#MikeG
I am not sure I could find, seemingly, two different kinds of people than Mike G. and me. He is a soft spoken, well mannered, corporate attorney. I am a self admitted recovering alcoholic who wears my heart on both sleeves, with more tattoos than my wife ever signed on for, and who at the very thought of a 9-5 office job, shudders. Whenever I post a pic of a group workout I always tag everyone--everyone that has an Instagram account, anyway. Inevitably in every group shot there is #MikeG. I met Mike about 6 years ago on the 5:45 Dependable Cleaners group bike ride. Affectionately known as 545D, it’s a local group ride that leaves Dependable Cleaners, Hingham, every weekday at 5:45AM. My first memories of Mike were something along the lines of, “Who is the quiet guy who thinks he is fast? Must be a tough guy. Seems like a jerk.” I would see him regularly as I participated in the ride more and more.
Eventually, my mediocre cycling ability and at the time, less tattoos, garnered an occasional hello. At the time I first started in the group I was really just riding. I had not done my first triathlon. During that first season of riding with the group I finished my first race, the Cohasset Tri. This led to a few more local races and an occasional talking point with Mike, “Yeah, I do some tris.” By late summer the talking points turned into Mike mentioning that a group was going to train for and race Ironman Mont Tremblant 70.3. That is a half-Ironman distance triathlon consisting of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13.1 mile run. Basking in the glow of my recent stretch of Clydesdale podiums in the local race circuit, I was excited to take on more. I told him I was in and was introduced to the group via email. (Just for the record, I beat Mike in the 70.3.)
Over the next few years I got to know the real Mike, the Mike that was just as passionate about the sport as I was, passionate about it for the same reasons that I was: as a personal outlet for the stress that comes with being an adult (barf); as a means to put ourselves into a competitive environment that we both loved as a result of our participation in team sports throughout our life; as a means to challenge ourselves, physically, emotionally and, dare I say, spiritually; as a means to foster community with other like-minded, weird people that choose to wake up every day at an ungodly hour. I got to see all these things in Mike. I also started to observe them in myself.
Nowadays, #MikeG is my right hand man in the training game. We have adventured and raced together in some very cool places, we have re-written the Strava KOMS all over the south shore (come @ me), and, more than anything, we have forged a relationship that has created the highest level of accountability. We work out around each other’s domestic and professional schedules, starting as early as the other needs. There are days that he is faster (today’s run), and there are days that I am faster. We have pushed each other to the highest levels of fitness that either of us have seen. There are countless days that the option to stay in bed and skip the training isn’t even an option because we are planning to meet. We should all be so lucky to have a training partner in the way that I have Mike. Maybe someday he will even beat me in a race. Until then, we will continue to challenge and inspire each other, and he will continue to be the weird guy without Instagram that isn’t tagged in my endless posting.
