Ironman Terry Heidt Joggles Marathon
This was briefly mentioned in the recent post, Latest Happenings in the Joggling World, but you might be interested in some more details.
The story was created using a combination of emails with Terry and the attached newspaper story.
The first Ironman Joggler
Terry Heidt made joggling history when he joggled the marathon leg of the Ironman Canada. The Ironman race requires athletes to swim 2.4 miles (3.8 km), bike 112 miles (180 km) and then run a marathon.
In an interview before the race, Heidt said growing up in Penticton, Canada, witnessing and volunteering for the Ironman Canada races year after year made him feel obligated to compete. As for the juggling, Heidt said he has a “tendency to push things one step further.”
This was Heidt’s first Ironman (and first triathlon). His goal was 14 hours.
“It (joggling) takes up so much energy,” said Heidt, “It’s like running for twice as long.”
Learning to joggle
Heidt taught himself to juggle 14 years ago and occasionally teaches children to juggle. His joggling 
resume includes the 10K Sun Run in Vancouver and a 5K joggle in Penticton.
In training, Heidt juggles every run. He said he had been juggling for years but only started joggling recently due to knee pain from running. He figured since he couldn’t run as fast he would add joggling.
“You get into kind of a trance. It’s kind of like meditating while you’re exercising.”
He believed that joggling through the aid stations would be the toughest part. According to Terry he’s been “practicing taking in gel and fluids with one hand while juggling 2 in the other and the third ball goes in a pocket till after transition.”
After race report
Terry got back to us after he finished the race. Here’s his thoughts on how it went.
“The joggle was intense and it took 5.5 hrs to complete the marathon portion, 14hr15min total.”
“What made the Ironman joggle tough was that I was exhausted when beginning the marathon so instead of looking past the balls and looking ahead, I needed to focus the whole way. I managed to ‘run’ the whole way, though I prefer to call it ‘the Ironman shuffle’ which more like a glorified trot but not a walk. I found that the balls got really sticky from gels and Gatorade, adding an extra challenge. Thankfully, there was intermittent rain which, when raining, made them less sticky (but slippery).”
Congratulations Terry!! You are the first Ironman Joggler.
Anyone else want to give it a try?
This Post Has 5 Comments
No wa y dude! After swimming 2.4 and being arrow for 112 miles, my arms wouldn’t have the strength to joggle 🙂
arrow? LOL. I meant aero of course… 😉
That’s awesome. I recently got into the swimming and biking part of a triathlon a little over a year of joggling in front of 5 years of running. I’m probably going to start with sprint triathlons at first, but this inspires me to go further and do more joggling.
If swimming and juggling got together and had a love child, it would be named Swiggling! Thanks for stopping by my blog. Oh, and spandex rocks for preventing chafing (which is how I found your blog in the first place!) And, do you tweet?
You could add a Uni into the Bike Part of a Triatholon fairly easily, I still can’t figure out how to effectivly swim and Joggle.
BF