Half Ironman—it almost sounds kinda quaint, doesn’t it? Well, there’s nothing quaint about James Lawrence’s feat this year: He completed a world record 22 Half Ironman triathlons between March and November, all in an attempt to raise awareness and money for micro-dams in East Africa. He calls this self-flagellating pursuit Tri and Give a Dam.

The charity he’s racing for, In Our Own Quiet Way, plans to build 1,000 water retention systems—dams, basically—throughout a dry belt in Kenya. Drought and subsequent famine mean that millions of Kenyans live without food security of any kind and, when it does rain, systems aren’t in place to catch and keep the water for irrigation. Kids routinely drop out of school simply because their families need them to fetch water from far flung ponds all day to keep livestock from turning into deadstock.

“I can’t believe the limited resources people live on there,” Lawrence said. “The thought of walking miles and miles each way to fetch water for my family is something I can’t quite comprehend.”

The father of five lives in Lindon, Utah, and makes his living in real estate. His father in law founded In Our Own Quiet way, and Lawrence came to his passion for Kenyan water issues when he worked as its public relations manager. What drew him in particular to the dams was that they have “an exit strategy so that the people could be self reliant and not have a continual dependency on the charity,” he said.

He had his first tri experience just six years ago. “It was a pool sprint triathlon and I wore a nose plug and rested at each wall,” he laughs.

Things have definitely changed. The Half Ironman is a full pull with a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride, and 13.1-mile run, adding up to over 70 miles of gnar—in his case every other weekend. He ran it all on a ridiculously tight budget and, from donated beds and Skymiles, the tri community came through hard. “I enjoy looking around to see how I can help others who may be struggling or having issues on race morning. I was concerned that I would get burnt out or hate doing triathlons but I just love it,” he says.

Lawrence was tracked by the Guinness Book of World Records people all year and, with the unofficial Half Ironman record being 16 races, they told him he’d need to do “at least 20” to make it stick. With 22, Lawrence should be free and clear, but his results are currently undergoing review before he can publicly claim the record.

Each dam costs approximately $10,000 to 15,000 USD to build and Lawrence’s fundraising has tipped about 20K into the coffers. He admits to being “slightly disappointed” by the amount and already has his sights set on an even burlier record to jump start the fund raising: 24 full Ironman events in 2012.

“I think it’s natural to say that I wished I’d raised more money, I’d hoped to get better exposure for the charity, I wished I had gone faster in the races and so on,” he said after his final race of the season. “But at the end of the day I did the best I could.”

To learn more about Tri and Give a Dam, go here or text DAMS to 20222 to donate five bucks.

And to see what the NY Times has to say about the crucial role of new dams in Kenya peep this.

Photo courtesy Jeff Lawrence

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