Editor's Note: We just got this email from teammate John Little. Please help if you can.
Dear Family and Friends,
You know I’ve become a triathlon nut, now I’m trying to figure out to make a little good come of it. Several of us who are training for Ironman Wisconsin have joined forces to raise money to get some bicycles for kids who don’t have them. Every kid should have a bike. Many of the children who participate in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Johnson County don’t have bikes and their families can’t afford them. My bike shop, my colleagues in Ironman madness and several other sponsors have joined forces to raise enough money to give 150 kids a bike, a helmet, a little love and some biking instruction.
Please, please, check out our web site: www.140milesforsmiles.com Click on “Meet the athletes,” then “Donate to John,” (bad labeling, I don’t get a penny, of course) and with a few clicks you can make a 100% legitimate, tax deductible donation that will be used entirely for its intended purpose (no administrative costs here!).
Thank you, most sincerely, and please forgive the electronic intrusion.
Cheers,
John Little
PS This training is not without its dangers. I just heard that one of our nine athletes has been taken to the hospital with a broken collar bone, after a car cut in front of him on a training ride this morning and he went over his handlebars.
0 Comments
And the 2XU Race Top Winner is..... OK, here it goes, my cry for help. I have one burning race question that I cannot, and have not been able to answer. I must admit that I’ve now run my fair share of races. I’ve read all of the buff magazines, visited all of the online running, biking, swimming and even triathlon forums, read way too many books, consulted the internet, and even asked some of the most famous names in endurance sports this one simple question, but alas to no satisfactory avail. So now I humbly throw myself upon your collective wisdom. What do you say to somebody to wish them luck right before a race? You know, you’re standing in the early morning chill of your fourth bathroom line, you meet that new race buddy, and right before the gun sounds you say what to them exactly? Or let me put it another way. You have a friend, wife, hubby, or child racing and you want to inspire them with some appropriate words of pre-race wisdom…so what do you say as they head for the start line. It obviously can't be long winded since you've probably already had that conversation at the pre-race pasta feed. It just needs to be short, to the point, and hopefully heartfelt. Here are some examples that I’ve considered and frankly eliminated from my lexicon of pre-race sayings. Theatrical saying For obvious reason the old stage standby “break a leg” does not work. In fact break a leg is possibly one of the worst things you could say to a newbie athlete as they prepare for their first marathon. For indeed they just might actually “break a leg” and that would certain make for some awkward post race conversation. You know like this possible conversation in the medical tent: “So Roman I was almost at mile 20 when your pre-race words of wisdom came back to me…and that’s when I tripped over the curb and you know….” Fighting Sayings Often times at moments of greatness one turns to the military for inspiration. We often equate battle with sports and sports with battle, so why not use military terms and sayings such as…“Carpe Diem” or the English version “Seize the Day.” Unfortunately while this may have rung true as the Greeks prepared to do battle a few thousand years ago, today it just sounds a bit pretentious and nerdy. Here’s a short list of other pseudo fighting sayings that just don’t seem to cut it on race mornings: Tear up the course Crush ‘em Kill it Put a knife it in Conquer it Fight Fight Fight Take it to ‘em Stick to your guns And so on Commercial Sayings Perhaps it would be helpful to draw inspiration from the smart Madison Avenue advertising types in New York? “Just Do It!” sounds like you are promoting the new Nike Air Penguin. “Impossible is Nothing,” brought to you by Adidas is just plain weird. “Anything is Possible,” as coined by Ironman is a bit scary. Yes you too could drown and be eaten by sharks while trying to swim 2.4 miles in a rough ocean. That is indeed also possible. “Serious Performance” the current Mizuno motto could be a bit problematic. Image using that saying in the morning as in “Go for some Serious Performance Today Dude,” before your buddy pulls a seven hour marathon out of his or her hat.“The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection” I believe is the Lexus slogan and now, as you can tell, I’m just grasping at straws. Youthful Sayings So how about we turn back the clock a few years, OK more than a few years for me, and we consider those youthful saying so near and dear to our parents. Go get ‘em Tiger Show me how it’s done I’m proud of you no matter what happens or the converse… Make me proud You’ve got it in you Just have fun Winning isn’t everything, or as heard and understood by your child… Winning is everything And of course the most common and popular one… Just do your best Unfortunately these all sound like a recipe for failure and that’s why none of us really liked them as kids. Which of course begs the question as to why we use them now on our own kids, but that’s a topic for another day. Inspirational Saying So here we are almost at the end of this plea for help and I have to admit that after several dozen ideas I’m no closer to a good answer. Which leaves the inspiration sayings that can often be confused with those banal and cliché posters that too many companies like to hang in the lunchroom like: There is no I in team but… There is a Tri in Triumph Climb your mountain Soar to new heights Luck is just the residue of hard work I think you get the picture. You may have stared at the same posters over many a sub sandwich. And the poster obviously motivated you to ponder why you are stuck working for a company that believes it can motivate you with a .00 poster stuck on the wall. So that is it. I’m fresh out of ideas. I leave it to you to please help me come up with something that we can all use at our next race, because we certainly all need to agree on something to make those pre-race conversations a bit less awkward. If the theater folks can all agree on a pre-show saying, so can we. I think you'll agree that it needs to be sincere and heartfelt, without sounding like any of the painful words from above. Just for the record, the best pre-race saying I can come up with is “Good Luck” and perhaps throw in a quick “Be Safe and Have Fun!” But I know we can, indeed we must for the sake of our sport, do better. I'm all ears! In just under four months we've gone from zero to over two hundred athletes taking part in the B-Fit Challenge this year. It's pretty difficult to compare aero helmets and cuff links. One protects your cranium while riding a bicycle, the other holds your shirt together at it's sleeve cuff. While wearing one you hope to break a sweat and get in a good workout. But while wearing the other you hope to avoid sweating at all costs. One is pretty good size and is very apparent when seen. The other is much smaller and doesn't stand out quite as much. Of course there are many more differences that I choose not to go into here because the point of this post is how they are similar. Congrats to iRunnerGirl who wins a sponsor Premium this month for inviting the most athletes, friend, and family to join our growing community of endurance athletes. Occasionally, I think I am hallucinating when I walk into master's swim and I see new strokes on the menu for swimming: breast stroke? butterfly? why so much paddle work? I'm swimming for triathlon - the stroke of choice for efficiency is the crawl. I have worked my butt off to get good at it - why spend time doing all these other things? Fifty-eight minutes. That's how much quicker I was this year than I was last year on the Wildflower course. But don't get the wrong idea. I'm still not what one would call "fast." If you start with a truly pathetic race performance as your baseline, it's not all that earth shattering to drop nearly an hour from your time. But still, this was a good weekend, and a good yardstick on the way to Ironman CdA. So this has only taken like a zillion years, but after many (too many) versions here is the proposed new raceAthlete B-Fit B-Day logo. TA-DA! What do you think? Is it Cool or is it Gruel? The logo will (if you like it) enhance the new B-Fit B-Day web site along with the slogan, "If not now, when?" BTW: We're almost up to 200 brave athletes taking the Challenge this year. You are welcome to join us if you are looking for a new, free, and fun way to celebrate your B-Day or just measure your health and fitness. The logo is compliments of my very talented friend Tai, and the slogan comes from the marketing magic of my buddy Fred. What do you say? Everything about St. Anthony's Olympic Triathlon this year was awesome. With very low expectations going into the race, it was nice and laid back, low key, and non-stressful from check-in to the post-race Coronas. SA really does a good job with everything...this year was no exception. |
team raceAthleteWe are just like you. fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, friends, confidants. Together and individually, we will make our way to healthy lifestyle. Archives
September 2008
Categories
All
|