September 29, 2009
By Dave McMahon
Special to USAHockey.com
Mark Johnson went to an Ironman triathlon in 2004 to cheer on his wife’s sister. He never imagined he would be so inspired by what he saw.
Five years later, the U.S. Olympic women’s hockey coach has now completed three events, the most recent coming Sept. 13 at the Ford Ironman Wisconsin in Madison.
Johnson, whose NHL playing career was preceded by being part of the 1980 Miracle on Ice team in Lake Placid, N.Y., for decades has provided inspiration to others as a player and coach. But when he glanced at a particular athlete on the shores of Lake Monona in Madison, he found an awakening himself.
“A woman in her late 30s, early 40s, gets out of the water, and she had no left foot,” Johnson said. “You could see the people helping her take the wet suit off and then she sticks on her prosthetic and now she’s walking up to the first transition from the swim to the bike, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Wow, she’s going to get on her bike and ride 112 miles?’ Then you watch them at the finish line and see them celebrate with tears of joy.
 | Women's Olympic coach Mark Johnson recently finished his third Ironman triathlon. |
“A lot of people, their reaction is ‘You’re crazy. Why would you do that? I could never do that.’ Well, you take a step back, and a lot of people do say that, but then those same people set goals, and there they are at the finish line.”
The disabled athletes who overcame a variety of challenges hold an especially clear picture in Johnson’s mind.
“My anticipation of what I thought I was going to see was totally blown away by some of the individuals who had disabilities that were doing it. You see what some of these individuals are up against, and it’s pretty amazing what they’re doing out there,” Johnson said.
Setting goals is one thing, but finishing a triathlon in a year in which you’re named Olympic coach is quite another. His players on the U.S. national team wondered where he would find the time to achieve such a pursuit.
“We were in Vancouver [for the Hockey Canada Cup] and I was thinking to myself, ‘When is he getting time to train for this Ironman that’s next week, you know?’” said Erika Lawler, who played for Johnson at Wisconsin and now plays for him on the U.S. national team. “I definitely knew he could do it. It takes a lot of mental strength, I think, just as much as physical strength.”
As Johnson, 52, has come to know, Ironman Day in Madison is a virtual city celebration. From the finish line in front of the state capitol to the thousands of fans who line the course, the event in his hometown suits him just fine.
“The energy level, the enthusiasm not only of the participants, but of the spectators — it’s quite an event. Having it right in Madison where I live, we’re fortunate to have one of the few that are held around the country,” he said. “For a lot of people that participate and have done it or set a goal of doing one and then accomplish it, it really can change peoples’ lives. When you’re sitting at the finish line watching these individuals finish and the celebrations, before I knew it I signed up. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.”
Johnson’s current routine has him competing every two years. In his debut, he clocked in at 16 hours, 30 minutes. In his second event in 2007, he finished in 14:30. His nearly impossible work schedule in 2009 put him back at 16:30 in 2009. But he had time to spare. Ironman rules allow participants 17 hours to complete the course.
Johnson’s “day of exercise,” as he refers to it, features a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike and a marathon run of 26.2 miles. And, in the best case, it includes a crossing of the finish line 140.6 miles after he started the day. It’s a summertime day well spent, Johnson claims.
“It’s a great event. When you get near the end and you know you’re going to finish, it’s a very rewarding feeling. Whether it’s your business or whatever you may be doing, when you set up goals and accomplish them, it’s fun,” he said. “I do it for the enjoyment of finishing. Maybe one year when I have less commitments in a lot of areas and I get more time to train, then you might shoot for a better time. But right now it’s the fun of doing them and setting up a goal and trying to accomplish it.”
And if you ask any of the his former players who now double as his current players on the national team, it’s all-out blast of a day in Madison, especially when their coach is in the triathlon lineup.
“I went down to watch coach again this year,” forward Meghan Duggan said. “Me and a bunch of the girls on the team have pretty much been Ironman superfans the past four years. We wake up at 5:30 and we’re down at the swim start at 6:15 to see them all take off. We all have mopeds at school, so we follow them around all day on the bike and run.
“It’s such an awesome day. It’s something I look forward to every year, and with Coach doing it obviously we get the whole team down there. We got these bright neon orange t-shirts made this year so that we could spot each other easier. We had ‘IronFan’ put on the front.”
Duggan gave the loudest cheers for Johnson when he came out of the water after the swim and while he was getting onto his bike. She and the IronFans also gave him props during his run.
But Johnson was understanding when his troops didn’t meet him at the finish line.
“We had practice the next day, and I had a four-hour drive back here [to Blaine, Minn., where the national team is centralized],” Duggan said. “But we kept texting people to find out how he was doing. It’s such an emotional day. It’s so awesome to watch these people finish such an event. It’s the ultimate athletic test.”
Forward Jinelle Zaugg-Siergiej knows how Johnson felt when he witnessed his first triathlon.
“I went to watch him one year, and it was the first time I had ever been to a triathlon,” Zaugg-Siergiej said. “It was so inspirational. If you’re there to watch it, it makes you want to do it. There’s such a big age-range. You’ll see anyone from college to 55 or older doing these triathlons. It’s all mental and they’re tearing through it and they know they’re going to finish.
“Both of our assistant coaches and our equipment manager at Wisconsin did it that year. It’s really cool because when we go into the weight room and work out, you see them jump on the bike because you know they’re in training, too. [National team assistant coaches Jodi McKenna and Dave Flint] both train a lot, too, and for the players to see that motivation speaks very loudly to the rest of us.”
Zaugg-Siergiej also aspires to someday be a triathlon finisher. She figures she’ll get plenty of mental preparation as a member of the national team. It’s just all of that swimming, biking and running that she’s not ready for, at least for the moment.
“Hockey in general can become very mental. Whether you’re in Canada and the whole crowd is cheering against you, or if you’re just having a bad day and you have to go to the rink to practice, it’s a lot about where your thoughts are. You have to find that energy to bring out to the ice every day,” she said. “[Competing in triathlon] is something I’ve talked about for a long time. I love all three aspects.”
As for Johnson, well, less than 48 hours after crossing the finish line in Madison, he figured he wouldn’t be a poster child for triathletes anytime soon.
“Most times you’ll find that hockey players aren’t very good swimmers because we have these butts and we sink,” Johnson joked as he slapped his backside. “That’s not very strong, and I don’t like to run much. It’s hard on the knees at my age. So I guess that leaves biking, but after biking 112 miles, I hate biking now. That was very challenging. Part of that had to do with the weather and the heat. The fueling part of what you need to do to keep yourself going is extremely important. If you miss out or do something different, whether it’s more or less, it can cause you problems. The heat certainly caused problems because I was having problems at 40 miles keeping things down. I didn’t know if I was going to make it or finish the bike.”
Thanks to some Olympic-distance running during his NHL career as part of an offseason training program, Johnson was familiar with the marathon portion of the event.
“But that was probably 20 years ago,” he laughed. “Most people start with smaller events. I think with certain groups of athletes, when they get a little bit older they’re done with their particular sport, you look for challenges and things to push you and maybe get yourself back into shape. The triathlon certainly does all of those things.”
The 20-mile run that he would have ideally pursued in the final of month of training never happened. In fact, his jog through scenic Vancouver might have been one of his longest, and that stroll certainly didn’t reach the double-digit mark.
“I won’t tell you what my training regime was, because people that do triathlons will go crazy,” Johnson joked. “Obviously this year, being named the Olympic coach and having a busy spring and summer compared to what it normally is, it was interesting. But I finished it.”
And, in cyclical fashion, he gave another generation of youngsters hope that they can do the same at other stages in their lives.
“I watched him do two of them while I was in college,” Lawler said. “Sometimes I’m like ‘Oh, that looks like so much fun, and other times I’m like ‘Oh, no it doesn’t, I don’t know who would ever do that.’ I think to challenge my mental strength, it would be fun to do. Maybe if one day I feel unmotivated or bored with what I’m doing, to change things up a bit, I’d give it a try. It’s something I definitely think about. I don’t know if I’d follow through with it, but when you watch it, it’s a really inspiring day. So many times you look down at your arm and you have goosebumps all over it. It’s really moving.”
Duggan, who climbed a training trail at Pike’s Peak faster than any of her teammates during a training camp this summer in Colorado, can appreciate the mental strength that Johnson shows each time he completes a triathlon.
“I can’t believe what he puts his body through,” she said. “Mentally you want to get to the top as fast as you can. We’re elite athletes, and we love pushing our bodies to limits that people don’t normally push themselves to, even when you’re tired. Coach is a great show of that.”
Duggan recalls witnessing her first triathlon in Madison and the “mind-blowing” experience that accompanied it. When the skates are collecting dust, she’s determined that she’ll become a participant in the Madison Ironman. Like her coach, following up an Olympic gold medal in 2010 with a completed triathlon in 2020 would be ideal bookends to a dedicated athletic life.
Story courtesy of Red Line Editorial, Inc. |