A common thread, however, was a fascination with pushing the limits of endurance, at increasingly younger ages, thanks in part to the Norwegians’ success in long-distance running.
“The Norwegians dominate,” Roshak said. “They’re young, and they’re rewriting the rule book in terms of what your body should be like.”
Peyton Thompson, 20, the youngest man to qualify, said he marveled at Norwegians’ obsession with data analysis, science and nutrition.
Thompson had once been a promising point guard in North Florida, playing on top youth basketball teams. But after suffering serious knee injuries, he gave up his dream of playing college hoop and enrolled at Duke with pre-medical aspirations.
Then the pandemic hit. And though he lived on campus while taking online classes, he wasn’t able to join a slew of clubs, as he had originally hoped. So there you have it, triathlon.
“I had to learn to swim,” said Thompson, a neuroscience major.
Thompson is one of three Ironman students in the Research Triangle. Andrew Buchanan, of Redondo Beach, Calif., is a senior at the University of North Carolina. Corinne Mouw, a native of Pittsgrove, NJ, is a senior at North Carolina State and active in the school’s triathlon club.
Even though Mouw’s classmates were sent home in March 2020 because of the pandemic, she remained in Raleigh, working in a co-op job that was part of her mechanical engineering major. But everyone stayed connected thanks to Strava, an online exercise tracker.