12 Days To Go (August 26)

In the middle of training and making packing lists for the trip …

(Don’t forget your bike)

I received an invitation to be interviewed by The Jewish Link

(Don’t you write for them?)

Yes.

(Like the paper your readers are holding right now, as they read these words?)

Yes.

I started…

(You began)

I began writing for “The Link” in 2015 when I sent them one of my blog posts, “I’m a Jewish Triathlete and I Don’t Roll on Shabbos.”

(A title you appropriated from the movie, “The Big Lebowski.”)

Very much so. For the next two years I sent in pieces when I had something. In 2019, I joined the paper as a contributing writer and in 2022 I became a staff writer with a weekly column. Along the way, people would stop me and let me know they were reading my articles. The whole experience has been wonderful and humbling. I’ve written about what my brain does when people walk up to me and share their feelings about my articles.

(You say, “Thank you for reading. Tell me your name. Where are you from?”)

Exactly. I try to stop talking for a change.

(How is that working for you?)

Pretty good in these situations.

(And in other situations?)

I’m working on it.

So when I was asked if I wanted to be interviewed by The Jewish Link, I did not hesitate.

(Are you going to transcribe the whole interview for us here?)

No, but with the race 12 days away, there were some takeaways I will share now since most of you read the paper on Shabbos and can’t watch the interview.

Moshe: “I get a lot of questions about David Roher. People often ask me why I put you in the paper. Who is this guy, is he meshuga? Who is this guy, who after every one of his Ironmans says, “I’m never doing another Ironman?””

Elizabeth: “Who puts on tefillin before every race…”

Me: “You are asking two questions: The first one is who am I?
I am the son of Judy and Judah Roher. I grew up in White Plains, New York. It wasn’t until my wife found me on the Upper West Side and we got married, and a guy named Zach Hepner told me that he was fundraising by doing a triathlon, that I decided I wanted to do a triathlon. I did the NYC Triathlon, which is a short course triathlon, and I was hooked. As a kid I was not athletic, not very coordinated, but in a triathlon, you just have to finish and a finish in itself is an achievement.

“Now the second question was about the tefillin. I am someone who was not very focused in school, my ADD is off the charts … I’m sure no one has noticed this. Learning is very difficult for me. I listen to Rabbi Krohn’s Daf HaShavua in the car as I drive, but to sit and learn for an extended period of time is very difficult for me. So, what can I do? I can do physical mitzvahs. I can promote tefillin wearing; I can put up my sukkah; I can put on tefillin before a race; I can wear my tzitzit when I compete. My dad always wore his tzitzit, both of my grandfathers always wore their tzitzit. I can trace back six generations through photographs, we always wore tzitzit. So, when I started training for triathlons, of course I was going to wear tzitzit. Because I am impulsive and I want my actions to be a Kiddush Hashem, the tzitzit make me question my actions before I do or say something, because that is what they are supposed to do. It’s this idea that I have this spiritual bulletproof vest everywhere I go. It’s the easiest mitzvah to do. You just wear them; you don’t have to do anything. If you want your kids to do something, model the behavior you want them to see. On a race course it has been nothing but positive. Israelis and other Jews call out ‘Shalom!’”

Elizabeth: “You get “bagelled” a lot?”

Me: “I get bagelled a lot.”

David Roher is a USAT-certified triathlon and marathon coach. He is a multi-Ironman finisher and veteran special education teacher. He is on Instagram @David Roher140.6. He can be reached at [email protected].