The arc
A time only means something next to its season
The ledger lists days. This page lists years, so a 2026 time can sit next to a 2025 time without reading as decline, and a hard day run injured can read as what it was.
- 2026
9 races
Draft. Jay and Michelle are still correcting this one.
Recovery and rebuild
- What it was for
- Slower times on purpose, on bodies that spent two years at peak volume.
- What it cost
- Some pride, in the ledger. Every 2026 time sits next to a faster one from 2025.
- What we changed
- The volume came down before the body made us bring it down.
- 2025
17 races
The peak
- What it was for
- IRONMAN Texas in April, and then whatever we felt like: an Olympic three weeks later, Honu five weeks later, the Pentathlon, a lap of the island, Augusta a year late, and a second full Ironman in California on three weeks' notice, because at that point we thought we were invincible.
- What it cost
- About a full Ironman a week in training, 4,700 miles on the bike and 1,200 of running for Jay. The bill arrived on the run at California: Michelle's hip, which she's still working through, and a December marathon walked together in 5:25:08.
- What we changed
- We found out what the top looks like and that we probably can't hold it. The year ended with eggnog and a decision that 2026 would be calmer.
- 2024
20 races
The transition year
- What it was for
- Keep the running races on a lighter schedule and put the effort into triathlon: Michelle's first 70.3 at Honu in June, and a first race off the island at Augusta in September.
- What it cost
- Just under 5,000 miles on the bike, up from 1,700, most of it on the trainers in the room off the bedroom. Honu came with a 30-mile-an-hour wind and a 750-meter swim, and Augusta never happened, because Hurricane Helene tore through Georgia two days before it.
- What we changed
- The cancellation put a full Ironman in our heads for the first time. In October we signed up for IRONMAN Texas, six months out, and pointed the training at one thing. The marathon in December, on Jay's birthday, came down to 3:41 and 4:39.
- 2023
28 races
The year of expansion
- What it was for
- Race a whole bunch of everything and see if the fitness could go to another level: 10Ks, 10-milers, halves, a metric century, an Olympic tri, and Jay's first 70.3 in the lava with two friends who signed up the minute he told them.
- What it cost
- A year of 5 a.m. alarms, a rib, a marathon that missed four hours by 35 seconds, and a marathon Michelle ran on a twisted ankle. The bike broke Jay at Honu, and fixing that cost two bikes and two trainers.
- What we changed
- We started filming every week. Salt tablets went into the pockets. The bikes moved into the room off the bedroom on Labor Day weekend, and around Christmas we bought a training app and let it tell us what to do.
- 2022
10 races
The year of discovery: the first marathon, for a fiftieth
- What it was for
- One and done. Train enough to actually run the Honolulu Marathon three days after Jay's 50th birthday, enjoy it, and not be wrecked for two weeks afterward like the friends who'd done it before us.
- What it cost
- A whole year of training, starting from a lifetime of hating running and never having gone past 8.1 miles. It also cost us keto, because once the runs went past nine miles we found out you need carbs.
- What we changed
- Somewhere in the spring we stopped dreading the run and started dreading missing it. Two weeks after the marathon we put it back on the calendar for 2023, and Jay signed up for the Hawaii 70.3 on his own because Michelle told him he was crazy.