Editor’s Letter
Coming Full Circle
By Alix J. Shutello
Alix Shutello, (second from left) with her Tuesday running team and Moms Run This Town
This issue is special to me. After three years of covering the Double, Triple and Quintuple Anvil races in Lake Anna, Virginia, I feel as if I was indoctrinated into a small community of superstars that are so unique in their athletic ability that it just stuns me. In fact, after observing many of these athletes in person or on Facebook where I was collecting photos, data, and other types of information I realized something profound.
What is a Double, Triple or Quintuple? It’s slang for distances past the Ironman, so a Double is a 2 times Ironman distance. A Triple is a 3 times Ironman distance, and a Quintuple is a 5 times Ironman distance.
In this issue, we cover a few of the athletes who competed in Lake Anna. Frank Fumich, who won the Quintuple Anvil race, will tell you that he does these types of races to push his personal boundaries. We at ERM want to dedicate this issue to Fumich who lost his mother, Marie Fumich, in October 2014, just weeks after the Anvil races. To Frank and his family, we share our deepest condolences.
Frank and him mother, MarieFrank and his family we want to share our condolences.
We cover Anvil veterans Kay Scott and Brad Kelley, as well as Double Anvil newbie Siobhan Maize. ERM also wants to throw a shout out to the number-one internationally ranked Kamil Suran, whovolunteered the whole week at Lake Anna and went on to win the Monterrey, Mexico Deca Ultra this November.
To mix things up we have a few guest columns; one from Ryan Crosswell, an attorney and endurance athlete who tells a heart-wrenching tale about love and running. We also have another submission from our favorite cylco cross athlete, Gwokang Yang, who has done an excellent job at writing about the sport and how his fitness has increased through time. You will find his most recent race report exciting to say the least.
Now, onto another new section – for the last issue we introduced our new Regional section and covered DC Capital Striders founder, Rick Amernick. This issue, we are introducing endurance runner, Sarah Talley of Moms Run This Town, a national organization for which Talley has been an integral part of. In her story, we learn about how an athlete with experience running marathons in Asia, comes to states and becomes the founder of Virgina’s largest MRTT chapters. She is role model for all of us from the Vienna-Oakton chapter and beyond.
Also in new pieces we feature well known Ironman, Chris McDonald who founded Big Sexy. He wears a new type of compression gear developed by Aquio. This gear, meant for all types of athletes allows people to pull on compression pants which have veins which allow cold water to go through –so you get the feeling of ice and compression without sitting in icebath.
And finally, two of our long time contributing authors, Todd Parker and Earl Furfine contributed on special training and endurance topics. Parker covers the art of goal setting while Furfine describes the motivation and partnership of his long-time friend Tim Howard, who suffered a heart attack while in the water and continued on through his triathlon.
Thank you for your support! We hope you love this issue.
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Alix
