Enhance Magazine January 2018 | Page 7

member spotlight His most recent race was his most difficult – a grueling 26-mile “Ultra Beast” race in the mountains of Vermont. Arab Emirates, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Bali. After ending his military career as a Lieutenant, he began to search for work and found luck in Campbellsville, Kentucky working as an Operations Manager for Amazon, which at the time was just at the beginnings of its future as an online powerhouse. There Mike met his wife Jaime, who was in charge of hiring the management staff and hired Mike. Eventually the two moved to Delaware where Mike went on to work at Citigroup for ten years. As a direct result of his wife’s rapid career growth, Mike was fortunate to become a stay-at-home dad, by choice, in 2010. He found that over the years he’d started to gain weight and wasn’t living the healthy lifestyle he hoped to model for his children. By the time he started to actively work on changing his lifestyle, he’d put on over 30 pounds. As Mike’s renewed love for fitness grew, he found more and more ways to keep his commitment to his health. Fast forward to 2013, and Mike became a HAC member. At first, he was doing TRX once a week and eventually added in kettlebells once a week, which worked out well for he and his family. In early 2016, another member convinced him to try Intense Intervals with HAC Personal Trainer, Dina Saitis. After that, Mike was hooked. At its peak, his training included three days a week with Dina in her FIT class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and semi-private training sessions with her on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a five-day-a-week fitness routine. Many of Dina’s clients have described the camaraderie in her classes as the ultimate motivator to get to class and continue pushing themselves to increase strength, stamina, and overall fitness. Mike was no different. In October 2016, Dina decided to do a Spartan Race as a birthday challenge for herself and as she talked about it, more and more of her friends, family, and clients decided to do it with her. They trained together and leaned on one-another for support over months and months of training in preparation. Leading up to the big race where more than 70 of Dina’s clients, friends, and family were scheduled to participate, Mike decided he wanted to give the Spartan Race a go to see where he needed to improve his training. It was challenging, but he completed the event and was instantly hooked. What’s unique about the Spartan Races is not just the physical challenge, but the mental one. Founder of Spartan Races, Joe De Sena has built the entire program and event series around ideals held by ancient Spartans – to train the physical body as a warrior, but also to laugh in the face of pain, hunger, and exhaustion. Spartans trained together, ate meals together, lived together, fought together, and died together. This camaraderie, though certainly more extreme than what Mike experienced at HAC through Dina’s classes, resonated with him, and he began his Spartan journey. What Mike r ealized was that Spartan Races appealed to him for many of the same reasons that he enjoys his time training with Dina and her fitness family. Both generate shared, tangible memories. Both give a feeling of accomplishment that you just completed something really difficult. Both are a temporary escape from an often sedentary, ‘digital’ lifestyle. Spartan Races and Dina’s classes provide social interaction, community, camaraderie, human connection, and a sense of belonging. By the end of 2016, Mike had participated in seven spartan races. The following year, he took on more and more challenging events, even convincing two of his daughters to do a kids’ Spartan race with him. “They’re more musically inclined,” Mike laughed when asked if he’d be able to convince them to try another event. While unsuccessful in making it a lasting family fitness affair, Mike’s family has remained supportive throughout his fitness journey. His most recent race was his most difficult – a grueling 26-mile “Ultra Beast” race in the mountains of Vermont. He completed it in 14 hours and 23 minutes. Congratulations Mike – you are a warrior, and you inspire us all! enhance magazine | JANUARY 2018 7