Joe Garcia plans to celebrate his 70th birthday party with a medal-winning performance at the 118th annual Boston Marathon.
One of the founding members of the St. Albert Roadrunners and Triathlon Club will put his best foot forward towards the goal of finishing in three hours and 22 minutes.
“I want to train pretty hard and do good there and hit the podium,” said Garcia, who competed at the 2013 Ironman Canada in the 65 to 69 division and finished the recent Chicago Marathon in 3:28:22.
The plumber with the Edmonton Public School Division qualified for Boston as the No. 1 male in his age category at the 2012 Seattle Marathon.
“I feel very good about it. Mission accomplished. This was at the top of my list to be at the Boston Marathon on the day of my birthday (April 21),” said Garcia, the fifth fastest 65 to 69 male at his first Boston Marathon in 2011 in 3:22:29.
Garcia was initially going to make standard for Boston at last year’s New York Marathon in early November but it was cancelled because of Superstorm Sandy.
“I was there for all but 20 hours and then I came home. I thought, where do I qualify now because going to Boston was priority for me,” he said. “I had a couple of choices but Seattle was close to town. It was easy to get there with the one stop flight so I went to Seattle.”
His time on a foggy Seattle course Nov. 25 was for 3:30:31 for 243rd overall among 1,400-plus male finishers.
“That is a very tough marathon but I wasn’t very, very happy with my time. I wanted to be faster,” Garcia said. “It’s much tougher than Chicago because there are quite a few hills there compared to Chicago where there is no hills at all.”
Garcia also had high expectations for Chicago.
“I wanted to break 3:25 and I lost fourth place by one second. Can you believe that?” said the fifth-place 65 to 69 male for 3,849th overall. “I gave it everything I had but I was hurting plenty.”
No pain, no gain is Garcia’s motto.
“I give it everything I have so I’m in pain when I finish. It’s not so much the upper body. My legs hurt all over, especially my calves. They hurt a lot. So do my hips,” he said. “It’s not a walk in the park. Never was and never will be, but I wouldn’t give it up for anything. That’s want I want to do forever.”
Garcia suggested the marathon portion of the Ironman – 3.86-kilometre swim, 180.25-km bike and the 43.2-km run – is easier on the body than an actual marathon race.
“You feel more beat up after a marathon than you feel after an Ironman because you spread your energy more economically in the Ironman,” he said. “If you want to do well in a marathon it’s going to hurt and if you’re going to take it easy it might not hurt as much.”
Garcia has finished every marathon and Ironman he’s competed in.
“After 20 miles it’s sole determination. You want to keep going,” he said. “I’ve never stopped a single time. Never walked. It’s a complete focus on what you’re doing. No distractions whatsoever. You keep going, chip away at it and eventually you reach the end.”
Garcia’s first marathon was in Edmonton at age 49. “I’ve been running for many, many years and I was doing very good in 10 K races and 10-milers,” said the father of four and the proud grandfather of twin boy toddlers. “My friends had done it before and I wanted to try it. I had a little more time too because the kids didn’t need me that much so I did it.”
His 3:08 time in Edmonton remains a personal best. “It was a rush and you get that same rush for every race,” said Garcia, who also posted fast times of 3:16 in Monaco, 3:19 in New York and 3:23 in Victoria as a budding marathoner.
Garcia is also a noted age-group Ironman and has competed in the long-distance triathlon every year since 2007. The next year he qualified for worlds and finished 24th in the 60 to 64 division at 14:28:04 and in 2009 placed 18th in the 65 to 69 division at 14:36:42.
“You just want to be there. It’s a tremendous attraction. If you can’t be there you feel like it’s unfinished business,” Garcia said. “You’ve got to be very dedicated and very fanatical about it because it takes too many hours a week to get ready for an Ironman.”
He trains 20 hours a week for the Ironman. “I swim every day in the morning and I either run or bike in the evening,” said Garcia, who logs about 12 hours a week in preparation for a marathon. “I really have to manage my time.”
At Ironman Canada in Whistler this year Garcia soldiered through as the 11th fastest male in his division at 14:52:40 for 1,661st overall.
“I didn’t do very good on the bike (7:54:39). I wasn’t prepared at all. There was too may hills and they were tough hills,” he said. “In the run (5:00:49) most people were walking because it was very tough. The run is my ace in the hole. If I can’t run I’m at the back of the pack.”
Next year Garcia will focus on qualifying for worlds. After the Boston Marathon he will compete in a half-Ironman in Baltimore, the 31st annual Canadian Ironman in Whistler and the ITU World Triathlon Age Group Championships in Edmonton.
“If I can do it you can but it’s not just doing it, it’s the training and you’ve got to get motivated and willing to do the work. A lot of people are not willing to make the effort,” said Garcia, who hails from Salamanca, a city in northwestern Spain.
