The Art of Living
“Allow yourself to truly play at your hobbies, without worrying about results.” —Sompong Sombati
BRENT HUMPHREYS
LAS T YEAR, to mark turning 60, Sompong
Sombati did something even he calls crazy:
he completed six ultradistance triathlons in a five-month span. In each event the Virginia medical
researcher swam 2. 4 miles, biked 112 miles, and
ran a full marathon. Almost as crazy? He does
this to relax. “Som isn’t really driven by how
Super Marathon Man
he does compared with others,” says workout
buddy Mark Burnside, 49. But he is driven. In
his hometown of Richmond, more than a hundred triathletes owe their start to Som’s support. “The first four I coached couldn’t swim
the length of the pool,” he says. “Then every
one finished Ironman Florida.” —Phaedra Hise
