Peter Han interview
November 30th, 2006 by nikola
Please write few sentences as an introduction about yourself.
Hi, Nikola - Happy to help. I started the project that became What It Takes as a labor of love. Like a lot of triathlon and endurance-sports fans, I’ve really enjoyed telecasts of events like the Tour de France, but hungered for more entertainment. It always struck me as odd that these sports with impressive champions and gripping human dramas didn’t have more movies and television programs to bring us their stories. That’s the gap we tried to fill with What It Takes.
As far as personal background, I work currently at Microsoft, in the Worldwide Licensing and Pricing division. I graduated from Harvard in 1996 and have worked in various technology businesses for the last 10 years. I did some writing earlier in my career, including an internship at the Houston Post and writing for the New York Times, and also published a book in 2005, called Nobodies to Somebodies. That book profiled 100 leaders from different walks of life - Fortune 500 CEOs in business, Nobel Prize winners in science, and so on - and examined how these people achieved their excellence. In a lot of ways, the book and this new movie explored similar themes, and grew out of the same impulses.
What is your athletic background?
I’ve participated in lots of sports, both growing up and more recently as an adult, but obviously at nowhere near the level of the Ironman champions we profile in What It Takes. I ran cross-country and track in school, and then have finished a couple of marathons more recently. My PR is 1:26:04 in the half-marathon. My wife, Meredith FitzGerald Han, actually ran in college at Harvard University, and is a 2-time Boston Marathon finisher and Ironman Hawaii finisher in 2004. She’s the claim to athletic fame in our family! 
It’s an interesting combination - working at Microsoft and directing movies like What it takes. What sparked your interest in Ironman? How did it all start - the idea for the “What it takes”?
I became interested in Ironman because of my wife, Meredith. She competed in races throughout the US, and even at Ironman Hawaii in 2004, and in following her I saw what an exciting, high-growth support triathlon had become. I also saw the rich human dramas among these athletes putting themselves in the crucible of competition, and I felt that this was a story that had to be told.
How did you choose athletes on which you wanted to focus on in the film? Was it spontaneous, practical or planned choice?
We very deliberately chose the athletes we wanted for What It Takes. Peter Reid, Lori Bowden, and Heather Fuhr are 3 of the most accomplished Ironman competitors of all time - obviously Peter with his 3 world titles, and also Lori with her 2, and Heather with the second-most Ironman race wins of any woman. Aside from their victories, though, the Canadians were great movie subjects because they were personable, attractive, and articulate - good on camera and interesting people to explore. We added Luke Bell as a fourth subject because we wanted a contrast to the established champions: a young up-and-comer who hasn’t yet proven himself and who has a number of interesting challenges on his own side.
In the end, we were satisfied with the mix of characters for our movie: 2 men, and 2 women; 2 extroverts, and 2 introverts; 3 Canadians, and 1 Australian; 3 established, and 1 younger, etc.
What kind of problems did you run into during the shooting? What were the biggest challenges?
The biggest challenge during our shooting process was the sheer amount of travel involved! With a US-based film crew, 3 Canadians, and 1 Australian athlete, and of course races all over the world, we spent quite a bit of time on planes, trains, and automobiles. One of the things that happened during the year was the entry of the Tri-Dubai triathlon team, which sponsored Peter Reid and Heather Fuhr. We didn’t expect to have to go to the Middle East project, but before we knew it, we were shooting footage of the Burj, the 7-star hotel in the United Arab Emirates. We also shot on location in Australia (3 times), Canada, multiple locations in the United States, and of course Hawaii, for the season-ending world championships. It was a busy (but fun) year!
How was your relationship to athletes in the film? How did they accept you and the idea? What is your impression of these 4 athletes after the film?
We got along well with all the athletes in What It Takes. Obviously, having them open their homes and their lives to us required a good deal of trust, and the athletes were very good about believing in the movie and in our ability to tell their stories well. The intimacy that we established showed through in the interviews, I think, and that was key to the movie’s development.
Peter Reid has quit soon after the movie was finished. In the movie he seams to refer to the lack of “normal life” and his problems with motivation. How did this seam to you during the filming? Could you guess his decision?
Yes, it was obvious to us while we were filming that Peter was bothered by his lack of a “normal life”, and by the strains of training for Ironman at the most elite levels. The sacrifices required in his diet, sleep, and simple time with friends were enormous, and we could see the stress he felt in competing at the very highest levels. That said, it was still a bit surprising when he announced his retirement, because even though he dropped hints throughout the year we filmed him - and some of those hints even come through in his interviews on screen - we didn’t believe that he would walk away from the sport while still very nearly at the top!
What is your impression about the sport now that you had an inside look? Do you think it requires a certain craziness? What do you think what kind of people are drawn to it? What negative and positive aspects did you recognize?
I think Ironman does require an obvious discipline, work ethic, and drive. Especially at the elite levels, you see an amazing focus. That said, I wouldn’t call it “craziness”. The people who’re drawn to it are the same as the rest of us in many ways - they have ups and downs, their experiences are colored by emotion, and so on. The difference is how hard they have to work for their achievements, but I think that’s true of elites in many fields.
How did the experience of making “What it takes” affect you? What did you learn? Did it inspire you in some new direction?
The experience of making What It Takes had both profound and basic effects on me. On the basic side, it’s made me exercise more! I had done some running before, but this project inspired me to get more serious. On a deeper level, I enjoyed the chance to see elites like Peter Reid up close, to understand the sacrifice and the glory that’re both part of putting oneself in the crucible of highest competition.
What is your next project?
We are strongly considering doing What It Takes, Part II. The response to this first DVD has been unexpectedly, and gratifyingly, strong, so our investors are keen for us to capitalize on the momentum and to do another project. We are thinking through various possibilities. Stay tuned….
Anything else you wish to add or to say to the readers of ironcrazy.com blog?
Train hard, have fun, and thank you for the already overwhelming support of What It Takes!
