Training for a triathlon is tough work. That's why two Los Alamos National Laboratory employees decided to do it together.

There were some days when Nick Perry, 45, and John Tapia, 43, were training for the Great Floridian Iron Man Triathlon in Clermont, Fla., that one or the other just didn't feel like doing it, but partners push one another.

"There are some days you've got to train alone, but it's nicer to have a partner," Tapia said. "They just push you and if you have a bad day, there is somebody there to help you along."

Tapia and Perry both work about 10-hour days at LANL. They'd usually train after work for two to four hours, plus six to 10 hours on the weekends, training for the Iron Man — a marathon (26.2 miles), 112-mile bike ride and a 2.4 mile swim. Perry's girlfriend is "very supportive" and Tapia's wife, Karen Tapia, and daughters don't mind the extra time he puts in to train because when he's not training, it's "family time 110 percent."

The race, both said, is the fun part. It's the training that takes all the mental discipline.

Perry said that their dedication doesn't falter — not even when Tapia had a nasty bike accident while training last summer. "He had stitches and abrasions and he overcame that," Perry said. "My point is that the race is kind of the fun part. You get to take all that training you've done and go out and be with well-conditioned athletes."

When the men on their way to compete in the Oct. 24 Great Floridian, they were anxious. But Tapia said, "when you're at that starting line, a lot of that anxiety disappears and now it's time to take all of that training you actually did and apply it."

Perry finished the race in the top 10 in his age division with a time of 13:09; and Tapia barely missed the top 10 with a time of 13:40.

"This was my seventh Iron Man, and that was no doubt the hardest course that I've ever done," Perry said. Both men said the heat, humidity and wind made the bike ride especially challenging. "It was over 97 degrees that day," Tapia said.

But they kept themselves hydrated and took vitamin and energy supplements and were able to cross that finish line.

"It's a great feeling," Perry said about finishing a triathlon.

The beauty about being a triathlete is it gives you the tools to successfully tackle the everyday problems of life, Tapia said.

"For one, you're disciplined," Tapia explained. "Let's say at work you come up against a complex problem; knowing what you've faced and what you're able to accomplish, you're able to manage these problems and stay mentally stable. Not just at work, but in your day-to-day life."

"I definitely think it makes you stronger," Perry said. "In an Iron Man, you have to get through peaks and valleys where you're feeling really good then where you're in a tough situation. With other life aspects, you can draw on those Iron Man race situations to get through anything life throws at you. It makes you physically, mentally and emotionally stronger."

Both men have been doing extreme sporting events such as marathons or triathlons since the late 1980s, but when Tapia wanted to do an Iron Man event, Perry, who has done several events in the past, decided to train with him.

Tapia, a Nambé native, had been an athlete at Pojoaque Valley High School, where he played basketball and ran track and cross country.

Now, a simple game of basketball or a few miles a day won't do the trick for these train-hard athletes. Both are already planning their next events. Nick is doing an Iron Man event in Arizona Nov. 23, and Tapia is entertaining the idea of signing up for The Escape from Alcatraz triathlon in June 2010, which has a swim event that is exceptionally hard.

"The water is cold and it's very choppy and you have a lot of current there," Tapia said of the San Francisco race in which participants swim 1.5 treacherous miles from Alcatraz to the shore.

Contact Ana Maria Trujillo at 986-3084 or atrujillo@sfnewmexican.com.