The Pied Piper: Slowtwitch Feature’s Age Group wonder Anthony Chan

Ever wish you had the ability to run a sub-three marathon (heck, even a sub-four or sub-five marathon), and do it with a smile instead of a pained grimace?

There are a scant few triathletes that can simply dance through a marathon, especially after 2.4 miles of swimming and 112 miles of hard riding in an Ironman.

Quintana Roo ambassador age grouper Anthony Chan is one of those rare guys.

Slowtwitch recently profiled the successful age grouper. Raised in New York City, Chan went from exploring distance running to taking part in his first Ironman just over a decade ago. The flame was lit; he was gonna be a triathlete. He moved across the country to the mecca of triathlon—San Diego years ago to fully embrace the swim/bike/run lifestyle, year around.

“I made that move to San Diego to find greener pastures and better weather,” he says. “I really loved the lifestyle, and if it’s something you enjoy doing, go for it. If you do it every day, and it makes you happy, do it.”

But he has a fantastic level of versatility; while he’s raced several Ironman races—including the Hawaii Ironman three times—he bounces over the marathons quite easily, where he rips off times in the 2:40 realm with regularity.

But most importantly, he absolutely loves endurance sports and shares it in a way few can. Chan found triathlon thanks to his partnership with Team Refuel and Chocolate Milk, where he began to interact with other triathletes, trading advice. He also became a pace runner for the New York City Marathon. And as his pacing experience has shown, it’s not about his own performance; it’s about seeing those around him. Call him the pied piper of endurance sport.

“The Chocolate Milk partnership was twofold; of course, they’re selling chocolate milk as a great recovery drink, but it was mostly about getting anyone in any endurance event active, with sweepstakes that got average people doing things they might not have done before. It was fun being around that.”

But as his racing progressed, he’d realized he’d done it all; wildly fast personal best times, Kona, you name it. It then became about raising others up.

“There really was a transition from self-improvement to sharing the experience,” Chan says. “You find something good, you want to share it. Triathlon is a community that’s really tight-knit. So it gives me a chance, to say ‘I can do this, you can do it too.’ There’s nothing special about me. It’s that simple.”

And it’s that rewarding.

“This is such an amazing community,” he says. “I get the most enjoyment when a newbie says, ' I saw something you posted, and because of it I tried a 5k and am gonna do my first Ironman.' That I can share that with people is incredible.”

You can read Slowtwitch’s feature on Chan right here.

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