Our good friend and PLAYTRI Coach, Darrel Neal, introduced me to Howard Glass in May of this year. I was amazed by Howard from the moment I saw him and could instantly visualize him racing in a Playtri Race Jersey representing the PLAYTRI brand. Howard started the sport of triathlon at the age of 68 and his dedication to the sport is only matched by his exceptional personality and charming British accent.
Howard recently competed at IRONMAN Boulder where he was raced in order to qualify for IRONMAN World Championships in Kona, his goal race.
“It was an exceptionally hot 96-degree day. I had a poor swim of 2.08 hours expecting to do well under 2 hours. The bike course went very well as I knew knew the course and had conditioned for at the altitude. I also had just come off of completing IRONMAN Texas event on April 29th, just 5 weeks earlier. I used my new TRI bike generously provided by Ahmed Zaher, owner of PLAYTRI in Dallas. I felt confident and ready to go and although I thought I was hydrated enough; it quickly became apparent that I was not. The low humidity is deceptive in Boulder. You do not sweat much but you are sweating, but it dries immediately on your body, so it is critical to hydrate adequately.”
Unfortunately, Howard made the difficult choice to pull out of the race.
His race in Boulder was disappointing, “It is difficult to pull out of a race when you have trained so hard, but life is not perfect.”
But he plans to get right back up and continue his journey to IRONMAN World Championships in Kona.
“My schedule for the next few months is.
· Travel to Lubbock, Texas do IRONMAN 70.3 Buffalo Springs and compete against another three men in my 75-79 Age Group and I am confident I will do well.
· Then travel to Dallas for a few days to see my Sponsors, PLAYTRI and Coach Anca
· Return to Boulder, Colorado to do 5 more weeks of altitude training before doing IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder. on August 4th.
· I will then travel to Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada (80 miles North of Montreal) to do IRONMAN 140.6 on August 19th. This race will be the last chance for me to qualify for IRONMAN World Championships in Kona this year.
· Finally, I return to my daughter’s in Asheville North Carolina. I will be doing IRONMAN 70.3 in Augusta Georgia on September 23rd, just 3 weeks prior to Kona.”
He is putting all his focus on the goal to qualify for IRONMAN World Championships in Kona. “If I fail to qualify for Kona this year, for whatever reason, I will probably do another full IRONMAN in October or November to qualify for IRONMAN World Championships Kona in 2019. Additionally, in 2019, I will be going to Nice, France to compete in the IRONMAN World Championships 70.3”.
Howard has completed 18 Full IRONMAN distance races and 18 70.3 IRONMAN races since he turned 70 years old with his first full IRONMAN Coeur D’Alene Idaho just two years after starting triathlon training.
His running accolades include qualifying for the Boston Marathon in 2013 with a time of 4:11 well under the 4:25 requirement. He finished the Boston Marathon the following year in 2014, just 2 weeks after finishing IRONMAN Los Cabos in Mexico.
Howard's ambition in life is to become World Champion in Kona even if he has to wait until he is 80 years of age, he said. His motto, similar to that of Nike, Inc., is “Just do it.”
Way to go Howard! We are all cheering you on!!
