24 - Kostas Lazanas

Everyday Ironman Podcast

In this episode, I speak to Kostas Lozanas who recently released a documentary about his experience at Ironman Waco in October 2021. The documentary titled Keep Moving Forward is currently available on YouTube.

Kostas is a husband, father of four girls and owns two Greek restaurants in the Dallas suburb of Rowlett, Texas. He shares that his athletic background consisted of performing early morning PT at a South Texas boarding school and competing in bodybuilding competitions which led him to win Mr. Teen Texas in 2007.

After retiring from bodybuilding, Kostas focused his attention to business and his dream of owning his own restaurant. He opened his first restaurant in 2013 and his second recently, during the Pandemic. He admits that having completed two 70.3 races in the past did leave him with a feeling of unfinished business and this year found himself in a position to dedicate the time to completing a full distance race.

Kostas acknowledges that he officially started training for the full distance race only 3 months in advance of race day. His coach, while hesitant as first, soon realized that Kostas was willing to put in the necessary work. They focused on getting him to the starting line fit and injury-free. Trusting his management team, Kostas was able to reduce the hours that he spent on the business and make Ironman training his full time job.

We spend a few minutes talking about how he got his start creating YouTube content and his passion for filmmaking. We discuss the format for his documentary, and he gives me a quick lesson on the importance of the story arc in filmmaking.

We spend some time discussing the Waco course and Kostas’ experience. He acknowledges that he embraced the fact that you only get one time to experience your 1st Ironman and wasn’t concerned about his finish time. We compare our approaches to bike training and breakdown some last minute advice his coach gave him the night before the race.

We talk about his thoughts on being social during the run and he gives advice on how to leverage other athletes to help with pacing. We compare stories on how easy it is to “forget” that you have to run all 26.2 miles of the marathon. And Kostas gives a little glimpse into his previous experience hiking/backpacking in Ruidoso, NM.

And of course, we talk bikes! Kostas explains that he had to buy a bike during the height of the bike shortage and was lucky to find a bike in his size that would suit his needs.

We round out of conversation talking about what is on the horizon, Kostas shares that he would love to complete in Ironman Florida in 2022. I announce that I will be participating in Ironman 70.3 Texas in Galveston, next April, as part of a relay team and have plans to serve as a volunteer after completing the swim portion of the relay.

If you haven’t already, click the link below to view Kostas’ documentary Keep Moving Forward.

https://youtu.be/1kvDRywhY-M

You can follow Kostas and his adventures on Instagram @kostastx