The couple that triathlons together …

Dave and Deb Miller say training to be triathletes has benefited their health and marriage

To be able to complete an Ironman triathlon, you must able to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run 26.2 miles.

Your body must be in excellent physical shape, but when your muscles fatigue and miles and miles loom before you, there's only one thing that will keep you from giving up: determination.

It's something of which Dave and Deb Miller have plenty.

Dave has been running marathons since 1983, and completed his first triathlon just a year or two after that. His wife Deb finished her first triathlon just last year. But perhaps even more impressive is that this husband and wife of 15 years swam, biked and ran their first Ironman together this August.

"We did the whole thing together," said Dave, who works as an emergency room doctor at Samaritan Hospital.

"It's not like you're alone, you meet people out there," he continued. "But it was phenomenal to do it with somebody, and to do it with Debbie."

After spending a short stint here from 1987-1989, the Millers returned to Moses Lake at the beginning of 1996 and have been here ever since. After starting his medical career in internal medicine, Dave has found the thrill of the emergency room more satisfying.

The town has grown considerably in the past eight years, and Dave says the E.R. is busier than ever, with more serious injuries and illnesses. But, he maintains, that's fine for him.

"We're all trauma junkies and adrenaline junkies," Dave said of the emergency room staff. "I like the lifestyle. I come here and I work hard and I go home and that's it. "

Though he works about 60 hours a week in the E.R., Dave said he prefers it to being on call, as he often was when working in internal medicine. Without the worry of being called into the office, Dave is free to train for the next event, which he often does up to 20 hours a week at the peak of his preparation period.

Deb, too, works in the medical field, as a lab technician at Moses Lake Clinic.

"I always wanted to be a lab tech," said Deb, who chose the profession as a sophomore in high school. Though she worked full time before she and Dave moved back to Moses Lake in 1996, at that time Deb decided only to work on call while remaining highly involved in her community.

She is a member of the board of directors of the Boys & Girls Club, is a past president of Soroptimists and works with Moses Lake's Healthy Communities Project's Trails and Paths committee.

"I don't sit idle well," Deb said.

On top of that, she too has trained up to 23 hours one week in anticipation of a triathlon.

"It's kind of like a part-time job," she said.

For Dave, his 30th birthday was motivation enough to begin running.

"I was out of shape," he said.

Dave joined a health club and went through a series of tests while working with a trainer to design a fitness program. He remembers almost passing out afterwards.

"I decided right then and that I wanted to run a marathon," he said.

Five months later, he did.

But first he started by running in small increments, as long as he could take it, and then building up that amount slowly. The first day, he ran only for 10 minutes.

Within the next two years, he'd finished his first triathlon, and today he can't recall how many he's completed over the years.

"It's an escape from medicine. Medicine's pretty stressful." Of the time he spends training, Dave said, "I don't listen to music, I don't wear headphones, because my mind's a million miles away."

Deb watched Dave participate in many an Ironman event before she made up her mind to stop standing in the sidelines.

"I just felt this envy, I wished I was out there," she said.

Though she had done marathons and duathlons, Deb said triathlons were never in her plans.

"I never thought that I would do a triathalon because of the swimming," she said.

"The swimming is a fear," she explained. "It seemed as I got older, the fear got greater."

Deb's first swimming lessons in the cold and dirty John Day River left her with negative memories she would have to overcome to complete her first triathlon.

Dave started helping her face her fear of swimming at Dabalos Health and Wellness Center. In the warm water and non-threatening environment, Deb said she finally learned to swim.

"Dave is a wonderful teacher of everything," Deb said.

Those lessons helped Deb complete the Danskin triathlon in Seattle in 2003.

"I hung on to three surfboards during that swim," she said. She said the supportive environment of that first women-only triathlon encouraged her to keep going, along with that absolute determination both she and Dave possess.

"If I've committed myself to do something, I'm going to do it," Deb said.

Just over a year later, Deb and Dave did their first Ironman together.

Deb was still unsure of her swimming skills when she participated in a half-distance triathalon in May, three months before the Ironman event she and Dave were planning on in Penticton. Deb swam half the distance she would need to complete in the Ironman in one hour, 12 minutes. She'd need to swim twice that length in two hours, 20 minutes for the Ironman, or have to drop out of the race before the biking and running portions even began.

"I worked hard on it," she said. "Every opportunity I had to swim, I took it and it paid off."

When it came time for the Ironman, Deb said she felt surprisingly calm. She ended up swimming the 2.4 miles even faster than she thought she would.

"I was so excited that the rest of the day I just felt this high," she said. "It just felt really good," she said of her first Ironman.

But as thrilling as completing the Ironman this August in Penticton was for the Millers, both said the work it took to get to that point was just as fulfilling.

"I think it's really actually helped our marriage," Dave said. "You go out and train six hours on a bicycle, you've got a lot of time to talk."

"It's probably been the best marriage counseling that we've ever had," Deb agreed. "It gives us time together."

The Millers are looking forward to the Ironman in Coeur d'Alene next June, but also plan to run a marathon this winter. Deb said they like to keep an event in their schedules to maintain their motivation.

"If we don't hang that little carrot, it's easy to let life get in the way," she said.

Though the Millers spend a lot of hours training together, Deb also trains with several women from Moses Lake who participate in the annual Danskin triathlon and other events. Now, they say they want to get men involved as well.

"Dave was jealous of the women's club, that's what it is," Deb joked.

Kidding aside, Deb said the group runs, bike rides and swims have been excellent motivation.

"It's been very successful," she said. "We just encourage, not discourage."

If you are interested in training with others for triathlons or other events, contact Dave and Deb Miller at 765-8870 or millerdd@atnet.net.