Riverton Swim Coach Finishes One Of The World’s Most Extreme Triathlons

Ask Steve Bang what he won at the latest extreme triathlon he’s finished, and he’s likely to give you a funny look.

It's a look a disbelief, like you just couldn’t understand even if he told you.

It’s a look that says, “You know nothing, Jon Snow,” Ygritte’s catch phrase to her beau all through the hit HBO series “Game Of Thrones.”

Despite the look, Bang will still probably tell you that he came home with a T-shirt and hat from his latest event, the X-Out Extreme Triathlon in Montenegro, Spain.

But the hat and T-shirt are definitely not why the 55-year-old Riverton swim coach and retired surgeon runs any of these extreme races.

Extreme triathlons are an emerging subset of the Ironman-style triathlons that typically involve a 3.8 kilometer swim (2.4 miles), a 180K bike ride (112 miles) and a full 26.2-mile marathon run. Extreme triathlons, though, also typically feature remote, austere environments that can be deadly.

Think jelly fish-infested waters that would normally cancel most other triathlon races and you’ve got the right idea. It’s about doing the extreme in extreme conditions.

It’s the danger and the difficulty of these races that are the real prizes for Bang. The chance to say, “I did it. I did this and it’s an incredible feat that only a few people in the world can do.”

“Back in the day, when I first started this about 13 years ago, (Ironman) races were really a lot more, I guess, extreme,” Bang told Cowboy State Daily. “They would do things like mass swim starts, which was more like combat swimming. And just over the years, they’ve kind of made it a kinder, gentler experience as a whole.”

That doesn’t mean it isn’t still a tremendous feat to complete one, Bang is quick to say.

“But I was just looking for a little something more to rekindle the fire,” he said. “And that’s when I got queued into the Extreme Triathlon Co.”

Extreme triathletes have taken grueling, austere and potentially deadly as their racing badge of honor.

In fact, participants all sign a three-page waiver that details the ways a person might die during the race. And, if that’s not enough discouragement, the race manual actually starts with: “This race is not for you. We do not recommend you do this.”

Bang doesn’t even read the disclaimers anymore. He laughs at the idea a race isn’t for him.

He knows the event is extreme and that anything can happen, up to and including death. That’s the feature he’s looking for.

So, he skips all the disclaimer stuff. He just signs on the dotted line and pays his $600 entry fee.

Biting Off More Than He Can Chew

Preparing for a race like the X-Out Extreme Triathlon is definitely not for beginners, and Bang doesn’t recommend inexperienced triathletes do what he did when he first started doing triathlons.

He and a pal, who he was setting up a medical practice with, had been running a yearly marathon together. When the friend mentioned he was going to do a triathlon, Bang didn’t think twice.

“I was on my way out to where he was, which was in Maine at the time,” Bang said. “And so, I just went online and said, ‘Oh hey, this looks kind of neat.’ And so, I just signed up for it not knowing what I was getting into.”

As a coach, this isn’t what he recommends.

“Usually, people start with a shorter distance of triathlon, because they do come in various distances,” Bang said. “What I signed up for was a half Ironman.”

Pretty quickly into that first race, Bang realized that he was not as prepared for the distances involved as he’d thought.

If he were advising athletes, he’d recommend a sprint triathlon first to get prepared.

“It doesn’t have quite the distances built into it,” Bang said. “But it allows you to move through the transitions and go through all the motions.”

Bang admitted he might have had an inkling he was in over his head on that first half Ironman while preparing for the race.

“You figure it out in your head ahead of time that, ‘Oh yeah, these distances are pretty big,’” Bang said. “But it doesn’t really become a reality until you’re out there. And so, I did think about it as I was preparing for it, but it really hit home when I was on the run during the event.”

As grueling as that race was, though, Bang made it through. Not only that, but he also made it through determined to see what else he could do.

“The cool thing about triathlon is, if you just keep going, you discover what your potential really is,” Bang said. “And you discover that in all events, actually, that our mind gives out far before our physical capabilities ever do. If you can just get over that, then your body can just keep going.”

Beating The Executioner’s Axe

To spice up the X-Out Extreme Triathlon in Montenegro for television viewers, the race included an unusual element.

It had an actual executioner whose job was to single out the slowest participants in the race.

For the race, Bang and the other participants were escorted to an island in the Adriatic Sea that used to be a prison but is now a luxury hotel.

This Alcatraz-like location has a helipad to bring VIP guests to the island. Standing in that helipad was a very important guest. The executioner.

“He was just standing in the middle, looking at everybody, not saying anything, having an espresso,” Bang said. “And our indication to start the race was just a simple gesture with his staff. That’s what was supposed to tell us all to take off toward the beach.”

So that's what they did, running like death himself was at their heels. Which, he kind of was.

“I don’t do well with cold these days,” Bang said. “Fortunately, this wasn’t as cold as a Celtman, which is more like 53 degrees where this was 56 or so.”

The Celtman is the Scottish Highlands version of the X-Tri, while the Norseman is held in the icy fjords of Norway and the Swissman is in the rugged Alps.

The swim was almost uneventful, except, unlike many other Triathlon races, there were just 29 participants. That made it hard for Bang to keep track of whether he was swimming in the right direction, to shore rather than out to sea.

If he guessed wrong, he knew that the executioner was waiting to eliminate the slowest five racers.

“I did get a little bit uptight that maybe I was off course,” Bang said. “For a while there I was swimming pretty much alone.”

Eventually, though, he could see the beach, and he could see other competitors who had beaten him to shore. But he wasn’t among the last five, and so wasn't chosen for elimination.

Biking 4,000 Feet Uphill Both Ways

Biking was next, and that’s usually a strength for Bang. But he’s heavy for a triathlete at 180 pounds, and this particular race included climbing 4,000 feet in elevation with only one short burst of downhill.

The first 1,000 feet of climb, Bang felt he was not doing too bad.

The rolling hills gave him some brief respite, but didn’t last for long before they came to the next portion — 6 miles of climb called the Kotor Serpentine, which raises 3,000 feet in height with no downhill portions at all.

It was while he was slogging through that — think doing single-leg squats with every revolution of the bicycle wheels — that Bang had a pretty close call with the executioner, or so he thought.

The executioner came along, riding on a motorbike past all the riders.

“I was biking along and I looked over beside me and there he was on a moped, and he was playing the part quite well,” Bang said. “As he passed me he gave me this icy stare the entire time he passed by. So I was thinking, ‘Oh no, I’m being executed.’”

Pedal To The Metal

That put the pedal to the metal for Bang, who was relived to find out that he was not being executed after all.

Once at the top of this grueling bike race, there was no real break. The athletes quickly tugged on their running shoes and started running on the trail, which was, thankfully, at least downhill. For a little way.

“I was able to make up quite a bit of time for that 4-mile, 3,000-foot downhill,” Bang said. “I did encounter a herd of goats on the way down who were right on the trail, so that was interesting.”

Then it was back to another 3,000-foot climb. But Bang was feeling pretty good at this point because it wasn’t a switchback climb.

“It was just a straight up trail that goes through a ravine and a bunch of boulder scree and whatnot, all the way to the top.”

Bang was thinking that this wasn’t really a lot of elevation here, so he should probably jog a little bit.

“So, I started to do that, and just as I did, I wasn’t paying attention,” Bang said. “I caught my toe, and I went face first into the dirt.”

Bang lost a little time there, and he got passed by the current X-Tri female world champion.

“I was OK with that because she’s an awesome athlete,” Bang said. “But about 800 yards from the finish, I had run out of fluids and nutrition.”

That might not sound like a long way, but at the elevation Bang was at, and with the incline being what it was, this was actually a huge challenge.

“I was reduced to a bear crawl,” Bang said. “Grasping at whatever boulders or clumps of vegetation — often thorny — to pull my trashed legs to the next foothold.”

During that he was passed by others two or three times.

“But I was OK with it at that point. I’d already reached my goal, which was just to not get passed by the executioner and finish the race,” he said.

That Finish Line Feeling

The finish was something unique in Bang’s experience, because there were only the people who were part of the race, plus the organizer and support crew. And, the executioner, of course.

“Usually at finish lines, there’s a lot of fanfare and a lot of people and what not,” Bang said. “This was just very intimate.”

That didn’t take away at all, however, from the feeling Bang got knowing he’d just become the American record holder for the Extreme X-Out Triathlon.

“Because, you know, if you don’t show up, then I can’t race you,” Bang said. “And I was the only American there.”

And that is what Bang really lives for when it comes to these races. It’s the finish that counts.

“That finish line feeling is extremely addictive,” he said.

There are health benefits too, Bang said.

“But I live by the creed of, do the things that scare you a little bit,” he said. “So I seek out those things. Life and growth happen just outside of your comfort zone. And so, that’s why I do it.”

The other thing, Bang said, is that those who don’t make time for health in their life, will see health taking time away from their life.

“So, for me, this has just become a way of life,” he said.

Those who want to see Bang racing and having the time of his life in Montenegro, should watch for the U.S. broadcast sometime this summer.

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.