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PURSUING THEIR PASSIONS
Martinsson, who islanders know as the chef/proprietor of Avec Panache, competes primarily in downhill speed events; during his downhill runs he can reach speeds of up to 85 miles per hour, with “normal” speeds of 65-to-70 miles per hour. “I can ski faster than I can drive on the highway,” he said.
Ayear and a half later he was back on the slopes, but by that time he was considered too old for Olympic consideration. Still, he continued to compete. “I was still winning,” he said, “but I got real cocky in one race. I didn’t inspect the course as I should have. I came crashing down and splattered everywhere . . . a total freefall. I quit racing for a few years.” In the meantime, he discovered Nantucket, and made his home here, about as far from the mountains as he could get. He never stopped skiing, however. “I kept free skiing; I was licking my wounds. One day I got into my tuck and said, ‘I still enjoy this.’ The thrill was still there, the passion was still there. “That was about six years ago. A couple of years ago I started really training hard.” This winter marks his comeback. Although there won’t be any monetary gain from his endeavors, he is ready to immerse himself full-time into the sport he loves. “I’ll be eating a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and sleeping on friends’ floors,” he notes. The ski schedule is structured, and intense. At each event, there are three days of studying the course and getting to know the mountain’s layout. He chose the Rocky Mountain region, he said, simply because most of the events take place there. The courses are about a mile long, which translates into run times of about a minute and a half. Unlike the packed powder weekend skiers relish, Martinsson skis on ice. “Any light snow will slow everything down,” he says. “It’s not a game. The only protection you have is your helmet. “When you’re in the starting gate,” he continued, “the only thing you’re thinking about is how fast you can go down the mountain. If you’re thinking about anything else you shouldn’t be in the starting gate.” He will race among those who, like him, are “chasing points, and racing against the clock.” There are those, too, “who are younger and trying to get to the U. S. team.” If all goes well, Martinsson will garner enough points to be nationally ranked by the end of the season. But it is the personal challenge that drives him most. “Why do I ski? The speed, combined with the fear, equals thrill,” he said. “When you cross the finish line, and you look back up, that’s when you say, ‘Wow, that’s scary.’ ” I Island attorney Jamie Ranney is known as a “Clydesdale” when he takes part in triathlons. It’s because of his size — he admits he’s a big guy. For years he trained upwards of four hours a day, lifting weights, running, biking. The intense activity, combined with his frame and perhaps a genetic predisposition, gave him back troubles, serious back troubles: doctors found a cracked vertebra. At the end of September, he underwent eight hours of surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital to fuse his lower spine. He was back at his office in two-and-a-half weeks. Less than three months later, he’s exer- cising again, albeit with a bit less intensity than he once did. He’s discovered the joys of walking. “Walking is great,” he said. “My favorite is Sanford Farm and also the Middle Moors, places I first discovered on my mountain bike. The benefit of walking is if you find a little trail you can say, ‘Let’s go over there.’ When I ride my bike, I ride fast. Walking lets me slow down and enjoy the place where we live.” That Ranney is able to enjoy brisk walks so soon after major surgery is a testament to his conditioning — even though he says his athletic pursuits may have hastened his back problems. “It was probably a result of running,” he said. That, and the extra pounds of muscle he carried from years of weight training. “You don’t see a lot of 275 pounders running or riding a bike,” he said. He realizes, too, that he most likely would have had back troubles no matter what his activities had been — his mother, Corky, endured the same surgery. Had he not been in top shape, he notes, his back woes could have been debilitating. Ranney has enjoyed athletics all his life. The 1987 Nantucket High School graduate was a member of the football, basketball and baseball teams (“all the sports that were available then”). In college, he played rugby and lifted weights, but the weight lifting tended to increase his size. When he came back to Nantucket (“I always knew this was the only place I wanted to be”), he decided to start running. “I started out slowly, running a couple of hundred yards, and walking the rest.” He built up his regimen over time until he could run a mile without difficulty, then two. Eventually, he tried his hand at triathlons, beginning with a “sprint” — a 500 yard swim, a four mile bike race and a 5K race. He kept training and increased his aerobic workouts, always looking forward to the next triathlon. Over time, he took part in 15-to-20 of them, including the New York City triathlon and the Lobster Man triathlon in Maine. And then his back began giving him troubles. “It got progressively worse, to the point where I could barely walk. “I’ve got two kids who are 4 and 6. That’s what did it for me. The moment I decided to do the surgery, I was standing outside the town building and I didn’t know if I could walk to the post office. When I wasn’t sure if I could walk a couple of blocks, I knew it was time.” To prepare for the surgery, however, his doctor told him he’d have to lose some weight. At this point, the only thing he could do with a minimum of pain was ride a bike. If that was to be his only form of exercise, he knew he’d have to do a lot of it in order to shed pounds. “My body was acclimated to a lot of activity,” he said. “I started riding a bike about 70 miles a day. Over the course of the summer I rode about 3,800 miles, all of it on Nantucket.” He dropped over 60 pounds. The bike riding gave him the leg strength to walk two days after his surgery. When he got home to Nantucket, he soon grew restless. Although he was moving, he wanted to do more. “After lying in bed for a couple of days, I started walking around.” Two and a half weeks later, he was walking a mile. His walks not only allow him to indulge his athletic desires, they have led to a newfound appreciation of the island. Walking has helped him better “realize the foresight Nantucket had” in preserving land. The island’s “been incredibly smart and lucky in regards to open space,” he says. “The commerce and the building goes on everywhere; we’re luckier than most. It’s still a place where you can go for a walk in the summer and not find anyone around.” He has also come to appreciate the more leisurely pace of walking, as compared to the focused intensity of triathlon training. “You can think more when you’re walking, it’s a great stress reliever. When you’re out walking you can better enjoy what’s around you.” As a serious athlete, however, Ranney likes to set goals. He’s stopped lifting weights and has his weight down to around 220 — but he hopes to start running again in March. “The doctor says I can probably do it,” he says. Until then, he’s happy to continue exercising one step at a time. I |
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