GOING THE DISTANCE
Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing Field World
by SCOTT KELLIE , MD
It ’ s a dark , 19-degree Sunday morning at 4:30 and there ’ s snow on the ground with ice on much of the roads . Machine screws have been rigged into an old pair of running shoes . You know a good friend is one that will meet you under these conditions for a 20-mile run before a full work day . How in the world did I get to the point where this is fun ? I usually wonder why things like this are fun about 85 miles into a 112-mile Ironman triathlon bike ride as well . Well , it happened by accident .
Frequently , people ask what prompted me to get into doing endurance events . Swimming , track , hiking and soccer occupied a good deal of my time as a kid . Unfortunately , an injury to my knee in high school cut my sports career short . Two surgeries and a year later , my left leg was significantly atrophied and still rather unsteady . I suppose this helped attract me to a career as a physician and gave me something besides sports on which to focus . At some point , we
6 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE all need a release valve for life . Dr . Chris Burkett pulled me to the gym in medical school and I found I could indeed strengthen my leg and relearn a healthy release . Biologically and / or mentally , some people seem more suited to certain sports . For whatever reason , I was pulled back to aerobic activities . When Laura ( a fellow medical student and my future wife ) and I began dating , many of our dates involved biking , hiking and running . I started entering running races for fun and of course , the cool T-shirts to wear on call . I started doing sprint and Olympic distance triathlons , locally or traveling on my weekends off / post call . I received further encouragement from Dr . Dave Arnold , a fellow medical student , who was into such things as well . Many years after we ’ d both finished training and after only brief meetings at triathlons since , we completed an Otillo Swimrun race together , first swimming as a pair linked by running shoes between islands off the coast of Maine . Then we topped off those five miles with 14 more , running across the islands in our swim gear .
It was a gradual drift from the short distance triathlons into the longer distance races . The original goal was never to “ do an Ironman ” or check a bucket list . In fact , the first one happened