Hingham athlete preparing to compete in biggest triathlon event in the world

September 7, 2022 By Carol Britton Meyer

Hingham resident Tom Fleck recently completed the Ironman Mont Tremblant triathlon in Canada, where he qualified to compete in the Oct. 8 Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.

This is quite an honor, as the World Championship is the biggest triathlon event in the world. "This was my seventh Ironman distance but the first time qualifying," Fleck told the Hingham Anchor. "I came in sixth in the male 40-44 age group and as the 31st overall amateur."

An Ironman Triathlon is one of a series of long-distance races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation -- consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride, and a marathon 26.22-mile run -completed in that order -- and is widely considered to be one of the most difficult one-day sporting events in the world. "The timeframe is to finish in under 17 hours," he said.

Mont Tremblant was the last qualifying event for this year's championship race, which is just a few short weeks away. This is the first time in three years that the race is taking place in Hawaii after the pandemic forced its cancellation for the last few years.

"I raced Ironman Mont Tremblant [in memory of my late] younger brother. I thought of him a lot that day," Fleck said. "I also did it to show my daughters what is possible when you have a dream, set a goal, and work hard to accomplish it; to show all the athletes who I coach that anything is possible; and for myself -- who was once a scared, overweight kid paralyzed by fear. Now I get to race against the best in the world, and my journey is still unfolding."

The World Championship began 41 years ago and draws top athletes from all over the world, both professional and amateur, by qualification only. "This means that you have to be in one of the top spots in your age group at one of the qualifying Ironman distance races held all over the world," according to Fleck.

Fleck is excited to visit Hawaii for the first time -- to arrive a week early to acclimate himself to the hot, humid, and windy environment, participate in the World Championship and give it his all, and then to linger there for a few days with his wife, Jess, to explore the island -- including enjoying the beautiful  beaches and visiting Volcano National Park.

"The World Championship is the pinnacle," Fleck said. "I want to use this event to measure myself against the best athletes in the world and hopefully participate in the event -- which you have to qualify for every year -- again to see if I can improve on that measurement."

The biggest challenge of participating in the October World Championship is the immense preparation required so close on the heels of the Mont Tremblant event, he explained. "It takes a huge mental and physical toll to prepare for Ironman triathlons, and doing it again six weeks later in Hawaii is daunting, especially since I'll be competing with some of the best athletes in the world," he said. "It's both a huge challenge and an honor to be there. It's like reaching a dream goal."

When asked to share what the experience of running in an Ironman Triathlon is like, Fleck said, "You feel challenged mentally and physically to the absolute limit. Every time I have participated in one, I have thought to myself, 'I won't do this again,'  because it tests you to see what you are actually capable of -- which is more than you think you can accomplish. Participating is always a rollercoaster of emotions."

Fleck's interest in triathlons began several years ago, when he decided to live a more healthy lifestyle for the sake of his family as well as for himself.

At that time, he was working as a project manager for a company that was involved in building a house for a local sports legend who was the face of a local non-profit that did an annual bike ride to raise money.

"I decided that this would be the catalyst," Fleck recalled. "I bought my first road bike, pulled on my first pair of lycra shorts," and successfully trained for and completed the Cohasset Triathlon in 2016 -- which although involving much shorter distances than the Ironman triathlons, was challenging -- and a good starting point. He never looked back after finding a sport and a lifestyle that he loved.

In the beginning, Fleck hired a coach who was a professional triathlete who taught him what he needed to learn "to be able to show up at the starting line with a level of confidence that I could execute the distance, and I could," he explained. Now Fleck is a triathlon coach himself -- for Here and Now Fitness, which he started three years ago.

He is heartened by the support shown to him by the community in Hingham, where he moved in 2008, and appreciates "the close proximity to beautiful training areas -- the open ocean to swim in and the beautiful roads along the coast to run and bike on -- which make this town a wonderful place to train and to live," Fleck said.

"For someone like me [who has faced many difficult challenges in the past], the idea of going to Kona was always some far-off dream," Fleck said. Now that dream is about to come true.