Kona Update #2

Okay, here I am trying to get another log done here. Where was I… maybe I should bring you up to speed on what has been happening since Tuesday. I spent some of the day recovering and was able to get out on the road. Jessi I and went for a short run and ended up running into myself. Yup, me. There were 2 HUGE banners of me on Alii drive. It’s kind of a ‘rear angle’ but it’s pretty impressive. I would say that it’s about 4 feet by 10 feet tall. It was a shot that was taken last year during the Ironman Activewear shoot. Now I am in 3 places throughout the island. And I guess there is one in Europe that is 4 times as big. Nice to know I am famous where I am not. It’s pretty amusing to see that each day. 2 of the banners have been moved to the Ironman Village at the entrance. At the end of the athletes parade (parade of nations of sort) we were walking by it while people were taking pictures in front of it… random people. Mark decided to yell out, “Hey, see that picture, that is this guy right here!” It really did not cause much of a stir since people are not necessarily ‘moved’ by triathlete celebrities. Especially when you have people like Mark Allen, Dave Scott, Norman Stadler, etc. here that people don’t really seem to ‘flock’ to either. Heck, even the Bachelor is here… what’s his name, Andy? Anyway, I seem to see him all the time walking around with nothing on but shorts. I would suspect that people would run up to him and ask questions. But no one really does. I don’t think the triathlete culture is really star struck by famous people. In the last few days I have swam at he same time, and around, Norman Stadler, Chris McCormack, Desiree Ficker, Michellie Jones… and the list goes on. Desiree actually gave Jessi and me a pair of goggles and a cycling jersey. She was pretty nice. I was out on the Queen K riding the Kuota on Wednesday and rode with Chris Lieto and his brother Matt (who I raced against at Blue Lake), did I already tell you that? Most all of the pros here are very approachable and willing to ‘chat.’ But there are a few that I find less than approachable. Ones that I know their names, but I will let you make your own judgement when you meet them. It’s kind of sad when these elite athletes look down their noses at other athletes. To me, this is a time that their personalities should shine. They should do all they can to connect with people when the time arises. This is their sport, we are the people who actually ‘know’ them. They should take advantage of this and network with people and make themselves available to chat. Take an athlete like Natascha Badman. She smiles and says hi to everyone. She is one that seems very approachable and, as a result, gets the most media coverage regardless of her placing. IF I were a sponsor, that is the person that I would like to endorse. Not some snobby pro that only wants to talk with other pros. That does nothing for the sport. Enough of the negative rand…

This morning was the underpants run. If you want to know what this is, look at Jessi’s blog from last year at this time, or even in August of this year when we were up in Canada at the underpants run up there. But in short, it’s a fundraiser that people run about 2k in their underwear. So you can only imagine what people pull out the stops to do. This year Jessi organized a Tri Fusion theme that consisted of red boas for the girls with coordinating black panties and red tops. The men wore black underwear and red afro wigs. We all had Tri Fusion tattoos and man did we make a scene. Ben Greenfield helped the case a bit sporting his tuxedo type thong… yes, the butt floss type. Ironically, Ben seemed totally comfortable wearing this, and I honestly think he was. There were so many cameras and video cameras taking footage of us that I honestly started to wonder what in the world was going on. Kevin Best came a bit late and said that all he could her was someone yelling ‘Tri Fusion from Spokane, Washington.” And Kevin could not even see us. He said that he knew where we were because ALL the cameras were pointed in one direction. That was, at us. We got interviewed by Greg Welch (which should be on ironman.com tonight (Thursday, Oct. 11th). Then we were interviewed by Inside Triathlon, and many other foreign reporters. It was absolute chaos. It was funny, because people like Michael and Amanda Lavoto were there, the Bachelor was there, Michellie Jones was there, but no one was really paying any attention to them. It was all about the red and black, and the boas and red afros. I think those shots will be all around the world. They even interviewed Emma for crying out loud.

On a little side note, I do find it quite funny that people want to take pictures of our group, on their ‘personal’ cameras. You you know darn well that they are not interested in anything but the mid sections and crotches of all the people. I mean, be honest hear. They always say smile, but you know that the camera is cropping off all of our heads and going straight for the crotch. I could go straight downhill from here, but I will stay straight here. It was fun, look for the pics on www.tri-fusion.com in the gallery.

After the underpants run, Jessi and went to a PowerBar brunch that athletes that are sponsored by PowerBar are invited to. I went last year and it was pretty cool. Great food, lots of swag, and about all the PowerBar products you could possibly stuff into one bag. It’s nice to see and meet some of the pros and amateurs that are supported by PowerBar from around the world. They truly ‘wine and dine’ you. Once again, you definitely find those that are more approachable than others. I know the ones that I will cheer for, and ones that I will save my energy on.

So, that brings us to current day… for the most part. Whew, finally. I seemed to have written a lot, but I have limited detail. More detail in future entries. I will hopefully share my viewpoint of this race, as in what it means to me. It sure has been a lot of fun being here with so many friends and family. I don’t know how many other times I will come here, or want to race here, so it’s been a real treat. Nothing bad meant by that, or ‘shock’ statement, just thinking out loud. I mean, how often do you get to go to the Superbowl and then get to play in it as well? It’s a real honor and blessing. Thanks to all of you who have been part of the journey.