Rotarian completes back-to-back triathlons for cause

Ironman exhaustion is renowned. Even the hardiest athletes have legs like spaghetti after swimming, biking and running over 140 miles in its test of endurance.

Now, take that exhaustion and triple it. In June, Spokane Valley resident Jeff Glidden swam, biked and ran the equivalent of 3 ½ back-to-back Ironman triathlons to raise more than $100,000 for Rotary International and needy children worldwide.

Glidden, assistant governor for Rotary district 5080, wanted a fundraiser he could do solo without getting bogged down with committee meetings and expense sheets. So, as a veteran athlete with three Ironman triathlons under his belt, he decided to cover almost 500 miles of the Rotary district in what he dubbed an ultra-distance triathlon challenge.

On May 31, Glidden started in the district’s northernmost city, Golden, British Columbia, with the goal to raise money and awareness for the Rotary club and finish in Kennewick by 7 p.m. June 2. The finish line was the governor’s banquet at the district conference. He made it on time, barely.

“I thought that we might have to have a psychiatrist waiting at the end of the run,” said Tom Halazon, former Rotarian district governor. “This is an astounding feat. One of the people who drove from Golden took two days driving in a car.”

Glidden took three days, but instead of driving he swam 8.2 miles, biked 384.2 miles and ran 89.6 miles, sleeping only two or three hours each night and enduring both extreme cold and heat.

“I went from hypothermia to hallucinating,” said Glidden, adding that he started getting sore half-way through the first day, but stayed focused on his self-imposed deadline.

The second day, while swimming the 1.7-mile bridge length of U.S. Route 95 over Lake Pend Oreille at Sandpoint, the water was 51 degrees and he developed hypothermia.

The final day included biking over fresh blacktop on Highway 397, with temperatures topping 100 degrees.

“He was kind of loopy,” said Mike McCoy, a triathlete who provided support. “He was hallucinating pretty good. You could see it in his rhythmic actions.”

McCoy says no athlete would attempt an event like this without passion for a cause.

“What a crazy individual,” McCoy said. “I don’t know what makes someone want to do that except honor and dignity for those less fortunate… the children dying overseas (without) enough rice to eat.”

According to Halazon, every $250 raised for the Rotary club saves a life. “That is 400 people’s lives that were saved because of that feat,” he said.

According to Glidden, he thought about those lives while he trained between 15 and 20 hours each week for the past year. He prepared by swimming laps and riding the stationary bikes three days a week at the Valley YMCA. He also ran outside five days a week, usually at night after his two children went to bed. Occasionally, he substituted snowshoeing for running when the roads turned icy.

He also spent the year fundraising.

“The fundraising was quite a challenge,” Glidden said. “Every single dollar I raised went to the foundation. There weren’t any expenses taken out.”

Donations are still coming in and Glidden expects to reach $120,000.

But he won’t be repeating the challenge next year. Instead, he’ll compete in an easier event: Ironman Canada.