Henry Forrest Jr., Marine, Ironman triathlon co-founder

As an avid runner and a Marine, Henry Forrest Jr. was physically fit, no doubt about it.

But it wouldn’t have occurred to him to swim 2.4 miles in the Pacific Ocean, bicycle 112 miles and run a marathon — all in about 13 grueling hours — if his wife hadn’t spotted a small article in the Sunday newspaper looking for athletes interested in doing just that.

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Special to the AJC

Henry Forrest Jr. runs in his first Ironman triathlon in 1978 in Hawaii, where he was stationed. ‘It was a macho thing – I felt I could do it because I was a Marine,’ he said.

It was 1978, and Mr. Forrest was a 35-year-old gunnery sergeant stationed on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

“I bet you could do this,” said his wife, Lou Forrest, after reading the item.

“No way. You’re crazy,” Mr. Forrest replied, according to a 1998 article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Mr. Forrest quickly warmed to the idea, however, and became one of 15 founders of the now world-famous Ironman competition and a pioneer of triathlons.

“It was a macho thing — I felt I could do it because I was a Marine,” Mr. Forrest said in the AJC article.

Mr. Forrest, 65, died of pancreatic cancer Thursday at his home in Grayson. The funeral will be 2 p.m. today at Grace Fellowship Church in Snellville. Tim Stewart Funeral Home in Snellville is in charge of arrangements.

The first year of the Ironman, everyone had an equal vote about the rules, the route, safety provisions and other details, Mrs. Forrest said.

This was in the days before high-tech sports drinks and energy bars, so Mr. Forrest came up with his own “super drink” that contained milk, eggs, a protein powder used for dieting and other ingredients, his wife said. He also nibbled caramel squares during the competition.

“I was his support team, and a couple of his friends who were Marines came, too,” said Mrs. Forrest, who also was a runner.

Mr. Forrest finished seventh, and John Collins, the Navy commander who started the race, presented him with a small trophy. It was a black metal stick man with an iron nut on top — someone with a hole in his head.

Mr. Forrest retired from the Marine Corps in 1984 after serving 20 years and reaching the rank of first sergeant.

He finished five more Ironmans, running his last one in 1988.

Mr. Forrest, a native of Valdosta, worked as a police officer in Kennesaw before taking a job managing corporate mailrooms and copy centers for Xerox.

In recent years, he taught Boot Camp classes at Colony Square Athletic Club in Atlanta six times a week.

He was a demanding fitness instructor with a loyal following, his wife said. The people who took his classes “were like family. He received a very nice gift from them recently. He said, ‘I wonder what they’d give me if I treated ‘em nice.’ “

Even after he got cancer, Mr. Forrest continued to exercise and organized a triathlon for his extended family in his subdivision over Labor Day, his wife said. He pushed his sister in her wheelchair for her part of the race and dipped babies’ feet in a pool for their symbolic “swim.”

Mr. Forrest had been a scout dog handler in the Vietnam War and had seen many friends die, his wife said.

“He always thought about those men. He would say, ‘They never got to come home and have wives and children and grandchildren,’ ” she said.

Other survivors are daughters Toni Guevara of Grayson and Bonnie Wilson of Loganville; son Henry Forrest of Winder; sisters Betty Zeigler of Decatur, Shirley Trantham of Valdosta and Barbara Largent of Ellijay; and eight grandchildren.