Blaine Lints on one of his many long bike rides.
It seems as though the greatest endurance athletes, those with the least inhibition, fiercest work ethic, and unending drive to succeed, began their training from the youngest ages. And this is no exception with Blaine Lints, a 15-year-old sophomore from Newport High School, will attempt to mountain bike 23 miles, road bike 46 miles, kayak 12 miles and run more than 19 miles Sunday in the Mountains to Sound Relay, a fund-raiser for the Seattle Running Club.
Most participants in the race will be doing just one of those activities as part of a relay team, but Lints, 5-foot-10 and 150 pounds, has decided to be a one-man relay team.
"When I was younger, I always had a need to push things a little more than everyone else," Lints said. "For example, there was a day I ran around 5 miles in third grade just to see how much I could run during recess and after school. And now it's continuing."
Lints got the idea to run the race when he saw a picture of the 2006 Ironman winner in a magazine. He researched a little and decided to give it a try.
"It never gave me a thought like 'I can't do this' or 'it's too long,' because I knew it wasn't," he said.
Lints runs 50 to 60 miles, bikes 6 hours and swims 6 to 8 hours each week. But his father said he still finds time to socialize with friends. And his training has fostered good eating habits, the elder Lints said.
His mother, Harumi Branch, said he eats "three million different kinds of nutritional supplements" and he avoids eating fast food.
This won't be Lints' first long race. Last July, he completed the Lake Stevens 70.3 Ironman Triathlon, which includes a total of 70.3 miles of swimming, biking and running. And Lints has already won his age group at several other triathlons.
"I hope people see the things I am doing, and understand that they can do these things too," he said. "It's in the mindset? You can relate this to how the 4-minute barrier in the mile was scientifically proven to be impossible, or how bumblebees technically can't fly."
And 15-year-olds can't endure more than 100 miles by themselves. Or can they?
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