Ordinary man Ironman raising mental health awareness | Stephen Barry
The first line in Lar Phelan’s blog claims that his journey “is not a story of amazing feats,” however in the face of slowly snowballing media and public attention and the willingness of the 3Ts Charity to use Phelan’s story, the ‘Ordinary man Ironman’ must be starting to revise his opening statement.This summer, in the French city of Nice, Phelan will attempt to complete an Ironman course which features a menu of challenges: for starters there’s a 3.8 km ocean swim; the main course is a Tour de France-like cycle of 180 km from sea-level to heights higher than Carrantuohill; and the banquet of punishment is completed by a full-distance marathon.“It sounds big but you’d be looking at between 13 and 15 hours. If you finish it in 13 and under, you’d have the energy to celebrate. And if you finish it in 15, I’d just be proud of my achievement and move onto the next one.”The 29-year old final year student is an adventure junkie even though a mere two years ago such exploits would never have been on his radar. However he has come out the right side of a life-changing few years which have seen him return to college to complete the BIS course he dropped out of in 2006, take up charitable work with the 3Ts and start down the path of adventure and endurance sports.In January 2010 Phelan was diagnosed with testicular cancer. The disease didn’t so much affect him physically (he won that particular battle) as it did in terms of his career and his social life. It was the cause of his eventual redundancy in February 2011 as during his absence the changing economic landscape had caused his obsolescence within a once steady career in Dublin. The structure of his life collapsed. He lost the independence of living away from home and, as the domino effect set in, he found himself at the edge of the precipice above a fall into depression.
“I feel that I didn’t suffer from it (depression), but looking back at it there was a stage there where I’d no motivation. Now my qualifications wouldn’t give me the insight to say ‘you’ve this clinical depression,’ but I definitely had no motivation; and it wasn’t motivation to do well, it was just motivation to do anything.“There’s a farm at home and I remember walking out and trying to give dad a hand and you’d force yourself, you’d get up and you’d go out, and I don’t know what’d happen, but fifteen minutes later I was back inside watching television; but I couldn’t have told you what was on TV. I just had no appetite to do anything and that probably is a form of depression, but it didn’t go to the level that sadly we see in other people’s lives.”As he found himself on that cliff edge, Phelan found the awareness and resources to fill that six month lull in his life by taking up swimming in the local pool and running in the farm at home in Carrick-on-Suir. To combat that empty feeling he set himself the dual goals of starting to swim and run; and then starting to swim further and run further.Back at the start in April 2011, he couldn’t swim the length of a pool, but through sheer determination he built it up from ten lengths to the 2 or 3 km he does these mornings; and he intends to quadruple that distance in the next week or two as across the board he cranks up the volume of training that is needed to complete those 226 km. Ordinary man Lar is set to step aside as Ironman Lar takes over.That same April, he started running within the hedges of the family farm, albeit only when his parents would leave for a walk out of the same embarrassment and lack of confidence that kept him off of the local roads. Week one: he could only run one lap. Week two saw that increase to two laps and bit by bit he built up to 10 km.“That was the kick-start I needed and hopefully, if I can get that message across, it’ll inspire other people to ask questions on the blog and maybe change a little bit of their lifestyle and give them a little gee up.”Having learned only through trial and error, he now hopes the blog will not only raise awareness of mental health and suicide in Ireland, but also become a mine of information for those who want to learn the right way.This resource will in time feature contributions from a nutritionist, a physiotherapist and a runner among others, and that train of expert contributors was set in motion this weekend with the addition of amateur cyclist Alan Duggan to the blog.“It’s grown from a tiny little thing to something that could be very big if it’s managed right,” however managing it is taking up most of Phelan’s days.
Last week he put in over 30 hours into trying to get the promotion side of things up and running. Last Friday he was balancing a number of media commitments with a looming deadline for a project worth ten credits. Then on Saturday he swam a personal best time in the pool. Indeed he will be keeping up a full training schedule throughout his end of year exams before tapering off in the month of June in preparation for D-Day on the 23rd.“I don’t know how I’m managing final year! I just keep going! I try to keep a good schedule. I’m a devil for pressure; it drives me on.”For Phelan it’s not all about the degree or the job-hunt; it’s a matter of taking the opportunity to evolve as a person: “work will pay you, but it’s not going to give to you; whereas if you put a little bit of an investment into yourself, the payback is unlimited.“I can’t wait until the end of the summer when I’m looking back and I go ‘do you know what? I achieved a degree,’ hopefully a 2.1 or higher, and kicked on and said ‘yeah, I’ve also completed an Ironman and helped a charity.’ I think that’s probably a little bit different as in I’m trying to get more out of coming back than I would normally; I’m not just coming back to do the degree.”He cites personal reasons first and foremost for taking on the challenge but is quick to mention the massive kickback from his charity work which started with the Stuart Mangan Appeal almost five years ago. Since then he had been looking for a good fit for more charity work and the 3Ts were quick to get on board when contacted by Phelan.“We’re not raising money; we’re just trying to raise the profile of mental health and especially suicide, because I think most families know of people in their family, or in their neighbourhood, or in their community that have seen it or experienced it.”Indeed the problem touched UCC last year with the tragic passing of legendary hurling coach Paul O’Connor.But it’s the empathy that Phelan has, having stood at the top of that downward spiral, which drives him to put so much time into this campaign to make a greater associations between sharing your problems, physical exercise and mental wellbeing.“I chat to friends of mine and they say ‘jeez Larry, we’d never have put you in that category.’ I still don’t, but I was able to spot it and acknowledge it, rather than let it set in and become something that dictated every day of my life. It gave me the drive to go swimming, to go running, to live…“But I definitely saw it in other people, and maybe I’ve seen it in friends or in family; I’ve seen how negative events in life can really kick somebody, and it’s out of their control. It depends on luck and fortune, and in my case I’d a lot of luck that I subconsciously spotted it. I did a lot of things to pull myself out of it, whereas other people mightn’t be as lucky and it can totally be debilitating.”“By doing the three events I’m trying to highlight that these things happen, life kicks you, life puts you down; but with good support and a little bit of structure, good friends, good family – like if you want to do a 5k, go out there and challenge yourself and do it; and you’ll feel great after it.”
You can find out more about the Ordinary man Ironman challenge and the 3Ts at ordinarymanironman.com