Local pharmacist Randy White, 39, is quiet and mild mannered. The affable White is leaving Thursday with his family for Couer d’Alene, Idaho in hopes of becoming an Ironman.

He is not exactly like the fictional character Tony Stark, an American billionaire, playboy, business magnate and engineer who created a powered suit of armor and became the comic book and movie hero, Iron Man. The fictional Iron Man, a founding member of the Avengers, is an American icon, but who knows if he can do what White does.

White is a triathlon athlete who lives in Sulphur Springs and goes about his regular day filling prescriptions at Scott’s Pharmacy in Quitman. His real life Avenger pals are his family, wife, Lynesi, and sons Luke, 9; Jude, 7 and Jake, 2. Lynesi, maiden name Cadell, is also a runner and was a two-time state champion as part of the Winnsboro Lady Raider state championships in the early 1990s. She is a marathon runner and they ran together last year in the Chicago Marathon. She is currently training in hopes of participating in the Boston Marathon.

White is 5’11” and weighs in at 160 pounds, but once he dons his helmet for cycling, his swim trunks, and his running shoes, he becomes a superman of sorts, and wants to become a real life Ironman. It is a real athletic competition, not a game called Iron Man. Triathlon athletes compete in three endurance events - swimming, bicycling and running.

White seeks to be an Ironman when he competes to finish his quest in 17 hours. The Ironman competition is Aug. 21 in Coeur d’Alene; a classic resort and vacation destination is the site. To earn the Ironman distinction, entries must begin the day with a 2.4 mile swim in the clear waters of Lake Coeur d’Alene, a glacier-fed lake, followed by a 112-mile bicycle course, ending with a marathon run (26.2 miles).

White is a native of Carlsbad, New Mexico, where he was active in football, baseball, soccer and golf. He graduated from Lubbock Christian University with a degree in chemistry and pharmacy school at Texas Tech University, which is where he met his wife.

He started running triathlons at the age of 24, mainly sprint triathlons. “These events have anywhere from a 300 to 500 meter swim, then a 12- to 18-mile bike, and usually a 5K run,” White explained. “It’s fast and all out.”

White has long watched Ironman competitions. “I have watched Ironman world championships at Kona (Hawaii) for as long as I can remember. It’s always been my ultimate goal to do one before I turned 40,” White claimed. “And I will be 40 in October, so here I am getting ready to go. I have done two half-Ironman competitions. They are a 1.2 mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a half-marathon, 13.1 miles. I did my first one at Buffalo Springs in Lubbock in 2013. This year in preparation for Ironman, I did a half in New Orleans in April.”

Preparation for the endeavor is not an easy task. “Most weeks I’m doing 12 to 15 hours of training. I have a coach, Morgan Johnson, in the metroplex. A training weekend consists of a 2.4 mile swim and then a four-hour bike ride followed by an hour and a half run,” White acknowledged.

Training and family life keep him busy. “It’s difficult, my wife has a full time job and I have a full time job. My two older sons play travel baseball so we are gone on the weekends,” White said. “We train every day. Me or my wife, one of us, is up every morning at 4:15 a.m. training. Usually, she is up first, and I am headed out as she is coming in. I am either headed out for a run or upstairs to ride on my trainer, my bike. I normally swim in Rockwall at the aquatic center once a week. On my swim day I drive to Rockwall and swim for an hour, drive back, shower, and drive to Quitman to work by 8:30 a.m. and I do that every Thursday.”

The Idaho event will have over 3,000 participants. To be an ironman a competitor must finish the three grueling events in less than 17 hours. “The cutoff is 17 hours, and if you are still competing when the time is up, you are pulled off the course. For me it is about pushing myself to the limits,” White noted.

White credits his wife with his success. “We just celebrated our 12th anniversary. What makes it easy is we have a lot of the same likes. We are both pharmacists, we are driven and like to push ourselves, so she understands. I think it would be tough married to someone who does not understand, but she gets it, she knows how bad I want it,” White admitted.

White’s goal is to make the swim in an hour and 15 minutes; the bike ride is around six and a half hours; and the marathon in under four and half hours. “My best marathon time is 3 hours, 33 minutes, and 38 seconds.”

The ironman competition begins at 6 a.m. and must be completed by 11 p.m. He has a plan for the competition which includes about 250 calories per hour on the bike. Most of that will come from sports drinks and gels. “Sodium is very important. I will take salt tabs a lot. My biggest concern in this race is climbing on the bike. There is over 5,700 feet of elevation climbing. I am hoping training in the heat and humidity here will help me on that. The high temperatures there are supposed to be around 82 or 83.”

It will be an emotional day for White. “There are so many emotions you go through. I have three levels of goals. I call them my gold, bronze and silver levels. One is to finish in 12 hours, that is a pretty lofty goal for a first time and that is my gold level. My second or silver level is under 13 hours and bronze is to just finish in under the 17 hours,” White declares.

Why does he do it? He simply says he wants to hear these words, “Randy, you are an ironman.”