Chet “the Jet” Blanton is getting ready to take on his biggest challenge yet. In fact, he calls it, “The ultimate challenge in my sport. And, at the age of 55, this might be my last chance to do something at this magnitude. After all, I’m not getting any younger.” Chet is involved in his local community of Honolulu in a variety of ways. He is the lead supervisor of the Hawaii Bicycle League’s Bike Education Program, Head Cross Country and distance Track Coach at Iolani School, and Founder of Team Jet Hawaii, a running and triathlon club with over 250 annual members. What he will be taking on, is the Triple Deca Ironman Italy. A 30 times ironman distance triathlon. That’s right, an ironman every day for 30 days! It’s unprecedented, because no one has ever finished more than a Double Deca Ironman, or 20 times ironman. In fact to date, Chet is the only American to have ever finished the Double Deca distance.
The Triple Deca Ironman will take place from September 8 to October 7 in Lake Garda, which is located in Northern Italy between Venice and Milan. Each morning starting at 7am, he will begin his journey of 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles bicycling, and 26.2 miles running. The next day, he will get up and do it again. When asked what his biggest challenge will be, he responded by saying, “Sleep deprivation. The distance is not so difficult. I’ll start off by finishing at 15, 16, 17 hours. But, once I start getting more tired and get past 19, 20, 21 hours, that only leaves me a couple hours for sleeping. I see that as the biggest factor. If I only get two hours of sleep, can I get up and do an ironman the next day? And, if I do, how many days can I keep going like that?”
“People have often asked me – How do you prepare for an event like that (multiple day triathlon). My answer is that you can never really train enough for it. It’s 80-90 percent mental. And, you just have to get yourself ready the best you can.” For Chet that often means blasting out some really long training sessions on the weekends when he has more time. Like 35 miles of running or 150 miles on the bike. But, that doesn’t seem to be a problem for Chet. “For me, losing some weight will be a focus from now until September. So, during my school breaks, I’ll keep training and losing weight.” During Chet’s recent Spring Break, he teamed up with Ed Bugarin, who will be his crew during the event in Italy, to complete 10 consecutive days of long course triathlon. Each day Chet swam 1 mile, rode 50 miles on the bike, and ran 10 miles in their Hawaii Kai Community. “It was good mental and physical training to go day after day in preparation for Italy.”
Luckily his wife and work, as well as his teams, have been very supportive of him. They have allowed him to travel all over the world to compete in multiple day triathlon events. Chet will be fundraising one more time to help raise the money necessary for travel and expenses for him and his crew. He has started securing sponsors for a place on a specially designed t-shirt which honors his late coach and friend, Scott Roy. 100 shirts will be sold in Honolulu and Spokane, Washington, where Scott started his own triathlon club – Team Blaze. Chet will also be staging a 100 mile run, which will take place back to back, 50 miles in Spokane and 50 miles in Honolulu. For more information on his fundraising efforts and about the Triple Deca Ironman triathlon in Italy, please go to: http://www.teamjethawaii.com and click on the Triple Deca link.
There were 57 residents from Hawaii registered in the 117th running of the Boston Marathon. 48 of them made it to the starting line in Hopkinton, MA.
