With 50 years of experience between them in competitive endurance sports, Michael and Marla Emde have folded their love for such competition into a business that coaches athletes and hosts racing events.

The couple own Emde Sports Inc., which produces triathlons and cycling events in the Inland Northwest and also provides coaching for hire to athletes here and as far away as Japan.

"In the greater Spokane area, everybody who's involved in competitive cycling or triathlons knows Michael and Marla Emde," says Bob Fisher, a Spokane Valley cyclist who's been a client of the company.

Emde Sports started the Valley Girl Triathlon, in Liberty Lake, in 2004, and the WunderWoman Triathlon, in Medical Lake, in 2006. This year, there were a combined 1,400 entrants in those two summer events. Emde Sports also produces the Group Health Kids Bike Races, and administrates the Inland Northwest Cyclocross race series for men, with races in Spokane, Liberty Lake, Coeur d'Alene, Pullman-Moscow, Walla Walla, and Ephrata, each fall. Marla Emde also does cycling clinics for USA Cycling Inc. and the Washington State Bicycling Association in the winter and spring, keeping Emde Sports involved in events year-round.

Like racing itself, Marla says the rewards of event hosting are worth the time and effort involved.

"Every year, I get e-mails from women saying how we've touched their lives," she says. "For many women, it was their first ever triathlon, which was something they never thought they'd be able to do. It's very empowering. It keeps me coming back to put on events for them."

For the women's triathlons, Emde Sports charges a $75 entry fee. It hires contract laborers to set up and take down the courses, but maintains eight to 10 sponsors for each event, along with a host of volunteers, to offset costs. Considering the time she puts into each event, Marla says, "If I figured out my hourly rate, I'd probably cry."

Robin DeRuwe, owner of Fitness Fanatics, a sports shop in Spokane Valley, says she helped start the Valley Girl Triathlon with the Emdes, but now just provides sponsorship.

"Marla and Mike are very easy to work with, she says. "Marla gets things organized really well. Michael will stay up all night to make an event happen."

Besides their event hosting, the couple coaches both seasoned athletes and beginners in cycling and triathlon competition. Michael Emde says he's working with eight clients right now.

"That's a good number. I can give them good service," he says. "I wouldn't take more than 10 to 12 clients. When I have more seasoned clients, they need less guidance along the way, and I can take more."

Emde Sports charges the athletes it coaches $150 to $175 a month for unlimited consultations, plus a $150 initial charge for set-up, a first consultation, and fitness testing. "A lot of people are charging double or triple for what we do. We keep our prices down to get our clients to stay with us for a longer period," Michael says. "Six months is not enough time to work with a client. We need a long-term relationship."

Emde says he averages 20 to 25 hours a week helping athlete clients, but takes more time when a client is about to enter a big event.

"We put a lot of emotional energy into people," he says.

Although many endurance-sport coaching businesses use computer-generated training schedules and a less personalized approach, Marla says Emde Sports doesn't agree with that strategy. "We really pride ourselves in very individualized programs for people," she says.

Says Michael Emde, "It requires more effort on our part, but it's a lot more satisfying for us to share in our clients' experiences, setbacks, and successes."

Once the coaches know a client's fitness level, training history, work schedule, and family needs, they put together a season training plan with an individualized weekly schedule. They then have clients fill out a weekly questionnaire about their training and other activities, as well as their fatigue or stress level, and also talk with them in-person or on the phone on a regular basis.

"Sometimes, you can hear in a person's voice if they're tired," he says. "It's important for us to talk with our clients."

Besides coaching athletes, Michael Emde still cycles competitively, and has won state championships in road races, time trials, and mountain biking, and a national championship in mountain biking, and has had numerous other top finishes in his more than 20 years of racing. Due to his fame, Emde Sports gets coaching referrals from as far away as Texas, Florida, New Jersey, and even Japan, they say. Nevertheless, Michael says he is happy to coach beginning cyclists as well as seasoned athletes, and Marla delights in working with people just getting started in triathlons.

"It's pretty satisfying for us to see beginners reaching their goals," Michael says.

At the same time, some of their clients have been Ultracycling World Cup winners; national champions in team racing and a women's triathlon; and Kona Ironman qualifiers.

Bob Fisher, a nurse with Northwest MedStar air ambulance service, says he worked with two other coaches over the Internet before he signed up with Emde Sports. He recently won a bike race in Liberty Lake after working with Michael on the course to perfect his turn on a tricky corner.

Fisher says it's difficult for him to train, because his 24-hour shifts vary from days to nights. He says Michael Emde has helped him to "blend work, rest, and training. My endurance has improved dramatically. That's partly due to maturity, and partly due to Michael."

One thing Fisher particularly appreciates about Michael's coaching is that "he never compares me to somebody else—it's always about my personal improvement. I think that's real respectful to other racers."

Another client Marla says she'll never forget was a restaurant chef who had quit smoking six months earlier, and didn't even own a bike before starting to train with her for the Coeur d'Alene Ironman triathlon.

"I told him, 'If you want to finish this, you'll have to go at your own pace, to go within your means.' My clients might feel undertrained, but typically, they're going to start and finish a race. I've never had an Ironman client quit before the race."

The Emdes say they learned from the experience of having jobs and raising a daughter that it's important for athletes to have balance in their lives, though it's easy to wonder if either of them ever have time to sleep.

Marla says that at one time, she maintained 30 coaching clients, but "the way our events were going, I had to cut those numbers down. I was emotionally maxed out," she says.

She says of the event hosting, "It's a better bang for my buck, time-wise."

Michael and Marla met at the Paralympic World Championships for athletes with physical disabilities in Ghent, Belgium, in 1994. One of the events was blind cycling, in which a sighted racer rides in front of a blind cycler on a tandem bike. Michael and his teammate were racing for Austria, and Marla and her teammate for America. "It was a very friendly environment, with lots of banquets and social activities," Marla says.

After the Paralympics, they corresponded for a year. Then Michael moved to Spokane, and the couple were married. Marla had been managing restaurants here, including Fitzbillies Bagels and Europa Pizzaria & Bakery. After they were married, the Emdes opened Sprouts Fresh Caf, at 1009 N. Washington, which they operated until aftertheir daughter, Martina, was born in 1996. At that time, Marla retired from racing. Michael took a year off from racing and went to work here for FedEx Corp. Marla began thinking about other work that might give her flexibility in her schedule.

In 1999, "I got the word out that I was coaching, and within a month, I had a lot of clients," Marla says. "Athletes that have been at a particular level naturally go into coaching. We were the first people in the area to start a coaching business. We started that whole trend here," she asserts.

Along with the business of coaching and event hosting, Michael maintains a personal training schedule, and continues to work part-time with FedEx. At the age of 40, he is still winning races. He won the Furnace Creek 508 three years in a row from 2006 to 2008, and last year placed second. That 48-hour bicycle race, called an ultramarathon, traverses 508 miles of Southern California, including the Los Angeles area, the Mojave Desert, and Death Valley.

Marla also works full time as vice president of event services for the Spokane Regional Sports Commission. She says the diversity of their activities keeps their business fresh and interesting.

"We're living and breathing this. Because we're involved personally, the business is a success," Michael says.