Iron Man: Area cyclists accept astonishing challenge

For many, Iron Man serves as merely an entertaining comic book, a blockbuster movie and a wealthy superhero.

For Ron Murchek (Flower Mound), Richard Murchek (Lewisville), Scott Siler (Carrollton), Chad Perkins (Valley Ranch/Irving) and Linda Chan (Coppell), the ironman serves as a motivational tool and provides the opportunity to become a superhero of sorts.

The five of them and seven other avid bicyclists accepted a challenge at the beginning of the year to complete at least one 100-mile bike ride per month in an effort to train for the Ford Ironman Florida, a 140.6-mile mammoth of a race in November, consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run.

"We made a commitment to do one 100-mile ride per month and that's just to get you in the mindset that when you get on your bike, your legs know you're going 100 miles," Siler said. "As far as preparing for ironman, as the weather starts to cool down a bit, we'll focus on running. We're all good on our bikes right now, and we're not too concerned about that. Now we have to start picking up the swimming and the running. We've all done the ironman before. Now it's just a matter of making sure we're going to stay healthy and continue to do the preparation.

"It's the training that's the hard part."

Since its inception, the group has slowly declined in numbers. The five aforementioned participants are the only ones who have successfully completed at least one 100-mile bike ride a month.

And the toughest tasks are yet to come.

In December, the group plans to complete a 200-mile ride from the corner of where Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties meet to the Murrah Federal Building.

In June, they rode from the edge of Dallas County to Turner Falls.

"It was a great, beautiful ride, but it was so hot," Ron said. "One hundred miles into this bike ride and we had to climb the Arbuckle Mountains. Our legs were jelly. We climbed up one side and the ride down was amazing. We stopped at Turner Falls and jumped into the water to cool off for an hour or two."

In July, the group concluded the second half of the journey.

"We went up Saturday night and spent the night," Ron said. "We woke up around 4 or 4:30 Sunday morning. This was a really hard ride. One of our bikers couldn't make it. He fell out at mile 80."

The group has persisted through inclement weather conditions in its path.

"They've never stopped us, but they've slowed us down," Ron said. "When we were coming through Oklahoma City, we had a crosswind out of the west and for the last six or eight miles, we had to turn and ride straight into the wind. It was miserable. It was like a death march."

Siler agreed.

"We were hoping for a really strong tail wind. That's why we went the direction that we did, but we never got it," he said. "The first hour and a half there wasn't any wind, but for the next three hours we had kind of a crosswind and the last eight miles, right when you're gassed and it's hot outside, you're just wanting to get off.

"It was horrible."

When they finally reached the memorial, a sense of relief was shared by all.

"I actually felt really good [afterward]," Siler said. "Usually for a ride of that length your neck will hurt, your lower back will hurt, your feet will get hot spots in them; I had none of those things. It was really nice.

"It took me about a week to recover from the ride."

But the riding didn't stop there. Just one weekend into August, the group has already ventured to Wisconsin for a 100-mile ride and plans to participate in the Hotter'N Hell Hundred, which is Aug. 27 in Wichita Falls.

With big plans for the future, the riders are still trying to pace themselves in anticipation of the Ford Ironman Florida in November and the 200-mile trek to the Murrah Federal Building in December.

The ride in December may be the group's most important to date.

"The Dallas Athletes group introduced us to the Wounded Warrior half-marathon," Murchek said. "The proceeds from that go toward soldiers who have fallen in the line of duty and their families. We were talking about working with them for the December ride. Both my brother and I were in the airforce, and Linda Chen's husband was in the army and her son is in the army.

"It's very dear to all of us."

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