‘Average’ Joe

On a nondescript Saturday in late September, Joe Parkinson woke up knowing he wouldn’t be going to bed again until some point on Sunday evening. To little fanfare, he donned his wetsuit and entered the English Channel to begin a 7.6km swim. This was the first of three disciplines he’d need to tackle in order to complete the latest challenge he’d set himself – a double Ironman on the island of Jersey. Once out of the water, a 360km bike ride around an island measuring just under 117km, and an 84km run around its rugged and undulating coast still lay ahead.

“There was no other option but to break it up. The size of the challenge is overwhelming, so being able to tick a box – a kilometre of the swim, a lap of the island, the next feed stop – it made things better. It felt more manageable”.

When we sit down to chat, it’s been five days since Joe crossed the finish line – a DIY affair held by two friends and constructed by Avengers wrapping paper. However, having covered a combined distance of over 450km across three disciplines, it’s safe to say he’s not recovered from his feat, and, as we discover, neither has he quite come to terms with it yet. He keeps apologising for his “brain fog”, which takes us on tangents and means we’re able to meander through his still unprocessed reactions to having finished. 

I welcome the raw and unpolished nature of his responses, but acknowledge Joe is stil processing a lot both physically and psychologically and so start with what I hope is an anticipated question: how does one decide that they’re going to do a double ironman? Joe’s initial response is Forrest Gump-esque:

“All of this endurance stuff came about because I went for a run one day and I really enjoyed it. I just thought, I’m going to keep doing this”. 

But the reality is that Joe’s compulsion for doing difficult things, and pushing his own physical and psychological limits, runs deeper than that. A personal trainer by trade, he has a Masters degree in Sports Science for Optimal Performance, and so has a better understanding than most of what can happen to the body and the mind under stress. He sees himself as a guinea pig. Undertaking things like a double Ironman – or 12 marathons back to back over 12 days – offer him a way of applying what he’s learnt, and finding the overlaps and lessons he can apply not just to his own fitness journey, but to others’. 

“I love the idea of testing myself and my knowledge base. I love to lift weights, but I also love to run and to ride. I’m never going to win a triathlon, an ultramarathon, or a powerlifting competition and I’m fine with that. But I want to have a good go at all of them. Why be average at one, when I could be average at all of them?”

So is this a case of picking the cherries out of the cake? Finding the best bits from each area and applying them elsewhere? 

“I think there’s a bit of art and science to it. There’s a lot to learn from each discipline”. There’s the added benefit of not needing to trust the process as well, I suggest. “Yes, definitely. I know the reason why I’m doing every session and the benefit it’s going to have when the big day comes”.

And come it does. Was he nervous at what lay ahead as he stood on the slip looking into the sea? 

“I remember when I signed up for my first Olympic distance triathlon. I was a couple of weeks out from the event and I was losing sleep over it. I was so nervous; I didn't believe in my ability to do it. So I had a really poor night's sleep, did a half day at work and then took myself down to the sea with my bike in the car and I did each leg back to back – an Olympic distance triathlon in the afternoon”.

This was a lesson learnt for Joe, forming the basis of what seems to be somewhat of a mantra for him: the only way to prepare yourself for hard things is to do hard things. “The day itself was the present for all of the hard work. No one stands on the start line of something like this by accident, right? A big amount of sacrifice had gone into getting there, so I tried to take the approach of just being present and enjoying myself”. 

To enjoy something so gruelling and physically demanding sounds sadistic, but it makes sense when Joe begins to talk about his highlight. They mightn’t be what you’d expect, focusing firmly on the achievements of the people that got involved alongside him, rather than his own.

“I expected to be by myself for much of it, but people turned up. They’d bought into what I was doing and they were getting involved and having their own milestone moments. A friend of mine swam 5 kilometres having only ever swum 2.5km; another mate turned up on his bike to ride the night leg of the cycle with me in the rain, and he ended up cycling his furthest distance. PBs were dropping left, right and centre and there were so many reasons to celebrate; it lifted me up and I get emotional just thinking about it. These people sacrificed their time to help me”. 

Even at the finish line, Joe had few expectations going in. “I just thought I’d do it, get to the end, tidy up and go home. That's how I had it in my head; the challenge wasn't for a medal obviously, because it was locally planned and wasn’t really organised beyond me establishing my routes. I was just overwhelmed that people had bought into this, and then seeing the messages afterwards too. I know people say ‘I've had loads of messages on social media’ to make themselves seem popular, but I genuinely had loads of messages, and I have been like, what the fuck?”.

It’s no wonder his head is still swimming. Ironically, it’s at times like this Joe would head out on a long run or ride. “I’m not shy of my own company and, for me, it can be a bit of a coping mechanism. It’s meditative, just me and my thoughts, and I’m able to go to these places and have these conversations with myself where my inhibition and my ego have long left me. What’s left feels very real”. 

I’m reminded here of a quote from German filmmaker and actor, Werner Herzog, about the over-examined mind that I put to Joe. If you harshly light every last corner of a house, he suggests, then the house will become uninhabitable. Is there a tipping point out there, as you place one foot in front of the other, where you maybe turn on one too many lights?

“I definitely got emotional on the run, but I didn’t quite get there. I was fighting back tears from around 50km and my mind was heading into all sorts of places. I tried to suppress it but I just… I got to a point where my head popped. I had to stop and that's when I thought ‘shit, this hurts now and is becoming really hard’. Yeah. It came in waves and I don’t know – maybe I shouldn't have suppressed those emotions for that long. I think it all just came from the disbelief and gratefulness towards the people that came out to support me”.

And why does Joe think they did it? His eyes drop at this direct question and he hesitates. “Some people have said because it was inspiring, but I don’t describe myself as that”. He pauses again. “I like to think it was to help and support me”.

I have my own theory. In a world where social media is ubiquitous and profile building is relentless, it would have been incredibly easy for Joe to focus his energies into creating buzz and awareness in the build-up to his challenge. The knowledge that others know what he was doing and were keen to be involved certainly would have been a psychological and emotional boon. Instead, he did it for himself as a way of pushing his own boundaries and to set new milestones for himself. The support, the attention and everything that materialised was a byproduct of the process and his focus on finishing the task he set himself. 

I drop Joe a line a few weeks after our initial chat. I’m curious to understand if the dust has settled and things have fallen into place a little more on what the challenge meant for him, and if the brain fog has evaporated to reveal any kind of closure or conclusion. 

“I’m not sure I have”, he tells me. “The brain fog is definitely still there, but nowhere near as severe. And I’ve got to the point where I can say that I’m proud of the challenge and proud of my efforts. When we last spoke, I was talking a lot about the support I received and the fact I was overwhelmed by it. I think the biggest lesson to come from this has been me becoming more comfortable leaning on people for support and asking for help – especially those guys. That’s definitely something I was alluding to, but hadn’t quite grasped last time”. 

As far as Joe’s concerned though, things aren’t that final. “There’s still a lot to take from this, and I’m looking forward to see how those lessons pop up”.

Joe Parkinson began his Double Ironman in Bouley Bay, Jersey, at 08:00 on Saturday 21st September 2024. He finished at 16:25 the following day, on Sunday 22nd September, having spent 32 hours and 25 minutes swimming, cycling and running. You can follow Joe, and whatever challenges lie ahead, on Instagram here.