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It started with a change in philosophy. Steamboat Springs dentist Dr. Jim McCreight decided he had a better chance of reaching his desired level of health by training for something instead of just working out.

Then, after about 24 months, countless miles jogging, riding and swimming and one Ironman Triathlon, he realized just how right he had been. Late last month, he completed the Ironman Arizona — grueling even to think about — in 12 hours, 56 minutes and 53 seconds.

“There are thousands of people and a Jumbotron,” McCreight said, describing the finish two weeks later after returning to Steamboat Springs. “There’s music playing and an announcer. If you have any type of heart, it gives you a tingle in your spine, and in some cases, brings tears to your eyes to see people crossing that finish line, knowing they have made so many sacrifices.”

Something new

McCreight, 41, isn’t an unathletic man — certainly not now, and not even before. He swam for tiny Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and repeatedly has launched dieting and weight loss efforts in the years since, movements that have involved everything from health club memberships to personal trainers.

Slowly but surely, year by year, he lost the battle.

“At Luther, it was a part of my religion to have a healthy body. I ate healthy and didn’t have much body fat,” he said. “But I went through a lot of school, sitting on my butt, then got in to my mid-30s, and it really started to hit me. Even hiring a trainer — even a female trainer — wasn’t enough. I would skip workouts or say I was too busy.”

He never got huge, topping out a little more than 200 pounds. But he finally got fed up with the boom-and-bust cycle of diets and the guilt of money flushed away via unused days at the gym or with a trainer.

So, staring his 40th birthday in the eye, he opted to try something different.

Titanic challenge

Even America’s down economy hasn’t stunted what has been the decade of the triathlon. The event has soared in popularity, even in Steamboat, which started its own triathlon five years ago. The local version has attracted more than 600 competitors each year, accounting for nearly every available slot.

McCreight’s Ironman Arizona, meanwhile, filled its 2,500 available spaces for the 2010 race in about 20 minutes at $550 a pop.

Still, the Steamboat Tria­thlon and a true Ironman have about as much in common as a day riding the Preview lift at Steamboat Ski Area does with a day heli-skiing in Alaska.

Ironman Triathlons demand that competitors swim 2.4 miles, 1.75 more than the Steamboat event. They push runners 112 miles on a bicycle and then cap it all off with a full 26.2-mile marathon run.

Good competitors can be on the course for half a day, while plenty of others don’t make the 17-hour cutoff.

Simply put, it would have been a lot easier if McCreight had solved his mid-life crisis with a new Ski Doo and a larger pair of pants. But he launched into the endeavor with a newfound dedication.

He went from dreaming up reasons to skip personal trainer appointments to clearing his weekends to train for the Ironman’s massive sections. Even more, he adopted a diet to suit his goals and hired an elite triathlete from the other end of the country to coach him via the Internet.

He often worked from sunup to sundown on the weekends and tried to get two or three hours in every weeknight, as well. He found inspiration everywhere from a group of local women who helped him refine his run to customers in his dentist’s chair who grew to live vicariously through his efforts.

And, he found support at home from wife and fellow dentist Wendy McCreight.

“A big part of my success wasn’t just me or working with my coach. It was my wife,” he said. “Wendy was on board with the whole nutrition thing and watched our two kids while I was out training for seven or eight hours at a time.

“If you’re doing an Ironman, you’d better check with your wife and your family first. If they’re not on board with it, you will not make it, just as if you didn’t do the nutrition or supplements right. If you don’t have support, it’s game over.”

The big race

It all came to a head Nov. 22 in Tempe, Ariz.

“It was a mass start, essentially 2,400 people starting with a cannon goes off,” McCreight said. “If you’re spectating, it looks like a bunch of fish taking off. I was very excited. Before the race, they always say, ‘Do you want to be an Ironman today?’ and that really gets the blood pumping.”

Things went well. The endless laps at Old Town Hot Springs and his college swimming background paid off in the 2.4-mile swim, which he knocked off in 1:05:39.

He finished the bike section in 5:51:16.

The day’s main trouble didn’t set in until the midway point of the marathon, after McCreight already had covered about 130 miles that day. Severe gastro intestinal pain almost ground him to a halt.

“It hurt,” he said. “I thought, ‘Man, this is freaking tough.’”

But he didn’t stop, and 12 hours, 56 minutes and 53 seconds after he left the starting line, he crossed the finish.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “They have an announcer. He called out, ‘James McCreight, Steamboat Springs, you are an Ironman.’”

Larger goals

That life highlight won’t mark the end of McCreight’s Ironman ambitions. Instead, he figures it’s only the start.

The week after he finished his gauntlet, he logged online to track the progress of friends he’d made along the way who were competing in Ironman Cozumel in Mexico.

He’s signed up for a series of triathlons in Boulder including a half-Ironman event, the Steamboat Triathlon and the Ironman Arizona again, scheduled for Nov. 21, 2010.

He’s already training.

His new goal: to qualify for the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.

“I started this as a huge athletic achievement, but really what I would like to do, I want to inspire people that are sitting on the couch,” McCreight said. “Not inspire them to do an Ironman or anything dangerous, but I would love to inspire them to get healthy. I never knew it would turn into something like that, but based on the number of messages and the support I’ve been getting, there is the chance to turn this into something really positive.”