Dr. James Barron never took physical fitness seriously until age 30, when he served as the physician for a Marine battalion, but he'd always been intrigued by watching Ironman competitions on television—grueling events that consist of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26-mile run.
“In my mind I would think 'boy, wouldn't it be great to do that some day?'” said Dr. Barron, a 44-year-old internist who practices in Grand Rapids, Mich.
The motivator for his will to ultimately become an Ironman-level triathlete came from a painful life event: the September 2001 death of his 5-year-old niece, Allie Cibulas, from inoperable brain cancer. “She had a horrible course,” Dr. Barron recalled. “I remember visiting her, being so frustrated. I had so much pent-up energy and I wanted to do something to try to make a difference in the lives of other people affected by children with any type of illness.”
So in 2003 he registered for an Ironman competition in Madison, Wis., and asked friends, family, and perfect strangers to champion him by donating money to Allie's Angels—a charity serving terminally ill children and research on pediatric brain cancer that was launched in honor of his niece (www.alliesangels.com
“I thought, 'I'm going to push myself to my limit and do what I can to try to help out,'” he said. “When little children go through chemotherapy, they're not prepared for it. I had never done a triathlon in my life, so it was symbolic that I was going to go do something I'd never done before and fight my own personal battle to complete it.”
After nearly a year of training, when race day arrived he completed the event and helped to raise several thousand dollars for Allie's Angels. “It wasn't a lot of money,” he said. “But for me it was more [about] creating awareness.”
Dr. Barron described feeling like an “imposter” in a crowd of highly trained triathletes. “I remember when I crossed the finish line many hours after the winner, still seeing the winner of the race there to cheer me on,” he said. “It's a feeling of acceptance. It was very emotional, thinking about my niece as I went through the race.”
With his first Ironman behind him, Dr. Barron went on to improve his completion times in subsequent Ironman competitions in Lake Placid, N.Y., and in Louisville, Ky. His ultimate Ironman goal is to compete in Kona, Hawaii, the premier competition in this event.
In addition to his full-time role as a hospitalist for Michigan Medical, P.C., at Spectrum Butterworth in Grand Rapids, Dr. Barron is an essential caretaker of his wife, Dr. Denise Barron-Kraus, and their two teenage sons. Dr. Barron-Kraus left practice in 2000 because she suffers from mental health issues and fibromyalgia that affects her ability to perform activities of daily living. That leaves Dr. Barron precious little time for training.
It's not unusual for Dr. Barron to train in the late evenings until midnight, or to start training at 4:30 a.m. He noted that the Ironman competitions have helped him achieve a “can-do mindset” for whatever challenges come his way.
Dr. James Barron registered for his first Ironman in response to his 5-year-old niece's death from brain cancer.
Source: Courtesy Kyle Barron-Kraus
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