Finishing is Winning

But Mike wasn’t always such an athlete. At 128kgs Mike was away at a work conference many years ago, and after cleaning up two dinner plates at the dinner table, he stood up to hit the dance floor for a Michael Jackson classic, but stopped due to chest pain he had never experienced before. It was the wake up call he needed to sort out this health and fitness. Conscious that his own father had passed away at just 62 years of age, Mike vowed to get moving- to lose weight and move quicker. It started on April 1^st 2014 with the goal to run every day, and now as part of an Official International Active Running Streak List, Mike has run every day for 2,024 days, which means that Mike has run a minimum of 1.61km every day for 5 years, 6 months and 16 days. He hopes to break the 52 year run streak record when he turns 99 years old.

At 40 years old Mike completed his first marathon, where he ran the Rotorua Marathon in a lava-lava and crossed the finish line after 6hrs 19mins with a beer in his hand. Mike now 101kg, has now completed 15x Ironman distances and this weekend will be his 45^th marathon. Mike’s goal is to get down to 90kg by 2022 and complete the Kona Ironman, followed by the Boston Marathon in a time of 3hr 40min.

Mike is a regular at the Mount Festival, and has completed 5x Tauranga Half’s and 2x Enduro’s (three quarter ironman distance). Mike loves the Enduro event because he believes ‘you get more bang for your buck’ and it’s the perfect step up from a Half Ironman distance and an ideal event when training for an Ironman distance. He hopes to continue to inspire others to get moving and join in, and in Mike’s words ‘who cares if you come last, because last means you finished- and finishing is winning’.