Craig Howie, M30-34

longmont, colorado

What is your favorite product available at TriSports.com? I love the wide selection of nutrition products you carry. It’s s nice to have a one stop shop for it all.

How did you get your start in Triathlons? When I was a senior in high school I had plans to continue my main sport at the time of Wrestling in college. This plan ended with a horrible knee injusry in a match that tore my MCL knee ligament completetly in half. I spent the next year going through surgeries and learning how to walk again. The main form of exercise that helped me was cycling.  I noticed I was fairly good at it and I threw myself into it with another goal in mind of running a marathon some day. As a sophomore in college I finally ran my first marathon.   Along the way I also befriended the swimming coach at UNC by chance one day. They only had a girls team but she invited me to come practice with them.  Talk about humbling!  I spent the next two years getting hammered by the girls team and learning how to swim by hard knocks. I finally jumped in the local college triathlon there. I was hooked before the race even started.

What is your favorite workout? Favorite might not be the best word for it, but the workout I love to hate is what I call my mental breakthrough ride. Here’s how it worked last time…… My parents have a cabin at 8000ft outside of Buffalo Wyoming. About 5k from the cabin the dirt road finally ends and the pavement begins on a long and fast decent to the town of Buffalo. I start riding on this fast decent.  Once I reach town I turn around and climb all the way back up to the dirt road leading into the cabin. It’s about 20mi total with an average grade of about 7%. I then ride back to Buffalo and catch a frontage road that runs along I-25.  Invariably there will be crazy winds.  I put in a tough 30miles out and 30 miles back on this road and finally make the climb back to the cabin for a total of 150miles.  The plan then is to throw on the running shoes and run the 5k dirt road back to the cabin. I haven’t been able to finish it off like this yet.  Maybe this year!   

“When I’m not training/racing, I enjoy…” I always joke around that when I’m done with this crazy triathlon stuff, I’m going to be a rock star. Yea right! I really love playing the guitar though, and if I ever have a spare moment I will be picking away.

If you could train for a week with one other triathlete who would it be and why? Hands down it would be Tim Deboom. I’ve looked up to him since I started this sport.  I really admire his ability to train relatively alone and to stay out of the media spot light.  More than anything though, I admire the way he races with class.  It’s never about being flashy or arrogant.  He wins with dignity and he loses with dignity. This sport could use a few more Tim Debooms.

If you could have one superhero power what would it be? I would want to be able to fly. Just think what it would do for the bike and run times!

Describe your biggest race disaster. I did an Olympic race in Salida CO. One year.  It was a beautiful race.  All was going great and I managed to get off the bike in the lead. About half way through the run I saw an arrow on the road and followed it.  It turned out to be an arrow from a race the previous weekend.  I ended up running at least 1km off course. I finally realized what happened and ended up sliding down a big hill x-terra style to get back on course. At the end of the day I ran 12k instead of 10k and lost my lead. I learned my lesson……ALWAYS preview the course before a race and have it memorized. 

Do you have a non-negotiable pre-race ritual? My wife’s Spaghetti. No matter where we race, we find a place where she can cook and either bring the ingredients or buy them locally. My family gets pretty tired of it by the end of the season! 

What culinary indulgence do you allow yourself after a big race (that you don’t normally partake of)? It’s all about the doughnuts! The crazy part is that I crave them so bad and I eat way too many of them before I realize how sick I feel.

Have you ever accidentally destroyed a very expensive piece of gear? Knock on wood, I haven’t ruined anything super expensive.  The closest thing would be when I destroyed my own body at the beginning of the 2003 season. I was practicing transitions and reached down to put my foot in my cycling shoe. When I looked up I had turned towards a parked car!  I went right over the handle bars and dislocated/broke my elbow.

What is the worst job you’ve ever had? I was a High School Math teacher for 5 years before starting my coaching business.  There were times when this was the worst job I have ever had. It wasn’t the kids or the teaching, it was the horrible and dirty politics that go down in a public school.  In 2002 I was teaching an overload of 40+ kids in a tiny room with no windows. My wife was pregnant and we had just purchased our first home.  The school district suddenly announced that there had been an accounting error and the district was millions of dollars in debt. They ripped our contracts in half and slashed all of the teacher’s salaries in the middle of the year to fix their mistake. We would have lost our home, but my parents carried us through it.  

What adjective describes you best? Passionate.

Finally, do you have any advice for athletes new to multi-sport competition?  Always remember how fortunate we are to be able to do this amazing sport.  Of course do your best and strive to improve every day, but no matter what, remember that we are able to do something amazing with our bodies that most people can’t or won’t ever do. 

Recent Results: St.Croix 70.3 Ironman, 1st AG, 3rd OA Amateur

Visit Craig’s Website!