Paul Kos

Bryce Alderton

Paul Kos is not a sprinter. He prefers long-distance running any day

to a 100-meter dash.

Maybe that is why he was destined to compete in marathons and

triathlons instead of sprinting around a track.

And the Costa Mesa High graduate, who played basketball at Orange

Coast College before earning a hoops scholarship to Western State

College in Colorado, exerted his body to the brink in the toughest

race of them all in June: the Ironman.

Kos, 33, battled 95-degree heat in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to finish

the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bicycle ride and 26.2-mile marathon in 12

hours, seven seconds.

“I couldn’t have been happier since my goal for the race was to

finish in 12 hours,” said Kos, who lives in Huntington Beach with his

wife Christine and 2-year-old son Ethan. “I like keeping a pace for

two or three hours instead of killing yourself for 16 or 17 minutes.”

Kos ran cross country his freshman year at Mesa, but he didn’t

care for the sprints associated with the sport and focused on

basketball until graduating from Western State in 1992.

He decided three years ago to begin intensive training for the

Ironman.

“I remembered that race growing up and told myself I would do that

one day,” Kos said. “I did my first duathlon in college and that is

what got me started. It’s a good healthy way to keep in shape.”

The course in Idaho was one of five qualifying sites in North

America for the Ironman world championship, held each October in

Hawaii. There are 28 qualifying sites worldwide for the championship.

The top four finishers from each age division automatically

qualify for Hawaii, with an additional 200 spaces left to be drawn at

random, Kos said.

The commitment to train for an Ironman, let alone the world

championship race, is immense, he said.

“My wife gave me permission to do this,” Kos said. “I’m working

out before and after work. In a long week I will spend about 16 hours

training, whereas in a short week that will drop to about nine. Half

of my time is spent on the bike.”

Kos handles marketing and sales for a Newport Beach investment

company, close enough to the Back Bay for a little run after work.

The swimming, the first stage in a triathlon, was the hardest part

for Kos because of the congestion at the starting line.

“There are 1,800 people in the water, so for the first

three-quarters of a mile you are getting hammered,” Kos said. “People

are getting punched and goggles are kicked off. The first turn is

less than a half-mile from the start, so people are all bunched up.”

Once contestants begin to spread out, pacing becomes the most

important element, Kos said.

Kos, who spent six hours on the bike in the Ironman, kept hydrated

in the intense Idaho sun by drinking Gatorade and stayed cool by

dumping a cup of ice down his shirt.

It helped to have a crowd cheering at the finish line.

“It was great going through the crowd and having people celebrate

that I had finished,” Kos said. “It was a huge sense of

accomplishment.”

Kos’ finish just whet his appetite even more for triathlons.

He will race in an Ironman again next September, but before that

there is March’s Los Angeles Marathon.

Kos will train for the Ironman by running his second L.A. Marathon

with sisters Val Schepens (Costa Mesa) and Kathy (Newport Beach),

along with brother Phil.

Kos completed the Long Beach Marathon in 2002.

“It is definitely doable for the common person,” Kos said of the

triathlon. “It’s all about how much time you put into it.”