Interview with Chris Miller

Chris Miller is a 30-something, talented age-group endurance athlete who likes to mix it up. He has a varied background in endurance both on the “playing field” as well as behind the scenes of various endurance sports. His passion for sport, his business savvy, and his mind for sales and marketing has afforded him many opportunities to work with and meet the best of the best and with a number of age group athletes around the world. Furthermore, his generosity put me on the starting line of both my first Ironman (Wisconsin) and a great experience that I wouldn't have had otherwise at the Wildflower 1/2 Ironman in California.

TS: How did your experience as a collegiate runner impact you as an endurance athlete?
CM: I think college athletics did a number of things, first and foremost it provided a structured setting in which I was placed into a consistent and focused level of training but also taught me to balance between the challenges of working out twice a day and the rigors of maintaining a full class schedule. It wasn’t easy but it forced me to try and find that balance between work and play which carries throughout all our lives. The other big “aha” moment that came from college, was that I wasn’t going to be the fastest guy on the team and although I thrived on 100+ mile weeks, I was on a D1 team that qualified for Nationals during my senior year and I was the slow guy always fighting to make the travel squad. Being in a setting that surrounded me with more talented individuals than myself, caused frustration but was also a great opportunity to learn and continue to challenge myself while redefining what I wanted out of endurance athletics.

TS: At one time you raced bicycles, what did you most gain from this experience?
CM: During college, the Tour DuPont came through town once a year, and with it a young Lance Armstrong. Living in the endurance realm, and residing in Boone, North Carolina, cycling was a natural addition to my off season workouts and a great change of pace to the beating I was taking with high mileage training. Cycling afforded me the opportunity to embrace a new sport, a new culture, and also in retrospect another step towards rounding out my skill set towards triathlon. Cycling allowed me to travel internationally and experience Europe as an athlete while allowing a whole new population base to kick my butt. I swear you could draft an entire Italian team off my 6’1” frame and I could get literally nothing from those 100 pound riders!

TS: Most of the triathletes I know see events like Escape from Alcatraz, Wildflower, and the Hawaii Ironman World Championship as awe-worthy. These events are world renowned. Many of us start at local events and then look outward toward these types of events. Your first triathlons were at such events. Where do you go from here? Will be hard for you to enjoy or appreciate a local triathlon having had most of your earliest exposure competing in triathlon on such big stages?
CM: Triathlon came around in a funny way. I clearly remember watching Dave Scott and Mark Allen racing together in 1989 and thinking, "That was awesome." After being pushed into a “real job” however, I left the structure of serious training and thought those days were behind me. In 2001 I became sales director for Wigwam, a 100 year old sock company and sponsor of Ironman. Part of my responsibilities included our pro athlete management and which put me in a position to experience Kona as a spectator on location. That first year my wife and I attended and watched Tim (DeBoom) win his second championship and thought “hmm, maybe I could do this”, after Pete (Peter Reid) won another in 2003 I was committed and it was “game on”. What was funny was that after watching the event on tv and watching Mark (Allen) win in 1989 and becoming a “God” in my mind, by 2004 I had befriended Mark and he was my coach for 2004, my first year in tri. We planned a few half IM’s with the hope of snagging a Kona slot if the opportunity arose. It was a big year with some great events, and fantastic experiences which was capped off by Ironman Worlds which was only my fifth triathlon start, which was kind of cool. Not a stellar race for me, but a great experience.
All events are special in a different way. I am a big fan of the experience. I take it all in and share that feeling and lifestyle with as many as I can. If it is rolling onto your back and looking back at Alcatraz in the middle of the bay or watching the pros “drafting the choppers” on the Queen K, or fighting for elbow room at a local 5k, each event has a story and a experience that is important. Local events are and to some level will always be, the core of the sport of triathlon. From those original 12 Ironman athletes in Hawaii, to the first wave of swimmers into Reed’s Lake (East Grand Rapids, MI), the sports roots have been established from backyard events that in some cases evolve into bigger events.
My focus now is to spread the word and spread the experience. Triathlon, especially long course, is a very selfish endeavor but it is a part of me. My goals may change at some level with regards to time and place but I still get the urge to test myself. I will do another Kona. My dream is to do it with my son at the finish line at an age that he can understand and appreciate it as well. You know at the end of the day, cycling, running, swimming, triathlon, etc, they are less individual events and more of a lifestyle. It is what I do every day of my life.

TS: Speaking of the Hawaii Ironman World Championship. You have done this twice. What did you take away from your experiences there?
CM: Kona is a different animal for sure. Mark (Allen) has always been very spiritual about the island and I have to say there is a feeling that exists there that I have never felt anywhere else. When you throw 1800 of the most talented and athletically gifted individuals into a world championship event with everyone being at the top of their game, the experience is needless to say, intimidating and daunting. I remember about 65 miles into the bike, Mark was doing commentating for NBC and pulled alongside me on the bike from the back of a convertible. He looked at me and said “When are you going to do something?” I about threw a water bottle at him. I was so concerned with finishing, I was maybe racing too inside myself but I will never forget that finish line. As long as I live, that first finish line is one that I will remember. My first race there was focused on simply getting to the finish line. On that day in the world, the most valuable piece of land in the world is that finish line in Kona, so expensive that nobody can buy it, you have to earn it. I definitely earned it that day.
When I approach Hawaii, I really focus less on racing against the other athletes and more on racing against myself. The course is too brutal and the talent is too high for me to have the pressure of thinking age group positioning. It is all about the experience.

TS: Outside of Ironman, what is one of your most memorable events?
CM: I guess all events have interesting stories and memories. Racing X-terra Worlds in Maui, riding over lava fields with a mountain bike was pretty epic. What a brutal course! I remember summiting a peak on about the half way point on the bike and facing straight into the ball camera under a chopper. As I looked up, I smiled, and promptly puked off the side of my bike as I headed back down. I also enjoyed the 8 years of running Hood to Coast for the social and team aspects of a challenging race. From midnight serenades and howling at the moon to the last few strides onto the beach. Good stuff.

TS: What are a few key ingredients in making an event great?
CM: Organization and atmosphere. I worked with Nicole Deboom on Skirtchaser races and with Heather Gollnick on Rev 3 event launches and both were very different but also similar in that we are trying to balance athlete/ family experience with Rev 3 and a slightly more edgy event with Skirt, but both targeting a first class competition in a safe setting. Both races have strong and positive attitudes and have been very successful in their respective arenas. For a long time, we as endurance athletes were all about “extreme”, now I am seeing a transition to “achievable”, events which test you but will not kill you. Which is nice.

TS: What is one of the hardest workouts you’ve ever endured?
CM: Some of the interval workouts from college running were brutal trying to but as of late, some of the snowshoe intervals have definitely left me scarred. I remember doing a hill workout on the bike during a first time trip to Boulder with ex-pro cyclist Tyler Hamilton that left me shelled for days. We did a 100 mile loop from Boulder to Estes and did repeats on the way back at about 10,000 feet. Ouch. I think I lost 15 pounds on that ride.

TS: You travel a great deal, where is the coolest place you ever trained and what did you do for that session?
CM: I should be sponsored by Delta Airlines. Last year I hit Maine and the 50th state to visit. I would say for epic running, it was Sedona Arizona, biking in Tuscan region of Italy, and swimming would be off San Diego coast through the kelp fields and cool water while looking out for sharks. For many of the most epic workouts, they are more about location than the session.

TS: You’ve worked with a few companies, such as your current employer, Sports Marketing and Sales Consulting that have put you in a position to rub elbows with several of the greatest triathletes of our generation such as Craig Alexander, Tim and Nicole DeBoom, Heather Gollnick, and Mark Allen, to name a few. Give an example of one these people that particularly made an impact on you and how.
CM: All the athletes I have met are great and have commonality in their athletic prowess and work ethics but are different in personality and approach to the sport.
Tim Deboom- unbelievably driven, lives in that place that most people slow down well before they athletically hit, shy, quiet, driven, West Point student
Nicole DeBoom- equally driven, passionate with work, Skirt Sports, training, life, great human being, Yale grad
Chris Leigh-uber athlete meets marketing, understands the business aspects as well as competitive angles of triathlon, will always be in the sport
Craig Alexander- talented, planner, executer, open to new ideas and always willing to listen, constantly watching and learning, scary good at all distances
Mark Allen- icon to the sport, spirtitual, can see through people, mentally super strong, physically nobody compares, 10 Nice and 6 Hawaii’s, god
Heather G- family focused, talented, wish she could have gotten into sport earlier than she did, great ambassador to the sport, great runner
Michelle Jones- super fun, great talent but enjoying the sport, master of all distances from sprint to Olympic to long course, great person.

TS: You have recently taken up snowshoeing. What 3-5 words best describe this experience?
CM: Hard as hell. Just got back from Snowshoe Nationals in New York last weekend with a new team sponsored by Redfeather and Northface. It was brutal.

TS: What is your most important piece of training gear?
CM: Water bottle, I am convinced that during the first years of my career I was dehydrated 99% of the time.

TS: Who would win an arm wrestling match between you and Heather Gollnick?
CM: She would, she just got some “work” done and I might be staring at her “new” chest! Don’t tell her hubby Todd.

TS: Would you rather win the Tour De France on Team Radio Shack or win the Hawaii Ironman World Championship?
CM: Hawaii. Hands down. The true test of that will be Lance in 2011.

TS: How many Clif Bars do you think before you would hurl?
CM: Probably not that many, they are two heavy and rich. Now a better question would be how many Yesturdogs or Rice Krispy Treats!

TS: If you were stranded on a deserted, desert island, what sport bar, gel, or drink would you want to have with you? ?
CM: Is beer an option, because it has been a good ride, I think I would like to make a toast to the fun I have had.