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