Dave Mandelkern: The Intercontinental Triathlete

Summary

In this episode of the Ginger and Chocolate podcast, hosts Lindsay and Mike welcome triathlete Dave Mandelkern, who shares his incredible journey through the world of triathlon. From his unexpected entry into the sport during a midlife crisis to completing races in all 50 states and six continents, Dave's story is filled with challenges, triumphs, and a commitment to giving back. The conversation explores the unique experiences of triathlons across different states, memorable races, and the evolution of triathlon distances, emphasizing the importance of fun and community in endurance sports. In this conversation, Dave Mandelkern shares his journey through the world of triathlon, discussing the challenges he faced in training, his unexpected qualification for Team USA, and his experiences racing across different continents. He emphasizes the importance of diversity in the sport and his efforts to promote inclusivity, particularly for underserved youth. Dave also shares his ambitious goal of completing a triathlon in Antarctica, highlighting the unique challenges that come with it. Throughout the discussion, he encourages listeners to embrace the spirit of triathlon, focusing on the joy of participation rather than competition.

Support Dave Mandelkern's Team in Training Fundraising efforts!

Takeaways

• Dave Mandelkern has completed 200 races in his triathlon journey.
• His entry into triathlon was born out of a midlife crisis.
• He has raced in every state and six continents.
• Dave's first triathlon was a challenge, with a betting pool on whether he would drown.
• He has had a few podium finishes despite being a back-of-the-pack triathlete.
• The 50 by 50 by 50 challenge raised $50,000 for charity.
• Alaska was one of his favorite states for its friendly community.
• The importance of fun in triathlon is emphasized throughout the conversation.
• Dave's experiences highlight the unique challenges of triathlons in different states.
• He has faced adversity, including passing out during a race in Brazil. You have to train to do these races.
• Fast twitch muscles are beneficial for sprint distances.
• Transition times can impact race outcomes significantly.
• Endurance can compensate for speed in triathlons.
• Participating in collegiate races can be a fun experience.
• Triathlon is not a great spectator sport.
• Increasing diversity in triathlon is essential.
• Experiences in triathlon are more important than winning.
• The stories of amateur triathletes are fascinating.
• It's about giving back to the community through sports.

Keywords

triathlon, endurance sports, Dave Mandelkern, 50 states challenge, Ironman, winter triathlon, personal stories, adventure, fitness, community, triathlon, training, Team USA, diversity, Antarctica, endurance, challenges, experiences, community, sports

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Transcript

Lindsay Hiken (00:01.427)
Welcome to the Ginger and Chocolate podcast. My name is Lindsay and I'm here with my co-host Mike. How's it going, Mike?

Mike (00:09.053)
Good morning, doing well, Lindsay? Yeah, I'm excited for today's show. We got some, it's gonna be a fun one.

Lindsay Hiken (00:10.97)
All right. Yeah.

Mm hmm. We have a special guest today. My teammate and friend, Dave, Dave Mandelkern. How's it going, Dave?

Dave Mandelkern (00:22.518)
Hey good, Lindsay, Mike, how are you guys doing this morning?

Lindsay Hiken (00:25.668)
Pretty good, it's early. It's an early morning, but we're all up. We all made it.

Dave Mandelkern (00:27.817)
Yeah, So as a triathlon would be a lot more fun if they didn't start at six in the morning, yeah, here we are.

Mike (00:29.041)
Yeah, exactly.

Lindsay Hiken (00:33.994)
I know. That's right. That's right. Yes, it's not that much of a hardship. We're used to getting up early if we need to for swimming or for racing. What's the earliest either of you? So David, what's the earliest you've ever gotten up for a race? Do you think?

Mike (00:35.431)
But here we are, right? It's the life we chose.

Dave Mandelkern (00:54.318)
Oh my gosh. I am not an early morning person, so you're probably more likely to catch me going to sleep early in the morning than waking up early in the morning. I don't know, probably about 3 a.m. or something to get started in a race, something like that.

Lindsay Hiken (01:06.414)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mike (01:09.253)
Yeah, that sounds about right. Probably the same for me. I mean, depending on how far you have to drive or how much prep you got to do to, get to the spot, right? Cause it's never just show up and start racing. It's show up, take a bus somewhere else to go somewhere that it's hard to park, wait with a lot of people, fill your air and do all the other stuff.

Lindsay Hiken (01:23.418)
Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (01:27.822)
Yep. Stand in line to the porta potty for an hour. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yep.

Lindsay Hiken (01:27.972)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (01:32.317)
Yes, the other time on a tradition, right? T zero.

Lindsay Hiken (01:36.634)
Absolutely. So we wanted to talk to Dave today because he's done some amazing things with triathlon in terms of numbers and adventures. And so just quickly, we'll say right off the top, Dave has done 200 races, which is a lot of races and has done a race in every state plus the District of Columbia. So every state in United States and

six out of seven continents. And we're going to talk a little bit why number seven is being difficult. So first of all, I want to know like when, when you started Trathlon and why you started Trathlon.

Dave Mandelkern (02:22.05)
This was a completely accidental and unexpected adventure for the past 25 years. was born out of a midlife crisis. So waking up one day and realizing I was turning 40 and it was time to get off the couch and do something more active in my life and not just sitting behind a computer screen all day long. And a bunch of my coworkers had finished a marathon with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society team and training program.

And these were some of the least likely marathon runners you've ever seen. One guy was a big heavy guy and ran the Napa Valley Marathon and successfully finished it. I'm like, man, if stubs can run a marathon, I can run a marathon. So I said, I'm going to sign up and do this marathon for my 40th birthday. Then my friend Rich was like, oh no, don't do a marathon. That's like way too hard. Sign up for a triathlon instead. It's much easier on your body.

And that was the first lie. And then the second lie was, I'll be there with you every step of the way in the training. Of course, I didn't see him at a triathlon for like another eight years or something. So anyway, that's what got me signed up for the team and training triathlon program in December of 1999. It's how I met our coach, Lindsey Tim Schiepper. He was the coach of team and training at the time. And that started this whole journey. as Tim will tell you,

Lindsay Hiken (03:12.794)
You

Lindsay Hiken (03:22.286)
Hahaha

Dave Mandelkern (03:39.31)
I was one of the people he had pegged as a one and done triathlete that I when I started this, could barely make it 25 meters across the pool without drowning. And there was, I understand quite a betting pool going on in my first triathlon that whether I would drown during the swim or not. And my wife was leading the betting pool on that, by the way. So, and I still don't know which side she was on on the bet, but anyway, so I completed that first one and I kept on going and here we are 25 years later and this.

200 finishes by the way of races out of about 205 or 206 starts. the five or six DNFs were probably some of the better stories along the way as well.

Lindsay Hiken (04:20.026)
So just for the listener, if you don't know what a DNF is, did not finish. But that means that you only, I mean, only five or six out of 205 or six races is actually a pretty good, it's a pretty good number.

Mike (04:32.221)
Pretty good batting average, man. It's almost batting a thousand.

Dave Mandelkern (04:33.42)
Yeah, yeah, it used to be a lot better until this year. I don't know. It's just kind of things have gone downhill. I don't know. So, yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (04:41.37)
Is it an age thing? Is it a?

Dave Mandelkern (04:43.63)
I think it's a swimming thing. Most of my DNFs, five out of the six or four out of the five, whatever it is, have been in the swim. And I'm not the world's best swimmer. I'm also not the world's best cross-country skier. That's another interesting story in winter triathlon. That was one of the DNFs as well. Actually, I was a disqualification, not a DNF. Okay, so.

Lindsay Hiken (05:01.137)
tsk.

Tell us about that. Tell us about that one.

Dave Mandelkern (05:06.198)
This is my part of my accidental adventures as I wound up in surprisingly and as you know, Lindsay, since you've trained with me for many years, I am not exactly a podium finisher triathlete. am a back of the pack age group triathlete, to put it kindly. but somewhere along the line, I wound up having a few podium finishes. And then, you know, as you get older, this actually gets easier in terms of qualifying for things. And I wound up qualifying for team USA, in a number of disciplines.

like aqua bike and aquathlon and duathlons and things like that, not in full triathlons. so that's, that's harder to do. And, but winter triathlon is also one of the disciplines that there is a world championship race for. And that is running in the snow, biking in the snow on either a fat tire bike or a mountain bike with big tires on it and cross country skiing. And I am quite possibly the world's worst cross country skier.

Lindsay Hiken (05:55.29)
Hmm.

So.

Lindsay Hiken (06:01.688)
You

Dave Mandelkern (06:01.742)
And nonetheless, I wound up in Anchorage, Alaska, part of the preparation for going to Antarctica, wound up in Anchorage, Alaska, the USA Triathlon National Championships in 2023 at the Tri-Flake Triathlon. Somehow managed to not only finish that, but actually came in second in my age group, which was really kind of a stunner. And thus qualified for Team USA to go to Worlds last year in 2024 in Progilotto, Italy.

Lindsay Hiken (06:22.35)
Hey.

Dave Mandelkern (06:30.67)
which this is where it starts getting the red flag start waving. Progelato is where they did the cross-country skiing races during the 2006 Turin Olympics. And that should have been like a major warning that this was going to be substantially harder course than I was used to on the cross-country skiing part of it. And little known fact that it's actually not legal to take off your skis and run during the cross-country ski course.

Lindsay Hiken (06:39.63)
Lindsay Hiken (06:43.354)
.

Dave Mandelkern (06:56.726)
I was actually making faster progress running, carrying my skis than I was skiing. And especially going down the hills and the ice and all this kind of stuff. so anyway, I was making good time until some official flagged me down at one of the loops on things saying, you know, this is really not legal to do this. And so we're going to have to disqualify you in this race. So anyway, that was my disqualification at the Winter World Triathlon in 2024.

Lindsay Hiken (07:24.376)
I didn't even, after all these years in triathlon, I didn't even know that that was a thing, the winter triathlon. That's pretty neat, actually. Yeah. I've always wanted to, and some, it's on my bucket list to learn how to cross country ski. I think of it in my mind as, you know, somehow easier than downhill skiing, but I've heard that it's actually.

Dave Mandelkern (07:29.036)
Yeah, surprisingly, yes, there's lots of things in triathlon that people don't know about.

Lindsay Hiken (07:51.746)
really kind of difficult and a really, really good workout.

Dave Mandelkern (07:54.894)
Yeah, I think all of that is true. It also doesn't help. In my case, I grew up in Florida, in North Florida, so we did not have a whole lot of snow. And I moved to California and, we do have some places up we can go up to Tahoe and ski and stuff like that. But in the Bay Area, we don't have a lot of snow on a daily basis. And now, you know, I live a fair amount of the time in Hawaii as well. Also not known for snow, although on the Big Island, we do have the only snow in Hawaii of the top of Mauna Kea. But, you know, skiing has never been something in ice and stuff. It's never been part of my natural

Lindsay Hiken (08:03.354)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (08:03.409)
not a

Dave Mandelkern (08:24.514)
habitat growing up and so forth. I'm always the guy that when you're walking on an icy sidewalk, I'm the one holding onto the side of the building so I don't fall over and things. So that's why the idea of me being on skis is kind of like this definition of an unnatural act.

Mike (08:26.416)
Right.

Lindsay Hiken (08:30.586)
You

Lindsay Hiken (08:39.658)
This is a total aside, but I lived in Washington, DC when I, know, a couple of years out of college and the building where my firm was had these, the worst, you know, kind of steps for us. They were like kind of wide and a little bit flat.

And then the staircase itself was this is outside, very, very wide. So there was only, you know, there's handrails, but they're kind of on one side or the other and you couldn't reach both. And it would just freeze over. And we would, you know, for a little break, a little coffee break, we would all stand in the window and just take bets on people going down to see who we thought was going to make it. And you'd find some that had the trick of holding on like you're talking about, Dave.

Dave Mandelkern (09:12.334)
Thank

Lindsay Hiken (09:26.52)
but they would still slide, but they would just kind of hold on underneath the handrail and go on, go on down. So, okay.

Dave Mandelkern (09:28.504)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's funny. You mentioned Washington, D.C. because I have a quick story about my brother. He was like you, Lindsay. He was working in Washington, D.C. just at a law school and he was walking home carrying his briefcase one day and he slips on the ice and his briefcase goes flying down the street and winds up getting hit by a bus in the middle of the street. Yeah. He was fine. But that was basically, you know, he grew up with me in Florida and stuff. And that's when he decided he got home that night and told his wife, we're packing up. We're moving back to Florida. We're not staying in D.C. anymore.

Lindsay Hiken (09:56.214)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. At some point I had the same thought. Like I'm they have a they have a a the weatherman had a saying out there. It's a mixed bag. We're we're, you know, expecting a mixed bag, which means kind of like sleet rainish type stuff. And then it's going to freeze over. And one day I thought if I hear mixed bag one more one more time, I'm going to it's time to move to California. OK, so I want to hear it. So let's see.

Mike (09:57.703)
Done. Done with that.

Dave Mandelkern (09:58.432)
Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (10:19.682)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Lindsay Hiken (10:25.722)
Did you finish the, well I guess you must have finished the 50 states and DC in advance of the 200 triathlons, because I know we just celebrated 200. So.

Dave Mandelkern (10:32.974)
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That was all done. That was 2008. That was the whole goal of this thing. backing up a little bit on the story. So as you both know, triathlon can be, shall we put it kindly, a bit of a self-absorbed sport. And so, you know, one of the things I've tried to do while I've been doing this in many years is find ways to kind of give back while I'm doing this stuff. So it's not just about me going out and doing all this stuff.

Lindsay Hiken (10:49.113)
haha

Mike (10:49.949)
That would take beers, yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (10:59.886)
So the 50 by 50 by 50 challenge was to do 50 triathlons in 50 states by the time I turned 50. And so we finished that in 2008. It was also a fundraiser to raise $50,000 for the Leukemia and Fomal Society, Challenge Athletes Foundation, and World Team Sports. And so that's kind of been the start of my fundraising challenges that I do in triathlon. Going back to how I started doing this whole thing with team and training for the Leukemia and Fomal Society.

Lindsay Hiken (11:26.383)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (11:27.982)
And so, yeah, so that started in 2003. I got the idea. I was hanging out with a bunch of marathon runners and it's actually a thing in marathon talking about things that people don't know about. There is a thing in marathon to do a marathon in each of the 50 states. And there's two competing groups. is 50 states in marathon. The other is 50 states plus DC in marathon. And I wound up in Havana, Cuba through an interesting set of events running the Havana marathon.

Lindsay Hiken (11:43.546)
Mmm.

Dave Mandelkern (11:56.014)
with a bunch of these guys who had finished all 50 states in DC and were now going on to run all the world's capitals. And so we wound up doing this charity run in Havana, doing the Havana Marathon. I was like, well, this is cool. I wonder if anybody has ever done 50 states in triathlon. And the answer was no, I couldn't really find anything. In fact, I wasn't even sure if there was a triathlon in each of the 50 states. And it turns out at the time, was, it required a fair amount of logistical planning because

Lindsay Hiken (12:03.538)
Dave Mandelkern (12:25.908)
One of the states in North Dakota only had a triathlon every other year as part of their state's games, which is kind of like a little mini Olympic games thing that they did. So I had to get special permission to enter that race as a non-resident of North Dakota. And they were like, sure, you can do this. Just, you ha ha. Don't get a podium finish or anything. Don't take anything away from any North Dakota residents. But we'll let you do this. And you're trying to do all 50 states for this charitable thing. And of course, sure enough, I show up at this thing, red flag.

Mike (12:39.964)
Hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (12:55.704)
flying number one there is like, wow, I take my bike out of the back of the car and the people there are, and this is at the Prairie Rose State Games in Minot, North Dakota, best known for its nuclear missile bases, by the way. And so I pulled my bike out of the car and the people there were like, wow, those are really funny handlebars on your bike. And I tried bike and they're like, and what's wrong with your pedals? It's like, they're so small. And it was like, they'd never seen clipless pedals before.

Mike (13:16.378)
boy.

Lindsay Hiken (13:21.562)
no.

you

Mike (13:25.393)
Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (13:25.454)
And so I'm like, okay, this might be an interesting triathlon. And sure enough, you know, I come in third overall or something, got podium finish in this race in North Dakota. So was like, how embarrassing, right? And this thing, but, but it gets better because then six months later, I get this letter in the mail from the national States games saying, congratulations based on your podium finish in North Dakota. You've been selected. You're now selected to go to the national States games in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And I'm like, I.

Lindsay Hiken (13:34.202)
You

Dave Mandelkern (13:53.248)
I can't pass this up. I have to go to do this thing. And so I'm there and people were saying, well, where in North Dakota are you from? It's like a very far west North Dakota, very, very far west. And then they asked me if I want to carry the North Dakota flag. And that's where I have to kind of call it off and say, like, no, I'm not going to carry the flag, but I'm just going to embarrass myself to a certain degree, not all the way. But anyways, that was my North Dakota resident story of doing the 50 states.

Mike (14:04.157)
It's hilarious.

Lindsay Hiken (14:22.746)
So when you got to the nationals, were there people who had tri-bikes and things there? Okay. All right.

Dave Mandelkern (14:28.569)
yeah, yeah, yeah, that was a much more real thing, yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (14:33.572)
So out of all the states that you've done, what was your favorite state, non-California state? I just say that because we all live in California, know. Non-California state race.

Dave Mandelkern (14:40.288)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (14:47.854)
Well, probably the one, the very memorable one is Alaska, just because they were so darn nice. And that's, think it's both doing the triathlon, which was the sourdough triathlon and Fairbanks and going back and doing winter nationals many years later in Anchorage. It's like, I don't know what people think about Alaska, but it's just like my, my experiences there in the winter and in the summer have been just, everybody is so darn nice. And

the triathlon, the race director was guy named Bad Bob Baker. And I had this mental image of Bad Bob Baker looking something like Yosemite Sam with the red hair and the mustache and all this kind of stuff. And we're to meet him the night before the race. We're going to have dinner, pre-race dinner together and welcome me to Alaska. And I'm in this restaurant looking around for, know, when's Yosemite Sam going to walk in.

Mike (15:24.925)
That's what I was gonna say, yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (15:38.312)
And this very nice red haired guy walks in wearing a polo shirt from this moving and storage company that he runs and everything. he was like nicest, most, you know, non-offensive guy in the world. The least likely guy to be named bad Bob Baker. so, so he was, he was the race director for this thing. And they just had this massive forest fire and up there and it was supposed to be a half Ironman distance race. And unfortunately the thing they had fire trucks out there.

Mike (15:52.839)
Dead Bob.

Lindsay Hiken (16:00.282)
Mm.

Dave Mandelkern (16:08.174)
tried to ride the bike course that day and there was fire hoses across the road and smoke everywhere. It was just like, man, this is going to be tough to navigate this thing. He was like, yeah, you know, we were going to call this race off. But since you came all the way from California to do this thing, we felt bad about you making this trip all the way up here. So they rerouted the whole race into an Olympic distance race at a state park a little bit further north. my God. It was just incredible. And then he was up all night, sawing pieces of

Mike (16:29.757)
That's incredible.

Dave Mandelkern (16:37.838)
In fact, let me grab this. can show it to you right here. Don't kill myself. I've got this right here in my office. I'll hold this up. This is what he made. The Finisher's Medals for the Sourdough Triathlon in 2004. And he handmade and lacquered these, wrote everybody's name on them, varnished them and everything the night before the race and had these all ready for everybody. So that was bad Bob Baker's handiwork here. And yeah, and so that was it. And there was a...

Lindsay Hiken (16:46.345)
Mike (16:57.991)
That's so cool.

Lindsay Hiken (17:00.73)
What a nice guy.

Dave Mandelkern (17:04.014)
know, potluck meal, the post race meal was a potluck afterwards. There was all of maybe 30 people doing this triathlon. That's one of the things doing triathlons in all 50 States. realize we're spoiled or I don't know spoiled or jaded or whatever you want to call it in California. have these races with 2000 people in them and whatever. And know, you're, you're lucky if you know anybody there, you have other States like South Carolina and Arkansas and Alaska and stuff. They're lucky if they get 30 people to show up at a race and this stuff and everybody knows each other because they've been racing against each other.

Mike (17:19.697)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (17:32.512)
all season and all year and multiple years in a row. So everybody gets together and shares a meal afterwards. And so it's a very different vibe than a California triathlon.

Mike (17:43.407)
I bet. Well, it just seems like in other states, the triathletes there probably spend a good deal of their time explaining to people what a triathlon is.

Lindsay Hiken (17:43.418)
Sounds kind of, yeah, go ahead Mike.

Dave Mandelkern (17:54.4)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. It's not quite the same degree of normalcy around this stuff that you have in the Bay Area, for example.

Lindsay Hiken (18:01.69)
And even here, know, people think they only think it's Kona, you know what I mean? They just. Right. I don't know what you.

Dave Mandelkern (18:09.07)
Right. Yeah. Iron man is the same as triathlon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is even around here. mean, I have to explain to a lot of people that, you know, I do triathlons and I've averaged like eight triathlons a year and they're like, Oh my God, how do you do eight iron man a year? It's like, well, no, actually they're not all iron man. that's, yes. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Mike (18:10.065)
Right. Mm-hmm. Synonymous.

Lindsay Hiken (18:25.658)
But you've done Iron Man, right?

Mike (18:26.417)
Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (18:30.36)
Yeah, back in the day, here I get to go like old dinosaur mansplaining everything to you, Lindsay. back in the day, on Team Sheeper, for example, where we train, just doing an Ironman used to be a BFD. mean, just doing one Ironman was amazing. And now it's like, if you don't do an Ultraman or something, it's like you're nothing on this team. So the game has definitely been raised there. But yeah, no, I did an Ironman back in the day, and a couple of them, actually. so it's good.

Lindsay Hiken (18:34.776)
haha

Lindsay Hiken (18:42.234)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (18:47.702)
Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (18:57.998)
I've kind of sworn it off because, same with running marathons as well, the pain versus reward ratio is just not there anymore. especially the training pain of doing that, it takes a lot out of me at 66 years old now. That's not one of the things that's high on my bucket list to do anymore.

Lindsay Hiken (19:18.2)
Yeah, yeah, I had it on my bucket list. I did check it off and I kept it on my bucket list because I was injured and I didn't have a tri bike when I did it. And so I thought I could have a better race if I had a tri bike and knew about my runner's knee and kind of protected that during training. But I'm actually kind of over it, you know, because of the same reason you're talking about, like, I'm in a place in my life where I keep being I keep coming up with these little injuries or

Dave Mandelkern (19:24.824)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (19:45.722)
You know, I broke my ankle but then getting back healthy has been all these different little things coming up I think from overcompensating And I'm kind of like I just want to race and have fun and Iron Man For my body is not really in the cards right now. And also for a time what I mean, it's a lot of time and I work full-time so I'm kind of letting it go. Yeah

Dave Mandelkern (20:05.942)
Mm-hmm. It's hard. mean, especially again, most of us out there doing this stuff are not getting paid to do these triathlons. We're not making our living doing this. We're doing this for fun. yeah, yeah. And I have a lot of respect to Lindsay for one of our teammates. were doing Ironman Tahoe, if you remember that disastrous race up there in the freezing cold of September in Tahoe. It was was snowing and it was unbelievable. People were coming out of the water.

Mike (20:17.265)
the investment.

Lindsay Hiken (20:24.622)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mike (20:27.761)
That was a saga of disaster.

Dave Mandelkern (20:33.39)
you know, wearing their wetsuits onto the bike to try and get warm kind of thing and whatever. And one of our teammates got out there on the run. was a two loop run and he finishes the first loop on the run. His family is in there eating dinner, the restaurant, there's young kids there or whatever. And he just stops. says, you know, I am having, not only am I not having fun, whatever the opposite of fun is, this is what I'm doing right now. This is just not worth it. So he just stopped and said, I'm going to have dinner with my family. That

Lindsay Hiken (20:52.46)
Right.

Dave Mandelkern (20:57.558)
is a lot more fun right now than whatever I'm doing. I give them lot of credit for doing it. We're recognizing that we do this to have fun, not to torture ourselves, not because we're getting paid to do this or whatever. And if it's not fun, you shouldn't be doing it.

Lindsay Hiken (20:59.737)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (21:04.25)
Mm-hmm.

That's right.

Right, it is a hobby. mean, let's be real.

Mike (21:10.737)
Yeah, exactly. was, yeah. Tahoe had what? A year of snow, a year of bears eating people's nutrition and a fire.

Dave Mandelkern (21:12.311)
Yeah, yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (21:20.622)
Right, the fire and everything. Yes, yes, exactly. was just like, yeah, the cursed, it was the cursed Iron Man, right? It's just like this, Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (21:23.108)
So I was registered at the fire area.

Lindsay Hiken (21:29.786)
I was registered the fire year and we were up there the week leading up to it and it was raining ash, it was just raining ash and I have asthma and I wasn't as prepared anyway as I should have been, you know, and I was kind of going in with like, well, let me see, let me see what happens. Let me start the swim and see what happens. I mean, I might as well just go and start. But then we were.

Dave Mandelkern (21:39.502)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (21:54.488)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (21:56.972)
sitting there and it was raining ash like the day before and I was like, I'm not doing this race. And so I didn't do it. And I don't think anyone did the race. I think they got him in the swim and then pulled him out of the swim. Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (22:03.296)
Yeah, yeah. No, as I recall, did they? Yeah, I think they called it off at the start of the swim or something. That's, yeah, they canceled the whole thing. And I think that was the end of Iron Man Tahoe, as I recall. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

Lindsay Hiken (22:13.923)
So.

Yep, that was it. Yep.

Mike (22:17.253)
Yeah, it's not been revisited since. Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (22:20.154)
Because they did a weird thing too. They said, well, you can register for another one, but it has to be this year. And it was like, well, it's October or something. Like, what are you talking about?

Dave Mandelkern (22:26.316)
Yeah, right. Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. So I think it was like there was one option left. I remember in Cozumel or something, know, in Mexico or something. That was it. It was like, great. OK. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Mike (22:32.423)
Louisville, right? yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (22:33.53)
Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm. Because Arizona was a possibility, except it was sold out. And they were like, you can't do a sold out race. was like, well, you've got one. I do know Heidi Buttery and her father went and did Cozumel. Yeah, mm-hmm, yeah. Which has its own challenges. She got some water somehow, ice. Something happened where she had the Montezuma's, you know.

Mike (22:39.943)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (22:45.58)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, Cozumel. Yeah. Yep.

Dave Mandelkern (22:56.782)
you

Mike (23:01.181)
Woo, fun.

Lindsay Hiken (23:01.336)
Revenge on the day of the race. Yeah. So.

Dave Mandelkern (23:02.508)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, those, those, those adds to the challenges of doing a race have been there and done that as well. do Ironman 70.3 Honu in the big Island of Hawaii with coming off of food poisoning and doing that. That was not the recommended pre-race training. Yes. Yeah.

Mike (23:05.32)
We'll segue.

Lindsay Hiken (23:08.656)
You

Lindsay Hiken (23:13.762)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (23:19.596)
No.

Mike (23:19.869)
It's a tough one. was going to ask you Dave, what's, what is your favorite distance for triathlon?

Dave Mandelkern (23:26.126)
I guess, know, honestly, I'm probably an Olympic distance guy, know, standard distance, international distance, whatever you want to call it. That's kind of my sweet spot.

Mike (23:29.959)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (23:36.327)
That is a nice one because it's, mean, the sprint is over before you know it. Ironman like we know is, you know, six months to a year investment time of training. then it's grueling, but that, that Olympic distance, just like, I think I have to agree with you. really liked that distance.

Dave Mandelkern (23:40.44)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (23:46.946)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (23:55.618)
Yeah, it's manageable. The half as well is manageable training wise. It doesn't disrupt your life tremendously or whatever. But having something where you can actually train and still have a life is important. And I agree with you, Mike. It's like the sprints. And to me, I'm not a fast transition guy. And the sprints, too much of an emphasis on transitions. People joke and use this. I pull out my tablecloth for the transitions and have a little meal there, like the candles and stuff.

Lindsay Hiken (24:03.256)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (24:08.636)
Yes.

Mike (24:16.007)
Yes.

Lindsay Hiken (24:19.984)
Hahaha

you

Dave Mandelkern (24:24.888)
Fast transitions are not my strong suit. So Olympic distance kind of plays a little better to my strengths or my less weaknesses in there. And halves are good. Haves are a nice challenge. I haven't done a half in a couple of years because I had a of a disastrous experience. This is another great story of when I was trying, this was the first attempt at South America on the Seven Continents Tour.

Mike (24:33.849)
I'm with you. The rushing.

Dave Mandelkern (24:50.138)
get back to your question eventually, Lindsay, about seven continents and 50 states and stuff like that. I do remember there was a question in there somewhere, right, that I was supposed to answer. Anyway, so yes, so I'm doing Brazil. This is the Iron Man 70.3 Brazil in Fortaleza. And it's hotter than hell and humid. It's probably like 90-something degrees and 90 % humidity and windy in there. it's a grueling swim, grueling bike ride.

Lindsay Hiken (24:58.234)
This is all conversation, it's all good.

Lindsay Hiken (25:10.114)
Mike (25:13.069)
that's brutal.

Dave Mandelkern (25:18.306)
headwind coming back and 28 miles into a blasting headwind with heat and humidity. Then on this dead flat run with not a speck of shade on the run. So running a 13.1 mile run out there. It's a three loop run, make it through two of the loops coming into the third one, looking at my watch calculating. Okay, here's the other guy about two kilometers left to go 1.2 miles left to go on this race. Calculating my finish time, I see the flags and the temps up ahead at the finish line, everything. The next thing I know

Lindsay Hiken (25:18.707)
just thinking about it.

Dave Mandelkern (25:45.75)
I'm waking up in the back of a Brazilian ambulance with a bunch of guys yelling at me in Portuguese, which I speak a little bit of, but not a whole lot. And there's bloody gauze everywhere. They're trying to do a blood sugar test on me, whatever they're talking about. But I basically passed out. That's one of the six DNFs. they're probably the only one that's not a swim DNF with the run DNF there. And I still to this day don't know exactly what happened, but you know, I did not, unfortunately did not finish the race.

Mike (26:04.207)
Oof.

Lindsay Hiken (26:12.282)
Wow.

Dave Mandelkern (26:14.926)
And I can tell you, if you have to pass out at a race, it's definitely better to pass out just over the finish line than just before the finish line. Because it definitely left a feeling of unfinished business out there in the half that I've done 98 % of it or something and didn't quite get it done, then had to go back. And the next time in Brazil was an equally disastrous experience. was the middle of a storm and the swim. I missed the swim cutoff time. Again, I'm not the strongest swimmer in the world. And it was just like...

Lindsay Hiken (26:22.07)
Right?

Mike (26:22.241)
my god, yes.

Lindsay Hiken (26:30.081)
Uh-huh.

Dave Mandelkern (26:43.31)
so incredibly bad on the swim that I didn't make it through the swim. Third time's a charm. I finished the Rio triathlon in, I don't it was 2021 or 2022. It was just after COVID. was races were just starting up again. Went down there and did this Olympic distance race. Had a bike wreck in the middle of it and everything. So managed to, in my own stupidity, there was a one bike crash in the middle of this race and not even a great story to tell. I wound up hitting a curb.

and flipped off my bike. they were trying to stop me from going forward. They were like, no, no, you're bleeding, you're hitting your head, you shouldn't do this thing. I'm like, no comprende, no comprende, I'm to underrun. like, you know, it's like, so I this race and again, one of the other rare podium finishes for me, but amazingly I managed to finish that race and that finally checked South America off on the third try. but.

Lindsay Hiken (27:32.954)
was gonna say when they were trying to stop you, you were probably like, I'm not coming back down here. This is my third time down here.

Mike (27:33.501)
That's some persistence, yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (27:37.006)
Exactly, exactly. This is the third time I, I just got to take more than a bike break to stop me from finishing this race. It's like, anyway, so yeah, so anyway, back to the half Ironman distance race is the point of this thing. And so that was, that was, think, I think I've done one half since then, but that was kind of like, okay. And that was right before COVID it was in November of 2019 or something when I had that bad half iron race. So I was going with this whole massive cardiac workups and CT scans and ultrasounds and

stress testing and all this stuff to figure out why this happened. And then of course COVID hits and we're shut down for two years with no races. then slowly trying to get back into racing again and figuring out what's going on. so anyway, it's just the half distance has kind of been a little bit challenging to get back into since then.

Lindsay Hiken (28:13.508)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (28:23.069)
It's a big build up too.

Lindsay Hiken (28:23.655)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's much bigger.

Dave Mandelkern (28:26.734)
Mm hmm. Yeah. One of the things I've learned in this year as well is, is, you know, I certainly have some health issues this year as well. And I had a detached retina in September. And so, and it's a funny, funny thing happened on the way to USA triathlon nationals in Atlantic city this year. And instead of getting on a plane to Atlantic city, I wound up in an operating room at Good Samaritan hospital in San Jose. That kind of screwed up my race schedule for the last quarter of 2024.

Lindsay Hiken (28:49.809)
Dave Mandelkern (28:52.75)
And so I jumped back in, I tried to go down to Morro Bay and do the Morro Bay Triathlon in November, just to get back in and say, you know, you do this stuff. I came with the realization that, you know, you actually do have to train to do these races. As much as your spirit may be willing and your mind may be saying, oh yeah, it's muscle memory. I can just pull this thing off and muscle memory is like, no, you really do need to train to do these things. So that was another swim disaster.

Lindsay Hiken (28:56.068)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (29:03.354)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (29:04.326)
Yes.

Lindsay Hiken (29:17.498)
I'm I'm equally slow in the transitions and our team manager, Mike Osmond. Anytime Tim, anytime our coach talks about transition, Mike immediately looks over at me because I'm so slow. And there was a race and I'm sure you were there, Dave, a long time ago, like 2010, 2011, the one down in Lake Almodin. They would have that one down there like the Santa Clara, you know that. So. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So.

Dave Mandelkern (29:23.224)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (29:39.946)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, San Jose International, right? Mm-hmm. Yep.

Lindsay Hiken (29:45.272)
I'm in transition and I'm doing my thing. This is a T1 and Mike walks over to the edge of the fence by me and he says, are you going to have a fucking cup of tea too? And I was like, maybe, but.

Dave Mandelkern (29:57.678)
Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, that encouragement and transition from Tim and Mike is always amazing, isn't it? Can you go any slower, Dave? Yes, yes, yes.

Lindsay Hiken (30:06.778)
You

Mike (30:08.103)
Good to boost the spirits.

Lindsay Hiken (30:11.617)
And my favorite distance is the sprint distance. I just I just love it because I do have fast twitch muscles when I'm not injured. I'm definitely better at just hammering something out. But my big downfall is that I'm not great at transitioning. And I've had a number of races where I've come in fourth place. But my time for swim, bike, run has been fast enough that I would have gotten like second place or first place.

Dave Mandelkern (30:38.253)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (30:39.342)
but my transition time was like eight minutes on a sprint, you know what I mean? Which you can't have and so if I could get those transitions down better, I'd probably do really well at the sprint level. So maybe that's something I'll work on.

Dave Mandelkern (30:41.954)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (30:50.094)
Yeah. Yeah. Or you could just have my attitude, which is I don't really care. I'll just take the eight minute transition times and that's life. So I'm just having a good time out there. So I say, I like to my money's worth out of these races.

Lindsay Hiken (30:56.194)
Yeah, there's that too.

Mike (31:04.637)
Yes. Yes. Now I'm the same way I hate rushing through transition. So maybe that's why I've been drawn to like the half and full distance for a while because it's just a, mean, there's a lot more leeway and transition there and sprint. I, I, can't be bothered to, to, to stomp out of my wetsuit in five seconds and run over and do this. I'm like, what's, what's the rush? Where's the fire? What are we doing here?

Lindsay Hiken (31:05.89)
Yeah, yeah. Mike, what about you?

Lindsay Hiken (31:30.394)
Where's where are the guys that are going to strip your wetsuit? It's like those don't exist. These are shorter races.

Dave Mandelkern (31:31.298)
Yeah, yeah, I'm with you, Mike. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Only an Iron Man, right? That's yeah. Yeah. It's just, it's a nice luxury. You get spoiled by that. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike (31:39.783)
Yeah.

Mike (31:43.303)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (31:43.354)
man. It was so nice when we did Iron Man Santa Rosa. I'd never had that before. And I'd had it once before at Vine Man, I guess. But but it was so organized and they were so fast with my my wetsuit. was like, this is I wish I could have this all always always. It definitely help my sprint. So let's talk a little bit about the 200 triathlons. Did you set a goal for this or is this something that just came about because you've just been racing a lot?

Dave Mandelkern (31:58.626)
Right, yep.

Dave Mandelkern (32:11.694)
It just happened. Yes, exactly. was not that was not never the goal was never to do 100 or 200 or whatever. It's just kind of happened along the way. You know, after after doing the 50 states, the 100 kind of happened pretty naturally because obviously, you know, 51 of them were doing the 50 states plus DC plus do other local races. Before you know it, you wind up you've done 100 races, then you keep doing this stuff long enough. again, I, you know, as I like to say, I may not be the fastest guy out there, but I'd make up for a lack in speed with endurance. So I do.

Lindsay Hiken (32:32.087)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (32:41.639)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (32:41.654)
a lot of races a year. And so it's been an average of eight triathlons a year plus other assorted and sundry duathlons, aqua bikes, marathons, half marathons, whatever during the course of the year. so that before you know it, you just keep doing this stuff long enough, you wind up pushing the 200 here. And so it just happens. It's called getting old, right?

Lindsay Hiken (32:49.935)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (33:02.586)
That's awesome. Yeah, well, there's that. know that you did the multi sport. I'm not sure what they called it in Nebraska. It was the multi sport. Didn't you go with Tim or was it Nebraska or Omaha? Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (33:14.466)
Yes, Omaha. Yes, last year. Well, yes. So yes, that's the whole accidental, how did I wind up on Team USA? I've got my Team USA jacket on here and everything. Yes, yes, very good. Again, least likely person to ever make Team USA or they're making a complete mockery of the sport of triathlon or whatever. But as it turns out, the older you get, kind of the less competitive this stuff gets, there's fewer people in your age group.

Lindsay Hiken (33:22.168)
Very nice.

Mike (33:36.517)
and the endurance.

Dave Mandelkern (33:37.686)
Yeah, endurance pays off, right? You survive long enough, good things happen. And so I wound up first going to Irving, Texas in 2022 and doing kind of what some might call the more obscure disciplines in multi-sport, like an aqua-thon, is swimming and running, aqua-bike, swimming and biking and duathlons and so forth. And so I signed up and I did, you I don't know, half a dozen different races like this there and wound up qualifying for Team USA in some of these obscure things and went off to

Lindsay Hiken (33:37.934)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (33:42.105)
Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (34:07.702)
Ibiza, Spain, and doing that. then Punta Verde, Spain for the sprint distance, super sprint actually, triathlon. And then I went to Omaha, Nebraska last year and qualified for a bunch of things again. And this is the USA Triathlon Multisport Nationals. And so that was was fun. And I'll be heading off to Punta Verde, Spain again for multisport worlds and a couple of disciplines and doing

Lindsay Hiken (34:31.673)
Hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (34:36.11)
What am I doing this year? Sprint duathlon, standard distance duathlon, and aquathlon there. And then we'll be going down to Wollongong, Australia in October to do the standard aqua bike. with Lisa Sheeper, one of your guests a few weeks ago, very excited. She was very excited about this. We put together a mixed team relay, which is a super fun new event in triathlon. We have two men and two women each doing a super sprint triathlon. So it's something like.

Mike (34:45.543)
Wow.

Lindsay Hiken (34:56.282)
Mmm.

Dave Mandelkern (35:04.654)
250 meters of swimming, five kilometers of biking, and about a 1.2 kilometer run. So it's like, it's over before you've even figured it out. And this is where you do like a zero transition, no wetsuits, no bike shoes, you you wear your running shoes on the bike. If you're trying to this fast, it's just like, boom, boom, boom, you're done. so.

Mike (35:16.466)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (35:22.97)
So let me ask you a question with the relay. So would you do your whole super sprint and then hand off to your teammate? Okay, wow.

Dave Mandelkern (35:29.038)
Yes, exactly. Yep. Yep. So you, so person one and they, they alternate whether it's male first or female first depends on the year. So they flip back and forth. So we did a male first when we did this in Omaha and now in Wollongong is the next year, we female first, um, you know, goes off and does the swim, does the bike, does a run, then tags off. The next person jumps in the water, does the whole thing, finishes the run, tags off. And then the last person crosses the finish line.

Lindsay Hiken (35:56.558)
Very cool, that's cool.

Mike (35:57.341)
cool.

Dave Mandelkern (35:58.574)
It's super fun. started this at the Olympics. It's I encourage everybody to try it. It's a blast, even though it doesn't seem like as much of a workout. This is one of the other dirty little secrets I found is whatever the distance is, whether it's super sprint or sprint or Ironman, these things are all hard because you're putting out 100 % energy for whatever the distance is. I mean, it's like, I think the goal if I've got this right, finally, after many years of doing this stuff, it's you don't leave any gas in the tank. You put everything out into the race, whatever the distance is. So they're all hard.

Mike (36:17.063)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (36:27.889)
Yeah, yeah, good point. That's a really good point.

Lindsay Hiken (36:28.696)
Yeah, yeah. This is why I find the Olympic distance so hard is because people are really going fast, but it's a little bit, you know what I mean? It's more of a stretch than just a sprint distance or going fast for quite. mean, to me, it seems like quite a bit. So the Olympics where I've had a where I've blown up a couple of times because I can go hammer on a sprint and I get sucked into what other people are doing. It turns out they have more endurance than I have. And so

Dave Mandelkern (36:38.253)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (36:51.438)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (36:55.436)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, in Olympic distances where you actually have to start worrying about things like hydration and nutrition and things, you can't just kind of gut it through on, yeah, I had a banana last night so I can go out and do a sprint distance triathlon. Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (36:58.286)
Yeah.

Mike (37:02.993)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Exactly.

Lindsay Hiken (37:10.417)
Which that's why it's my kind of thing because I'm not a great planner with that kind of stuff. So, okay, so what was your 200th race?

Dave Mandelkern (37:13.964)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (37:20.54)
that was actually number two number. is again, you know, you plan and then things kind of blow up. It was supposed to have been at the USA triathlon nationals in Atlantic city. That got blown up because of my detached retina. So that, that didn't happen. So instead I wound up, after I recovered and, was able to go do the Cal bear Athlon sprint distance race in Berkeley. Yeah. It's a collegiate race, which is another fun thing to do. If you, if you've never done a collegiate race.

Mike (37:44.456)
cool.

Lindsay Hiken (37:45.114)
Okay.

Mike (37:47.345)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (37:49.632)
I highly encourage it because it's a lot of fun and I've done several of them. Stanford Triathlon is another local collegiate race we do. It's fun to see all the college teams out there, people singing their fight songs and cheering and all this kind of stuff. And I actually had the good fortune, again, doing the 50 states. Alabama, the first trip to Alabama got thunderstormed out, so I couldn't do the race because they canceled it due to thunderstorms. And let me tell you.

Mike (37:59.773)
greed.

Dave Mandelkern (38:16.974)
going all the way to Fort Rucker, Alabama to do the Fort Rucker Tin Man, only to have it canceled due to thunderstorms. It's like not a great weekend trip. so the next time through was, again, Alabama, one of those states that's a little bit triathlon challenged, not having a lot of races to choose from, USA Triathlon Collegiate Nationals were going to be at University of Alabama the next year. So I wrangled my way into being a chaperone with the Stanford Triathlon team and actually

Lindsay Hiken (38:24.59)
Right.

Mike (38:25.287)
Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (38:44.812)
went along as a driver to drive the van for them and stuff like that and got to do the race there as part of the Stanford Triathlon team, collegiate team. So that was a lot of fun doing that. And yeah, it was great because it also was a spring football game weekend or something. So there was a ton of people on the campus and the run was right through the middle of this red brick building campus and everything. People were along the way, were cheering you on and everything. And they're like, it was a football game kind of thing or whatever.

Lindsay Hiken (38:53.444)
How cool.

Mike (39:06.266)
cool.

Dave Mandelkern (39:12.168)
It was a very cool experience and you have these college kids from all over the country there doing this thing. So again, highly recommend doing at least one collegiate race in your life. It's a lot of

Mike (39:22.077)
Totally agree with that. the first, well, I guess the, first, try I did in this chapter of my triathlon life was a Triton man down in San Diego. it's like, that's their like college team preseason race for them. I think it's like in February. it's, it's early on. So I agree totally with you, Dave, the energy that the kids brought there was, was so fun to see.

Lindsay Hiken (39:50.01)
I love it when you are in a race where there's a lot of spectators too. For some reason it's fun. I mean, it does give me energy. I don't know about you, but the clapping and the cheering and stuff does definitely.

Dave Mandelkern (39:54.307)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (39:59.63)
Yep. This is one of the challenges in triathlon. They're trying to make this a spectator sport and have things on TV or whatever. I don't know that it's ever going to happen. Triathlon is not a great spectator sport. My friend Jane Williams, who wrote the book Slow Fat Triathlete, which is a great read by the way if you ever want to read a funny triathlon book or whatever, she summed up very well, triathlon is a two-thermist sport for spectators.

Mike (40:23.494)
Yes.

Dave Mandelkern (40:23.596)
You have one thermos of coffee in the morning to begin with, and then a thermos of margaritas to stand out of the finish line at the end. And that's the best way to see a triathlon. And it is actually miserable. My wife has stopped coming to every triathlon. She still comes to some of them if we're going to interesting foreign country or something like that. She'll come along. But she's kind of given up on most of the local races and stuff. But it is absolutely miserable to be a spectator. And my litmus test is always

Lindsay Hiken (40:23.884)
Right.

Dave Mandelkern (40:49.784)
Triathlon is not really going to be a spectator sport until you actually see spectators there that do not have a relative doing the race is Is anybody ever going to show up and watch a triathlon when they actually don't know anyone that's doing the race? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Mike (40:56.957)
true.

Mike (41:02.481)
Right, right outside of the Olympics, right? Where people are just like, what's this? Hey, I'll get tickets for that.

Lindsay Hiken (41:03.0)
Well, the one I saw. And the very first race that they had in Oakland, the Oakland Tri, the very, very first Oakland Tri, our team went and did that. You were probably there, Dave. I loved I mean, of course, it was my favorite race ever because all the volunteers were local volunteers. so triathlon is definitely a non black sport. There's less than 1 % of triathletes are black. And I had

Dave Mandelkern (41:13.016)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (41:32.89)
clapping and cheering the whole freaking, as soon as I got out the water, the whole course, because people would see me coming, the volunteers or people that just came outside to watch, because they were like, I don't even know what this is kind of thing. And they'd see me coming and they would just start screaming. And it was the best. It was so fun. It was fun to be representing, you know, triathlon and showing people what's possible. But I mean, all the way around Lake Merritt, was just like, whoo, you know, keep going, keep going. So, yeah.

Mike (41:49.349)
awesome.

Dave Mandelkern (41:53.59)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (41:59.022)
Yep. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Well, yeah, that was a great race. It's a shame we're not doing that one anymore as a whole. That's a whole nother what the death of local triathlon races as a whole nother subject for a different podcast. But anyway, yeah, that was a great race. And Lindsay, you touched on a really important topic, which is one of the things that I'm involved in now is trying to increase diversity in the sport as well. So I'm actually

Lindsay Hiken (42:06.263)
I know.

Mike (42:11.077)
Mm-hmm.

It really is.

Dave Mandelkern (42:24.17)
an ambassador for USA Triathlon and one of our big, one of the big three that we're trying to do is increase the diversity of athletes and get people who are traditionally, historically not represented in triathlon, which a lot goes back to swimming. And so as you may know, you know, as one of the founders and the Beyond Barriers Athletic Foundation, which is trying to get underserved youth involved in swimming, subsidize swim lessons, get them into the water, get them doing water polo, get them doing triathlon, whatever goes after you've learned how to swim.

Lindsay Hiken (42:37.305)
Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (42:51.52)
It opens up a whole lot of doors and a whole lot of opportunities for kids that never thought that swimming was for them. just, it was like swimming. That's not something that my kind of people do. That's something that those country club people do. it's really, yeah, it's really breaking down the historic barriers to swimming and then getting more kids involved in triathlon is a big effort in there. And so, yeah, maybe someday it will be a bit more diverse than it is today.

Lindsay Hiken (43:01.294)
Yep. Right.

Mike (43:03.197)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (43:14.362)
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah, that would be nice. We're coming up against the end of our time, but I want to hear a little bit about the about doing a race on each continent. Maybe you can share a quick a little bit about each one. And then I want to hear about this last one that you're still trying to wrangle.

Dave Mandelkern (43:29.998)
Sure, the great white whale of triathlon is doing the one in Antarctica. So yeah, so this came after 50 states, like okay, what's next after it did that? And it was like, okay, doing all the world's capitals sounded a little bit too hard. So I said, well, maybe let's start with doing one on each continent first. And it seems to be fairly straightforward to do. knocked out Australia, Thailand, the Laguna Bukit triathlon, which was a really fun race.

Mike (43:32.453)
Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (43:57.79)
London triathlon, they made a big deal of the fact that I was doing these things. They actually had the TV crew following me around and just an interesting aside, Gordon Ramsey, the celebrity chef was doing the race. I had little known fact, he's a triathlete and his kids are triathletes as well. As he had this whole team, charity team of people doing this stuff. So, you know, we're doing the film briefing there for the TV crews before the race and everything. And they were like, this is the first I heard that Gordon Ramsey was going to be one of the other featured triathletes in this thing. And I think we have a

Lindsay Hiken (44:03.705)
Wow.

Mike (44:07.143)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (44:11.015)
Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (44:25.482)
of vision of Gordon Ramsay based on Hell's Kitchen and kind of the cooking shows that we see here. This is kind of guy is kind of like a screaming profane, loudmouth, not very pleasant person. And so they say, okay, you're going to be featured along with Gordon Ramsay. We're going to be filming everything. I'm like, Gordon Ramsay. my God, is he going to be screaming for fan? He's at me. And they were like, what do you mean? He's like the nicest, most revered person in the United Kingdom. He's this charity icon that raises all this money. Things like, whoa, this is not the Gordon Ramsay that we know in United States. So anyway, so.

Lindsay Hiken (44:28.382)
huh.

Mike (44:29.041)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (44:42.202)
Uh, uh, uh, uh.

Lindsay Hiken (44:52.154)
Persona on TV is different.

Mike (44:54.183)
Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (44:55.308)
Yeah, so that was very cool having this film crew following me around the London triathlon. then Africa was great doing in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, doing the race there back to the kids and the spectators and stuff. So we're doing this race. It was an Olympic distance race out there. And I don't know, we're out in the middle of nowhere in South Africa and running. These kids are playing soccer in the middle of the street that are running through. And so going through again, I am by no means the fastest triathlete out there.

And I don't think I was dead last but I was certainly in the bottom things and basically these kids are playing soccer They start running after me while I'm on the run out there. They're like yelling something this kind of like loser loser You're last this race. I think whatever so, know, not not quite your usual spectator sport experience here But all in good fun. So anyway, and so you know knocked out six out of the seven triathlons and so Alaska is there is no triathlon in Alaska and so I've been trying for

Lindsay Hiken (45:36.142)
haha

Mike (45:44.039)
Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (45:54.338)
five years now, six years interrupted by COVID, trying to get this thing done, tagging along with the, there was actually three marathons a year in Antarctica. And so I'm trying to tag along with one of the marathons. We've been working with the white continent marathon folks out of Minneapolis to do this. And every time we get very close and there's a whole, and I'm insisting that we do this the right way. We're not, this isn't just a one-off vanity project. It's got to be a real triathlon.

open to members of the public to sign up and do this thing. And we do it with environmental permits and this is an official event, an unofficial hop off the plane and stick your toes in the water and get back on the plane and leave kind of thing. And so it's been challenging to get the permits. And so two years ago we were very, very close, in fact, literally ready to get on the plane and fly there to do this stuff. And we had the permits in hand and they canceled them because they were worried about the bird flu, the avian influenza.

Lindsay Hiken (46:35.02)
Yeah.

Mike (46:35.121)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (46:50.49)
Mm.

Mike (46:50.621)
Hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (46:51.054)
and that we were going to be vectors carrying the virus to the penguins in the skew in Antarctica, which very quickly became an expert in bird flu after that. But I won't tell you that was probably not a real issue. But nonetheless, we weren't able to get the permits. And then the same thing this year, there was things that are held up in the permits and bureaucracy. did not happen again.

You know, we applied for the permits and they came back in January and said well, you know, you had to apply six months in advance for the permits. Your application was postmarked five months in advance, so we can't issue it for another month. And by that time we've lost the weather window and the ender to do this thing. I'm still hoping at some point we'll get to do a short swim. I'm figuring if we can do 200 to 400 meters in the water, I'll be very happy. We have a 10 minute safety cutoff time for the water. It's going to be roughly freezing. We're on 32 degrees plus or minus.

Mike (47:25.245)
Mmm. Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (47:37.557)
Lindsay Hiken (47:42.328)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (47:44.078)
in there for the swim. That's going to be the challenging part. Then a sprint distance bike, a 20 kilometer bike ride, and then a five kilometer run. So that's the idea is basically have a sprint distance triathlon in Antarctica. One of these days I'll get it done. I'm not stopping yet.

Mike (47:44.359)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (47:52.537)
Nice.

Lindsay Hiken (47:57.284)
That's cool. Yeah. Yes. No, no, of course not. You've got plenty of time to do it. And hopefully.

Mike (47:57.565)
That's amazing. That is...

Dave Mandelkern (48:04.526)
Yep.

I've got all the equipment. I've got the gear set. this is, guess, mean, talk about the wetsuit, an eight millimeter thick wetsuit to swim in with a polypropylene underliner and pre-charging it with hot water to get the thing warmed up and everything. That actually works. So I did a test swim in Lake Michigan in Chicago in the middle of the winter. It a little bit warmer than Antarctica. It was only 36 degrees. So it was balmy in comparison. But that worked. I was able to swim for 15 minutes without freezing to death. And then

Mike (48:10.587)
Yeah.

Mike (48:22.173)
Wow.

Lindsay Hiken (48:30.808)
Mike (48:31.005)
BOMBIE

Dave Mandelkern (48:36.812)
The bike is too small to, the plane is too small to have a full size bike box on it. So we have to use folding bikes for the bike. So I've got like a bike Friday folding bike that's modified to be a mountain bike with big knobby tires on it and everything. So that's the folding bike for the bike leg on it. And then running is just like a winter triathlon run. You just have to wear shoes that are good traction in snow.

Mike (48:46.173)
Hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (49:00.633)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (49:01.703)
Yeah, that's incredible.

Lindsay Hiken (49:03.332)
Well, awesome. mean, it is incredible. And I really appreciate, you know, your sharing with us your all your experience with the sport and sort of how you've been a great ambassador for the sport, which, you know, the sport has grown. I'm sure you've seen I've seen it grow and I've only been doing it for 15 years. And so and I have not done anywhere near 200 races, but people like it.

Dave Mandelkern (49:15.566)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (49:28.622)
It goes up and down, by the way. It's interesting. We're in a recovery spurt now. I think you were in the sport at the time. This is in the early 2000s. Triathlon was crazy. Just sign up for Wildflower or something. You literally had to be at your crude and primitive web browser at the time at midnight to sign up for this race because it was sell out in 45 seconds, that type of thing. That was, think, the peak of triathlon in 2005 or something like that. had to do this stuff. Then it kind of went through this downturn and it was relatively easy to sign up.

Mike (49:31.517)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (49:33.757)
Lindsay Hiken (49:46.336)
Mm-hmm. Yes, yes.

Mike (49:47.271)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (49:58.52)
There's been a lot of consolidation of races and local race directors. think I've it very challenging, especially through COVID. A lot of them got wiped and it's just very sad, but it's starting to come back now. Numbers are going back up. Races are starting to come back again. So hopefully we're on a little bit of an upswing now in Triathlon. So I've got to say, by the way, on the seven continents thing, again, this is also part of my charity fundraising thing. This is called the seven by seven challenge seven X seven challenge.org. If anyone's interested in looking at my website on this stuff.

Lindsay Hiken (50:00.887)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (50:03.729)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (50:08.783)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (50:13.111)
Awesome.

Lindsay Hiken (50:26.477)
Okay.

Dave Mandelkern (50:28.43)
My goal is to raise $49,000, seven by seven, 49, $49,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by doing this. I'm about halfway there now in terms of the fundraising and hopefully by the time I get Antarctica done, I'll have finished the rest of the fundraising.

Mike (50:42.865)
Yeah, well, we'll have the links in our show notes for for everyone to check that out and see if they can contribute. I have one question I have before we go is what advice would you give someone who is interested in the sport but maybe intimidated by, you know, people with bikes that look like spaceships and the type A personalities and just the mystique of triathlon?

Lindsay Hiken (50:43.138)
And we'll put, yep.

Dave Mandelkern (50:45.698)
Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you.

Lindsay Hiken (50:47.714)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, I think we did it. sorry. Yeah.

Dave Mandelkern (51:07.724)
Yeah, just don't worry about it. Just jump in and do it. I said something, it's a great Kurt Vonnegut quote that I love on this thing, which is, he was a young man. was 15 years old and was working on an archeology dig and was, you know, having the usual questions from the archeologist. So, well, you know, what do you do? What are you about? Do you play sports? You know, what's your favorite subject and so forth. And he was like, well, I don't do any of stuff, you know.

I played the violin and I do theater a little bit and I play the piano. used to take art classes and the archaeologist was like, wow, that's amazing. And Kurt Vonnegut said, well, I'm not any good at any of them. And then the response was, I don't think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you've got all these wonderful experiences with different skills and it teaches you things. It makes you an interesting person no matter how well you do them. So that's kind of the advice I've taken into triathlon, which is

Mike (51:50.941)
Hmm

Dave Mandelkern (52:01.612)
You don't have to be the best triathlete to have a lot of fun doing this. You just have to go out there and have great experiences, meet a lot of very wonderful, interesting people and train with a lot of people. You spent time with Lindsay. I really enjoyed all the time we spent running and talking and things like that. It's been great. you know, it makes you very interesting person no matter how well you do these things.

Mike (52:05.885)
totally agree.

Mike (52:23.005)
I fully agree just for the enjoyment of it. And think that's why Lindsay and I get along and Dave, I feel like we get along because I have the same attitude. It's that I think the, um, the, the stories are more interesting of the people who aren't as good who come to the sport. I mean, the pros it's about time, you know, and, and effort and, and the wins and stuff, but for age groupers and, and other people like us, amateurs, the stories of why we get there is probably the most fascinating.

Lindsay Hiken (52:23.332)
True.

Lindsay Hiken (52:34.842)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Dave Mandelkern (52:48.792)
Yeah, absolutely. me, mean, yeah, the pro triathletes are amazing and you watch somebody finish an Ironman in less than eight hours or something. It's like unbelievable, right? The athletes in there. But to me, the most interesting part of watching an Ironman is the people that are scraping to finish by the cutoff time and they're in there, it's midnight, the clock is counting down and these people have been struggling for 17 and a half hours out there all day long. And it's like, my gosh, you know, are they gonna make it?

Lindsay Hiken (52:50.148)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (52:54.841)
Mm-hmm. God.

Mike (53:14.055)
Mm-hmm.

Dave Mandelkern (53:16.526)
They have minutes to spare to get that last couple hundred meters in. that is amazing watching those people and their stories. That's what this sport is really all about. Those are the interesting people of the race.

Lindsay Hiken (53:18.295)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (53:27.505)
Well said. Well said.

Lindsay Hiken (53:28.74)
Definitely well said. I think with that we will wrap it up. Stay with us for a minute, Dave. I'm gonna say goodbye to our listeners and then we'll end it. okay, thanks so much folks for listening. if you like the show, please subscribe and give us a little review, preferably something positive. If you have that, you can say whatever you need to say, just say it with your chest, but.

Mike (53:53.083)
Hahaha.

Lindsay Hiken (53:56.058)
We're hoping for a high number of stars and positive reviews on whatever platform you listen to your podcasts. And anything, any last words, Mike, before we go?

Mike (54:07.047)
No, just, Dave just enjoyed having you and you bring the sport and have you taught us. It's, it's not necessarily about the time. It's about how you give back and about learning about the other people join you in the sport.

Dave Mandelkern (54:20.514)
Yep. Well said, Mike. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, Lizzie. It's been a pleasure being with you today.

Lindsay Hiken (54:23.502)
Yeah, thanks. All right, everybody, we'll see you next week. Bye.

Mike (54:28.539)
Bye.