Runnin’ with Rani: Legendary “Iron Doc” set to retire

Iron Doc’s resume:

19-time Kona IRONMAN World Championship Finisher

Two-time Ultraman World Championship Finisher

23-Keauhou Kona Triathlons (half iron distance)

40+ Marathons

Numerous Lavaman Olympic Distance Triathlons, Peaman Biathlons, & Team Mango Races

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After 42 years of being Big Island’s community board certified surgeon, obstetrician, and sports medicine guru, Dr. Frank Ferren recently announced his retirement, which is set for Nov. 25.

Although Dr. Ferren said his decision came only three weeks ago, news about Kona’s legendary “Iron Doc” who has achieved multiple Hall of Fame titles from a 50-year athletic career including 19-Kona IRONMAN World Championships and two Ultraman World Championship finishes, spread like wildfire throughout the Big Island and surprised many who thought he’d never retire.

As a genuinely kind, down-to-earth, good ol’ fashioned country doc with a keen sense of humor, Dr. Ferren never thought twice to make house calls, work late nights and weekends, and always made sure his patients left his office in laughter — the best medicine anyone can prescribe.

And out on any race course, his passion for the sport, competitive spirit, and determination to finish every race entered, has and always will be, an undeniable trademark. Thus, Peaman decided to rename his December biathlon swim-run race to honor the great – Doc Ferren’s Hall of Fame Biathlon.

So how can one possibly sum up a man’s incredible life story with everything he has done out of love and aloha for this community in just one column? The answer is simple — you can’t. Not when he deserves a novel.

As busy as he’ll ever be until his retirement date, Dr. Ferren took some time to sit and “talk story” of how he came to his decision, his practice, some favorite triathlon memories, and plans for the future.

Was it a hard decision?

No, actually it was much easier than I thought. The hard thing is when my longtime patients find out and seeing them cry. They don’t want me to leave. But medicine has changed a lot over the last 10 years. I used to be able to train and coach paddling and still get all of my work done. But with more and more paperwork, lower reimbursements, and just no time to train — which is something I love to do — I thought it was time. And recently one of my paddling friends, Lorrin Ching, had a cardiac arrest and died just a week before IRONMAN. He was actually six years younger than me. And three weeks after I retire I’ll be 77 years old and well, you just never know.

What is the first thing you plan to do after you retire?

I hope to do more training and racing. My wife has plans about traveling but I told her the other day that the last few months I’ve been dreaming about being on my bike. It’s been at least two months since I last rode out on the roads because I’ve been so busy here in the office.

And everything I want is on this island. I don’t need to go anywhere. The last trip we took was a seven day trip to the Caribbean and each day we were on a different island. One day we went horseback riding, another day we went sailing, followed by hiking and diving. But these are all of the things that we can do here. We don’t need to go to the Caribbean. The main thing is that I’ve been putting off all of these things that I want to be doing which is why it wasn’t hard for me to make the decision to retire. I’ll finally be able to get up and actually do those things without having stuff piling up for me when I get back.

How many years have you been a physician?

I finished my surgical residency in 1971. I worked with Straub for a year and nine months primarily on Lanai and lived there. There hadn’t been a surgeon on Lanai for 18 years. At that time Straub sent over a lot of specialty care people for the Lanai people, a population of 2,000. Then Straub ran into trouble working with the plantation in regards to reimbursements and stuff, so they pulled all the specialty care people out and left only the family practitioner and a physician’s assistant. And so I had to decide whether I should stay with Straub – which meant that I would need to go to Honolulu. But then I thought, what would I do with my three horses and two hunting dogs? It was 1973 when I left and moved to Kona.

How did you like moving to Kona?

I really liked Kona. The only surgeon in Kona at that time was 69 years old and his wife no longer wanted to take calls anymore. So I checked into it and wound up working with Dr. Hayashi and Dr. Mitchell for a couple of years at the old Kona Medical Building up in Kealakekua. I really felt that Kona was the place for me and talked them into opening up another small practice in the Hamilton Building, which is now the Century 21 building in town. So when that practice got busy and Dr. Mitchell didn’t want to be in two places, we decided to split up. Dr. Mitchell remained at the Kona Medical Building and I decided to stay in town.

What got you started into doing IRONMAN?

I was doing marathons and there were about 20 of us that used to run from the Quarry to Palani Road and back every Sunday morning for about 18 miles. Our group literally did every marathon in the State. In 1980, we were doing a run when somebody said, ‘Did you hear about this crazy race that’s coming to Kona next February?’ I never thought it would move here from Oahu but I thought yes, that sounded like a crazy race. Then five of us decided to do it that first initial year. I realized I needed a bike so I got my son’s 40-pound JC Penny bike to train on which would later become my first IRONMAN bike. I was used to swimming with my surfboard but I wasn’t used to swimming 2.4 miles. Running was the easiest.

That first year IRONMAN was held on February 15, 1981 and I remember wheeling my son’s 40-pound bike onto the Pier when my friend Dennis Haserot said, ‘That thing could go through a mine field and still come out in one piece!’ Well, I guess he was right. I finished.

What is your most memorable IRONMAN moment?

I can’t say there is just one since I have so many. One of them is my first IRONMAN which actually went really well. I got through the swim and bike which was really tough. The marathon I loved and remembered that they didn’t know what to feed us. At the aid stations they served us ribs! Annie, my wife, made energy bars and on the bike we’d eat peanut butter sandwiches. In those days they served us real food at the aid stations. I called it the 26.2-mile smorgasbord!

Other memories are those years that my dad spent time with me in the medical tent after the race, or the year the all of the kids and grandkids came and took a picture with me after I finished. Or maybe the two years that I paddled the Molokai Channel then finished IRONMAN one week later. People thought I was nuts!

Another one I really remember was meeting Dan Cook, the Hawaii News weatherman. During IRONMAN it turned out that we came out of the water together and then we ended up together for the whole rest of the race. While riding up toward Hawi a guy pulled up in a vehicle and asked if I was worried about some rain in Hawi. I said, no, why would I be? I have my own weatherman!

We talked pretty much the whole way. We later found out our wives also had met for the first time and were waiting for us at the Pier. What a small world. The next time I saw him was at Tinman.

You said IRONMAN changed your life. How so?

This is before cell phones but I remember I couldn’t be on my bike in Hawi and be on-call to deliver babies at the same time. So when they decided to move IRONMAN here to Kona permanently, that’s when I decided that I would stop delivering babies. Then I found myself getting more and more interested in sports medicine. Back then there were no books on sports medicine, so in the beginning I was reading just physical therapy books. Later I found that I was going to more sports medicine seminars than surgeon ones. Then, in 1986, I took a leave of absence from the hospital to train for IRONMAN and while this house was being renovated into my office, I realized that I was pretty busy down here and how nice it was not to have to go to the hospital. So I never went back and started doing sports medicine full time. It’s been that way for 20 years now. So yes, IRONMAN changed my life.

How did you meet your wife Annie?

Dr. Ferren: Annie and I met in the operating room at Queen’s Hospital over on Oahu when I was still doing my residency. In the beginning I didn’t pay very much attention to her as I thought she was married. But I loved her legs.

Annie: I loved his eyes and how he looked over the surgical mask. I thought his blue eyes looked kind. I was an RN back then and I decided to go to anesthesia school which took five years but that gave Frank and I time to get to know each other. My school was on the mainland so our relationship began as a long distance relationship.

Dr. Ferren: We have been married for 40 years now and Annie did a lot to make it possible for me to train and race during all those years. I give her credit for that. A good memory is the years I became her paddling coach with Kai Opua which happened to be the years that they won States.

What do you find most rewarding as a doctor?

It’s always nice when someone comes in with a problem right before a race, and then I help them, then they end up doing really well in that race. And I never mind when that person who I helped ends up passing me in the race – it actually motivates me to keep going.

Which race would you say is your favorite?

Of course for a long time IRONMAN was. But right now I’d say it’s Lavaman. It’s a really fun race, I like the course, and I really don’t mind those last two miles running over broken coral. And once you cross that finish line the first thing you see is the brewery’s tent and those nice tall cold glasses of beer. And just across from that is a tent with big chocolate chip cookies. So those two things together make it a great race.

Is there another IRONMAN in you?

I’m not really planning for it but if it happens then it happens. In the 19 races I have done, I’ve taken a total of three weeks off to train, and that happened to be for just one of those years. That was also my fastest IRONMAN race ever. So imagine what it would be like for me if I had six months? The first thing I’m going to do after I retire is start training almost everyday like I used to. I’m looking forward to just being an athlete.

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On behalf of the Big Island community, Mahalo Nui Loa!