Rob Anderson (’78)

By DAVE MORRISON

Rob Anderson doesn’t believe in tattoos.

But he’s willing to overlook that detail if things work out as he hopes they will this weekend in Hawaii.

The Beckley native, who now lives in Atlanta, is competing in the Ironman Triathlon World Championship on Kailua-Kona Saturday.

“If I finish, I want to get an Ironman tattoo on my ankle,” the 48-year-old Anderson said. “And I want it to say Kona on it. I want people to know that I was able to finish the premier Ironman event.”

And why not?

Few people can make the claim they finished a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike leg and a 26.4-mile run ... consecutively.

It begs the question ... why?

“When I was (working) at ING, there was a girl I played tennis with,” Anderson said. “She started getting into running and asked me to run with her one day. I made it two miles and told her to go on, I was done.”

That was just the beginning.

Before long, Anderson was running in marathons.

Then a friend, Daryl Sharpless, dared Anderson to do a triathlon.

“He didn’t think I could do it,” Anderson said. “Truth is, I didn’t know what I had gotten into.”

The training is beyond laborious.

Anderson typically trains six days a week, sometimes twice a day.

He enjoys the biking and even the running. The swimming is another story.

“That’s where I usually cheat,” he said. “You are supposed to swim three times a week, a total of 9,000 meters. Sometimes I don’t get there.”

It’s a fact that Ironmen competitors attract all ages, women and men, but it is especially appealing to guys in their 40s. There are 172 competitors in Anderson’s group alone.

“I think maybe part of it is when you hit that mid-life crisis,” Anderson said, laughing. “You think, I’m going to run in an Ironman. It sounds like a cool thing. And it is.”

Just exactly how does it feel after swimming over two miles and biking 112 with a 26-mile run in front of you?

“If you pace yourself good, you feel it in your legs, but you aren’t dead tired,” Anderson said. “The first mile or two sucks because you aren’t used to it. Once you get your rhythm, you’re OK. Of course for me, it’s always tough after 12 miles.”

The best part is a sense of accomplishment, Anderson said.

“Even if you do a 600-yard swim, 12-mile bike and three-mile run, it still makes you feel like you really accomplished something,” Anderson said. “I try to be modest about it, but you really feel a sense of pride.”

Finishing is the goal for Anderson.

“My brother Mike pretty much summed up how I felt about it,” Anderson said. “He said, ‘You’ve already proved that you belong. This is just the pie.’ I want to finish. I don’t want to get out there and bonk somewhere.”

Anderson had his share of athletic success in high school.

He was a member of the 1977 Woodrow Wilson state championship football squad.

In fact, he caught the winning pass from quarterback Phil Culicerto in the Eagles’ 7-3 semifinals win over Parkersburg with 30 seconds left.

Woodrow won the title game the next week, 6-0 over Fairmont.

“I remember everything about it,” Anderson said. “We were losing 3-0 and time was running out. We had a running back, Randy Glenn, who wasn’t a great receiver, but I remember him catching a pass on third-and-long that gave us a big first down. We were having a lot of success on that last drive with a play called ‘Maryland sprint-out.’

“I usually lined up on the right, but Phil switched it and I ended up on the left. I remember getting in my three-point stance and looking at the defense. I was almost going nuts. There was nobody playing in the area I was going to. I caught it and scored the touchdown. It was pretty exciting.”

It shouldn’t be a surprise. His late father, Ted Anderson, was a quarterback on West Virginia’s 1954 Sugar Bowl championship team.

In fact, he had three different records that were recently broken by current WVU QB Patrick White.

“I like to say I got my athletic talent from my dad and my intelligence from my mom,” Anderson said. “I wish he was here to see this.”

Anderson hopes to have his mom join him at the finish Saturday, Anderson’s sister Kathy said.

Then, it’s off to the tattoo parlor.