Giambrone to try first full triathlon.

Twenty years ago, Joe Giambrone was in the middle of the Ross Barnett Reservoir when he was rudely introduced to the harsh world of triathlons.

The hundred or so athletes participating in the first leg of the race, a swim across the reservoir north of Jackson, had turned the water into a turbulent chop. Giambrone, unaccustomed to open-water swimming, was quickly swamped and grabbed hold of a buoy to escape.

Not long after, he heard a voice call out from the shore.

&#8220I grabbed hold of the buoy and heard, ‘Number 101, get off the buoy or you’ll be disqualified!’ I was like, ‘You want to come get me?’” Giambrone recalled with a laugh. &#8220That’s the mindset you have to have. You just have to keep moving forward.”

And Giambrone did. Through that triathlon and dozens more over the next 20 years. Through a fight with testicular cancer a decade later. And, he hopes, through his first iron-distance triathlon on Saturday.

Giambrone, a 39-year-old Vicksburg resident and Bolton native, will head to Oklahoma City for the Redman Triathlon. The race features a 2.4-mile swim across Lake Hefner, followed by a 112-mile bike ride and a full-length, 26.2-mile marathon through the streets of Oklahoma City.

Although Giambrone has done plenty of smaller triathlons before, the longer distance of this race will be a challenge.

&#8220It’s just something to push the envelope,” Giambrone said. &#8220I ran my first marathon earlier this year and said let’s go for a full triathlon at the end of the year. It was just another challenge.”

A challenge was just the sort of thing Giambrone was looking for when he signed up for his first triathlon – the one that nearly ended in disaster in the Reservoir.

He was in a bike shop one day and saw a flyer for the event, and decided to sign up. Before long, he was hooked. He did about a dozen &#8220sprint triathlons” – shorter races that usually include a 750-meter swim, 20-kilometer bike ride and 5-kilometer run – by the end of the decade.

&#8220I’m more of an endurance athlete. I’ll never win a 5K race or a bike race, but let’s go run for five or six hours and I’ll do pretty well,” Giambrone said.

Besides the challenge and the thrill, Giambrone found a new reason to push himself in 1995. That was when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

&#8220The first thing the doctor said was, ‘I bet you thought you were Superman, huh?’” Giambrone said as he showed off a long, winding scar that extends vertically across his stomach.

Fortunately, Giambrone’s cancer was caught early and treated. He has been cancer-free for 10 years. After five years, a patient is considered cured.

&#8220That’s another reason I do (triathlons). When you have an experience like that, you don’t know if you’re going to live or die, if you’re going to see your daughter grow up,” Giambrone said. &#8220When you have an opportunity to do something like this … it’s my drug, I guess.”

And it’s a drug that Giambrone has addicted his entire family to. His wife, Mindy, and 12-year-old daughter Ashtin have each done two shorter triathlons. At Joe’s races, they serve as his support crew.

&#8220Once you go and are a spectator, you get hooked on the momentum of the sport. And the people that do them are lovely,” Mindy Giambrone said.

Being on the bike is Joe Giambrone’s favorite part of a triathlon. A member of the River City Cyclists riding club, Giambrone prefers to ride his bike around town rather than drive. He described being on a bicycle as relaxing – and, during a race, filling.

The bike is the middle part of a triathlon and the only time an athlete has to replenish lost calories and fluids. For Giambrone, who will burn nearly 4,000 calories on Saturday, that means washing down Powerbars and electrolyte tablets with lots of Gatorade as he rides.

Whatever food Giambrone takes in during the bike ride has to last, though. Eating while running the marathon, the final leg of a triathlon, can cause serious digestive problems.

&#8220During a race, the bike is where you eat. I’ll have a box of food on here. You’re like a moving buffet,” he said.

Thanks to his experience in the Reservoir, Giambrone quickly learned that swimming was the toughest leg of a triathlon. To make it through, Giambrone joked that he had to combine one more sport with his already grueling task.

&#8220When you get 100 or 200 people, it’s a little different than being by yourself in a pool,” Giambrone said. &#8220The last one, I felt like a boxer. Everybody’s kicking, you don’t want to lose your goggles. You’re defending yourself.”