Issue link: http://www.wacmagazine.com/i/842361
34 WAC Magazine | wac.net THE IRONMAN "e first thing is, make sure you enjoy it," WAC member Erik Ness says about his tri life. "You have to love what you're doing. You have to garner some happiness out of it, out of the training and the process." Erik enjoys it, all right. e hepatologist (read: liver doctor) and director of the Swedish Liver Center started his 2017 season with an Ironman 70.3 in Galveston, Texas, where he placed 12th out of 237 competitors in his age group. Admittedly, Erik has a built-in advantage. He started swimming competitively at age eight and competed in his first triathlon in 1985 as a 15-year-old. In Ameri- can triathlon years, that puts him very near the start of the sport, which began in San Diego in 1974 and started to take off in the early 1980s, a few years aer the first Ironman Hawaii in 1978. "It definitely helps when you don't have to worry too much about it," he says of triathlon's first and typically most-intimidating leg, the swim. Erik stopped competitive swimming in college—he grew up in Northern California and attended UC Berkeley—and took up rowing. He then played basketball for a year while earning a master's at the University of Cambridge in England. As his studies increased, his fitness life went the other way. Medical school at Mount Sinai in New York City, eight years of residency and fellowship at Van- derbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, and family life put his early tri ca- reer in the rearview. It wasn't until 2013, following a two-year stop in Santa Fe, New Mexico, followed by relocation to Seattle, that Erik found his old passion. A friend was training for a race and Erik joined up. "I started to realize how much I enjoy it and how much I used to enjoy it when I was a teenager," he says. He completed the Pacific Crest Olympic-distance race in Sun River, Oregon, and a couple of other events that year. "At the end of that season, I knew I wanted to take this a bit further," he says. He joined the WAC Tri/ Cycle Club and started training with coach Ju- lie Vieselmeyer. He also strength trains with personal trainer Eric Williamson and participates in coach Wade Praeger's swim workouts. World championships In 2014, Erik bought a "real triathlon bike and started getting much more into it." He tackled his first Ironman 70.3 that same year, clocking five hours and two minutes. He completed the same race 22 minutes faster last year, NESS erik Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Australia. After Ironman Arizona.