Top Tri Talk 2009
While the brevity is the soul of wit, this tri-scribe found great one-liners and admirable sound bites rare in 2009. So hats off to Chris McCormack, Catriona Morrison, Chris Lieto, Chrissie Wellington, Normann Stadler, Simon Whitfield, Matt Reed, and John Duke for their economic ripostes. Still, there was much thoughtful rumination worth listening to or reading in newspapers, the blogosphere and on the net. So thanks to Torbjorn S, Sheila T, Wim Van Der Wielle, Gina Ferguson Crawford, Jamie Whitmore and Nicholas Dason for their illuminating words.
On the pleasures of spectating
“I never thought I’d be able to experience: the thrill of competition without competing myself until I saw my daughter (Jenna) doing her first triathlon, or doing her first big soccer match, and I realized, ‘My God! My heart is now beating outside my body!’” Karen Smyers, two-time ITU World Champion and 1995 Ironman Hawaii champion
“The pros had finished the Chicago Triathlon two hours before and I was headed out of transition to go to pack and catch a redeye flight home that night. I was walking past the finish chute which, when the pros and early finishers came through, was packed with people screaming and cheering. Then here comes this woman, who is a little heavyset, coming around the corner. There is not a soul standing along the fence cheering. But as I am walking, I see her coming, and notice that she is looking at the clock. I turn around and it shows about 20-25 seconds to get under the four hour mark. So when she saw it, she just went into this all out sprint. I put my bike on the grass and I started yelling 'Go!' And then I started crying. That is actually my favorite moment of all in triathlon. I’ll never forget it. Her eyes locking into that clock and thinking: ‘I’m going to get in there. For me. I’m just about dead last. No one is watching me. No one cares. But I’m gonna do it for me.’ That's triathlon. And so that's a beautiful thing.” 2004 ITU World Champion Sheila Taormina on her favorite moment in the sport
On triathletes’ lack of technical skills
“Triathlete is different from cyclists. They change the saddle, the aerobar or whatever the day before the race. The day before (Ironman Hawaii) in 2002. I used totally new pedals because my sponsors said you have to ride the new ones. Hah. (Stadler ended up walking at the Energy Lab) There is still big, big room to be more professional in bike fitting. We are strong. But what we do in technical matters it’s like amateur sport. It's crazy.” Normann Stadler
On the short-lived compression socks ban
"I raced in those socks last year but I will not compete in those socks this
Year. I think the rule is not OK. What if I like to race in those old fashioned basketball socks from Nike? Every year — different rules. Next year we ride road bars and only one gear…” Normann Stadler
Two Triathletic Musicians
“I like symphonies from the Romantic era. I love Tchaikovsky Brahms, Wagner and Beethoven. I just love all the emotions you go through to get to the end, and I like finishing and the crowd goes wild because you know they enjoyed it too. Also I like it when we finish with something quiet and the crowd is quiet for a while, spellbound.” Gina Ferguson Crawford, on her side career as a violinist with the Christchurch NZL Symphony
“While I was naturally athletic, I was abysmal at many things such as music and dance. My great aunt once noted that my violin playing was akin to a dying goose.” Mary Beth Ellis on her early musical education in XTRI interview
The Accident
“Blood was everywhere. My nose was smashed and bleeding seriously. All the blood was in my eye. When they asked me where it hurts I said ‘My shoulder, my elbow and a bit of whiplash in my neck.’ It seemed like all the blood had gone to my right eye and I could not see with it.” Greg Bennett about injuries suffered when he got hit by a car while cycling in Boulder in summer
“The guy in the car made an honest mistake, as we all do. I could not have been hit by a nicer guy. He is an Iowa fireman, and there are not better guys than firemen. This guy is usually the first one on the scene helping people in my situation and he was devastated. I really feel for him. It happened on his 25th wedding anniversary. He left a long message on my phone upset and apologetic.” Greg Bennett remained quite understanding about the driver who hit him
Kona magic
“The thing I think about the most is those last 3 miles coming down the Queen K and seeing the lights of the finish area. I was in intense pain since I could not stop to dump my prosthetics sweat due to the time issue. The blisters and slippage down the home stretch was insane. However, I thought about my brother Tim who was born mentally retarded and hasn't walked a day in his life. I envisioned walking him across the finish line someday and that kept me going. There's no place on earth like running down the chute on Alii Drive and you can only know that feeling after enduring the elements of Kona.” Scott Rigsby, physically challenged triathlete, looking back on the final miles of his 2008 Kona finish
Regarding Lance
Q: What will it be like when Lance hits the Queen K?
Chris Lieto: “Lance who?”
(Lieto was joking, and predicted a top 10 finish for Armstrong)
“I don’t see Lance winning Kona. I’d put money on him having a solid war with someone like Chrissie Wellington.” Chris McCormack in Competitor radio interview
On Chrissie Wellington
“She’s in a different zip code. Her veneer on the outside is that she’s nice; she loves to be out here. She has this wonderful big smile. But she’s a killer. She wants to dominate. She wants to destroy everyone, which is what she does.” Competitor Magazine co-publisher Bob Babbitt quoted in Ironman Live
“In all honesty, she’s ruined the sport for most women. They’re all racing for number two. When she races, she’s in a league of her own. She’s created a third category: men, women and Chrissie.” Triathlete publisher John Duke quoted in IronmanLive
CW Falls Short of expectations – by three seconds
“My plan is to win by 20 minutes,” Chrissie Wellington to Chris McCormack before Ironman Hawaii 2009 Actually, it was 19:57.
Chrissie’s blog on Roth
“Between 15-25km I started to feel like a plank of wood. I switched the brain off and just went into autopilot. It was also around that time that I first saw the huge cardboard poster ‘Chrissie Wellington: Triathlon Goddess’ held up by a very enthusiastic man on the side of the road. I don’t know quite how he managed it but he popped up on the course three times after that, with the same poster, and me looking distinctly more god-awful than goddess-like each time. In addition to Mr Goddess I counted four flashers, breaking the record from Australia. The scenery was also made all the more interesting by the German passion for the 1980s Speedo (amazing what can fit into a small space).” Chrissie Wellington blog entry after her win at Quelle Challenge Roth
CW — Scrabble warrior
“We do some great intense Scrabble sessions. Every once in a while to spice things up we have been known to back these sessions up with some scrabble apple, bananagrams, or even some Rockband. Chrissie is a great training partner. She constantly pushes me to create bigger and better words, and even though she herself does like to make up words now and then, she takes it like a true champ when I beat her.” Julie Dibens on gamesmanship of Boulder training partner Chrissie Wellington
On changing priorities when you get older
“Three years ago I broke my kneecap at the Alabama XTERRA warming up and pre-riding the course. So, now I am 30, I definitely do not take the same chances I used to. I tell my wife some guys on mountain bikes ride on the razor’s edge on the downhills. But now I downhill like I have two kids. We have two boys – Sullivan, age 5, and Porter, three and a half. XTERRA racer Josiah Middaugh
“(My son) is much bigger in my life than sport. Now triathlon is a job. Now I leave home to train and I worry that I might have an accident. I want to come home safe again. Now I have more responsibilities for my boy. After hard training, you come home and he smiles and all the pain goes away.” Normann Stadler
That Pirate running past the Buccaneer Hotel is ex-Navy
“Ohhh boy, I am not going to live this down any time soon! I have so many people asking about the pirate look, it was not planned! So for the record, I really didn't know I only had one lens in my sunglass frames. In fact, I thought I knocked it out when I crossed the line. I was searching all around the finish area for a good 15 minutes trying to find the other lens. Then I saw that picture of me coming out of T2 with one lens. So I ran 13 miles and it blows my mind that it never dawned on me. I guess I was really focused!” Timothy O’Donnell, after winning St. Croix in 2009, during which one lens fell out of his sunglasses
Michael Jordan had a tough time in Class A baseball, too
“I was suffering and having a ball all at the same time. Physically, I was up for it, but it would take more another three years to learn the skills to win on the road. The tension and suffering in road cycling is extreme. You’re going at 180 (beats per minute) and you have to think very fast.” Ivan Rana on his one year excursion in cycling road racing
Farmer Morrison
"I fertilized a lot of Roth!" Catriona Morrison at the post race press conference regarding her mid-run evacuations at the Quelle Challenge
Triathlon will not cure overtraining
“We found the same basic result that other studies have over the years: that triathletes suffer as many injuries, if not more, than people who just run — and certainly more injuries than people who just swim or bike.” Dr. Joshua Burns Researcher and podiatrist in Sydney Australia, on his study on the injury rates of 131 triathletes, quoted in New York Times
“I thought, ‘If this much gets me through, then that much more will get this. If riding 100 miles a week was good, then 200 miles a week will make me that much faster.’ I call it athletic greediness, and that’s what a lot of new athletes coming in to (triathlon) do and get injured” Paula Newby-Fraser on tri-overtraining, quoted in New York Times
Finish line quotes
"I was damned if I was going to be out sprinted as I was at Beijing" Simon Whitfield after beating Jan Frodeno and four others in a 6-man sprint for the $200,000 top prize at Hy-Vee
"We both crossed the finish line and just collapsed. I was physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted and frustrated and I just wanted to lay there for a moment, wondering what I could have done, what I did wrong, where I could have gained a few seconds flashed thru my mind. Then I realized there was really nothing more that I could have given." Chris Lieto on his duel with Craig Alexander at Boise 70.3
“The Gold Coast run was a little short, but we were both honestly under 30 minutes, and that was the fastest run in World Cup run I've ever seen." Javier Gomez on Alistair Brownlee’s 29:05 final run at the ITU World Championship Series Grand Final
On dealing with the death of a loved one
“It is useless being rancorous: Kristel is gone forever. We have to continue without her. After the accident I advised my friends and athletes to enjoy each other and to enjoy life. “Tell your loved ones how precious they are to you and be grateful for what you have.” Wim Van de Wielle about the death of his wife, who was hit and killed by a drunk driver while commuting to work on her bike
Fear of Failure
“I was so determined not to get last as the idea of everyone waiting around for me to finish really scared me. I won the race and had this huge adrenaline rush and didn't sleep for three days I was so excited. So I guess after that I was addicted to the adrenaline.” Gina Ferguson Crawford on her first big Olympic distance race in Raratonga.
The Long T2
“I hyperventilated for last 5km then got to transition, picked up my bag and then decided to lie down, I think to rest, and then I got carted away by the volunteers straight to the medical tent. I couldn't breathe or talk and I couldn't move any part of my body. It was a strange and scary thing. I then must have blacked out and woke up I thought a few minutes later but it must have been several hours as when I did Chrissie Wellington just finished.” Gina Ferguson Crawford on falling unconscious for two hours after finishing the bike at Roth
“Angry and disbelief. I was pretty angry actually that my doctor had made me do the tests. He kept saying this is great to know isn't it and I was thinking ‘No, I would rather not know.’ I now view myself in a different light. I always thought of myself as a strong and fit person and now I view myself as an invalid. Hopefully this will change with time as I get used to the idea.” Gina Ferguson Crawford on how she felt when she discovered she has bicuspid aortic valve syndrome – before doctors explained she could continue her triathlon career
Fernanda
"In Brazil, no one makes a good living from triathlon, except Fernanda Keller (the six time Ironman Hawaii third place finisher). She is like Pele in Brazil.” Four-time Ultraman Champion Alexandre Ribeiro
Brotherly love
“I never really prepared all year for one race like this. So when I would do poorly at many races during the year, I was cranky. Honestly, I thought Clearwater would go badly, like all the other races were bad for me. So when Andreas was coaching me, I never believed him. When I had a bad race I would tell him 'Aw, you are such a bad coach! Blah blah blah!' But he would always tell me: 'Be patient!' The day before this race, I got a message from him: 'You did all the good work and it will go well.'" 2009 Ironman 70.3 World Champion Michael Raelert on being coached by his brother
"Unfortunately for me, I didn’t see Julie right away," said runner-up Mary Beth Ellis. "She took off like a bat out of hell.” Mary Beth Ellis on how fast Julie Dibens left T1 in Clearwater
“That’s like asking Craig Alexander how long it took him to train for Kona. There’s a schedule leading up to the big event, but really, that part is just for pulling together elements you’ve spend a lifetime compiling.” Cartoonist and amateur triathlete Jeff Mallet explaining how long it took him to write Trizophrenia
Regarding 20-year-old Ironman UK winner Philip Graves
"He is completely unafraid!" Normann Stadler
“I won't turn 21 until April of next year. I think I have the game to contend at Kona right now. Hopefully I will get stronger every year. Eventually, hopefully, I'll win this race not just one time, but 2-3-4, maybe 5-6-7 times.” Phillip Graves
Why so many fast triathlon bikers have engineering backgrounds
“Guys like David Thompson, TJ Tollakson, Jordan Rapp and myself — we are numbers people. We connect with data, can play with it, manipulate it, and understand it to a high degree. This allows us to use these numbers to notice when we are getting over trained and when we are making improvements. Then there is the fluid mechanics of how air really flows.” Andrew Starykowicz
One-legged workout
“Malaysia I did on sheer guts and determination. I knew I only had 25% blood flow to my right leg but to tell the truth I was so used to riding with my right leg feeling terrible that I had almost forgotten how it felt when it was healthy. I pushed the bike hard and just did what I needed to do to hold onto the lead." Belinda Granger on winning Ironman Malaysia before undergoing crucial surgery to repair an iliac artery defect
Nice abs
“I will be honest. I did have some pangs of vanity after the operation. I had great abs and they had to cut a little on the legs and my lower abdomen. But (my husband) Justin and everyone told me I should treat it like badge of honor. And now I do.” Belinda Granger on her regrets when surgeons cut on her famously well-defined abs
Courtship
“I ran into Conrad at the Alabama Xterra in 2006. He was laughing at my bike, and I ignored it. The next weekend met again at Richmond Xterra and then at Xterra Milwaukee. So he asked ‘Why are you stalking me?’ I found out he was living in Bend, Oregon and I loved it. So I went there, and we pretty much stuck like glue. This he broke his back at Tahoe and I was there to help him through his recovery.” Amber Monforte, record setting Ultraman Canada winner
Support crew
“Funny story: On day 2, I ran out of water and food. So the boys said they were going to get some ice and food and disappeared for 45 minutes. I thought ‘I bet you anything Conrad and Graham were fishing.’ They came back on a long climb. At the end of the day I saw I saw all Conrad’s photos of Graham and Conrad fishing in the river on his Flickr page. But they always make up for it later. The boys bought ladies lingerie to wear on the side of the road the next day. They made me laugh and it reminded me this was supposed to be fun.” Amber Monforte, on boyfriend Conrad Stoltz’s diligence as support crew during her record-setting Ultraman Canada race
Dizzy dame
“I think people most people can’t understand unless they have experienced extreme dizziness and they cannot know how scary it is. What I experience is not like the world is spinning. The dizziness I experience is like falling down. It’s so frustrating because I start out feeling great and optimistic and then when it hits, by the end of the bike or the beginning of the run, hits me hard, nasty and so far it’s insurmountable.” Joanna Zeiger on the dizzy spells that plagued her in mid-2009
Career advice
“That boy is incredible. Every race he's done has really impressed me. I think he should go straight to cycling." Matt Reed on Andrew Yoder’s cycling prowess
Lessons the Viking wants to pass on to his children
“The world itself develops at am amazingly rapid speed. I’m a parent now and have been so for a while. In my childhood, there was no email, no cell phones, no big Play Stations. There was a very different attitude towards life. In many cases today we consume a lot and just buy what we want. It is extremely difficult to stem that flood. It’s about teaching kids things have value and you must nurture, take an interest in what you do, practice and work hard to achieve things. We have to work all the time to step off the consumption train. At the same time, you are a part of society and in many cases the consumption train is something that is just going and you cannot step completely away from that without sacrificing social relations. So you need a combination, a balance of things and work a lot on your inner life to educate your children and motivate them to have good values and to value the world.”
The Last Temptation of Thunder Bear
“My warrior/Viking heart was tempted by one more final, all out, 100% race in Kona and I was thinking up plans on the meanest training to be done so I could kick everyone’s ass for good. I knew that I needed complete trust in my body to pull of such a preparation and go through all the suffering. As I could simply not see myself do long and hard sessions anymore it was clear that I was no longer able or mentally ready for everything that would come.” Torbjorn Sindballe, on considering one last race at Kona after diagnosis of heart trouble
Things to know about Jimmy Riccitello
"I don’t like cotton candy. It creeps me out and it’s too sticky."
"I don’t like croissants. It’s too hard to say the word properly."
"I will never eat a hot dog. I have trouble even saying the words hot dog."
"I would penalize my mother if I caught her drafting."
"I have pristine toes".
"I’m not losing my hair. I simply wear it shorter than I used to."
"I’ve chewed tobacco for most of my life, but I’m not hooked."
"I’ve never been drunk."
"I can snort a spaghetti strand up my nose and make it come out of my mouth."
Dirk’s engine
“At a stress test at the German Sport Institute in Warendorf they told me that I had the biggest relative heart size ever measured in West Germany. With a 1512ml heart and 72kg (158lbs) weight I was able to get more oxygenated blood to my muscles than any other athlete they ever tested. Another way to look at it: I realized that my heart was bigger than the engine of the car I drove at that time. (Ford Escort 1.4 L)” Dirk Ashmoneit
Why Dirk retired
“I had to retire in 1994 due to a broken back and spinal cord injury. Long story short, it turns out that I broke my back at the age of 9 when I fell off a tree and broke my leg as well. The doctors treated the obvious – the broken leg – but never checked my back. All these years I raced with a broken back, ouch! Looking back, I wonder what I could have accomplished with a healthy back.”
Dirk Ashmoneit
Weighing in on drug cheats
“Those athletes (who take drugs) have to sleep at night; they live with it and will always know in the back of their mind. One thing I won't do is judge them. I can't imagine Dimitry Gaag grew up with much opportunity. Sport likely gave him a way out, to provide for his family. He had choices to make and I'm sure he had coaches justifying it to him… I grew up in Kingston Ontario, in an upper middle class family, with parents who supported my dreams, pools down the street and an abundance of opportunity. Who am I to judge him?” Simon Whitfield on Dimitry Gaag’s two-year ban for drug positive
“Dopers lie all the time and thus undermine the credibility of us clean athletes. I wonder why I wasn’t tested after my race in Kona. I mean the entry fee isn’t really cheap and with 1,800 competitors there should be enough money to afford additional tests. But then again there’s the problem that you will only catch some small fish, while the top guys with big cash who can afford undetectable substances or bribe testing labs remain safe.” Age group triathlete Max Renko
Bedside manners
“She said, ‘If you think cathetering yourself is the worst thing that can happen then you have never had anything bad happen to you.’ After she had gone out of her way during my treatment to make things nice, I was so floored. I thought to myself ‘How can you honestly stand there and say I have not had anything bad happened to me? I am partially paralyzed and have been forced into early retirement from my sport. They cut my butt muscle that powered my biking and running. And because I wanted to preserve the ability to maintain my last shred of independence, you tell me I never had anything bad happen to me?’ I started to cry while restraining myself from wanting to punch her in the neck. I have never been so mad in my life.” Cancer survivor and retired Xterra star Jamie Whitmore, who is pregnant with twins as this article was posted
Triathlon training discipline translates to war in Iraq
“We had intel come down there was supposed to be a suicide attack. This guy drove up to a checkpoint and prior to pulling up to the security guards, I observed the guy get out of the vehicle and begin to wave with both arms. We’d been taught that the wave was a typical tactic to get fellow insurgents to begin video taping so the bombing could be used for propaganda. The security guards told the man not to proceed through the checkpoint. However, without being prompted, he began to drive through the checkpoint and that is when I signaled my fellow soldiers to shoot. They took out the man and the vehicle, which erupted with some secondary explosions, indicating that there were in fact explosives in the vehicle. That decision saved people’s lives. If I hadn’t been paying attention I might not have seen him wave his arms. If I had been tired, I might not have seen those details that added up to the conclusion that this guy’s bad and he was going to blow up a car bomb on our men. To just sit there for hours in that incredible heat and stay focused, that is one way that endurance training helped so much.” Former West Point Triathlon team member Nicholas Dason, who served in Iraq with the US Army
