Tyler Lewis Story

Just Another Runner’s Story June 2024 Written by Gale Fischer

Potential Unknown

"Getting off the bike and staring down a full marathon is one of the toughest things to do mentally.” 

—-Tyler Lewis

Running differs from many sports in that the goal is not always to win the match. Certainly, many participants feed off of a competitive drive but there are many in our sport who are in it just to run. Running beside others and taking in the energy on a race course is the thrill that some desire. It’s not always about age group awards or leader board placings. For others, simply running is all that is necessary, and participating in a race is not part of their athletic makeup. Tyler Lewis’ running story began this way. The competitive nature of the sport was not a part of his DNA. Just being a part of the sport was enough. 

Tyler began running as a young boy with a little encouragement, coaxing, and ultimately bribery from his mom. “I joined my middle school cross-country team in seventh grade. I only started because my mom offered me seventy-five dollars to run cross country. The previous summer I kind of just sat around watching TV and eating junk food. Mom was ready for me to change my sedentary tendencies.”  

Tyler spent much of his time early on near the back of the pack but this didn’t seem to bother him. “I was the slowest member of my team. Several times I was the last-place finisher for many races in my first few years of cross-country, but this didn’t matter to me. I liked the sport immediately because everyone was supportive no matter how slow I was or what place I finished.”

Tyler’s varsity cross-country coach Ryan Renner recalls his early observations of Tyler as a runner in middle school. “I remember watching Tyler's first race when he ran cross-country for the middle school team. He was always towards the back of the pack but I remember thinking that I never saw him walk and he seemed to be giving a solid effort.” 

Tyler also signed on for track in middle school but decided to try baseball during the spring as a freshman. He eventually returned to track as a sophomore but cross-country was always his true love. “Cross-country was my main focus and track was a way to stay in shape.”

Tyler would eventually turn the corner from runner to competitor. This competitive side remained internal and not against other runners. “My very first 5K finishing time was thirty minutes and thirty seconds my freshman year. I was able to chip away and had a personal record (PR) of twenty-five minutes by the end of my freshman year. Every year I seemed to get better and my best race was my senior season with a time of eighteen minutes and fifty-eight seconds at the Portage Invitational.” 

 

A sub 19-minute 5K was Tyler’s dream but improving his race times wasn’t his only source of motivation. “My sophomore year of high school, I weighed two hundred twenty-five pounds. I started taking running more seriously and eventually, I dropped down to one hundred seventy-five. I was trying to lose weight and the extra miles helped with this.” Tyler’s two goals complimented each other. Putting in the extra miles and effort required seemed to melt the pounds away and the more weight he shed, the better he performed as a runner. 

Coach Renner’s assessment of Tyler’s transformation as a runner paints a similar picture. “When he came to the high school team his freshman year it was more of the same for his first two years. He wasn’t built like a stereotypical distance runner. He was on the husky side. He ran, came to practices, gave a solid effort, and was a good teammate. Something changed after his sophomore year. He had slimmed down noticeably that summer and his times started to come down. The summer before his senior year, we talked about setting some goals, and his big goal was to break nineteen minutes. He not only got under nineteen minutes but also earned a varsity letter, finishing in our top five and scoring for us. He was a testament to what hard work and dedication could do.”

Tyler began his cross-country career as the slowest runner on his team. His goal was never to become his team’s number-one runner. He simply wanted to improve. His competition became internal and not against other runners. The individual component of his sport helped to motivate him but the social and team part of his sport was equally important. “The one thing that I miss the most from my time as a high school runner is the summer practices with the team, both boys and girls. We would run and then just hang out with my teammates after each practice. The team bonding was amazing. I also miss the support from the cross-country parents. Their enthusiasm is incredible. They were always so encouraging. There was never any negativity. Everything was always so positive.”

Tyler graduated from Harper Creek High School in 2009. There were no offers from college coaches to run at the next level, but that didn’t mean that running would not continue to be a part of his life. “After high school, I enrolled at Michigan Tech to study chemical engineering. I kept running casually. Winters were brutal but I tried to get out and run when I could.” 

As is a natural progression for many runners, Tyler would begin the transition from the 5K to longer distances. While still in college, he ran several half-marathons. In time he would branch out from this distance. “I ran my first marathon, the Bayshore Marathon, in 2011. In the realm of running it became the next logical step for me. It was a positive experience and I finished my first marathon with a time of three hours and thirty-four minutes. After finishing Bayshore I felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. I definitely wanted to chase this feeling again.” 

Running had been an important part of Tyler’s world for almost a decade. He hadn’t considered himself competitive but always sought improvement. He had graduated from the 5K distance and made the jump from the half-marathon to the marathon. Life was good as a former overweight middle school student who had turned himself into an athlete. Running was great but out of curiosity, he wanted to add an element to his running. “I was home from Michigan Tech in 2013 after my junior year of college. I decided to sign up for a triathlon.” Many first-time triathletes attempt a sprint distance (750-meter swim, 20-mile bike, and 5Krun), but Tyler wanted to step up his game right from the start.  “I jumped right to a Half Iron Man (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, and a 13.1-mile run), the Steelhead Triathlon in Benton Harbor, Michigan. My race experience was very positive. This helped cement in my mind that I wanted to be a triathlete. My finishing time was five hours and thirty-nine minutes. The run portion was my strength, followed by the bike portion and then the swim portion, but eventually, the bike turned into my strongest discipline.” 

Tyler felt comfortable with the Half-Iron Man distance. It remained in his wheelhouse for a few years. He had always been a runner and was still a runner, but now he was also a cyclist and a swimmer. He had found a new passion as an athlete. “I participated in Steelhead for the next three summers. I started getting comfortable with this distance. The next logical step was to try a Full Iron Man (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, 26.2-mile run).”

Training for and completing a Half-Iron Man triathlon is no walk in the park, but swimming, running, and biking twice as far raises the level of commitment to training. Tyler was ready for this challenge. “I signed up for the Louisville Iron Man 2018. The training for a Full Iron Man is significant. I spent between fifteen to twenty hours a week training. In the middle of the training cycle, I would have to do an hour bike ride on Saturdays and a two to three-hour run on Sundays. At the peak of the training schedule, I would do a six-hour bike ride on Saturday and then jump right into a thirteen-mile run. Sunday would then be a long run of fifteen miles or more.” 

Tyler’s experience in Louisville was difficult but this didn’t diminish the emotional impact that it had. “My first Iron Man was miserable. It was cold and rainy, but when I finished it was very emotional. I kind of caught the bug and wanted to do more. My finish time was thirteen and a half hours.” 

Tyler continued to train on his own but he longed for something beyond individual improvement. He wanted to make a shift and focus on racing against his competitors. “In 2019 I decided that I wanted to get serious about the competition. A teacher of mine from high school has a son, Mike Hermanson, who competed as a triathlete and also was a personal coach. I hired Mike as my coach. I followed Mike’s script and started training for Iron Man Arizona in November of 2020.”

The world shut down before Iron Man Arizona but this didn’t stop Tyler from completing the distance. “It was canceled two weeks before race day because of COVID. All my races were canceled that year.” Like many runners during COVID, Tyler improvised when it came to races being canceled. “I did my own Iron Man near my home in Fort Wayne. I swam eighty-five laps in the YMCA pool. For the bike, I rode fifty-six miles north and then turned around and came back. For the run, I had an eight-and-a-half-mile loop around my apartment that I did three times. My time was ten hours and fifty-five minutes.”

Mike Hermanson should receive some credit for the nearly three-hour improvement for Tyler’s Iron Man finishing time but it also couldn’t have happened without Tyler’s commitment to the training plan. Since then being an Iron Man triathlete has been a huge part of his identity. “I have participated in seven more Iron Man triathlons since, completing two to three each year.” 

Many health benefits come with the physical activity required for an endurance event like an Iron Man but the body does take a toll physically. Tyler has learned to take the time to heal after each. “A recovery for an Iron Man is a month with no activity at all the first week. I always get sick after each one. The immune system takes a hit from the physical demands of the distance.”

With the help of his coach, Tyler has continued to improve as a triathlete while also making a name for himself. “I set a PR of nine hours and forty minutes at Iron Man Maryland 2023. I have been fortunate to earn All-American status for the past four years as a triathlete through USAT, the governing body for triathlons in the USA.”  To become an All-American through USAT, one must finish in the top ten percent of their age group for that year.

Tyler has been dealing with an injury since his Iron Man performance in Maryland last year. He is now just getting back to a training routine. He would like to try another Iron Man soon. Moving forward he has two goals. His first goal involves qualifying for the Super Bowl of Iron Man Triathlons, the Kona World Championship in Hawaii. He would also like to post a time under nine hours. Most likely if he goes for under nine hours he would qualify for Kona. 

Tyler is living and working in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a few hours from his hometown. Not many in his hometown are aware of the transformation that he has made as a human being and as an athlete. His older sister, Melissa Klein is an exception and has been his biggest fan. Melissa reflects on what Tyler has accomplished and its impact on her. “Growing up I took the role of the big sister helping her baby brother. He was following in my footsteps but now the roles have reversed. Nothing was easy for Tyler growing up, including academics and sports. His confidence was low, but he was always motivated to do better. This is obvious with what he has done as an athlete but it is true in all aspects of his life. It is amazing that he was once the slowest runner on his team and is now a nationally ranked triathlete.” Because of Tyler’s accomplishments, work ethic, and attitude Melissa has chosen to participate in triathlons herself. Just as Tyler has become a role model for her she has done the same for her two children.

One never truly knows what their potential is or what they will desire to accomplish in their lives. Often times we underestimate what we are capable of. This is more evident in athletics but is true for anything. The ceiling is usually higher than perceived. Working hard and taking a step forward will breed confidence which will provide the push to put in more work and accomplish even more. It can be a powerful cycle. This confidence may give one the desire to try something that may have previously not been on the radar screen. I can’t imagine that the pudgy teenage version of Tyler Lewis would have had any desire to one day complete an Iron Man Triathlon but here we are nearly two decades later. Perhaps the best thing that can come from this is what any individual does to push themselves will ultimately inspire others. 

Everyone has a story.  Stay tuned next month for another runner’s story.