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I cannot say enough about how wonderful the support from family and friends was. Undoubtedly, Elisabeth has been stuck with providing the most support. Obviously, this wasn’t just on race day but throughout the year as I trained for the race. Some training days were as many as 8 or 9 hours. Time was not just in training but researching/purchasing equipment, reading and learning, logging my training, and an endless myriad of other time consuming items. Elisabeth even put together a document of information on various topics relating to the Ironman. Thanks so much Sweetie! Several weeks before the race I asked Bryan McLelland to help coordinate where people should be when. Towards this effort, I printed out the bike and run maps and combined these with my locator spreadsheet , which the two of us reviewed a couple weeks before. Thanks Bryan!!! The day before the race, my mom, dad, and brother came down with me and I pointed out to them where I was going to be passing through the transition area. (This not only communicated to them what I would be doing, but it also helped solidify it in my mind.) Note: Give map of transition and finish area to family and friends and walk it through with them. On race morning, Bryan drove me down to the race and helped with dropping off special needs bags and other miscellaneous items. This was a huge help in reducing stress. He also took pictures and adopted Elisabeth, Benjamin, and Hanna when they arrived at the race. Unfortunately, I didn’t see them before heading to the beach. Thanks to Elisabeth and Neely, each of my kids had handmade shirts and they were awesome! My kids were very excited about having them (they still wear them after the race), and I was proud of them too. If that wasn’t enough, Elisabeth made me a shirt for the run as shown below. Wow!!! Everyone I saw in the run seemed to have one of those fancy tri-shirts. Really, it was rare I didn’t see one. Even when it wasn’t a tri-shirt, there were no other shirts I noticed that were “homemade.” I got tons of comments both from other runners and from the spectators. I love the shirt and it made me feel loved and cared for. Next time I want to find a white bike shirt so that I can have something similar for the bike. Also, it was mentioned that I needed something distinguishable on my helmet. Consider painting it perhaps? By the way, use your first name on your run number and your last name on your bike number (use only your first name if you are not switching numbers). Read More...
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Day Before Met Eric at Mountain View Cyclery in Post Falls . He was getting new tires and tubes. Remarkably, every time a new tire was put on it popped at about 120 PSI. What gives? Went through replacement tape, tire, still no luck. Eventually, left the wheel there and went to go check in the bikes (minus one wheel). Turns out, after putting the tube onto a replacement wheel it still popped. 7 tubes later, it was determined the tubes were faulty. Interestingly, it would have been okay to check the bike in race morning if it came down to it. Plus, that would have avoided the rain. Took my bike in to get new tires and the bike guru (Jefferson) pointed out that I had significant scraping in the hub. Arghh!! How is this possible? I took it to Wheel Sport East the Monday before and they had checked it out saying that it was all set to go. :) I scrambled to rebuild the hub but Jefferson, at Mountain View Cyclery in Post Falls was absolutely awesome. He rebuilt my hub, replacing the bearings in no time. Unfortunately, he didn’t have an replacement spindle so there was still some roughness in the rotation but it was certainly better. Jefferson is awesome! Only purchased a rear tire, $70, and pumped it to 140 psi – a lot higher than anything I had in training. Front tire was 120 psi. Don’t worry about not turning in your bags the day before if it is a problem. You can easily bring them the day of as long as you come early enough. I had some gear (my family was decorating my shirt) that wasn’t quite ready and it was frustrating having only most but not all because it meant incomplete lists. I prefer just having all the swim to bike gear, etc, in one place. Have a check list . This was great. I made it a week or more before and it was a huge help. Had only one Endurance Gatorade bottle but this turned out not to be a problem. My aero bottle was plenty big enough for enough liquid between approximately 10 mile food stations. Wow, lots of folks have the really junky aero bottles that I originally purchased but returned. These things are terrible. The yellow splash guards fly out (3 times on my very first ride) and, since there is no lid, you and your bike get covered with Gatorade by the end of the ride. Absolute junk… how come so many people have them? Wow… lots of money in that bike coral. Perception is a majority of folks have ZIPP wheels. It appears that most bikes are worth well over $2,000. My bike was borrowed so I can’t say, but $2,000*2200 people = $4,600,000. Read More...
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Abbreviated Race Summary: :) I finished :) Swim and bike went better than expected :( I knew within a few 100 feet of the run that something was wrong, and I wouldn’t be able to meet my goal of 8 min/mile – I am fairly disappointed about this. :) I had an incredible group of supporters that were a huge encouragement. :) I had the best running shirt out there – thanks to my family :| I think I will wait until I can walk normally again before I consider another one – regardless, it won’t be next year. I will re-post more later, but for now, here are the stat’s that folks have been asking me for. SWIM BIKE RUN OVERALL RANK DIV.POS. 1:18:33 5:51:09 4:53:51 12:15:36 697 154 LEG DISTANCE PACE RANK DIV.POS. TOTAL SWIM 2.4 mi. (1:18:33) 2:04/100m 957 203 BIKE SPLIT 1: 34 mi 34 mi. (1:40:54) 20.22 mph BIKE SPLIT 2: 90 mi 56 mi. (2:58:12) 18.86 mph BIKE SPLIT 3: 112 mi 22 mi. (1:12:03) 18.32 mph TOTAL BIKE: 112 mi 112 mi. (5:51:09) 19.14 mph 480 122 TOTAL RUN 26.2 mi. (4:53:51) 11:12/mile 697 154 TRANSITION TIME T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE 7:01 T2: BIKE-TO-RUN 5:02 © Copyright 2005-2008 Mark Michaelis Read More...
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So the race is less than two weeks away and conditions are not improving. I did the run loop of the course on Sunday and there were white caps on the lake (not quite like last year's Ironman but white caps none the less). I chatted with a couple brave souls taking a dip and they had nothing but grumbling. :) Temperature on the lake Coeur d'Alene is about 50 degrees. Not exactly balmy. To top it all off, the current weather forecast (I am heading out to do the bike loop shortly) is for Snow! Hmm... says me, I am struggling to see how water temperatures are going to rise with this kinda weather. To accommodate the temperature, as posted on the website: Special Information regarding the Swim at the 2008 Ford Ironman Coeur d’Alene June 6, 2008 As many of you are already aware there has been great deal of speculation regarding the swim at this year’s event focusing on cold water temperatures. Due to a record snowpack in the Bitteroot Mountains, which is the source for Lake Coeur d’Alene, we anticipate that the water on race day will be colder than normally encountered. In order to ensure the safety of our athletes, NA Sports is going to make the following changes to the standard Ironman swim rules for this event only: 1. At temperatures below 60°F wetsuits are MANDATORY. 2. Neoprene booties (aqua sox, swim sox etc) will be allowed below 60 F°. ABSOLUTELY NO FINS. 3. We encourage athletes to consider a neoprene hood worn under the issued swim cap for additional warmth. NA Sports will continue to closely monitor the water conditions and always reserves the right to make changes as we deem appropriate with athlete safety the primary factor in our decisions. Well..., I don't see 60°F happening any time this month. :( © Copyright 2005-2008 Mark Michaelis Read More...
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Mark Michaelis' Challenge I am participating in the 2008 Couer d’Alene Ironman Competition on June 22 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. In this event I will attempt to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run a marathon (26.2 miles). Using this event, I want to increase awareness for the issue of global hunger and poverty and, through Janus Charity Challenge , I am raising money for World Relief . If we look back on history, we are repeatedly horrified by atrocities like the Holocaust and flabbergasted by the fact that so many who could have done something, instead stood by on the sidelines and watched. As the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, I believe that future generations will look back on this one with the same horrified view. In a time where globalization has flattened the world, why is it that in the last 24 hours approximately 30,000 children die due to hunger and easily preventable diseases – extreme poverty. Deaths like this are from simple problems like dirty drinking water or the unavailability of a 20 cent pill that is common place in the U.S. What is remarkable is there are ample resources to solve world poverty – this planet does not have a supply problem, there is no shortage of land or water. To put it coldly, this world has a distribution problem. Fundamentally, however, this is a justice problem. The wealthy few control the rules of the game and the poor are powerless to change that equation and the disparity between the rich and poor is increasing, not decreasing. In Haiti, you can be horrified by the glaring disparity between the rich on the top of the hill and the slums down below. It causes one to ask, how can the rich be so cold, selfish, and calloused. However, this confronts us with our own hypocrisy: just because we can’t see the poverty, doesn’t make our comfortable life any less unjust. Even if we harden our hearts and ignore how most of the world lives – they still live that way. The fact is, three million people still live on $2 a day and about half of those (1.2 billion) live on less than $1 a day. What does a parent do on $1 a day when it is time to buy a sweater for one of their two children, take their child to the hospital on the bus, or buy food for the family? If I saw a documentary on my lifestyle in comparison to those in most of the third world, I would be horribly embarrassed. Just because no one has done that documentary, doesn’t make the injustice any less ghastly (just less embarrassing). As a Christian, Read More...
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Well, today was Bloomsday and Eric Brady and I did the usual (bike to Bloomsday and then run the race). This year Eric Edmonds and Andy Anderson joined us. My time was a personal best: Finish Time: 0:50:17 Overall Place: 416 out of 42,761 Ran with a pace of 6:44 per mile The average pace for 37-year-olds was 14:55 Placed 8th among 797 people the same age Placed 10th among 2,443 people from Spokane Valley, WA Placed 281st among 33,995 people from Washington Placed 1st among 2 people with the same last name Placed 369th among 17,496 males Placed 5th out of 292 among 37-year-old males One thing that has become extremely evident for me is that racing is a bit like money. It takes effort to be content and not want to be faster (more). My goal was to be under 7 minute miles. However, I was so close to 50 minutes, that there is a twinge of disappointment that I didn’t get there. Oh well, there is always next year. Following the race, Eric Edmonds and I biked to the YMCA and swam 1 mile before completing our 100 mile ride for the day. © Copyright 2005-2008 Mark Michaelis Read More...
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While picking up my packet for Bloomsday , I stopped by a booth where they measured body composition using a few questions and a “fancy” scale . Here are the results: Weight 191.8 lb % Body Fat 11.7% % Body Water 58.9% Muscle Mass 161 lb Physique Rating 6 ( Standard muscular ) BMR 2225 calories Metabolic Age 12 Bone Mass 8.4 Visceral Fat 4 Looks like I am still carrying 21 lb of fat. Hmmmm… © Copyright 2005-2008 Mark Michaelis Read More...
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So, in order to make a little more progress on the swim, Eric Edmonds (my Ironman training partner), decides he is willing to give me some pointers. He lives on Hayden Lake so the families get together. While practicing our swim, Eric stops to watch me and give me some pointers. So, again, I’m in the water swimming madly in order to move another few feet forward and what is Eric’s response. He begins to laugh. NO really, he laughs. When I point out that it isn’t very encouraging he enforces the dismal state of my swimming by informing me that he can’t help it. It really is that funny. Hmm…. I have some work to do. Yikes! © Copyright 2005-2008 Mark Michaelis Read More...
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So if I am going to do the Ironman , I better learn to swim. Here’s how I know: My son is taking swimming lessons at the local Terrace View pool . After practice I ask his coach, a local high schooler, if he would be willing to give me some pointers in order for me to get ready for the Ironman. He agrees so I stop by later on that week. As I swim my first lap, other coaches stop by in fascination and with helpful suggestions. (Each of them is obviously thinking that I am completely nuts to even dream of swimming in the Ironman – and so do I.) After various suggestions, I get to the point of holding a kick board to practice my breathing. So, there I am, kicking and breathing furiously and what does my “coach” say, “ Fascinating, your going backwards .” Yup, I Mark Michaelis, who has now signed up for the Ironman, does such a great job with kicking, that he goes backwards, in reverse, the wrong direction. True story! Yikes! © Copyright 2005-2008 Mark Michaelis Read More...
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Well, if I am really going to do this then I need to keep a log of my training. I have checked out several options and decided on http://mapmyrun.com . What I appreciate most about this is that you can “draw” in where you go and so, figure out your mileage. You can also view routes of others if you happen to be in an area you are not familiar with or you are just looking for some good places to bike and run (etc). It also has some cool reports which I look forward to seeing as the day approaches: So, with that, here are my: Routes and my Training Log © Copyright 2005-2008 Mark Michaelis Read More...
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Okay… a few weeks ago, the Edmonds and the Michaelises were having dinner together. Eric and I were chatting outside and the topic of the Ironman came up. Not sure exactly how it happened, but when I woke up that morning, I distinctly remembered that Eric and I had committed to doing the Coeur d’Alene Ironman . That’s: 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile rune (a marathon). As my high school math teacher taught me, “It will be like poking yourself in the eye. It feels really good to stop.” What do you know, to sign up you just have to be their the day after the race (you wouldn’t believe how many crazy people there are that want to do this race), $500, and a significant level of insanity. As Eric leaves the house to sign-up, he calls to his wife, “Well, I’m going to go and bet $500 that I can loose 50 pounds in the next year.” All this to say, I am signed up for the Ironman… Yikes! My experience: Never swum more than a mile, never run a marathon, never biked 100 miles in one day. Should be “interesting.” Better start training… © Copyright 2005-2008 Mark Michaelis Read More...
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