Today you get to meet Dr. Erin Green. Erin is one of my endurance heroes. Her adventures have taken her around the world for some amazing endurance events. Not only did she chase and earn her Legacy spot to Kona, but she also has done a half-dozen XTREME iron distance races - including one that she won (see which one below).

This is another one of those CAR TALKS from 2023, when I did a series of interviews my friends on the way to or from an event. Since this interview, Erin earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and she did one of the bucket-list races she talks about below. [If you would rather listen than read, check THIS out.]

[My questions/comments are in bold.]

Welcome, Erin Green! We're on our way home from Raven Rock Ramble 2023. And we just rode 64 miles in the wind and the hills in a little bit of heat. And now we're headed home. And so Erin gets interviewed for the blog.

My first question is…….What got you into triathlon?

Well, I wanted to do a triathlon for a long time because I grew up swimming as a child and I knew how to ride a bike. And I started running a little bit after college just to stay in shape, lose some weight.

My first race was the Wrightsville Beach Sprint Triathlon on my old mountain bike and I really loved it and had a great time. So, I asked for a bike for Christmas that year. That was in 2006. I got a road bike that Christmas, put aerobars on it and signed up for a couple of the North Carolina tri series races.

The next year, I think I did the Kure Beach Double Sprint. Then, I did the Duke Liver half iron distance back when that race existed. It was a super hot, muddy, disgusting lake swim. When I was training for that one, I started biking with my friend Lisa. At the time, she was training for IRONMAN Florida. My first thought was: that seems so impossible. I can’t imagine spending that long on a bike. But, that summer, I ended up doing several hundred-mile rides with her. And after that, I was like, well, I've done 100 miles on the bike. Why not do an IRONMAN?

Sure, why not?

By that time, my friend Sami had also started biking with us also and after those 100-milers, we looked up races and decided to do IRONMAN Florida. At the time, you had to be online, clicking instantly to maybe get a spot in races. Especially if you were not going to go there in person or volunteer on race day to get a spot that way.

Sami and I both got spots in Florida the next November – but Lisa was also talking about doing France! It looked great and beautiful, and why not go to Nice, France? So that was the first one. I did two in 2008. The first year, I did it a lot. Sometimes the less you know, the better.

Especially going into France, as you know, having done it, that was one where it was great that I didn't really know what I was getting into. I finished with 15 minutes to spare on the 16 hours cut off. That one is really hard. It's really hard.

Wow. And you did Florida? Yes, that same year. France was in June. Florida was in November.

Okay, that's awesome. What was your favorite part of that first one? Or what did you come out of it? Besides: OH. MY. GOSH. I. AM. AN. IRONMAN!

Yeah, that was pretty awesome. And it was really just, holy cow, I can't believe I just did that.

Did you get the tattoo?

A year or two prior to doing an IRONMAN, I’d seen a woman with a little MDOT tattoo on her ankle. I thought it was great and if I did something like that – such a huge accomplishment – that I could get one like that. That would be something that, if I did it, I would want on me forever. One that if I’m 80 years old and have grandkids or anything, what would I want to be there.

So when I got home from Europe, within a couple of days, I went in and got the little mdot tattoo on my foot. It was just for me and easily covered up if I don't want it to be seen. It's a tattoo for me, not for anybody else, not for the world to see. It's a reminder to myself that I can do hard things.

And how many have you done since that first one in France?

I think 20 is the number. I have to go back through it and count them all!

And what is your favorite one or two that you've done?

My favorite is ALASKAMAN, which doesn't exist anymore, but was with the XTREME TRI series. I liked that it was small – not a big branded race. I liked it so much I did it three times!

I like having your support with you, so you're not out there all by yourself. And, even if you are by yourself, there's somebody - your friend, family, whomever - is leapfrogging along with you and part of the journey. That's what it is. You're sharing the journey more.

* Have to do everything all by yourself.*

Plus, those extreme tris are just in the most beautiful places and there's not the same level of competition.

You've done ALASKAMAN, twice, right?

I did it three times. Okay. Yeah. All three years that it existed, I did it.

What was your least favorite iron man?

That's a good question. I don't know. Wisconsin I really liked, but it was hot as Hades the year we did it. Who would have thought Wisconsin would be 99 degrees, right? Louisville might have been my least favorite. The first year I did it was when it was still in August and I was miserable and I hated it. It was just brutal. Yeah. I mean, that's a hard race anyway. Plus, if it's hot and then August, ugh.

Then I did it again in October and it wasn't nearly the same misery.

I already know the answer to this next one. Have you ever won an iron man?

Yes, I have. I forgot about that. I was like, no, I haven't. And it doesn't exist anymore. So I'm the champion.

The undisputed champion of Iceland Extreme Ironman.

Yes. That was another great race. I got dive-bombed by birds, hiked through snow-then sleet-then downpour over the top of a volcano. It was incredible.

Plus, the swim got changed at the last minute because of the four foot lion's main. Four-foot diameter jellyfish. (Can't wait to put a picture of one of those on the blog.) And then, we were met with 40 mph winds coming into the finish.

So what are one or two lessons you’ve learned from your iron experience?. What's something that you kind of carried with you as a life lesson?

That the body can do way more than the mind often thinks that it can, that you may feel like you're done, but the mind is stronger than the body. Maybe a good answer for that stuff, thinking that, what else come back?

Physical activity to me is some of the best therapy that there is. Between being outside and moving my body and the people that I have met through triathlon……endurance sports events, um, just make life better. That's a good life lesson right there. It's true that these are my people.

This is my tribe. I love them, and I like being outdoors with these people.

So, you said you swam when you were young. Were you sporty? Did you play all the sports?

No, I have zero hand eye coordination. I can dribble and shoot, but I can’t catch a ball. My poor older brothers spent I don't know how many countless hours out in the driveway trying to teach me how to shoot a basketball, throw it and catch a football, swing a golf club. It's amazing I didn't break a window.

I grew up in suburban Detroit athlete. I swam year round for a few years and definitely swam summer team up through middle school. I'm very grateful to my parents for doing that because the basics were there and I just didn't know at the time.

My older brother, he's two years older, was a competitive swimmer. He swam through college. So some of it was I got sick of being compared to him all the time. And I also just learned later in life that I'm an endurance athlete, not a sprinter. So, I guess maybe if at ten years old, they would have put me in the 500, I would have been okay, but I probably wouldn't have wanted to do that at that age, right?

And then I danced. Then I switched over to dance. I did gymnastics, too, when I was young and then started dancing. And I had to choose, so I chose to give up gymnastics if I wanted to dance more than one day a week. I did that through high school and college.

I even started teaching dance in college.

Is there any correlation that you use dance and triathlon?

Not really, other than I think some of the finish line. I think it did give me a good muscle strength base. They're definitely very different. I would die if I took a dance class right now!

I do think that the discipline of going to dance class and practicing the fundamentals kind of relate to the technique and skill work for strength training. When I go to the gym, I try to be very conscious of form. If there are mirrors I use them – not to check out how I’m looking that day – but to make sure my back is straight or my knees are not tracking over my toes. That comes from dance for so many years, watching yourself in the mirror, making sure you're doing the technique correctly.

So maybe if there were mirrors alongside me running, my running form would be better. [laughter from both of us.] I think having a mirror beside you for 26.2 would drive you bananas. Maybe I'll run in front of you with a mirror and you can look at yourself the whole time. That would be terrible.

Tell me a little bit about your Kona legacy action, because it was complicated and confusing because you did your twelve races, and then Covid happened. I did race number twelve in 2017. When I filled out the legacy application in winter of 2018 – I got on the list for Kona 2020. In those years, it was very backed up! I did another full in 2018 to stay eligible with a validation race. And then after that, they said I could do any Iron man branded event. So, in 2019, I did North Carolina 70.3. Just because I didn't have anything else going on. That was just the easy home race.

I was supposed to do Canada in 2020 as the event before Kona and then, obviously, Covid happened. Canada was canceled. And then they changed the date for Kona three times, because then they moved it to fall of 2021, and then they moved it to February of 2022. And then they moved it to October of 2022! I finally got to do it in 2022!

It basically took five years to get to the race.

It became not as much of a priority as it, uh, was if I could have gone in 2020. So, I was not nearly as well trained as I had been for most any other races. Running became my focus in those years. I did a 50-miler the March before Kona and I just hadn't really been biking as much the running at that point, because I'd been running more during COVID too. I just started running more and biking less.

I knew the running was not a problem. I wasn't going to be fast. I could walk, I could do it. The swim, I hadn't been swimming as much, but again, I wasn't really concerned about that. But, um, the bike was the concern. And again, I knew I would be fine and able to finish it. And we knew I would make all the cut offs. So it became much more of a focus on: I'm going to go and do it and finish it and have the experience, as opposed to I'm going to go into it really well trained and have all sorts of goals and expectations.

It was just a mindset shift. Not that I ever really go into races with hard, fast goals. I don’t go into races thinking: I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do that…… because that's just not really my style. Most of the time when I’m out there and I look down at my watch, I’ll think, oh, if I maintain this pace, then I’ll come in at this. But, I just wanted to be relaxed and laid back going into this race.

So tell me a little bit your bike in Kona.

Kona was so hot and so miserable. I was so glad to be off the bike. On the way out, the bike was mostly uphill but fine. All I wanted to do was get to my special needs at the turnaround and, uh, eat my piece of pizza and drink my coke and have a moment.

Just have a moment. But in Kona, personal needs is right on the side of the road. There’s no parking lot or pull-over. There’s not aid station near it or with it. So there’s nowhere to have a moment. I just kind of unclipped, stood there for a second as everybody else was coming around me – yelling and mad that their bags weren’t there (which I'm not sure how or why their bags weren't there).

It was not the moment I needed. But then after that, it was just so hot that I started stopping at every aid station on the way back in and actually stopping and putting ice in my bottles. That was a game changer - getting ice into my bottles so that I had cold fluids.

And then they had coke! They had coke on the bike aid stations, which was also very nice.

I finished the bike and I started the run and then it was just dealing with the heat. I knew that I was going to be walking predominantly until it cooled down. Once the sun went down and I started running more – or at least I said to myself for sure I was going to run the downhills and walk the uphills. And, I pretty much did that. The flats were questionable. Some I ran, some I walked. But once it got dark, then even coming out of the energy lab, I was like, okay, I'm ready to be done. And I knew I could be under 15 hours. So. Misty found me out there at, like, maybe mile 23 ish 22, 23.

And, um, she kind of brought me into town, but I was making her run more than she'd run in a long time because I was like, net downhill, and I was like, all right, let's just run. And you just need to run and be done. So the fact that I could still run at the end, that's true, but I had a massive blister.

I think I had the biggest blister I've ever had. It started about halfway through. By the end, it popped. When I was coming down the Kalani hill there at mile 25, I felt it pop, and it was bad. I think I sent you a picture of the blister.

I'm going to find that and put it on the blog.

I almost forgot about the blister. The blister is bad. I couldn't tell if it hurt more running or walking, so just ran.

Was Kona your hardest race ever? No. Sweden was the hardest race ever. Sweden was harder because Sweden was just Sweden. SwedeMan's wind was even more insane than Kona's wind.

What is one tip that you would give to a Kona athlete? Getting ready to go do a race there?

Pack a headlamp. It is really dark out there. Pack a headlamp. If nothing else, they have no light towers. They have no light towers. The only light towers are at an aid station. And then the turnaround, which there's really kind of, like, special needs at an aid station, are all down there in the energy lab. So there's one down there, and there's one at the aid station going in and out of the energy lab.

All the rest of that down there, completely black, the whole Queen K coming back. Unless you're really fast. If you finish the daylight. If not, pack that light. Also, ride some hills. Just know that it's going to be hot and hilly and windy. Don't have any serious bike goals, just other than get through it and enjoy the swim. The swim was absolutely beautiful.

Other than the sea lice. There were big sea lice. You're like in a sea of sea lice. They were weird. And I don't know that they're always there. People were saying that they were in further. Normally they're only in the outer stretch, but they were pretty much the whole time. Maybe not right at the very beginning or not.I was consciously like: don't eat any water. Don’t get it in your mouth!

What is your next race? Your next iron man distance race? Because Iron Man Alaska was canceled, I decided to lottery for PatagonMan, which has been on my bucket list since it was first announced in 2018. So now, because I've done Kona, I can choose which Iron man branded races I would like to do, as opposed to having to check one off the list.

What else is on your list? I don't know. I think I'm definitely about picking destinations and adventures. No more standard cookie-cutter races like Ironman Florida. I’m never gonna do that one again. But there are others. Like, like chatty. I really like, like, I just really like the whole chatty course. This swim is, you know, great fast river swim. It's a perfect m. Rollers on the bike. It's a pretty run. So, like, I would do chatty again if the timing was right in group and people and.

You have recently done ultra marathons. Are you going to do more of those? I did a 50-miler. I would do another one of those again. An adventure destination. Um, during COVID when the world shut down, there were no races or anything. A couple friends and I did Rim to Rim to Rim at the Grand Canyon. So that was about 50 miles from the south rim down to the bottom and up to the north rim. It was kind of like Ironman France. I did it, finished it. I was not really well trained and didn't really know what I was getting myself into. We've talked about going back to get a little revenge on Rim to Rim to rim now, knowing what I know so that there's talk of a possibility of that maybe next spring.

I'm definitely at the point in life now where I know I'm not really going to get better or faster. So I'd rather just do different things. I might like to do some more swim runs. I've really enjoyed the swim runs. It is a little like choose your own adventure. With both the training and the racing. I really like let’s just gonna go swim and run for two or three hours and make it up as you go, depending on the current and the wind and what all's happening. Let's run to here, then let's get in and let's get out here. And you have all your gear with you. It doesn't matter where you are. You can be ready for anything.

I have some random questions for you. What do you in your personal needs bag?

On the bike: cheese pizza and a Coke and Pringles or potato chips. But Pringles, the little Pringle snack packs don't get as crunched up. On the run, it's again, another piece of cheese pizza. For some reason, cheese pizza sits well. If it is an extreme triathlon where there are not quite as many rules, I'll do a beer and my special needs.

Or like even on a 50k or a 50 miler, I'll have a beer. I mean, I don't drink the whole can, but, um, it's not sweet, and it still gets you some carbs. And it's something different when I've had all the sweetness already. I think Iron man probably frown upon me busting that out of my special needs bag. In an Ironman, I wrap it in a koozie – but it’s normally so hot. In the Xtreme tri, I can keep it in a cooler in the car. So cold.

Do you have any mantras or mottos that you go to in rough times that you say over and over and over to yourself?

Sometimes if I'm on a bike, like, going up a big hill, it's kind of like the Dory just keeps swimming, but just keep pedaling. Just keep pedaling. Just keep pedaling. Just keep pedaling.

Are there any other favorite stories that have come out of Iron Man? Your funniest story or something that you saw out there?

So when I did Iron Man, Louisville, it must have been the first year I did Louisville in 2010, one of the things that I will never forget is there was an out and back stretch that was pretty steep. As I was going up to the turn-around, this woman passed me. I wasn’t really paying attention and all of a sudden I was getting wet!

My first thought was her water bottle was leaking. And I realized that, no, she is peeing, and it is all flying back on me and so gross. So I, like, you know, trying to grab my water bottle and, like, rinsing off my, like, hands. And…..my face. It was so disgusting.

But it happened again when I was in Kona. Another woman – it’s always the woman. This woman passed me and I just see her start to kind of lift her butt off the saddle. And I watched and I moved way out of the way because I’m not getting peed on again!

So that was probably one of the worst. And then when I was in Kona, actually, another woman. It's always. It's the woman. I don't know why it should be the man. I guess the men can control where it goes better.

I’m like, at least have a little courtesy and give me some notice. Like, hey, I’m gonna pee up here you may want to stay well behind me. Now I'm always alert.

The other thing that happened – during Alaska – I had three flat tubes on the bike. Finally, after the third one, I had to change my tire completely. I had to call Jess, who was my support that year, and she just sent me on, and we were within, like, 10 miles of the finish of the bike, and I was like: you should come back. We got another flat. I need that tire that’s in the car. At least I had cell service there.

Thanks so much for answering all the hard-hitting questions. Now were going to play a game. It's my favorite game in the whole wide world. It's the Pivot questionnaire that James Lipton asked at the Inside the Actor Studio. So here we go:

What is your favorite word or phrase? Itadakimasu There are several Japanese ones that are fun to say, so we'll go with itadakimasu, which is what you say before you eat. Like, at any meal. Like, you say itadakimasu. It's kind of like a cheers, but before meal. And I do like to eat, so.

What's your least favorite word or phrase? De-thaw. If you're dethawing something, you're freezing. It's kind of like a double negative but not negative.

What turns you on? (Creatively, Spiritually, Psychologically) I think a good challenge. Like I get a excited about like, like coming up with solutions and problem solving and you know, maybe thinking about what's worked well, what hasn't worked well, what could be done differently. I guess that does kind of translate into Ironman some too.

What turns you off? Thinking that there's only one way to do something. That’s a perfect opposite of challenge and finding a solution. And the other one that gets me is the constant negative Nancy about something but not ever taking action to do anything to change it.

What profession other than your own would you like to do? I mean I think it would be really cool to be a pilot just because then you could get. If I had my own plane too, to get anywhere. But I don't actually have the desire to do the technical side and learning and the stress and all that. But just to be able to fly.

What profession other than your own would you least like to do? Acting or being up on stage or being the center of attention. Singing might be even worse than acting because I cannot carry a tune to save my life. I really think I'm tone deaf.

What's your favorite cuss word? I mean I probably say shit more than any others. It's a pretty good multi purpose word.

If heaven exists, what do you want God to say when you reach the pearly gates? Here’s every dog you ever had waiting for you. That's good one. That one gave me chills.

THE LEGACY OF ERIN GREEN

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