:And green tea is another popular tea that a lot of people drink.
Speaker C:And this extends more to Asian cultures.
Speaker C:But green tea also contains anthocyanins, but not at the same amounts.
Speaker C:So green tea, healthy.
Speaker C:We've talked about other components of tea that also can be healthy.
Speaker C:But yeah, if you're looking for anthocyanins, you're not going to find quite as much in green tea, a little bit more in hibiscus tea and even more in blackcurrant extract.
Speaker C:So there you go.
Speaker C:That's kind of the book on hibiscus tea.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker C:Refreshing drink, but not particularly performance enhancing.
Speaker C:And yeah.
Speaker C:Oh, like I said, the vibrant purple color.
Speaker C:She tells me that it is very sensitive to acid base fluctuations and can actually be used as a PH marker.
Speaker C:So that when you add like lemon juice to hibiscus tea, it changes colors.
Speaker C:She was getting into it with me when we were discussing this, because she came across some papers that talked about the chemical compounds, and I can't remember.
Speaker C:I think it becomes red in acid situations and then goes back to that purple violet in base that.
Speaker C:I think that's what she said.
Speaker D:So I feel like I've seen great big, huge coolers of these at, like, certain taco trucks, or I think I went to a sweet 15 party for my mentee cousin or something like that, and there was a.
Speaker D:They're Mexican and so sort of Latino background, and they have these big, very purple coolers of drinks, and they're drinking cold iced.
Speaker D:And I'm pretty sure this was hibiscus.
Speaker D:Iced hibiscus tea.
Speaker D:And it was.
Speaker D:People were drinking a lot of it.
Speaker D:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker C:Well, I'm gonna.
Speaker C:I'm gonna definitely look for it now because I'm sure I've come across it before, but I, A, didn't know what it was, and B, didn't recognize its cultural significance.
Speaker C:And so now I'm gonna actually pay attention and look for it because I think it's super interesting.
Speaker C:And, yeah, I always like to learn about that kind of stuff.
Speaker C:And, yeah, it's not like you don't see a bazillion hibiscus flowers in that part of the world.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker D:It's true.
Speaker D:It's true.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker D:Well, thanks for the question, Sarah.
Speaker C:That was a good one.
Speaker C:We love your questions, interns, listeners, whoever you are.
Speaker C:We have a bunch of good questions coming up that are being researched as we speak, and you will hear those answers coming in coming episodes.
Speaker C:But if you have other ones, and I also want to put out there, I've mentioned it before, if you know of anybody who you think would make a good guest for the program, I'm always interested in hearing from you about that.
Speaker C:So please.
Speaker C:Questions for the medical mailbag.
Speaker C:Suggestions for guests do reach out.
Speaker C:You can email me@tridocloud.com or you can head on over to the private Facebook group for this program.
Speaker C:Just search Tridoc podcast on Facebook.
Speaker C:Look for the private group.
Speaker C:If you're not already a member, please do answer the three easy questions.
Speaker C:I'd be glad to gain you admittance and you could join the conversation there.
Speaker C:Submit your ideas for guests, submit your questions, and give commentary on the program and let us know how we can be better.
Speaker C:Or just tell us that you'd like what we're doing.
Speaker C:Either way, we would love to hear it.
Speaker C:Juliette, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker D:You're welcome.
Speaker D:Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker C:And we will see you again in a couple of weeks.
Speaker C:You have tri cities left on the calendar this year.
Speaker D:I have tri cities as I'm also doing USAT Nationals mid August in Milwaukee.
Speaker D:So that's short course draft legal triathlon.
Speaker D:So very different energy zone, very different bike, very different race tactics, the whole thing.
Speaker D:So I will do that in Milwaukee in a bid to qualify for short course worlds next year.
Speaker D:I did punch my ticket for 70.3 worlds for next year.
Speaker D:So it could be an interesting year with both of those events on the calendar.
Speaker D:So we'll see how that goes.
Speaker C:If you would you short course draft legal means Kings road bike.
Speaker D:Correct.
Speaker D:So the way the USAT USA Triathlon does this now and they've evolved over the last 10 years is they actually have a nationals event on a TT bike where it is non draft legal.
Speaker D:And they do take athletes from that in every age group and send them to draft legal world and they also.
Speaker C:Have a wait non draft legal and they'll take you to draft legal.
Speaker C:Oh, okay.
Speaker D:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker D:And then they have a draft legal sprint event as well at their national championships where they also take athletes from that and send them to the single race at worlds.
Speaker D:So Worlds only has one sprint distance race and is draft legal.
Speaker D:So but at nationals in the United States you can qualify in either sprint event.
Speaker D:Then there's also an Olympic event and you can qualify for Olympic worlds at that event too.
Speaker D:So I am happy.
Speaker D:So I am actually going to race both sprint Nationals events, but I'm not going to take two bikes.
Speaker D:I'm going to take my road bike and race the draft legal event and then I'm going to slap on some arrow bars and race the non draft.
Speaker C:Legal event two days later experience I get.
Speaker D:I mean, why just I'm going out there, I was spending the money, I might as well go ahead and do it.
Speaker D:I don't expect to do very well in the draft the non draft legal event race.
Speaker D:But it's, you know, it's just good experience for all the other things, the transitions, a fast swim, getting out early, all of those things because it's very different racing when it's draft legal.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker D:It's all about the swim and it's all about the bike pack and then it's just whoever can run the fastest if you get the first two parts right.
Speaker D:So it's, it's a different experience altogether.
Speaker C:We'll have to talk about that another time because I think it would make for an interesting segment for people because I get the emails all the time about the short course stuff.
Speaker C:And I was talking to our friend Kelly recently who was suggesting it might be something to consider for me to switch to the short course stuff.
Speaker C:I do not have that top level speed that I could probably improve my top level speed if I wasn't training for longer stuff, but I don't know that I could get to that kind of speed.
Speaker C:But at any rate, I don't even have a clue.
Speaker C:I ride in packs occasionally, but I wouldn't have a clue how to do.
Speaker C:So I look at some of the people on bikes in our races and I shudder to think of them in a draft legal race.
Speaker D:Well, that's the whole thing in the United States.
Speaker D:There's not a lot of draft legal triathlon racing.
Speaker D:There is in other countries.
Speaker D:And so when those age group athletes show up for worlds, they really know what they're doing better than Americans do.
Speaker D: And I, I did race Worlds in: Speaker D:And I love it.
Speaker D:It's very dynamic.
Speaker D:It's very.
Speaker D:You have to be.
Speaker D:You, you can't be shy about taking charge of wherever you are because you have to assume that everybody else doesn't know what they're doing and you really do prep for it by doing bike racing if you can do crits.
Speaker D:I have a young athlete in Boston right now who is doing.
Speaker D:Has qualified for worlds in a sort of a funny way.
Speaker D:And she's going off to do worlds and so her whole assignment this whole year has been find group rides, find local races, learn how to ride in a pack, you know, because that's what she's going to have to do to be able to ride safely and effectively at short course worlds.
Speaker D:So it's really, it's really different and it's really fun.
Speaker D:I mean, it's very, very dynamic.
Speaker D:And they usually have very twisty, turny courses.
Speaker D:They're very urban often.
Speaker D:Actually the one in Milwaukee is not.
Speaker D:But like the one in Montreal was, the one in Penticton was, the one in Rotterdam was.
Speaker D:So they're, they're a different beast and it is a different skill set.
Speaker D:And if you're looking for something different that's fast and furious and you're done in an hour and 15 minutes, try Joe, try it out.
Speaker D:Yeah, we can talk about it more after I do it, but it'll be fun.
Speaker C:All right, well, that's what we got for you today.
Speaker C:We hope you enjoyed the segment.
Speaker C:We'll be back in a couple of weeks with another Question.
Speaker C:And until then, have a good time training.
Speaker C:Juliet, get back to you.
Speaker D:Thanks.
Speaker D:You too.
Speaker E:All right, I will.
Speaker D:You as well.
Speaker D:Okay, bye.
Speaker C:I say this all the time, but it's always true.
Speaker C:I'm always excited about my guests on the podcast.
Speaker C:And once again, I'm excited about my guest on this episode of the program.
Speaker C:And the reason for that is that I came to meet Tom Shear in a very unique way.
Speaker C:It was while standing in the starting chute for the swim at the 70.3 Ironman race in Victoria, British Columbia.
Speaker C:I guess that would have been about six weeks ago.
Speaker C:Now we're recording this in early July, or, sorry, late June.
Speaker C:And I was there, standing there, and I was nerves as excitement as we're getting ready for the beginning of this race.
Speaker C:And this very tall gentleman was standing next to me and we struck up a conversation and I began to learn just a little bit about Tom Shear.
Speaker C:And what I learned fascinated me.
Speaker C:And I, within about five minutes, said, tom, you've got to be a guest on my podcast.
Speaker C:And he agreed.
Speaker C:And so here we are talking.
Speaker C:So who is Tom Shear?
Speaker C:Tom?
Speaker C:He sent me this lovely biography.
Speaker C:I couldn't possibly do it justice, so I'm not even going to try.
Speaker C:I do want to just read one thing that he said because it really struck a chord with me.
Speaker C:He said he joined his local Boys and Girls club on his seventh birthday and spent the next 12 years there.
Speaker C:More than any school, team or job, the club shaped his work ethic, entrepreneurial spirit, commitment to service, and lifelong love of competition.
Speaker C:Those lessons would become the foundation for everything that followed.
Speaker C:And I think that is really prescient because those kinds of things that can happen to you when you're a child can have really profound impacts.
Speaker C:And clearly they did on Tom and have informed everything that he's done.
Speaker C:Tom Shear, welcome to the Tridoc Podcast.
Speaker C:I'm really excited to talk to you and have my listeners here.
Speaker C:The journey that you've been on and what you've accomplished while doing it.
Speaker C:Welcome to the Tridarch podcast.
Speaker A:Thank you, Dr. Jeff.
Speaker A:I'm excited to be here.
Speaker A:We did meet at Victoria, and you saved me from getting hit in the head by a sign that was falling over next door.
Speaker C:That's right.
Speaker C:I'd forgotten about that.
Speaker C:That's right, Tom.
Speaker B:When we talked, you were deep in.
Speaker C:The throes of doing something that seemed a little bit crazy and that was trying to set a world record.
Speaker C:And what record was it that you were trying to set?
Speaker C:And I understand you've now accomplished it, what was it that you were doing and what, what set you to doing that?
Speaker A:The record is the most 113 kilometer or 70.3 mile, obviously half Ironman distance triathlon races in one year.
Speaker A:So there's a slight difference.
Speaker A:You can do the most at your local YMCA or in your backyard.
Speaker A:That's a different record.
Speaker A:But I did the record for the most races in a year.
Speaker A:The record was 24, set by a guy named Michael Mendoza.
Speaker A:And there was also a pair of brothers who I saw that they had done in 26.
Speaker A:So my goal was always to first beat Michael, get the official Guinness record, and then beat the brothers and set a new Guinness World Record.
Speaker A:So when I met you, I had just two weeks prior done 25.
Speaker A:And so I had beat Michael.
Speaker A:I hadn't submitted yet, and I waited for another couple of races and submitted after Onondaga man in Jamesville, New York, May 30th.
Speaker A:So officially May 30th, I was listed on the Guinness World Record website for having the most 70.3 races in a year.
Speaker A:Fast forward a few weeks after that.
Speaker A:I'm now at 28.
Speaker A:And we'll resubmit a new Guinness World Record here soon.
Speaker A:Hopefully we get it to 30, 31.
Speaker A:That's the goal.
Speaker B:Is it within a 12 month rolling.
Speaker C:Period or is it beginning January?
Speaker A:365 Days.
Speaker A:So my first period would be May 31st to May 30th, and then my second period will be August 2nd to August 1st.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker A:So there's some overlap, but the overlap's allowed.
Speaker A:But there's some overlap.
Speaker A:And so the.
Speaker A:One of the frustrating things is like I've done five and only two of them have increased the number because three of them just replaced three from the previous year.
Speaker A:So I'm just racing and racing.
Speaker C:So what set you to doing this?
Speaker C:What was it that got you to wake up one morning and say, I need to do this?
Speaker A:When I turned 50, I said, I'm gonna do 50 races when I turn 50.
Speaker A:And I did that.
Speaker A:I did some 5Ks and 10Ks.
Speaker A:You do things like the dopey at Disney, which I love.
Speaker A:You do three races in a weekend.
Speaker A:So it was pretty efficient, but I really loved it.
Speaker A:And somewhere along the way, one of my friends asked me, what are you going to do next?
Speaker A:And I was like, I have no idea.
Speaker A:And then I read an article that said the record for the most half Ironmans in a year was 24.
Speaker A:And I said, that's easy, I can do that.
Speaker A:I'm doing 50 this year and 70.
Speaker A:I think it's going to take me 67 races and three years to beat this record of 24.
Speaker A:So it was not nearly as easy as I thought.
Speaker A:It's been kicking my butt.
Speaker A:We've had several injuries, things like that, but I just saw a challenge and said, man, that's something I can do, or at least I can try.
Speaker A:And we did it and are still doing it now.
Speaker C:I often talk about triathlon being a very selfish sport, but one that requires an incredible support team.
Speaker C:And you apparently have quite the team around you.
Speaker C:Your wife, Dr. Yolandra Hancock.
Speaker C:I hope I'm pronouncing correctly.
Speaker C:She's a physician.
Speaker C:What kind of physician is she?
Speaker D:She.
Speaker A:She's an obesity doc and also a pediatrician, so she's double board certified.
Speaker A:Badass.
Speaker B:Wonderful.
Speaker C:And then you have four kids.
Speaker B:Devon, Rain, Talon, and Amara.
Speaker C:Lovely names.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker C:And how old are they?
Speaker A:In their 30s.
Speaker A:And then Amara is 13.
Speaker A:I also have a godson who I'm helping to raise named Eli.
Speaker A:I have a bracelet with all five names that I always have on me.
Speaker A:So I have my godson as well.
Speaker A:Eli.
Speaker A:His.
Speaker A:His dad, my best friend, passed away when he was one.
Speaker A:Part of why I moved to the Maryland area was to be closer to Eli.
Speaker C:Ah, okay.
Speaker C:So tell me what they think about all of this and how they've been involved, if they have.
Speaker A:Eli is.
Speaker A:He's 8, so he just.
Speaker A:He celebrates everything.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So he.
Speaker A:He loves to hear about my races and what I've done.
Speaker A:Amara is a teenager, and so she goes to the races and kind of gives me the I'm a teen and I'm on my phone face, but she always tells me, good job and gives me a big smile and a high five.
Speaker A:Even in her team coolness, she's real supportive.
Speaker A:And then my oldest three have been to many races.
Speaker A:They actually came to two.
Speaker A:There's been two times that I've done two half Ironmans in a weekend.
Speaker A:So one Saturday, one Sunday, and they've come to both sets of those races to help support me.
Speaker A:One Anvil in Florida, and then I did the Patriot half in Massachusetts, and my friend Zsa Zsa did that race and then drove me to Maryland so I could sleep in the car and did Eagle man.
Speaker A:And my kids were there for Eagle man, so they've just been really supportive.
Speaker A:In fact, my back forever ago.
Speaker A:And the first time I did Iron Man Florida, when you could have a family member maybe run with you, my son volunteered at the finish line.
Speaker A: Florida's finish line back in: Speaker A:So Devin has been helping me with triathlons for 19 years.
Speaker A:He's also run the Dopey with me and the Peace Tree Road race and some other stuff.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So they support me in different ways.
Speaker A:My daughter will bake me something awesome and give me a high five.
Speaker A:And she's the tough talk, pep talk person.
Speaker A:She's like, dad, stop effing around and get.
Speaker A:Let's get this record done.
Speaker A:She's the tough angel on my family affair.
Speaker C:It's a family.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Everybody's involved.
Speaker A:Mom's involved, the wife's involved.
Speaker A:And I'll tell you one I said, I've been doing this for three years.
Speaker A: The first attempt was: Speaker A:They canceled the swimming.
Speaker A:A second race I got disqualified for wearing a GoPro.
Speaker A:And then the third race, I got in a bike wreck and wrecked my knee.
Speaker A:And I was all the way down in Miami and my wife and I had been dating about five months at that time.
Speaker A:And she came with me and she drove me all the way back from Miami all the way to Maryland.
Speaker A:She doesn't like long distance driving, but there was no way I could.
Speaker A:So she's literally been supporting me through all three attempts.
Speaker A:She made me take two weekends off so we could get married and have a honeymoon.
Speaker A:And then I went right back to racing.
Speaker A:So wow.
Speaker A:She's been super supportive.
Speaker C:At least she knew what she was getting into.
Speaker A:She did.
Speaker A:I made this goal before I met her.
Speaker A:I think that's the only thing that has saved me.
Speaker A:And she's got to go to Oman and Panama and some other cool places too.
Speaker A:So she's also getting some good benefit.
Speaker B:Okay, go.
Speaker C:I wanted to ask about that.
Speaker C:You've done now so many of these events.
Speaker C:What are some of the ones that sort of stand out as ones you would recommend for others to try?
Speaker A:Anvil.
Speaker A:I love the Anvil races.
Speaker C:They so Anvil.
Speaker C:I'm not familiar with that.
Speaker A:It's a smaller organization and they do looped based long distance races like Anvil Florida.
Speaker A:The run course is a one mile course.
Speaker A:You do 13 laps of the course for a half.
Speaker A:The swim course is a third of a mile so you'll do four laps or a half, etc.
Speaker A:But they're small and contained.
Speaker A:I said, my kids came to that one.
Speaker A:So we had our own tent.
Speaker A:Anvil gives everyone their own tent.
Speaker A:Your own aid station.
Speaker A:They do supply stuff.
Speaker A:But being able to see your family every Mile on the run, being able to see you every five miles on the bike, being able to see you every third of a mile on the swim is really cool.
Speaker A:And it's really interactive for families.
Speaker A:And so I love that one just because your family really can be involved.
Speaker A:It's very different than when they see you once every three hours as you pass by on the run or on the bike one time.
Speaker C:Yeah, that is interesting.
Speaker C:Now, I imagine they have to limit participant numbers just because.
Speaker C:Yeah, they're on the bike course.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker A:20, 30 People races.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker A:They also stagger them.
Speaker A:So it'll be like a three day event.
Speaker A:Like, I did a half on Friday, there was a full on Saturday.
Speaker A:And then it was also folks doing a, a double or a 4x iron man.
Speaker A:So they would go out there and swim eight miles, bike 200 miles, and then run like 80 miles, things like that.
Speaker C:So on the plus side, you're seeing your family every mile.
Speaker C:On the downside, that takes a certain amount of mental for it is a different to run the same loop that many times.
Speaker A:It's very different.
Speaker A:So I like those because it's unique and we don't normally do races like that.
Speaker A:Plus your family's right there.
Speaker A:So literally.
Speaker C:No, definitely.
Speaker C:I could totally see the upside to that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I, for me, I love that because I've been racing so much, it became a family affair.
Speaker A:And then I love Cozumel.
Speaker A:I love the.
Speaker A:The full there.
Speaker A:It's hard, it's.
Speaker A:The swim's nice, the water's clear.
Speaker A:You get distracted by fish and all that, but there's stuff stinging you.
Speaker A:And then you do the bike and it's windy.
Speaker A:It's three loops of just relentless wind.
Speaker A:And then there's no tailwind on the way back.
Speaker A:It's hot.
Speaker A:It's a long trip to Mexico.
Speaker A:There was giant spiders in the tree and I'm scared of spiders, so a spider scared me to death.
Speaker A:My beard was black before I saw that stupid spider at Cosmo.
Speaker A:But I do love that race.
Speaker A:It's another one where it's a cool destination.
Speaker A:The people are amazing.
Speaker A:I like the island.
Speaker A:I've raced that race four times.
Speaker A:Did not finish twice.
Speaker A:Finished twice.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So it's not like I have a great history at that race, so to speak.
Speaker A:But I love, love, love that race.
Speaker A:I've always had a blast there.
Speaker A:And then the other one is Coeur d'.
Speaker A:Alene.
Speaker A:Beautiful, fresh air, really nice people.
Speaker A:Coeur d' Alene is really cool.
Speaker A:Plus, I wear a kilt when I race.
Speaker A:Fools and they have a bagpipe band there every year.
Speaker A:So it's always kind of cool to hear the pipes during Ironman.
Speaker A:So that's another one I got a soft spot for.
Speaker B:You mentioned Oman.
Speaker C:Have you done the half there?
Speaker C:Because world championships will be in Oman in 29.
Speaker A:I went to do the race again in multiple injuries, so I injured my knee with my wife.
Speaker A:I also on her birthday, I did Louisville on Saturday and then on Sunday, or Sunday, whatever day it was.
Speaker A:The next day we went hiking and I tore my rotator cuff and I could not lift my arm above my chest and did a bunch of rehab and got it where I could still race.
Speaker A:But then in January I had prp, which like all that stuff you do to your body and I couldn't do anything.
Speaker A:But I went to Oman hoping I would be strong enough.
Speaker A:And I was not strong enough yet.
Speaker A:I did not feel safe swimming, but I went to the race.
Speaker A:I've had friends that have done the race.
Speaker A:The water's beautiful and I walked the course and I cheer lit, cheerlead all day.
Speaker A:So the water's beautiful.
Speaker A:The bike course is really nice.
Speaker A:Kind of safe on a highway though.
Speaker A:It's hot, man.
Speaker A:It's the desert, Jack.
Speaker A:You're gonna be hot.
Speaker A:But I've had friends that have done Oman and I want to go back and do it, but I did travel to it.
Speaker A:Everything was booked.
Speaker A:I tried swimming in the hotel pool.
Speaker A:I did not feel safe.
Speaker A:So that's one of the ones I backed out on.
Speaker C:Okay, all right.
Speaker A:But you did one of my very few DNS.
Speaker A:I usually start, but that was one of my very few did not starts in my life.
Speaker C:But you did have a good experience in the country.
Speaker C:I've heard a lot of good things about it.
Speaker A:And to rewind in my life a little bit.
Speaker A:I was in the navy.
Speaker A:Our ship pulled in there twice.
Speaker A:And so when I was with my wife, I was like, I remember this souk.
Speaker A:I remember this thing.
Speaker A:I remember that thing I had.
Speaker A:I was a firefighter and I had taught the Oman navy how to fight fires.
Speaker A:And so just all these great memories of walking around.
Speaker A:And it actually worked out because again, a lot of these times I travel with my wife to spend more time, but she ends up seeing places and I end up sleeping or racing.
Speaker A:So I was actually able to spend a lot of time with my wife at that race.
Speaker A:It was really good.
Speaker A:Didn't race, but had a really nice quick vacation.
Speaker B:So what itch is the scratching for you, Tom?
Speaker C:You seem to be a very fulfilled Guy, you have a lot going on reading your biography, you are very busy, you do a lot of things and yet you continually come back to this despite you've described quite a few injuries and you continue to pursue this.
Speaker C:What itches is scratching.
Speaker A:There's not again, as you read so kindly, I love the Boys and Girls Club.
Speaker A:I love sports because of the Boys and Girls Club.
Speaker A:There is a place in my heart that when there's a clock and a scoreboard or so I am, that is my Zen space, man, I don't have to beat everyone else and try to destroy the world.
Speaker A:It's not that kind of competition.
Speaker A:It's like I love team sports.
Speaker A:I just love being out there and doing.
Speaker A:I played table tennis when I was a little kid and went to the Junior Olympics and got a gold medal and a bronze medal in ping pong.
Speaker A:And from that time, man, sports has always been a great equalizer to me.
Speaker A:I've also faced some racism and just some crazy stuff in my life that people haven't always treated me fairly.
Speaker A:And one of the things I've been sharing I went to a doctor when I was a college president and the doctor said hey man, you don't look like a college president.
Speaker A:Such a weird thing to say to a potential client.
Speaker A:And I left his office.
Speaker A:But I've always been doubted my whole life.
Speaker A:And the scoreboard is fair, the scoreboard is impartial.
Speaker A:The Ironman clock, either you made 17 hours or you didn't.
Speaker A:Either you finished or you didn't.
Speaker A:And I love that.
Speaker A:It is something that drives me to continually to prove to myself that I can do the next thing.
Speaker A:It's a happy place for me.
Speaker A:It's a joyful place for me.
Speaker A:I love being out there racing.
Speaker A:I've during, during these 70 something events that I've done in the last three years I've helped a number of people fix a tire, fix a broken chain, help on the side of the road.
Speaker A:And I love that stuff too.
Speaker A:It's helping other people achieve their dreams.
Speaker A:It's giving people advice, doing free bike maintenance for folks I used to work at when they had physical Bike Nash Bar stores.
Speaker A:A billion years ago I was a mechanic at a Bike Nash Bar and so just helping people.
Speaker A:I have a spreadsheet that I've shared with a bunch of people to help them get ready for race day with like a checklist of all the things you need to bring and how to organize and, and you name it.
Speaker A:And so the community of triathlon is amazing for that stuff and So I love giving back.
Speaker A:So it's a combination of, again, a lot of boys and girls club stuff, of giving back, of competing, of making the world a better place every day in little small ways.
Speaker A:It's all of that.
Speaker A:And triathlon has been.
Speaker A:I realized back in March that I had been doing this 20 years, and I've been a triathlete longer than I was a boxer or a hockey player or a football player or a swimmer.
Speaker A:And it blows my mind.
Speaker A:And I love giving back to this community that's given me so much for the last 20 years.
Speaker C:That's fantastic.
Speaker C:And you mentioned something that I want to go back to for a second because I've had guests on this program over the six years that I've been doing this program to talk about the fact that triathlon remains, unfortunately, a sport.
Speaker C:It is a very niche sport, in part because it requires a certain degree of affluence, in part because it requires swimming, which historically in the United States has not been a welcoming place for the black community.
Speaker C:It is a sport that is not particularly friendly to certain immigrant communities because of issues related to sun exposure, things like that.
Speaker C:I've had Asian men come on the program and talk about why there are not so many Asian women, for example, in the sport.
Speaker C:And so I have spoken with people from the black community, from different immigrant communities about what is it that we can do to try and make triathlon more welcoming?
Speaker C:What is it that we can do to try and make the bar to entry a little bit lower?
Speaker C:And I wonder, from your perspective, number one, you've talked so glowingly about the triathlon community.
Speaker C:Have you yourself felt welcomed and have you ever experienced any of that racism that you've experienced in the rest of your life?
Speaker C:And the second part of that question is, what do you think we can do to make the sport more welcoming to your community and to other communities at large that maybe are underrepresented?
Speaker C:Because unfortunately, we know triathlon remains predominantly a white male sport.
Speaker A:It is.
Speaker A:It is.
Speaker A:Over the last 20 years, I've seen an evolution of triathlon, which I'm very happy about.
Speaker A:One of the simple things I like to say is it used to be there weren't that many women on the course, and a woman would pass you on the bike and you would see a dude who's still trying to make his high school basketball team, who's still angry about everything and get mad that the woman passed him and try to pass her back, and they get in this weird passing battle, and he's just being A jerk when she's just trying to have a good race.
Speaker A:I don't see that anymore.
Speaker A:At least not as prevalent as I used to.
Speaker A:It's won once a race maybe, but it's never all day like it used to be.
Speaker A:The other thing I used to see would be I'd be the only black person at any race that I went to, especially when I first started, especially the longer distances.
Speaker A:And I've seen communities like the Black Triathlete association and things like that reach out.
Speaker A:And there used to be a mindset of, why do they have to have their own black club?
Speaker A:And it's not our own black club.
Speaker A:There's plenty of others in the club.
Speaker A:My mom is a white woman with Scottish heritage.
Speaker A:She's in that club.
Speaker A:What it does is when you go, man, I have.
Speaker A:I don't have.
Speaker A:But when people have dreads, different unique black hair, you have now a place you can go, hey, what swim cap do you guys use?
Speaker A:Our skin reacts differently to chlorine and lotion and things like what lotions do you use to help help revitalize your skin?
Speaker A:For black women, they have a whole different hair care regimen than many other types of women.
Speaker A:So it gave us a place to share and support and really help each other out.
Speaker A:And I think that other communities, white community, etc, have seen bta, Black Triathlete association groups like that and have embraced them.
Speaker A:Instead of going, why are you by yourself?
Speaker A:They go, hey, what can we do to help you?
Speaker A:Which I love.
Speaker A:So I've seen that change over the 20 years of triathlon as well.
Speaker A:I have faced the.
Speaker A:You do triathlon?
Speaker A:Because I'm 6, 3, 300 and now.
Speaker A:And that's in the beginning, right?
Speaker A:And now I was like, man, that dude does triathlon.
Speaker A:And people are more impressed with larger athletes being able to do it than scoffing at larger athletes.
Speaker A:So acceptance is working its way through I think all aspects of the community, but there are just some things we have to get past.
Speaker A:I have friends who started swimming groups to help black kids learn to swim.
Speaker A:I have about 70 backpacks from all these races.
Speaker A:I'm a fill them with sporting equipment, goggles, swimsuits, stuff like that, and pass them out to Boys and Girls Club kids to help them become better swimmers.
Speaker A:The guy who taught me to swim was a guy named Ernie Thomas from the Boys and Girls Club.
Speaker A:So making sure there's resources like Ernie out there helping people learn to swim would be great.
Speaker A:But I feel good about the trajectory of where acceptance is going.
Speaker A:It's Hard when bikes cost $7,000 and the race isn't in your backyard and the entry fee is 400 bucks and you got to drive four hours.
Speaker A:So that barrier, to me it's the same barrier as golf.
Speaker A:Golf's just expensive.
Speaker A:I don't play golf right now because I'm doing triathlon.
Speaker A:I can't do both of those expensive sports at the same time.
Speaker A:So I've made sacrifices to do triathlon.
Speaker A:I have fixed, I don't know how many bikes I used to in Black Star Athlete association find old bikes, fix them up and give them away and do free repairs for people.
Speaker A:So I've tried to make the barrier to entry lower.
Speaker A:I've bought people tri suits.
Speaker A:I've bought people race entries and not just black star athletes.
Speaker A:The first race entry I bought was for a dude named Blake.
Speaker A:We used to race short races together in Atlanta.
Speaker A:And he's a big dude too.
Speaker A:And I always wanted him to do a full and he had posted for the inaugural Ironman Texas.
Speaker A:Hey, can anybody let me borrow 500 bucks to enter Texas?
Speaker A:And I just bought it for him and sent it to him and he was pretty excited and gave me a big hug at the finish line when we finished.
Speaker A:So I think there's ways to give back and help when you're in a position to do so.
Speaker A:I'm going to give away some, a couple of free entries to Anvil races.
Speaker A:So for you, for if you have a couple listeners that want to enter an Anvil race, I'll buy a couple entries for them.
Speaker A:So I think people, if you do things like that and just give back and find ways to help people, that's the way to do it.
Speaker A:And then the other thing is to be accepting and not judgmental.
Speaker A:Judge not let you be judged.
Speaker A:I think if you just don't judge other folks and just up flip them, you'd be surprised what some of these folks could do.
Speaker A:I think I learned that lesson at my very first marathon.
Speaker A:I did the Marine Corps marathon and this little old lady at mile 23 just chugged on by me.
Speaker A:70 Something little beat me to the finish.
Speaker A:I was like, man, I got smoked by that old lady.
Speaker A:And I wasn't mad.
Speaker A:They were like, man, she runs this race every year.
Speaker A:She's never not finished.
Speaker A:She's amazing.
Speaker A:Like I, I underestimated her.
Speaker A:And I've always remembered not to underestimate anybody because that little old lady smoked me when I was a, that's when I was an all American boxer in college.
Speaker A:I could run Jack, but That little old lady smoked me.
Speaker C:Age is just a number for some people, right?
Speaker A:Yeah, man, for sure.
Speaker C:I love everything that you said.
Speaker C:I think that it is so very true.
Speaker C:There are ways that we can all individually impact others in the sport.
Speaker C:I myself have a lot of things sitting around that I don't use anymore.
Speaker C:And you're giving me ideas about how to leverage this podcast to try and help give back to people so that they can find a way to get entry into this sport.
Speaker C:Because I have encountered people.
Speaker C:I was out running in the park and a young kid came up to me and started asking me about.
Speaker C:He noticed I was wearing a triathlon shirt and started asking me about triathlons.
Speaker C:And he, like a college kid.
Speaker C:And I. I started telling him how much some of the things cost, and he was just like, oh, my.
Speaker C:I didn't realize all of that.
Speaker C:And I was like, yeah, it's expensive sport to get into, but it doesn't have to.
Speaker C:The problem is you show up, right, and you go into transition that first time, and it's like, we all know.
Speaker C:We've all been there.
Speaker A:I did my first triathlon in the shoes that I had on the mountain bike that I had with the long sleeve T shirt because I felt like it looked kind of like a bike jersey.
Speaker A:And I. I swam in my swim trunks and I used those on the bike.
Speaker A:I had no padding on the bike.
Speaker A:And my.
Speaker A:My wetsuit was an old scuba suit that I had for my Navy days.
Speaker A:So, yeah, it cost me about maybe 100 bucks plus gas for my first triathlon.
Speaker C:Now, in going through your biography, I noticed that you and I share another race in common, not just the Victoria race from about a month ago.
Speaker C: ou and I were both in Kona in: Speaker C:Seems like a lifetime ago, but, man, what a great day that was.
Speaker C:I had.
Speaker C:That was my first of two visits to the Big island.
Speaker C:And it was a spectacular day for me, something that I had never thought would happen, and yet it did.
Speaker C:And I fondly remember every detail, every painful detail in a lot of them.
Speaker C:But tell me about your day that day in Hawaii.
Speaker A:I had chased Kona for 12 years at that point.
Speaker A:I entered the lottery every year.
Speaker A:I've had friends that went to the lottery, and I kept trying to go, Thomas entered the lottery.
Speaker A:I'm like, I have so many times.
Speaker A:And I knew people whose friend bought them a lottery ticket as a joke, and they got in and I'm just like, oh, my God.
Speaker A:But I had seen that race on TV when I Was a kid at the Boys and Girls Club and said, I'm always gonna.
Speaker A:I'm gonna do that race once day.
Speaker A:And it was a weight loss journey for me.
Speaker A:I had owned a pizza restaurant and was £350.
Speaker A:And that's how I got into try.
Speaker A:But the goal always was to try to go to Kona.
Speaker A: I got a little discouraged in: Speaker A:I didn't know how I was going to get there, but I kept trying.
Speaker A:And then they announced a Legacy program.
Speaker A:And this is the first time I started doing a psychotic amount of races per year.
Speaker A:I basically signed up for every ironman that I could.
Speaker A:Was working full time to get five more so that I could get in through legacy.
Speaker A:And it took about.
Speaker A:I think it took nine because I had a couple DNFs along the way and blah, blah, blah.
Speaker A: But I got legacy for: Speaker A:I had done.
Speaker A:I think it was Ohio race, it wasn't Sandusky.
Speaker A:I think it was a different highway.
Speaker A:So I'm just not remembering the race off the top of my head.
Speaker A: would you like to move up to: Speaker A:I said, Absolutely.
Speaker A:And quit my job and train full time for Kona.
Speaker A:I was ready to go, they were ready for me to go.
Speaker A:Wasn't a great fit, so it was all good.
Speaker A:But I quit my job and trained for Kona full time.
Speaker A:Man, it was amazing.
Speaker A:And so I was in the best shape that I had been in probably 10 years, training every day.
Speaker A:I lived in St. Louis.
Speaker A:I was running along the Mississippi every day, swimming at the local Y.
Speaker A:And everything in life's a bittersweet.
Speaker A:I bought tickets for.
Speaker A:I had a credit card that I've been saving for years because I didn't have a lot of money.
Speaker A:I was like, if I ever get into Kona, this, the plane tickets that.
Speaker A:Everything is going on this credit card and I'll just pay it off off.
Speaker A:And so mom, the kids rented a house.
Speaker A:My friend Alexis came.
Speaker A:She had saved my race at North Carolina, and I brought her as my Sherpa to Hawaii.
Speaker A:My best friend was coming and he passed away two days after my birthday, about a month before Kona.
Speaker A:So my birthday's the 19th.
Speaker A:He passed away on the 17th.
Speaker A:And then I was supposed to leave for Kona on the 25th.
Speaker A:I was going two weeks early and just had to wait, go to his funeral and go to the island.
Speaker A:And maybe I was sad, man, going to Kona, it was Just bittersweet.
Speaker A:I lost my best friend.
Speaker A:Part of why he's my best friend.
Speaker A:But he was also captain of the swim team in high school and that's how I met him.
Speaker A:So swimming was our bond.
Speaker A:I put his initials on my bike, put a shark on my bike in tribute to him, and had the second fastest Ironman swim time I'd ever had in my life.
Speaker A:Swam my heart out for Charles and it worked out great.
Speaker A:Had a great bike.
Speaker A:I got to the top of Havi and my friends are waiting on me.
Speaker A:I said I was like, I'm nervous.
Speaker A:They're like, what?
Speaker A:I stopped just talking for 15 seconds.
Speaker A:I'm nervous.
Speaker A:They're like, why?
Speaker A:I'm like, because it's going great.
Speaker A:I'm so nervous that something's not going to continue to go great.
Speaker A:But got the hobby and then boogied on down, got on the run, really enjoyed myself.
Speaker A:And I forget his name and I feel bad that I don't remember his name.
Speaker A:But you will remember.
Speaker A:We had the Japanese guy who was 70 something, set the record.
Speaker A:Yeah, I ran with him.
Speaker A:I ran with him for two miles, which is amazing.
Speaker A:We were just running and we were talking a lot.
Speaker A:We just pacing and handing water cups and just being together right in the energy lab and just being hot.
Speaker A:And so I got to run with this super famous dude.
Speaker A:I met this woman named JP who I had raced with before.
Speaker A:She was out there, her mom was out there.
Speaker A:Her mom was like 90.
Speaker A:And so I was hanging with her mom at the banquet and all this stuff.
Speaker A:I just met all these great people and just had the best time, man, and had the second fastest Ironman that I ever had in my life.
Speaker C:Life good place to do that.
Speaker A:Hell, yeah.
Speaker A:Strategically, I had my friend Alexis volunteer at the finish line, so she got to give me my lay.
Speaker A:I had my mom, my son volunteer at the metal stand.
Speaker A:So my son put my medal around my neck.
Speaker A:And if you know at Kona, they sign you in and mark you off.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:My mom was the one who signed me in as official finisher for Kona.
Speaker A:So all these people that have been supporting me also got touch points along the way of the Kona finisher.
Speaker A:So it was just absolutely amazing.
Speaker A:I took everyone to a luau the next night and we just had the best time, man.
Speaker A:And I was just so happy.
Speaker C:That's a great story.
Speaker C:I love that story.
Speaker C: n I returned to the island in: Speaker C:The men and women were on different days.
Speaker C:And my friend had raised my friend had raced in the women's race and she and her husband volunteered at the finish line and so when I finished they were waiting for me and got to put my lei and isn't that amazing?
Speaker A:Like there's your friend.
Speaker A:Oh so good.
Speaker C:Didn't know they were gonna be there and it was won.
Speaker A:Wonderful.
Speaker A:So good.
Speaker A:That's cool man.
Speaker C:Tom, I'm so glad that I got to meet you.
Speaker C:I am even happier that I got to chat with you for a little while here on the podcast today.
Speaker C:Certainly it has been a fantastic conversation.
Speaker C:You really are a remarkable individual.
Speaker C:I know my listeners are going to have enjoyed hearing our conversation.
Speaker C:Tom Shear has the world record according to the Guinness Book in terms of the number of 70.3 distance races done in a 365 day period.
Speaker C:A record that he continues to try and expand on by doing more and more races, if you can believe it.
Speaker C:If you want to know more about the Anvil series, I will have the link in the show notes.
Speaker C:And yeah, check out the Boys and Girls Club.
Speaker C:It's a very worthy organization.
Speaker C:If you have one in your area and you're looking for something to be a volunteer with or to donate to, they are very worthy organization.
Speaker C:Organization.
Speaker C:Tom Shear, it's been a real pleasure.
Speaker C:Thank you so much for joining me on the Try Podcast.
Speaker A:Have a beautiful day.
Speaker E:Hi, I'm Sam Sankoff and I'm the proud editor of the Tridock Podcast.
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