Christian Isakson
Audio Transcription
KC: Welcome to Living Fuel TV, I’m KC Craichy. What is the most difficult, physical accomplishment you’ve ever accomplished? Well, today you may have to rethink that because I’m going to introduce you to Mr. Ironman, Christian Isakson. God bless you, Christian. Thanks for coming out.
Christian: Thanks for bringing me here, and thanks for having me here.
KC: It’s awesome.
Christian: I’m humbled to be here. Thank you.
KC: Christian just accomplished a feat that few in the world have ever done. He did the Epic Five race in Hawaii last week where he would do an iron man triathlon each day for five days in a row, and he’s one of three people in the world that accomplished this task within the time frame allowed and four, total, accomplished it. It is absolutely fantastic, brother.
Christian: Thanks. Thank you.
KC: I’m not sure how a human being can do something like that, but it is literally amazing.
Christian: You know, it’s just one of those things that you think of the next step versus the next mile. First, a phone call came from Jason Lester who is a friend of mine and an award winning athlete. He called and asked if I would be interested in partaking in Epic Five, and the first thing out of my head was I can’t do it, I don’t think anybody can do it, and after I talked and prayed about it with my wife, after Ron and I discussed it at length. I was hooked the second he asked me, but I had to kind of play the limp dog for my wife and I was in. I wanted to use it as a platform to raise awareness for some things that I felt passionate about. I spent some time in Haiti over the past year. I’ve also worked with some people from Vegas with Triple X Church which is an anti-pornography campaign, and the Epic Five was a good platform for me to be able to use such a magnificent feat to show the magnificent power of God that we both serve and try to help a magnificent cause.
KC: Well, that’s fantastic. You know, I consider you a true American hero in a number of ways, brother. For one; you served in the military. You were a medic in the Army.
Christian: Medic in the Army, yup, for a couple of years as a medic.
KC: And now, you’re a fireman and a paramedic.
Christian: Yes, sir.
KC: So you really are serving the nation, and I just wanted to say God bless you and thank you for that alone.
Christian: Well, thanks. Thank you.
KC: But the life lessons that we’re going to get from these interviews are just exciting and so, we’re going to do a series here. We’re going to get into the details of how this is accomplished because, you know, first, let’s say, how long is the swim, two miles?
Christian: So an Ironman Iron Distance race consists of a 2.4 mile swim followed by 112 mile bike and then a 26.2 mile run.
KC: OK, so just keep that in mind, he did that every day for five days in a row. So there are some numerous life lessons that come out of this, but let’s hear your story. Let’s hear where you came from, what’s…
Christian: What’s my background?
KC: Yeah.
Christian: I grew up in Michigan. I grew up in Detroit, my dad was a firefighter and moved to the Upper Peninsula. My mom and my dad had kind of a sordid relationship, and they separated before I went into the military. I went into the military and served for a couple of years in Europe as a medic. I was married to my high school sweetheart, I’ve known Rhonda more than half my life. I’m 37 years old and I’ve known her since I was 12 years old.
KC: That is fantastic.
Christian: I’m more attracted to her today than I was the first day I saw her.
KC: That’s awesome.
Christian: We got married young, I was 19. I have a 16 year old girl named Evelyn and a ten year old son named Ian, two people that I want to be more like every day. My family; if I could be more like my family I’d be a signed athlete already. They have the characteristics and the qualities that I want to reflect. I grew up in a Christian home. I’d like to say a pseudo Christian home. I didn’t have the example that I want to have for my kids as a Christian and as a believer. I saw a father that said one thing and did another, and I saw a mom kind of caught between the cross-fire. So I swore that when I was married that I would give my life right with Christ, my head straight and I would be the example that I think Christ was for us to follow to my children. And then endurance racing hit me. Once I got into endurance racing, I’ve always had a pretty serious solid running background, but once endurance racing hit, around the age of 30, I wanted to raise funds for a Romanian orphanage that enabled kids to have a bath once a week. And I just had a shower in your house and I stand there and thinking about what a blessing it is to have hot water pouring over your body. I raised about $4,000 for these kids for a living clean ministry in Romania, and that spiraled into another ministry that I got involved within. We spiraled into Haiti, we spiraled into Triple X Church, which is now spiraling into cancer research. So I think the reason why I do so well in endurance sports is I always have a cause that I can direct my pain and my focus to when the hurting starts.
KC: That is a beautiful thing. You know it’s interesting that you’re hard wired to help others. It’s amazing. You grew up, you said, in a Christian home and it made you want nothing to do with Christianity.
Christian: Dysfunctional.
KC: It was dysfunctional. There’s a lot of dysfunctional families but still, even though you didn’t want anything to do with Christianity at the time, you still went into being a medic helping other people and being a fireman, and a paramedic and all these things for these various ministries. That is really fantastic.
Christian: Yeah, I think, you know, I said this throughout Hawaii when people talked to me, we’re going to stand before God, and when we stand before God he’s going to ask us what have we done with what we’ve been given, and I want to make sure that, like if I was to give my son Ian $100 and he went out and bought $100 worth of gumballs, I would be bummed out. I would be like, dude, what did you do that for? But if he takes the $100 and invests it wisely, then I’m going to turn around and say, good job, well done, and that’s what I want to reflect in my life.
KC: That is fantastic. Well, brother, we’re going to get into the details of the journey here in a moment in the next segments but God bless you for telling us just an awesome clear view into your background.
Christian: Thanks, man, and thanks for having me here.
KC: God bless you.
Christian: Thank you.
KC: Hope you enjoyed that. Be with us for the future episodes of this. God bless you and have a great day.
