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October
24, 2022
INDIANAPOLIS
(BVM) – Former Indianapolis Colts
tight end and Super Bowl champion Dallas Clark knows what it feels like to
physically push your body to the brink. A first-round pick in the 2003 NFL
Draft, Clark caught 505 passes for 5,665 yards and 53 touchdowns across 11
seasons in the NFL.
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But since
retiring from football in 2014, Clark has taken it easy. He’s moved back to
Iowa and turned the family farm – which has been in the Clark family for over
100 years – into an organic one. Clark thoroughly enjoys farming, particularly
passing it down to his three children, but it’s not the passion that has
kept him going since walking away from football.
“My passion really is to be aware
of opportunities to make a difference,” Clark said. “The philanthropy world is
kind of where I get fired up and helping people who can’t help
themselves.”
Clark recently had a unique
opportunity to make a difference in the lives of many, but it didn’t come
without plenty of work. It began with the idea of a marathon during a week when
Clark felt unusually unmotivated to work out.
“Then I was thinking, ‘Anyone can
do a marathon,’” Clark remembers saying facetiously.
That led to Clark pivoting
towards the idea of an Ironman, a two-day triathlon that includes swimming 2.4
miles, biking 112 miles and running another 26.2 miles. Clark then reached out
to a friend – Tony Cannon, who has competed in multiple Ironman events over the
years – for advice.
“So, I reached out to him
(Cannon) and I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m thinking about doing the Ironman. What
should I expect?’” Clark remembers asking. “He said, ‘are you ready to die?’
and I’m like ‘absolutely, let’s do this.’”
Clark
decided that if he was going to do it, he’d go big. That meant that the 2022 VinFast Ironman World Championship in
Hawaii would be the event of choice. Clark quickly found out that participation
in the 140.6-mile journey was by qualification only.
Enter Clark’s post-football passion: making a difference. With a goal
of raising $1 million for the Indianapolis-based Peyton Manning Children’s
Hospital and University of Iowa Stead Children’s Hospital, Clark’s entry to the
legendary course was set.
“That was kind of my drive,”
Clark said. “If I’m going to take this much time away from family, I can’t just
do it for me; someone else has to benefit.
“It’s one of those things where I
feel bad because this is a dream,” Clark said of what’s known as the pinnacle
of the triathlon landscape and an iconic, global sporting event. “I lived
someone’s dream. So, I need to make sure that people realize that it wasn’t
taken for granted and it was for a great cause.”
Clark’s training for the Ironman
began in November and he said the drastic difference between that and
his lifelong football preparation was a difficult transition. The
former Iowa Hawkeyes star hadn’t done a marathon, triathlon, 5k or anything of
the sort which led to his participation in the Hollywood Beach Half Marathon in
Oceanside, California on April 2 to prepare.
The event was a huge confidence
booster for Clark, he said, but also an eye-opening experience.
“For a 230-pound, ex-football
player, I stuck out like a bull in a China shop,” Clark said. “I was like, ‘OK,
you guys (marathon athletes) are built differently and have different
transmissions in your engine than I do.”
After nearly a full year of
preparation for the Ironman – including driving 20 miles daily to the nearest
pool for swimming training – Clark
made it to Kona on October 6 for the experience of a lifetime. The course takes
athletes through Hawaii’s barren lava fields and Clark finished the two-day
triathlon with a final time of 13 hours, 15 minutes and 40 seconds.
Greeted by his three children at the
finish line, Clark became filled with emotions: physical and emotional
exhaustion, gratitude and pride.
“It’s a
lot and that’s all compounded when you cross that finish line, just the work
and commitment that it takes,” Clark said. “Just to share that special stage
with the pros and all the other great athletes and not embarrass myself was
special. It was such an honor to kind of rub elbows with them and share their
world with them a little bit.
“I certainly enjoyed the heck out
of it. I knew it was going to be good, I knew it was going to be fun, but it
blew the top off; it was incredible.”
After earning a John Mackey Award (presented to college football’s most
outstanding tight end), a Pro Bowl selection, an All-Pro nod and a Super Bowl
ring, among other things, Clark can now add an Ironman triathlon to his list of
accomplishments.
Tied for the 12th-most touchdowns (55) by a tight end in NFL history,
Clark knows what it takes to be elite at one of the sport’s most versatile
positions. However, the former NFL Alumni Tight End of the Year (2009) is
still amazed at how the next generation of tight ends continues to
evolve.
Sunday was National Tight Ends
Day and it saw some of the league’s best at the position, Travis Kelce and
George Kittle, have big days catching the football like Clark used to for the
Colts. In fact, Clark was invited to Tight End University (TEU) by Kittle this
summer and couldn’t believe what he saw.
“I went
to TEU this summer with my boys, got invited over there with George (Kittle),
and watching these guys get off the bus, you’d think I was a trainer on this
bus,” Clark said. “These tight ends are freaks. I have a lot of admiration and
respect for these dudes.
“I think that position has
undergone the biggest transformation in football. They have to do everything
now and the great ones can.”
If anybody is qualified to speak on the qualities of a great tight end,
it’s Clark, and if there’s anybody who can turn a week of inactivity into
nearly $1 million for children’s hospitals, it’s also the Colts legend.
“I think we all can look back at
that adult – whether it was a teacher, parent, family member, friend or
whatever – that believed in us or saw something bigger for us,” Clark said. “To
be that for someone else, that stuff is priceless.”
