2010 Tri Talk Of The Year
For triathlon in 2010, there was no Lombardiesque "Winning isn't everything — it's the only thing." No Rooseveltian "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." No equivalents of Churchill's rousing "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."
While there might have been no lines that will be etched in marble, there were some funny and striking quotes uttered in the ever-expanding world of triathlon in 2010 that bear repeating. Here are a few comments about the art of swim, bike and run that struck a chord with this aficionado.
"I am so proud of Tom and what he’s achieved today. And I am more than happy to do the washing up and the cooking for the next year." Chrissie Wellington on boyfriend Tom Lowe placing third — one of just seven men not chicked by her 8:31 finish at Ironman Arizona.
"It was a real hard hit and I felt the teeth. It hit me like a Mack truck. I started thinking to myself ‘I can’t believe a gator is biting me.'" Doug McCard on a practice swim in Lake Mary Jane on Moss Park near Kissimmee, Florida on May 16.
"Terenzo Bozzone put the sword to me on the run and killed me." Tim Berkel on Terenzo Bozzone's surge to win IM 70.3 Rhode Island.
"My right shin felt like someone had placed a knife in it and every time it touched ground they turned it." Amber Monforte on the last miles of her record smashing win at Ultraman Hawaii.
"People talk of [triathlon] as the new golf." Nick Rusling, managing director IMG Challenger World, on triathlon's rising cachet in the business world.
"I was angry about my position after the bike, so I used the aggression to reel in as many girls as I could." Emma Snowsill on starting the run at Hy-Vee two minutes behind the leaders before passing them all to win $200,000 top prize at Hy-Vee.
"It looked very familiar." Two-time World Championship Series winner Emma Moffatt on what Snowsill looked like going past.
"I can be a little bitch, and I had kind of tamped that down. But [her new coach Brett Sutton] helped me understand it’s OK to be bitch when you’re racing. And to be hard, and to give it to people on the race course. So yeah, it’s working. Things are great." Jodie Swallow on her new winning attitude in 2010.
"Me and Bek [Rebekah Keat] suffer together too because we moan when one another is moaning and, to be frank, we are both pretty tough too." Jodie Swallow, one of two tough chicks.
"I was really worried. My front wheel went up on the gutter and my back wheel just slid out and I hit my head really hard. Stupid mistake. I thought my race was gone. My handlebars were crooked, my headset was cracked, my derailleur was rubbing and making crick crick crick sounds, my front wheel was buckled and my knee was hurting. But I just thought 'Stuff it! I'm just going to ride.'" Rebekah Keat – who raced with bleeding leg to win Challenge Copenhagen.
"I found my strength by saying and believing I am not my body. I am a man. I’m alive. As alive as anybody who is jamming a basketball or scoring a touchdown or hugging a child. Being alive is being alive. It's a good thing." The late Jim MacLaren, from a documentary film cited in a 2010 obituary.
On WTC's Short-Lived, Ill-Fated Access Program
"A thousand dollars for the privilege of cutting in line?" Slowtwitch forum contributor.
"If you guys think we're wrong, then we're wrong." WTC CEO Ben Fertic
On WTC's 8% prize money and 5% Kona qualification Rules (both these rules are gone now)
"If Catriona [Morrison] is so offended that the men are making less money or that some of the girls didn’t make money, she is free to turn around to third and fourth place and say ‘you know I am so appalled by the system, I am going to give you your money.' But I don’t see anyone doing that. Belinda Granger can talk a big story about how she would have slowed down in Malaysia after she sprinted to the finish line. But then I didn’t see her cut a check to Hillary for third place." Paula Newby-Fraser
"Why penalize those who are finishing further down the order by taking away what little prize money is left on offer? One minute it is there… next minute is gone…literally. As with most sports, it is often not just the podium places that make the sport, and help create exciting races. Imagine if just Chrissie and Rinny stood on the start line, because no one else thought it was worthwhile showing up due to this 8% rule. How exciting would that be both for the athletes and the spectators?" Julie Dibens
"My concern with the 5% rule is that it is going to strangle an already small women’s professional field. If you look to 2004, Lisbeth Kristensen qualified with a time that was more that 5% off the winner’s time in that event. She went on to finish 7th in Kona that year. Under the new rules, Lisbeth wouldn’t have been there at all. So far this year, Caitlin Snow got nipped by the 5% rule at Ironman St. George; an athlete who has placed 15th and 12th in Kona the past 2 years – hardly 'excess baggage' in the world’s most competitive race in our sport." Dede Griesbauer
The Duel At Ironman Hawaii
"I think I annoyed him. I didn’t mean to disrespect him. But I said the only way I could beat Craig is to get a gap on him. I think Craig took offense to my lack of respect to his bike. But I spent the days before the race trying to recruit guys to come with me. I said 'That's how you win this race. You do not want to get into a running war with Craig Alexander." Chris McCormack on his pre-race remarks about Crowie at Ironman Hawaii.
"Well, I thought I had a chance. I was aiming at a 2:36 here (the record is Mark Allen's 2:40:04 set in 1989) while last year I ran 2:48 and won it. It wasn’t as hot this year on the run. But it was windier on the bike, which makes the run tougher. But yeah. I didn't think I was beat. It's a long race. I was on pace to run a 2:36 through mile 22." Two-time defending champion Craig Alexander, who finished 4th, on his 7:43 deficit to Macca, 6:08 to Raelert, at T2.
"By the time I was catching Macca [on the Queen K highway headed back to town,] I was just making up seconds per mile. If you are making seconds, it’s not that you are flying. As soon as I got to Macca, we already had about 7 and a half hours of racing in our bodies and in our legs. So when I got to him, it’s kind of a mental game. I thought: Two options. The first option is to go as hard as you can to make it to the finish and try to drop Macca right at the beginning. Or maybe to wait for a sprint finish at this point in time. So I made my decision to recover at this point and wait to the sprint finish." Andreas Raelert on why, when he caught McCormack he didn’t make a decisive pass as McCormack suggested he should have done.
"We ran side by side for a while and at two and a half miles to go, I turned to him and said 'Regardless of what happens here mate, you are a champion. Best of luck.' And we shook hands and he said, 'You, too.' We didn’t exchange a word from that point on." Macca on his handshake with Raelert at Ironman Hawaii.
"I saw pictures taken by Tony Svensson of that moment where it looked as if Macca drew Raelert's hand way over toward his chest. When I saw that photo, it seemed to me as if McCormack was drawing all the energy out of him." Mark Allen on the Macca-Raelert handshake.
"When I reached my hand to Macca, it was from the emotion of the time. We just did seven and a half hours racing together and by that time he has all my respect. Now it comes to the end and the best athlete is going to win. This emotion didn’t take any energy from me." Andreas Raelert
"I thought You can’t stop here! as he went for a drink. I couldn't believe it. I jumped to the left and attacked. I hit the gas and went really fast the next 100 meters and I think I took him by surprise. He didn’t expect me to run that hard on the downhill and when I went around the corner I had about 100 meters. And that was the winning move." Macca on the final aid station at IMH
"It wasn’t a mistake. I had to get something, otherwise I couldn’t get to the finish line. I was completely out of energy at this time. And actually, I won the second place!" Andreas Raelert on Macca's remarks that he will look back on that as a mistake and think 'That is the one that got away.'
Danger On The Road
"I learned that every race we get to do is a wonderful opportunity. But I also learned that sometimes things that you never, ever planned on can totally turn your life upside down. I am glad I got to race besides Torbjorn once. That was special. But I'm reminded that – like with Marc Herremans – life is fickle. So it's good to have a Plan B." Jordan Rapp meditates on the fragility of life upon the retirement of fellow master cyclist-triathlete Torbjorn Sindballe. These remarks were made a few days before Rapp's life-threatening injuries inflicted by a hit and run driver.
"I had a broken collarbone that they plated and screwed. I had a broken something you might describe as an arch bone in your face, in your cheek. And I had plates around my eye and across my cheek to make it look like my cheek wasn’t sunken in. Then, you have three jugular veins on each side of your neck and I severed two of them on the left side. I had what doctors call a dissection, which is when the interior of your artery gets damaged. It just sort of peels away. I had that on my right side as a result of my head getting snapped in the crash. Then I just had a lot of glass that just basically ground deep into my skin. I was pulling pieces out for weeks after I got out of the hospital. They said I’d probably pull some of them out the next couple of years. They would sort of float to the surface eventually." Jordan Rapp on his near fatal injuries when struck by a hit and run driver during a training ride in March, 2010.
"I swear to you, it's all you can do to not run them down, like Wile E. Coyote, just run them over… " ESPN's Tony Kornheiser in his rant about cyclists on his March 11 radio show.
"Saying motorists should attack cyclists with their cars is pretty damn close to a terrorist threat. If his name was Abdul and he posted a rant that said Muslims should attack Americans with their cars, he would be on his way to Guantanamo in a heartbeat. Instead of riding with Lance, Kornheiser should be off the air for a few weeks. He can donate his sizeable ESPN salary for that period to local bike advocacy groups and spend his free time in an emergency room observing the real carnage that happens when a car hits a cyclist. That's no joke, Tony." Sal Ruibal, (formerly USA Today) on Kornheiser's lack of punishment for his remarks.
"Lyn was an Ironman, but she hated cycling on highways. Often she was in the basement and she felt guilty about it. This year she joined our triathlon club and made a lot of friends. This was literally her first time on a major highway in a group." Marc Flageole, husband of Lyn Duhamel, 39, one of three cyclists from the Saint-Lambert Triathlon Club who were killed when struck from behind by a pickup truck in May on a highway east of Montreal.
"We all get abrasions and take some good dings on the knees and head and once in a while break a bone and have 4-8 weeks of injury recovery. But my compromises as a result of the accident are still greatly affecting me today. I had multiple fractures of the hand and wrist and I have never regained movement in my ring finger. It sticks up half inch higher than the rest and my finger top is half an inch from my palm. My wrist is extremely tight, and my scapula shattered and I still can’t lie on it at night. In addition, as a result of the shattering, all the muscles around the interior border of the scapula are completely atrophied. I still have not regained strength there. I still have knots around it. I continue to do everything I can in the gym to get it back, but it’s not there. But the single biggest issues have been two blood clots in my lungs. A pulmonary embolism like that lays down scar tissue. I have been tested for lung capacity and that is greatly impaired. The doctor says that scar tissue may over time break down but right now I have a very hard time breathing heavily."
Dave Scott on his 2009 injuries when hit by a car while cycling near his home in Boulder.
More Quotes
"I hit a home run based on every measure. It's been a great run. It's a great sport, no regrets, I'm walking away with my head held high." Former USAT CEO Skip Gilbert on his tenure at USAT after being fired by the board of directors in what was described by one witness as "a palace coup"
"He raced hard, partied hard, and lived each day to the fullest. His infectious smile and high energy attitude made it impossible to be anything but upbeat around him." Mark Montgomery tribute to the late Marc Suprenant, a fellow triathlon professional at the dawn of the sport.
"Some of them are laughable, like the fact that I’m pregnant. Others are more defamatory. I’ve been blood tested five times this year, urine tested 10 times. I was tested the Tuesday before the race. To suggest that I didn’t race because of a drug test is ludicrous and insulting and undermines my credibility and [that of] the other female athletes that do so well." Chrissie Wellington on rumors following her last minute withdrawal from IMH.
"Racing Filip was such a cool race, because when we got together in the lead on the run, we were playing games… [After some back and forth surges up to Mile 7] … I found I could create a little gap so I put in a lot of energy and it worked. But then I realized I could not keep this pace and I slowed down — but he did not come back. Finally maybe I broke Filip's mind and he gave up." Michael Raelert on dueling Filip Ospaly at Ironman 70.3 Worlds.
"About 7-10 hours per week. I have three kids ages 5, 3 and 1 and I’m married, so I was trying to incorporate the kids into my training as much as possible. I did long training on weekends. We would go to [the] park with the kids and I would do an open water swim there. We have jogging strollers and would push them around. I got a trainer for my bike and would put it in my living room and burn miles while I read [the kids] a book. I think it’s good for kids to see their dad or mom exercising and putting importance on it." CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta speaking to the New York Daily News about how much he trained to prepare for the Nautica Malibu Triathlon.
"My best was 10:04 in 1989, the year of the Iron War. In my little world the most significant thing that year was my 10:04 and next to that was Mark and Dave’s race. At least that's what I continue to remind all my buddies in Encinitas. With that race, I got bragging rights over [super agent, race director and fellow Encinitas resident] Murphy Reinschreiber, whose best at Kona was like 10:38. He was a damn good athlete, a collegiate swimmer – a much better athlete than me. But I had a great day. When Murphy and I are 85 years old and having Christmas dinner at the Sizzler, I will be telling him I own him at Kona." John Duke
"I needed the thrill of the fight. I like being challenged and I needed to be able to say 'I conquered it and I won.' Triathlon is what did it for me — the three toughest things I've ever had to do without a leg." Kimberly Fawcett-Smith, who lost her son, and her leg in a terrible accident, on learning to swim, bike and run again on a new prosthetic racing leg.
"He is definitely a guy I admire and I get along well with him. So on race day I saw him at the Energy Lab coming back at me and he was struggling. I said ‘You better be ready to run when I catch you!’ I came up on him with seven miles to go and we had a nice little run in from there." Tim DeBoom on finishing Ironman Hawaii with Normann Stadler.
"My feeling was that she would get through on her natural gift and a little reserve for three and a half to four hours, then…. contrary to what people think, she is human … and her body would shut down. I asked her what she would do if she felt like this and she were set to go out and train. She rarely takes a day off. She said she would not train. I said ‘That’s your answer.'" Coach Dave Scott on his conversation with Chrissie Wellington about her sudden illness the morning of Ironman Hawaii.
"The first thing I have to do is to compete in a half Ironman to test myself. Because of my age [40] I would rather not compete in Olympic distance. Those triathletes who dispute this distance achieve speeds that I cannot get close to. What is clear is that if I want to be competitive, I have to focus on the longer distances as they often have tougher cycling sections and that would benefit me." Lance Armstrong on his preparations for Ironman Hawaii 2011.
"We're narrowing the gap between the men and women, and that’s really important. I never thought 8:19 was possible. Hopefully that's helped to promote triathlon and promote the growth of women in sport." Chrissie Wellington on the significance of her world-best 8:19 at Challenge Roth.
"I made lots of mistakes, shed a lot of tears, and was crippled by many fears. Growing up as a kid, I was the blund of everyone's jokes, teased, ridiculed, and bullied throughout my childhood. I carried that with me for a very long time, slowly all of that started to change as I read the Bible and found out how beautiful God sees me. Then the healing process started, slowly all the internal struggles and beating myself up for everything and anything started to slowly change." Triple amputee Rajesh Durbal after his 14:19:12 finish at the 2010 Ironman World Championships.
