The Ironman World Championship is the epic culmination of a series of Ironman triathlon qualification races held throughout the world.
In the tri community, to make it to that start line alone in Kona, Hawaii – which is by qualification only – is like planting your flag on Everest’s peak.
That a once overweight 38-year-old Repton School Geography and History teacher was able to make the cut… that’s a pretty big deal.
But it was by no means a mistake, and Brit Edward Hawkins has put in the miles and the effort to rightfully earn his place.
The Ironman mantra is that “anything is possible”, and when the Adventure HQ ambassador heads out next weekend for the gruelling race’s 35th edition on October 12, he certainly hopes to prove that.
How did you become an ambassador for Adventure HQ?
I think it was just through getting known in the tri community out here. I’ve lived here for five years, and before Adventure HQ sort of came online I’d competed in lots of races.
In January, in particular, I did an Ultraman to raise awareness for Type 2 Diabetes in Dubai. It involved a 10k swim on day one, after which I rode my bike for 174km, followed by a 274km bike on day two, and finally on day three I finished the Dubai Marathon; but I actually ran a marathon to the start of that marathon, so I did two back-to-back.
We also combined it with getting the children at my school to swim and run the distance from Repton Dubai to its sister school in the UK, which I helped them finish off with my Ultraman distance. It was just really about getting the kids active, getting them inspired to just get out there and take a healthy lifestyle on.
We had a Facebook page running and got tons of ‘likes’ from not just people in the UAE, but it even touched people in Australia, America and further afield. It worked really well.
Adventure HQ then came out and basically said ‘we identify with what you’re doing and the fact you’re trying to get the community active and we’d like to support you’. It’s more of a friendship rather than a deal type of thing, we both want the same thing: to give something back to the community and promote healthy lifestyles.
A decade ago you were a PE Teacher who occasionally played sport until work took over and suddenly you looked down and saw that you were overweight and unfit. What was the defining moment that inspired your lifestyle overhaul?
My best mate’s dad fell ill with Leukaemia and we decided to raise some money for a related charity and ran the London Marathon (and absolutely hated it, to be honest).
Not long after, I was sat at home watching TV and saw something about this woman who was terminally ill with cancer and was doing the Ironman in Florida. Suddenly it hit me that if she could put herself out for the benefit of others then surely a fat PE teacher could just lose some weight and shape up.
So I started training, ran home from work (or more like crawled) and it just snowballed from there really and became my lifestyle.
Do you remember your first triathlon?
Yeah, it was a learning experience. I look back now and it’s a different person. It was in the UK one wet, cold day. I remember the walkway down to the swim was really slippy – I didn’t know this but decided to go down there and have a look how things were looking from the front.
Suddenly my legs disappeared from underneath me and I was on my backside with everyone just laughing. I remember thinking ‘oh, what am I doing? I should be in my comfort zone at home right now, not doing this’. But I got over the finish line and it was great fun.
What was really nice was a woman there helped show me where to put my bike and all that, and three years later while on my second Ironman, I was racking my bike and crossed the same woman. She said it was her first Ironman so I was able to help her out on that occasion – a nice rounding off of the journey.
So would you say the international tri community is a very welcoming one then?
Look, we’re in a foreign country here… I can categorically say that without the tri community out here in Dubai it would have been so much harder. They’re so much like family. The thing is, the behaviour that is not considered normal – getting up at 2am to ride your bike for six hours – because everybody’s doing it, it becomes normal.
Everybody spurs everybody on to push themselves further and without a community like that it would be a hundred times harder.
Were you close to Roy Nasr (Tri Dubai’s recently deceased co-founder)?
Yeah, that’s been very hard. He was one of the first people that introduced himself to me in the tri community when I moved out here. It’s hard to lose such an inspiring person but Roy’s spirit lives on in what everybody does everyday when they go training. Certainly, when I’m racing in Hawaii he’ll be in the forefront of my mind.
And what are you racing in the name of next week, what’s your overall goal? This is, after all, the real deal with several thousand of the world’s best in action.
Ideally, I’d like to better my time from two years ago (10 hours 42 minutes – not my fastest ever but Hawaii’s a whole different ball game, especially because of the varying weather). But I’ve got to put into perspective that I’ve got a knee niggle now.
Kona is the toughest one by far, but I feel really great going into it. I’ll swim well, bike well, and it’ll just be hanging tough on the run and seeing how it goes.
Ironman is a funny thing, it tends to make big people very small and small people very big, and those who are far too confident tend to get knocked down a peg or two. Plus, you’re not just dealing with the physical elements, there’s a mental element as well because you’re going through 8, 9, 10, 11 hours of pain.
All in all, what has taking on huge challenges such as this done for you?
It’s given me my self respect back. It’s given me that confidence, that self-reliance. And I couldn’t have done the things that I am doing without the support of the people around me – my wife, the tri community, Adventure HQ, everyone.
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