From the August 2004 issue of Runner's World
If you come back next season, or direct again, do you think you'll work in running?
"I've been doing triathlons for as long as I've been doing the show and I've always said 'Hey, come on, why don't you have Jimmy be on a bike or on a run or swimming' and they're like 'Nah.' It's all about the soap opera. I don't think they're heavily into sports; they're more into Jimmy getting beaten-up by the Mob. Which, by the way, I did all my own stunts for. I don't know if you saw that scene where I get beat to a pulp and nearly drowned in the ocean. We did that one night down on the beach. It was insane."
After your triathlons how do you celebrate?
"I'll drink a big Guinness at the pub. I love Guinness."
Do you give it up when you train?
"It's funny I did give up alcohol, like all alcohol, no wine, nothing for three months, thinking that it would help my training for these races. It had no effect what so ever. So I'm back on the booze."
How do you feel if you can't work out?
"It feels terrible. I'm completely addicted to the endorphins. I just feel so much better about myself. You ought to see me after the run; I'm in fantastic spirits generally. Unless I've injured myself and I'm worried. Basically it's just such a mood elevator. There are a lot of ups-and-downs in acting and directing, running endurance races is a fantastic model. If you can relax and just go steady and do as best as you can, that's sort of like the same thing in Hollywood. Because it's kind of crazy and you can take things so personally and have such setbacks and such leaps forward.
Before a race do you always eat the same thing?
"Before every race I always have oatmeal with a banana in it. Irish oatmeal. Like McCann's. I have it a lot. It settles my stomach. It's like the "Breakfast of Champions" kind of thing. It's probably more good luck than anything else."
You'll probably have that before the marathon?
"Yeah. Probably will. I'll mix some up and have it on the bus going to Staten Island."
Besides the iPod Shuffle is there any other running gadget you use?
"I'll tell you what the greatest running gadget on the planet is…ready? Ice. I run on hills and ice is just, like, a magic cure for everything. When you get to be in your late thirties and forties it's unbelievable what happens to your body. The aches and the pains and the weird things that go on, you just can't believe. Ice is just the most amazing thing. I come home and put it on my ankle, my knees. It's the cure-all. I put it on for ten minutes and I feel great; I go out there and I am fine. It's funny. It sounds totally cliché."
Can you even walk after some of these tris?
"I've had tough days after. It's amazing how your body comes back. That's one of the great lessons of endurance sports: This too shall pass. Basically you're in the middle of a race and you have to climb this hill and you are in agony and you're killing yourself and then you cross the finish line and two minutes later you're feeling great again. Or you're going downhill in the run and you're like this feels great. It's amazing how everything passes. Everything is constantly changing in a race and if you can withstand the pain…"
What's your favorite thing about running?
"My favorite part of running is finding a great little patch of nature to run through, a little bit of forest or the beach. Nothing's better than a forest run as far as I'm concerned. You just feel at once totally alive and ancient. Human beings have been doing this for four million years. It feels great."
Is there one forest that you were talking about specifically?
"Well, my brother lives up in Santa Cruz and it's called the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park and it's these awesome redwood trees, with these big fiddlehead ferns, this gorgeous river running through it and it's really one of the most beautiful places. It's like running through an Arthurian legend. It's gorgeous."
