Former couch potato pushes limits.
Former St. Albert couch potato learning where the limits are in hardest race of his life
Still 15 kilometres from the finish line in the longest race of his life, Michael Brown could no longer keep food down and thought his hands were glowing.
His toenails kept popping off from the constant pounding.
It was day three of the most gruelling physical challenge he’d ever attempted, and he was starting to lose focus in the stifling August heat that blanketed Penticton during the Ultraman Canada Championship.
The 30 competitors in the 514.5 kilometre race first swam 10 kilometres in Skaha Lake, then hopped on bikes and set off for a 420-kilometre ride that lasted two days and forced them to climb more than 1,700 metres in elevation.
Then on day three they had to run 84.3 kilometres, equal to two full marathons.
“I was good till about 60 kilometres (on the run) then I started hearing things,” said Brown. “Then it was like my hands were glowing. It was an awesome experience because I knew how deep I was. I got to a point where I enjoyed it. I knew I could finish, even if I walked.”
Brown, 39, plans to do it all over again, in November.
The managing partner of the Walkabout Pub on Whyte Avenue by day, Brown is an endurance athlete in every other spare moment.
His second place finish at the national event netted him an invitation to the Ultraman World Championships in Hawaii on Nov. 23-25.
He started training on Sept. 1, about one month after he crossed the finish line at his first Ultraman Canada.
“You think you’ll be more emotional when you finish but it actually took me 24 hours. I was sitting on the couch with my wife when I just started crying. She said, ‘What’s wrong?’ I said, ‘I’ve never been happier.’ ”
Four years ago, Brown was a 270-pound couch potato. Though he once swam competitively, tested his triathlon skills and played rugby, he’d lost touch with his inner athlete.
When his wife, Jacqueline, encouraged him to do something, he responded by signing up for a half-Ironman at Sylvan Lake.
“I think I’m a person of extremes,” he said. “I’m either sitting on the coach eating two bags of potato chips or I’m out cycling for three hours. But now I’d much rather be exercising.
“There’s an old saying that obsessed is what lazy people call the dedicated. You can say I’m obsessed. You can say what you want, but not very many people say their life went down the tube when they started exercising and eating healthy.
“I just think what it comes down to is that I really want to know what I’m made of. It’s never about how I place. I always want to improve but I’m pretty sure I’m not going to win a race. I just love the journey of getting there. “I really love training.” That need to test limits isn’t unique to Brown.
Steve King, who has been involved in Ultraman Canada since its inception in 1993, became only the second Canadian to finish the 135-mile Death Valley race in 2001.
He has been a member of Canada’s 100-kilometre team, and in recent years has served as the race announcer in Penticton.
He said it’s often challenges like the Ultraman or that first marathon, that help people understand what their limitations really are.
“Nothing really worth achieving is going to come easily,” King said. “Otherwise, it loses its value.”
Performance consultant Dr. Kimberley Amirault said endurance competitors often draw on skills similar to those employed by elite athletes. Mentally, they learn to compartmentalize, so the distances don’t seem as daunting.
Others have what is known as “dumb focus.” They are capable of just zoning out for durations of their training or their competitions.
Jennifer Copeland, an associate professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Lethbridge, has run 100-kilometre trail marathons and is researching the physical effects of ultra-endurance events – an area that is becoming the subject of more studies.
“There’s certainly a physiological toll on the body, and the most comparable research we have are the long duration military exercises,” said Copeland. “But generally speaking it does seem to be fairly well tolerated – if you’ve trained properly. There are obviously things like lost toenails, which are very common in ultra-stuff, and muscular pains and aches, but these are all things that you can recover from.
“But this desire to sort of test the limits of human endurance is really on the rise.
“This is not about fitness anymore, it’s about seeing how much you can endure. There’s a major psychological component to it. I think that’s half the challenge. You train to make sure your body can do it, then on the day of the event, it’s a matter of whether or not your brain can.”
It took Brown almost a month to shake off the lingering effects of Ultraman Canada. For the first three weeks, he didn’t do any programmed training. If he wanted to go for a ride, he got on his bike. If he wanted to run, he did, but there was no structure, no schedule to follow. Mentally, he was spent. Physically, a massive blister on the pad of his right foot had ripped off halfway through the run, so it was several days before he could wear anything but flip flops. He lost all but three of his toenails. One of his shoulders was bothering him from the swim, and it was almost two weeks before he could do up a button on his shirt.
“I was having some neurological issues because I was gripping the handlebars for so long. I couldn’t open a bottle cap, hold a knife,” he said. Yet he’s going to do it again. “I think what it is, at least for me, is seeing what I’m made of. And not only did it test me, it tested us as a family. These kinds of things show us we can get through things like this and when something does happen in real life, our bond as a family will be stronger.”
Every competitor must have a support crew along through every stage. Brown’s in-laws joined him for a stretch and his wife, Jacqueline, was beside him for the last 15 kilometres.
They talked about the first run they went on after Brown got off the couch. They talked about the future, when they’d be able to take their daughter, MacKinley, out for races.
“You become so vulnerable that you need those people there who will love you, no matter what,” said Michael. “I was laughing, crying, throwing up, pooping on the side of the road – and that was in a fiveminute span. My body was literally trying to shut down. You put something in, you throw it up. When you have to go to the washroom, you have to go. It not like you can even hold it for two minutes. It’s like your body is telling you, you should not be doing this.
“Then you start hallucinating and hearing things, so you do need those people you can trust. They’ll get you through it.”
There’s also a bond that develops with the rest of the field, in large part because it’s a small fraternity.
There are only three such endurance races staged in the world (Canada, Ultraman UK, which is just two years old, and the world championships). So far, only three people have competed in all three.
“Ironmans are such a hard accomplishment but when it’s over, it’s over. This was a massive step from an Ironman and it is the one thing I under-estimated,” Brown said.
“In Ultraman, when one day is over, you have to get up in 12 hours and pretty much do it all over again. You have to eat, but you don’t want to because your body is telling you, ‘I’m done.’ You’re in an ice bath, trying to recover, then by the time you try to fall asleep it’s midnight and you end up staring at the ceiling all night because you’re thinking about the next day.
“Before you know it, it’s 5 a.m. and you have to get ready to start the next day.
“I knew after that first step of that 84-kilometre run that whole day was going to suck. I knew that day was going to be the hardest day, athletically, I’d have in my life. I knew I wasn’t going to be fast. I just knew I had to get through it. The run doesn’t go over hills, it goes over mountains, so you’re on a logging road. You’re walking, pushing your hands on your knees to try to get up the incline.
“Before I did Ultraman Canada, I didn’t know if I could finish. Now I’m sort of comfortable in that I know I can get through the distance.
“I know there are going to be different challenges in Hawaii. The first day in Ultraman Canada is probably the easiest. In Ultraman Hawaii, it’s probably the hardest because you’re swimming in the ocean, so there will be currents.
“Then you cycle to the top of a volcano. I’m confident in my swimming but I’m a heavier guy and going uphill isn’t always the easiest thing for me on a bike. They do say the run is easy, but you’re running through lava fields. I don’t know how easy that can be.”