FIT FOR A LIFETIME
dr. edwin wolfgram has competed in 15 Ironman competitions, 60 marathons, and 200 triathlons since he started running at age 48. by JESSICA JANCOSE
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Dr. Wolfgram runs a triathlon in St. Louis. (Jerod Wolfgram)
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2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. Put all of these together, and you get an Ironman race. After completing his first Ironman in 14 hours and 30 minutes at the age of 55, Dr. Edwin Wolfgram, now 81 and assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Washington University’s School of Medicine and owner of his own private practice, said, “I thought that was pretty bad. I just knew [how long] it took me and I thought, ‘That’s about as bad as you can get.’” He didn’t even want to find out what place he got. “There were 40 contestants and I would’ve hated to be 40th,” Wolfgram, who has two grandchildren at CHS, said. The next morning, however, “I found out that I got eighth place.” That was in 1988. Several years and seven Iron Man competitions later at the age of 70, Wolfgram came in first in the 70-74 year-old age group at the Hawaiian Iron Man World Championship Triathlon, thereby earning him the title of the world’s top endurance athlete between 70-74 years of age. “The first time I went there, I didn’t have in mind to compete,” Wolfgram said. “I just said I was good enough.” In fact, Wolfgram said that he was never very enamored with the idea of competition and would train in order to be fit, not to win. Competition, according to Wolfgram, “was a distraction.” That is the mindset for a man that has competed in 15 Ironman competitions, about 60 marathons and 200 triathlons. Wolfgram did not begin to train athletically until he was 48-years-old. “I said, ‘Okay, I’m gonna get fit.’ And so I went out and I was going to run to the end of the block - and I couldn’t make it,” Wolfgram said. Despite the difficult start, Wolfgram persisted in his athletic endeavors. “I was busy day and night. I had little kids, I had a big practice, I didn’t have any time to train,” he said. “But I figured I could give it five minutes three times a week. And that’s what I did. And it was horrible.” Eventually, Wolfgram began to see promising results. “It was after I got into it a little while that I found that I was a pretty good runner,” Wolfgram said. “I did qualify for the Boston Marathon after about two-and-a-half years after starting, where I couldn’t run to the end of the block. At age 50 I had to run 7.3 miles in order to qualify for 26.2 miles.” However, not long after competing in Boston, Wolfgram began to realize that an exercise regimen consisting only of running was bound to end in injury. “It dawned on me after about three years that my days of athleticism would soon be over because I was ruining my body,” he said. “Most of my peers kept right on running into their own destruction. Sometimes it’s deficits in life and handicaps that make you who and what you are.” Wolfgram lost his anterior cruciate ligament at the age of 14 while playing high school football. As an athlete later in life, he understood the danger in intense exercise and used the injury as a lesson. “It really made me what I am, because I realized that the body was fragile, that I had to work around problems,” Wolfgram said.