Westfield Resident Finds Strength to Complete First Ironman

After months of intense training, Westfield resident Greg Kasko has achieved the goal he set for himself one year ago. He is an Ironman.

On Sunday, July 28, the lifelong athlete competed in and finished the Ironman Lake Placid, a triathlon comprised of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run, in 14 hours. 

The retired Westfield police officer explained that this year's competition featured a 'rolling start' in which competitors seeded themselves according to the time they believed it would take to complete the swim portion, the race's first leg. 

Starting the race at 6:43 a.m., Kasko found himself standing in the same starting wave as one of the 15 original Ironman competitors who participated in the inaugural Ironman in Hawaii in 1978.

"The now-55-year-old Dave Orlowski finished third in that race which was staged to settle a debate on which athletes were more fit: swimmers or runners," Kasko explained. "I completed the 2.4 mile-swim and exited Mirror Lake in one hour, 29 minutes. Next up was a 300-yard run to the transition tent located at the Olympic speed skating oval where Eric Heiden won an unprecedented five speed skating gold medals at the 1980 Winter Olympics."  

From there, Kasko changed into his cycling gear and retrieved his bicycle to begin the second leg, which consisted of two 56-mile loops around the scenic, yet hilly, Lake Placid. During a six-mile downhill stretch, Kasko said he reached a speed of 47 miles per hour, helping him to complete the ride nearly a half-hour shy of his anticipated seven hours. 

During the final leg, the Westfielder said he experienced a hamstring cramp, lower back pain, and a burning sensation in his feet as well as stomach discomfort but found the strength to keep going by thinking of the courage shown by his mother in the face of the illness that claimed her life last fall. 
 
"Each time I began to feel a little worse, I thought about my mom and what she went through before she passed away last year on November 6," he said. "At that point, I was running in honor and memory of my mother as much as I was for myself. In the three years I have been competing in sprint triathlons, my mom never got to see me race due to the early morning starts while she was still in bed hooked up to her nightly dialysis treatments. I never once witnessed her complain."

Kasko said he knew his mother was "watching from above" and wouldn't consider quitting. His father's words "no pain, no gain" echoed in his head, encouraging him to keep moving forward. The Ironman said the thousands of spectators who lined the course also provided "a huge source of energy."

"I've never had so much fun experiencing so much pain," he said. "Finally, entering the Olympic speed skating oval's concrete track headed for the finish line, every ache and pain I felt along the way disappeared. The roar of the crowd, which numbered in the thousands, along with music being pumped from concert size speakers spiked some much-needed adrenaline for the last 300 yards to the finish.

"As each competitor ran down the finishing stretch and a timing chip strapped to their ankle would register a name on a computer screen, Ironman announcer Mike Reilly would announce the name of each athlete followed by the words 'You are an IRONMAN!' That's when I looked up at the heavens above and said 'Mom, we did it.'"  

Though he said to call the experience "exhausting" would be an understatement, Kasko is already looking forward to competing in next year's Ironman Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Canada where he hopes to best fellow competitor, three-time Ironman and good friend Paul Armstrong, also of Westfield.