Ironmanlife: How 'bout Cris Miller?

Kevin Mackinnon profiles the winner of the Blazeman Spirit Award

Cris Miller might have suffered finishing his first Ironman, but I'm guessing that wasn't nearly as painful as the bone marrow "harvest" he went through shortly after he finished Ford Ironman Florida in 2006.

This is a man who doesn't do anything half way, according to Tammy, who does concede that the reason he gets those questions is because he's “built more like a linebacker than a 'normal' triathlete.”

I don't think his build has anything to do with why Miller is far from being a normal triathlete. I've heard lots of stories about people who have gone through the painful bone marrow donation process for family members. It's far more rare to hear about people who go through the process for a complete stranger, especially in a sport where so many would be scared to lose valuable training time.

Not Cris Miller, though. “He has always been an 'all or nothing' person,” according to Tammy. He hadn't even told any of his family members that he'd even gone to bone marrow drive a few years before, where he'd gone through the tests to determine if he might be a match for someone who needed his bone marrow.

“Not too long after Ironman Florida, Cris received a call from the National Bone Marrow program,” Tammy wrote in an application for the Blazeman Spirit Award, which was presented at the Eagleman Ironman 70.3 a couple of weeks ago. “He was a perfect match for an individual who would die without Cris’ bone marrow. He didn’t think twice, just asked when and where. When others need help, he wants to help. He had to be hospitalized and the harvest was very painful. He had to take a week off to recover from the procedure, but he started training for Ironman Florida in November.”

It's all-too-easy, in our sport, to become completely engrossed in training. It's easy to put everything else aside to prepare for an Ironman. Miller hasn't ever done that.

“Even when Cris is training, he makes time for his children,” Tammy wrote in that application. “He coaches our children’s sport teams.  He assists with our son’s Boy Scout troop.  He volunteers at local races.  He volunteers with the Lance Armstrong LiveStrong charity.”

Cris Miller embodies all the unselfish things our sport can provide. His family has embraced the sport along with him, enjoying their trips to Florida, Kentucky, West Virginia and, of course, Maryland, where he won that Blazeman Spirit Award.

Jon Blais, the man who we remember through the award, remains the only man with ALS (often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease) to finish the Ford Ironman World Championship. Less than two years after he achieved that feat, he succumbed to that terrible disease. During that time, though, he worked tirelessly to create the Blazeman foundation, which continues to raise money for ALS research.

Last week I wrote about volunteers and stole a line Mike Reilly likes to use when he's encouraging folks to appreciate the help they're getting from the volunteers during a race: “For everything you give out there, you'll get way more in return.”

Here's hoping that Cris Miller gets way more back, too. He sure deserves it.

You can reach Kevin Mackinnon at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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In the first article of this series, we discussed how to shape your indoor training environment to maximize your performance.  You went out and bought a big fan and a slew of Tour de France DVDs, so what kind of workout should you be doing?