An Iron Will – Claude Winter has learned how to take a deep breath, even while running 50 miles

Claude Winter is a quick study. He ran his first marathon in 1997. But he had a lot to learn about training. Although he toughed it out, the event was grueling. By the next year, when he participated in his first triathlon, things were different. “I was a little sore the next day, but not like the marathon,” he says.
Since then, Winter – district sales manager for Butler Schein Animal Health in north and central Florida – has participated in at least 100 triathlons (including five Ironman events), 50 marathons and 15 ultramarathons (any event involving running longer than the traditional marathon length of 26.2 miles), and has done two years of road racing on bikes. He plans to run three 50K races and two 50-mile events before the end of the year.
And what does he get out of it, besides sore feet, exhaustion and many lonely hours of training? Lessons he can apply to life… and sales: “Hard work, training, preparation, determination, goal-setting and consistency.”

Hard worker
Hard work is in Winter’s blood. He has early memories of working on his father’s farm in Gasport, N.Y., about 40 miles northeast of Buffalo. “My dad was very strict,“ he says. “I had to do a lot of the outside work on the house.”
When Winter was still a kid, the family left Upstate New York for Florida, where his father, Louis Winter, owned and operated a complete automotive facility, with body shop, parts store and garage. His mother, Patricia, stayed at home.
If hard work was an integral part of his upbringing, so were athletics. Growing up, Winter played basketball, soccer and ran track. At age 12, he started playing tennis, a sport he would continue to play for some time.
He started college at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Fla., and then transferred to the University of Central Florida, where he got a business degree. But his first job out of school wasn’t in business. Instead, he became a tennis pro.

Change in direction
After teaching tennis for five years, Winter was presented with another opportunity – selling veterinary products in north Florida, from Tallahassee to Daytona Beach, for Burns Veterinary Supply (which was purchased by the Butler Co., now Butler Schein Animal Health, in 2005).
Winter already had experience in veterinary products, having worked in a warehouse for a Burns competitor while still going to school. “I was pulling and packing products, and I got to know the products,” he says.
His experience as a tennis pro provided good training for sales. “I was able to explain things to my students and so forth,” he says. “And I’m able to meet people and build good, strong relationships. That’s what a good distributor is, besides knowing your products and building your business.”
Indeed, he achieved success in sales, and assumed the role of manager in 1994. Today, he has responsibility for 10 territory managers, covering north and central Florida.

Early events
In 1997, Winter ran his first marathon. “It was one of the hardest things I had ever done,” he says. He trained by running five miles a day. “I thought if I kept doing that and just ran the marathon slower, then I would be fine. Well, I walked and limped my way to the finish from mile 16 to the end at mile 26. I was in much pain, and could not walk for a couple of days. Several days later I came down with the flu, so the whole experience was not very pleasant.
“What I learned is that in order to do something of that magnitude, you need to educate yourself on what you are doing, and then do what you need to do to prepare for it.”
The lesson came in handy, as he prepared for his first triathlon the very next year in Clermont, Fla. (A triathlon involves swimming, biking and running.)
“I had no idea what [a triathlon] was, so I found out and read some on it,” he explains. “I got in a backyard pool and started to do laps to swim longer distances. You need to learn how to swim anywhere from a quarter mile up to 2.6 miles, depending on the distance of the triathlon. Normally, you would swim three or four days a week and do at least 3,000 yards per workout. “Biking consists of either doing gym spin classes, putting your bike on a stationary trainer, and riding on the road many miles a week,” he continues. “The running part, again, is specific to the different racing distances, but there should be three or four days of running as well, [consisting of] different types of speed running mixed in with a weekly track workout. All three disciplines must be done weekly.”
The preparation paid off, though Winter experienced some surprises in his first triathlon. “In the pool, you learn to swim and build up speed. In a triathlon, you sprint run from the start into a lake or ocean and then hit the water and start swimming. Well, I did not train for that, and by the time I hit the water, my heart rate was too high and I started to hyperventilate. I had to backstroke and catch my breath and try not to drown before I could settle in to a swim.
“The most rewarding part was finishing and realizing it was actually a blast,” he says. “I could not wait to do more.”

Ironman
Since that event in Florida, Winter has participated in dozens of athletic events, including one Ironman in central Florida, two Ironman Florida events, and two Ironman USA events in Lake Placid, N.Y. Ironman is a long-distance triathlon, consisting of 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking and 26.2 miles of running, Winter explains. “The actual Ironman race is very grueling, both physically and mentally. The mental aspect is every bit as hard as the physical. There are many times you have to push through pain to get to your goal of finishing.”
His best Ironman time was at his second Ironman Florida. “My goal was to qualify for the Hawaii World Championships,” he says. “The top 13 in my age group would get in, and there were about 300 in my age group.” He finished in 10 hours and 12 minutes – 14th place – and missed the mark by 2 minutes. “Come to find out, when you just add my swim, bike and run times and compared those, I was actually in seventh place,” he says. “I had very slow transitions [referring to the amount of time spent transitioning from swimming to biking, and then from biking to running] …. That was a very hard one to take.”

A new approach
Winter trains much smarter today than he did in the past for the strenuous competitive events toward which he gravitates. “I ended up joining running, swimming and cycling groups,” he says. “You learn how to train, eat and hydrate for each competition. I have used heart rate monitors, and took yoga for mind and stretching techniques, and Pilates for core strength. I also did weight training to help build strength and endurance.
“I even do daily meditation, breathing techniques,” he says.“ I try to sit still and breathe in and out for 15 minutes to clear my mind and thoughts. It helps me put everything in perspective, instead of going all out 24/7. You have to take time to breathe. As in sports, you have to train, recover, relax, rest and then move forward.”
Winter admits that participating in endurance sports was not only his hobby, but his passion for many years. “But it takes many hours of training each week, and you’re trying to balance a family and career as well,” he says. “I’d get up early, go to the gym or go for a long run; work all day; then do another workout at night. It did affect the family.”
He is married today, with a daughter and two stepdaughters. “I have perfect balance in my life now,” he says. But that’s not to say he has given up endurance sports. “I’m almost 49 now, so I have decided to focus on one thing, and right now, it happens to be long-distance running.” His goal? To run three 50k and two 50-mile races.
Some might hesitate to call that “slowing down,” but not Winter. “You have to put things in perspective,” he says. “You have to find a balance in everything you do.
“It’s like anything in life. When things get out of balance, you learn from that, move on and try not to repeat it.”