Endless Pool Owner Jamie Patrick "Ultra Swimmer" Featured on Universal Sports

A great piece on a great guy and Endless Pool owner. Look for the Endless Pool around minute 10:00. Look out for Jamie's next attempt later this year, a 240 mile non-stop river swim! More information here: www.swimmingcalifornia.com

Race2Base in Ballymount Dublin with Cian McGrath

Endless Pools & The Biggest Loser Tackle Obesity

What do the highly acclaimed television show The Biggest Loser and the nation's leading seller of therapy and exercise pools have in common? They are partnering for the 11th installment of the series, helping two dozen contestants tackle one of the leading causes of preventable death in the United States, obesity.

Thanks to a generous donation from Endless Pools, Inc. the contestants will have daily access to a custom built Endless Pool, complete with two adjustable speed swim lanes and two underwater treadmills. Due to the contestants weight, regular water exercise will be key in their early training and essential for injury rehabilitation later in the season. Water's natural buoyancy will facilitate whole-body exercises while cushioning stress on joints and bones, enabling exercises not possible on dry land. Contestants will build cardiovascular endurance while increasing confidence and burning fat. "As a Certified Athletic Trainer, I'm constantly looking to incorporate the finest equipment in our contestant's daily care. I look forward to using the Endless Pool and incorporating a high level of conditioning to keep our contestants functional!" Sandy K. Athletic Trainer

This marks the second Biggest Loser appearance for Endless Pools, who also participated in Season two. "Having Endless Pools back for a second season was a natural fit, our trainers love using the Endless Pool as a complement to their training regimen." D Norton, Sponsor Producer "Every year our products help thousands of people manage their weight and stay fit, we're pleased The Biggest Loser will be highlighting the importance of regular water exercise to a larger audience." Mark Langan, Marketing Manager.

"The Biggest Loser" has become a worldwide hit, airing in over 90 countries since its debut in 2004. "The Biggest Loser" has grown to become a standalone health and lifestyle brand with tools and products inspired by the show and approved by its doctors and experts. Tune in to The Biggest Loser Tuesdays 8/7C on NBC.

For over 20 years, Endless Pools has sold more than 16,000 pools to people of all ages and athletic abilities from octogenarians to Olympians for swimming, exercise, therapy and weight loss. The broad, deep, adjustable current produced by our custom 16" propeller creates the smoothest, quietest current available. Manufactured in the US, our products meet the highest standards for safety, durability and quality. For more information visit www.endlesspools.com

75-year-old Endless Pools Customer Prepares for Ironman Hawaii

Island Challenge: 75-year-old Santa Fe County resident prepares for Ironman Hawaii
By Judy Giannettino
Albuquerque Journal
Image courtesy GREG SORBER/Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE — On the morning of Oct. 9, Hunter Temple plans to be in Kailua Bay in Hawaii with about 1,800 other people to begin one of the biggest sports challenges around: Ironman Hawaii.

He has been twice before — first in 1990, when he placed fourth in his age division; the second time in 1997, when muscle cramps prevented him from finishing. This time, he says, will probably be his last.

That’s partly because Temple will turn 76 years old three days after the race.

“I’m going to keep doing triathlons,” says the Santa Fe County resident who retired to New Mexico in 2001 after a long career as a headmaster of private schools. But trying to get to Hawaii again might not be one of his goals.

Even this time, Temple says, “I don’t care if I place or not. I just want to finish. It’s a dream.”

Tens of thousands of triathletes try to qualify for Ironman Hawaii, officially known as the Ford Ironman World Championship, each year. About 1,600 do. Each age division — there are typically about a dozen for men and a dozen for women — has a certain number of slots and qualifying events are held worldwide. About 200 more competitors are allowed in through a lottery system and a few slots are auctioned on eBay to benefit charities, says Catie Case, PR coordinator for the Florida based World Triathlon Corp.

Temple qualified for the 2010 event in the 75-79 age division. The oldest person to ever finish Ironman Hawaii was an 80-year-old man who accomplished the feat in 2005, according to Case.

On race day, the competitors begin with a 2.4-mile swim in Kailua Bay, jostling each other for position as they also fight the currents. Once out of the water, they hop on bicycles for a 112-mile ride. After that comes a marathon, literally. The final stage of the triathlon is a 26.2-mile run.

So many experiences

Temple, who has been married for more than 50 years and has three children and five grandchildren, says he was a “reasonable” high school athlete but didn’t participate in college sports at Colgate, where he obtained his undergraduate degree. He later earned a Ph.D. from Stanford.

He says smoking led him to where he is today as an athlete.

When he was about 40, Temple says, he took up running as a way to stop smoking. “I’ve always had somewhat of a compulsive personality,” he says.

Then one day he picked up a triathlon magazine, started “thumbing through it and thought, ‘This might be kind of fun.’”

With a borrowed wet suit and a “clunker” of a bike, he entered his first triathlon. “I broke a spoke and had to carry (the bike) up the hills and pedal down,” he recalls. Nonetheless, he was hooked.

Temple says he enjoys the sport because it’s “singular.”

“It’s me against myself, or the elements, or whatever. It’s age appropriate and it’s singular. I like to ski; I bike — they’re all singular.”

He says he’s attracted to it also because “your body goes through so many different experiences. In swimming, you’re trying to breathe. On the bike, it’s the experience of speed. The run is a different kind of experience. It’s three different challenges, experiences.”

He adds that triathlons allow a person to be “average” in a couple of areas and still do well.

His forte, he says, is the swim. “I think I have the body type for swimming,” says Temple, who is tall and lean.

Every other day, for 40 to 45 minutes, he swims against the current in an endless pool that he had installed in a room attached to his garage five or six years ago.

On days he doesn’t swim, he works out with weights.

Other training at this point involves bike rides. “I’m retired, so I can get on it when I want to.” He also will compete in a few events before October.

What he doesn’t do much of is run, thanks to knee replacement surgery in 1998.

“I don’t run,” he says of his training regimen. “And if you would see me in the event, you would think I’m not running then either.”

Temple says he “shuffles” instead and modestly contends he only does as well as he does in triathlons now because of his swimming ability and because he’s in an age group with few other competitors (the number of people he’ll be up against in October isn’t known yet but Case says eight men started the race in the 75-79 age division in 2009).

Temple says he’ll ramp up training for Ironman Hawaii in August.

COURTESY HUNTER TEMPLE
Hunter Temple checks his time as he completes the swim portion of a race.
‘Nothing like it’

Temple left the sport for awhile after his knee surgery. “I thought it was the end of triathlons,” he says.

To fill the void, he took up flying, but he says he missed the competition.

He was forced to take another break a few years ago when a growth was discovered on his pancreas. Surgeons couldn’t remove the tumor because it was connected to a blood vessel but did determine it wasn’t cancerous, he says.

Still, “that stopped triathlons” for about a season.

Temple says he lost 35 pounds during the ordeal and was on a feeding tube for months.

To motivate him to regain his strength, he says one of his daughters pinned a competition photo of him to a new wet suit and hung it from his IV pole.

She is also a triathlete who has been to Ironman Hawaii twice. She is hoping to qualify again this year, Temple says. “Her vision is to swim, run, bike with me so we can finish together.”

Temple, who is also a certified EMT, says there is nothing like the Ironman world championship, during which competitors often face intense heat and wind in addition to the grueling length of the event.

When he raced in 1990, Temple finished in 12 hours and 49 minutes. Participants must complete the race within 17 hours. “The first year I did it,” says Temple, “the crosswinds were so strong a woman was blown right off her bike.” In 1997, he recalls, whipping winds made the swim a choppy experience. That year, he had such severe cramps he had to be taken to the medical tent during the run instead of continuing the race. Despite the obstacles, Temple looks forward to October.

“There is nothing like it in this world,” he says, explaining how it feels to go from running — or shuffling — along the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway, alone and exhausted in the dark, to the finish line, where throngs of people wait to cheer for the athletes.

“You turn to come into town ... the lights, thousands of people. It is the most thrilling experience you can imagine.”

And, he says, few people push their bodies the way triathletes do.

Which is especially true at age 75.

Original article found on page 9:
http://epaper.abqjournal.com/Olive/ODE/AJSPECIALS/Default.aspx?href=SP/2010/06/13

Working couple tap endurance to set up triathlon shop

Article courtesy of Business Lexington, by Kathie Stamps

Lexington, KY - Is it possible to open a storefront business and keep your day job? Sure. On February 1, Sam and Noelle Dick opened Swim Bike Run of Kentucky, a 2,700-square-foot retail store and training facility for triathletes. He is a news anchor at WKYT-TV and she is in sales at WTVQ-TV.

"We are not big on debt," said Noelle Dick. "We wanted to make sure we have two incomes to support the business." She is expecting it to take three years to break even with the business.

Sam Dick has competed in 17 triathlons (swimming, followed by biking, followed by running). He will be in Budapest this September, competing in the triathlon world championships. In June 2009, he started thinking about opening a "tri shop," after realizing he couldn't find everything he needed in one place and even had to buy a tri suit online, sight unseen. He has a passion for the sport, but passion alone doesn't make a great business plan. The husband-and-wife team (Noelle also competes in all three sports) found out there are quite a few triathletes in central Kentucky.

"We looked at the numbers," said Noelle Dick. "We saw growth." Organizers of triathlon races are having to cap the number of participants, as there are more people who want to compete than the events can handle. By October '09, the Dicks were serious about opening a one-stop shop in Lexington. They talked to every business owner they knew to pick their brains.

"It was a huge education," said Noelle Dick. "We got cold water thrown on us."

She gives a lot of credit to Luther Deaton and Paul Thornsberry at Central Bank for their advice and support.

"We couldn't have done it without them," she said. "They put us through the ringer, but their approach to small business was 'How can we say yes?' instead of 'How can we say no?'"

It was important to Sam Dick to reach out to existing fitness business owners early on.

"We're not trying to go head-to-head with you," he explained. "We can send customers each other's way. We want to be a good neighbor."

The couple knew one of the keys to success hinged on finding a director of operations they could trust. Eric Atnip, Sam Dick's personal triathlete coach, agreed to take the job. A certified race director and coach, he is the only full-time employee at Swim Bike Run of Kentucky; there are six part-time employees, including Atnip's wife, Beth, all of whom have competed in triathlons.

"Whether you are a beginner or advanced, you're talking to someone who can help you," said Noelle Dick.

Summer is typically big for retail, but Swim Bike Run of Kentucky needed a plan to sustain the business year-round. They offer five levels of monthly training memberships, ranging from $50 to $150, that can be purchased in 6- or 12-month increments.

"We found a need for a bike-fitting station and bike maintenance," said Noelle Dick. "We came up with scenarios for training."

With the CompuTrainer system, cyclists ride a stationary tri-bike and watch a screen with a virtual course on it. In the endless pool, an indoor 18-foot-by-six-foot fiberglass structure, people can set the speed of the water and swim in place. It also has a coaching platform with videotaping capabilities.

Given a triathlete's height, weight and racing style, and using measurements, lasers and his knowledge, Atnip fits people to a particular bike.

"This is a service very few facilities offer in the state," said Sam Dick. He and his wife both started off with used road bikes, which is common for beginner triathletes. Tri-specific bikes range from $1,000 to $10,000. They're extremely lightweight.

"People see the Ironman race in Kona, Hawaii," said Sam Dick. "Most triathletes don't do Ironman. They start with sprint triathlons, which is eight laps in the pool, 15 miles on the bike and a three-mile run."

"Any personal trainer will tell you people will stick with fitness if there's a goal," said Noelle Dick. "Triathletes work out for 12 weeks to compete in a triathlon, and you see every body type, every age."

Most of the couple's marketing dollars are being spent on race sponsorships, including the April 17 Heart & Sole triathlon in Versailles, the July 31 Lame Duck Try-Athlon at Mallard Point in Georgetown and the September 5 Susan Bradley-Cox Tri for Sight Du/Triathlon at UK.

"It shows people we are serious about the sport," said Sam Dick. "It's important we're at the races and supporting them."

The learning process of owning a business is fun and exciting for the couple. "I hope we never say we're doing everything perfectly," said Noelle Dick. "When you get too confident, something isn't going to work."

To learn more about Swim Bike Run of Kentucky, visit www.SwimBikeRunKY.com

Kathie Stamps is the co-founder of www.ISBO.biz, an online directory of independent/small business owners.

Swim Bike Run of Kentucky
320 North Ashland Ave.
Lexington, KY 40502
(859) 455-3384
Retail hours: Monday-Friday,
9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Swimming into the New Year...with Endless Pools!

Swimming into the New Year
BY VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS

Thursday, January 14, 2010 11:56 AM EST
For 25 years my husband Stu has been yearning to have an Endless Pool in his house. He had seen, for years, an ad for the pool in The New Yorker magazine. The ad ran every week and he always thought about the possibility of owning one. Well, it took 25 years and now his wish has been fulfilled. See, advertising pays!

Our Endless Pool is 12 X 20 feet in size and is installed inside the house. It runs a current that you swim against so you are basically swimming in place because the current is so hard. We decided to put one in a sunroom and, after six months of construction and installation on Sunday, I had my first swim in it. What fun!

The water was heated to about 80 degrees and when I put my toe in chills filled my body because it was too cold. But I wasn’t going to give in to my shivers. I proceeded slowly and put one leg in, then the other and I was in up to my knees. I wasn’t sure how many steps would put my body totally underwater. As it turned out on the last step I “fell” into the four-foot-deep pool. With a few screeches and hollers my body adjusted to the temperature and I began my breaststroke to the other end.

Stu adjusted the current so I wasn’t pushed back to the wall. Swimming in the middle of pool is where the current is strongest. It was a great workout, swimming, kicking and cycling in the water. It felt so good … then a few hours later Stu’s grandsons Zac and Ben came over and they took a swim too. The pool really only permits one person at a time to swim, but Ben was able to swim on the side where the current is gentle and Zac took on the middle space. Stu bet Zac – a strapping, 5’9”, 14-year-old athlete – that he couldn’t reach the end, and as strong as Zac is and as hard as he swam, he couldn’t do it. That’s the power of the current.

A bonus of the pool is that, when you turn off the current, you can put on a Jacuzzi, which has four spouts. I needed the soothing feeling after a half hour of swimming against the current. I hope it burned enough calories to make up for the cupcakes I had cooked and eaten with my grandson Blake the night before. The battle of the bulge continues and now I have the help of the Endless Pool to challenge my eating habits.

A wow experience with my “WOW” friends

It was a great way to begin the year – with a “staycation” at Pouran Spa, a getaway that is right here. We were a group of six friends who retreated to the North Shore Towers for a few hours of pampering.

Every six weeks we gather for a wonderfully-decadent morning of massage, facials, manicures, hair and total rejuvenation. In the quiet, calm spa environment with soft music playing, we got to experience each professional, trained to perfection.

This time I had a body exfoliation and massage. I never had that service before and the purpose is to rid my body of dead skin and get back the glow and softness of my skin — like when I was a baby! It didn’t quite get there, but it was close. It’s like peeling a cucumber, scraping off the top layer to get to the best part, which for me was to have my relaxing massage after the exfoliation.

To add to our feeling of being away, Pouran had prepared a feast of a lunch. Besides being a talented salon/spa/boutique owner, she’s also a great chef. She prepared for us platters of chicken salad, eggplant rolls, salad, lightly fried cutlets, tea and cookies – all tantalizingly delicious.

What a great getaway to relax and rejuvenate in our own “backyard.”

Courtesy of Queenscourier.com