Eric Winter: 2020 IRONMAN VR Legend

2019 was my most accomplished year in endurance sports since I began in 2012. I completed 11 triathlons having only ever completed 8 previously. I only really started to get into running after recovering from a knee injury in 2018. I had torn my meniscus and sprained my MCL running my second 10K in April at Disney World. After my knee surgery in September 2018 I was determined to not only pick up where I left off, but to train even harder than before. I raced those 11 triathlons in 2019 as well as my first half marathon in December, followed by my second just a couple of weeks later, and another one in February 2020.

After 2019 I had even bigger triathlon plans for 2020. I was planning to do my first half ironman distance race now that I was confident in my running. For those of you unfamiliar, a half ironman distance is 70.3 miles of triathlon consisting of 1.2 miles swimming, 56 miles biking, and a half marathon in that order. I hadn't signed up for it yet but I was on the IRONMAN website pretty often studying course maps and researching race reports as well as historical weather for various races. I had a few in mind including IM 70.3 Florida in Haines City, Gulf Coast 70.3 in Panama City Beach, Boulder 70.3 in Colorado and was soliciting input from my teammates who've participated in these races. Then came March of 2020 and a once-every-hundred-years pandemic that was spreading across the world made it's way to the US and into South Florida. All of the sudden, there were no races to choose from. Most were postponed and many canceled altogether.

That's when IRONMAN created their Virtual Club and a new platform for virtual races and training challenges was launched. The first one was a half ironman distance. I thought, "why the hell not give it a go?" and signed up. Just over a year later and I haven't missed a weekend IRONMAN Virtual Race yet. I just completed my 50th weekend of racing with IMVR16 half ironman.

A good friend invited me to her podcast to share my journey that resulted in me being recognized as 1 of 122 IRONMAN Virtual Legends worldwide in 2020. Click the link to listen to my story on The Mile after Mile Podcast hosted by the fantastic Amy Stone.

A perfect Ironman VR Streak with Eric Winter

I finally did complete my first (live) IRONMAN 70.3 in April of 2021, read more about that journey here: IRONMAN 70.3 Florida; From Ambulance to Finish Line

IRONMAN announces the 97 VR Legends from 2020, later revised to 122 Legends, that's me 2nd from the left on the last row

(above and below) Some pictures from my many IMVR adventures