Take the difficult path leading the energetic former Utah Warriors arena football player to Hawaii to compete Saturday in the Ironman World Championships; he is one of eight Utahns taking part in the premier triathlon event.

After battling cancer, then working in an office after years of playing football, White decided he had to do something to get himself back in shape.

"Anytime you go from high intense athletics, you tend to put on the pounds," the 31-year-old said.

White decided to make a lifestyle change and started training for marathons, inspired by his sister, who ran cross country at Brigham Young University. In 2005, he completed the San Diego, Chicago and Las Vegas marathons.

His next move really tested his "no excuses" motto.

Living in Las Vegas at the time, White caught the end of the grueling SilverMan Triathlon two blocks from his house. Inspired, he watched a tape of the Ironman World Championship, the whole race packed into an hour of footage, and at the beginning of 2006 put a call in to the SilverMan race director.

"I don't know how to swim, I don't know how to bike, but I do know how to run," he recalled telling SilverMan director Frank Lowrey. "I want to do this race. Do you think it's possible?"

Lowrey not only said yes, but eventually became White's coach. White went out and bought a bike and a Speedo and started learning - quickly. Last November, he completed the full-distance SilverMan Race, with its 2.4-mile swim through Lake Mead, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile marathon through the desert. He finished in about 13 hours, a respectable time for the competition considering he had only learned to bike and swim in the past year.

"I have never experienced so much pain and pleasure at the same time," he said. "I had a new perspective on life. I got addicted to the physical rush. I got addicted to the new perspective on life. I had commanded more out of myself than anybody had put on me."

The cancer battle: White credits his battle with cancer for making him stronger and shaping his "no excuses" attitude.

White, a strong safety at Boise State, was playing professional football in Canada when he noticed a strange clicking in his jaw while standing in the locker room after a game.

Doctors found a cancerous tumor in his jaw - one they said was as big and aggressive as any they'd ever seen.

"Even with tumors I'm extreme," White joked.

Surgeons removed the tumor and wired White's jaw shut for 10 months. They took bone out of his hip to help rebuild his jaw. He had a steel plate in his jaw until it was removed this past January.

White's cancer came back a second time in 2002. He successfully battled it and has been in remission since.

He went on to play arena football, including a stint with the Utah Rattlers and the Warriors in 2003. He was a fan favorite known for his spirited antics to pump up the crowds.

White retired after that season and moved to Las Vegas, starting a mortgage business. He went from playing football his entire life to being in an office all day. And like many people, he found it all too easy to make excuses each morning to skip his 20-minute gym workout.

"Every rationalization in the world comes every morning," he said. "But there's something about being able to start every day at the top of the mountain."

The Ironman challenge: Now as part of his training, he runs 20 miles some mornings before heading to work in Sandy, where he recently moved. White trains six days a week about two hours every morning. At 6 feet 2 inches tall, he's gone from having 19 percent body fat before he started training for marathons to 7 percent body fat.

After competing in the SilverMan, White faced a third scare. He developed a bone infection in his jaw and doctors put a line in to keep antibiotics constantly in his system. The infection was just that, a scare, but with the line, White wasn't able to swim for a while. He completed other triathlons and set his sights on Hawaii, although he knew that as a newcomer to the sport, he likely wouldn't qualify for the Ironman.

"The Ironman World Championships is like being invited to play golf with Tiger Woods at the Masters," White said.

One night he decided to enter the race through the lottery system. He submitted his entry and didn't give it a second thought. In April, White found out he had won one of the 200 lottery slots worldwide, out of about 6,600 applicants, and that he was going to compete in the world championships in Hawaii. An additional 1,600 qualifying triathletes will be competing.

White is grateful there's a chance for amateurs like him to compete in the world championships.

Blair LaHaye, director of communications for Ironman, said the lottery slots exist so "there is always a vehicle for the everyday athlete."

Though running is his strength, White said any triathlete would say the most difficult part of the race is the last 10 miles of the marathon. He says after the swim and bike portion of the race you feel drained, but you still have 26.2 miles to run.

He is prepared to draw on his experiences to help get through the Ironman challenge. "I look at having had cancer as prepping me for business life and with the Ironman," he said. "Going through cancer is unreasonable. It requires and demands you to be unreasonable as a person to fight it."

Ironman facts

* The race consists of a 2.4-mile ocean swim, 112-mile bike race and 26.2-mile run.

* Competitors are given 17 hours to finish the race.

* There are nearly 1,800 competitors, including 200 lottery slots.

* Broadcast Dec. 1 on NBC.

* $580,000 in total prize money distributed among the top 10 male and female finishers.

* For more information, visit www.ironman.com.

Utahns in the 2007 Ironman

Michael Davis, 42, Park City

Don DeCamp, 52, Vernal

Cary Lange, 34, Salt Lake City

Chip Martin, 45, Ogden

Geoffrey McCombs, 30, Sandy

Mitchell Pratte, 31, Lindon

Garrett White, 31, Sandy

Bob Whitman, 54, Salt Lake City