THE Shot for Ironman Is Here!! Well 2011 anyways...

So the injection of excitement in Ironman coverage is coming in 2011.

As part of the contract with Radio Shack , or as the kids are calling it, 'the Shack' Lance Armstrong will an age group athlete at the Ironman World Championships in 2011. The story I read can be found here.

While Lance (cause we're sooo close and all) is not likely going to be a contender for the crown, he is an athlete and has a story. Not to belittle those other stories, but this one excites me and I hope that NBC doesn't fudge the coverage by making it a sappy piece, ripe with slow cumbersome music and dramatic pauses. Armstrong is an uber athlete and could possibly bust the Kona bike leg record.

NBC could make this a real event for once and show it live. Not only adding the excitement of the competition of the contenders, but also the story of Armstrong returning to his roots and showing everyone in the world what kind of athletes Ironmen truly are. Lance is a god in cycling and sport circles and will promote the athletes that compete in this event. This is the story we have been waiting for. Sport and emotion in one used to showcase the athletes in the event instead of just causes.

It better be live or some bleeding heart liberal arts student will edit it with footage of Lance's Mom crying and Sheryl Crow tunes and make it crap.

Ironman World Championships...It Needs a Shot!!

This weekend marks yet another installment of the beloved World Ironman Championships at Kona Hawaii. With it comes the inevitable debates over the favourites at the event and who will step up and who will fall. The NBC coverage every year is not live and is presented as a scrapbook. Images flashing the screen some time after the event are edited to to tell the director's story - as they see it. For them it is not about the sport, but instead the stories that will sell ad time. Is Ironman distance events a sport or a story or both? Is it about the event at all or the journey to get there?

Myself, I am far from a triathlon elitist or purist. I am a fan and a participant (when not limping or hunched with some ailment). As a participant it is about the hours, days, months, years spent training to get to where you want to be; or more correctly for most age groupers, of who want to be or become. I like my story. Smoker, drinker, a generally lazy man. I thought I was happy but I doubt I was. I enjoy this new journey so much more than the drunken excursions to the karaoke mic stand, belting out Guns n' Roses for the other tone deaf folks in the bar drowing their sorrows. Now don't get me wrong this is/was fun. But what was its ends? I had the means but no end. Was my goal in those days to feel like a dog that's been kicked in the head, combing whatever nonsense had taken over my teeth and tongue? There was no goal. Only living to live. Triathlon gave me a goal and story to get there and likely, hopefully, more stories to get there.

Granted my story is not that of the Blazeman (google it) or Sara Reainhartsen (I know I spelled it incorrectly) but I have story. NBC picks and chooses the stories it wants to tell. How are any of the stories better or more interesting than another? In my gentle opinion they are not. Some of the causes benefit greatly from their exposure on the network but is it sport?

The fan in me wants to see the race. I want to see Macca go down with a bum cable. Not a personal thing but the drama. The NBC editing makes it seem slow and unimportant or only a back drop to the motivational or touching tales of woe. Stadler's breakdown a few years back was shown edited to the point of not being able to see the total breakdown. These stories are important because they are attached to the athletes the fans want to see. NBC should focus on the athlete personalities at the race and in the prelude to the event.

Macca's mouth is a show in its self. I don't mean this in a bad way. I mean that Macca makes me want to see him more and hear him more. This is what brings the money into triathlon. I want to wear the jersey that Macca wears. The shoes of Crowie. The speedsuit of Potts. I want these guys and girls to have a personality and let it show. Let them have fun on camera. I have been following Macca and Bozzone's twitter pages and it brings the fan closer to the guys talking trash (limited as it is) and what it takes to get them there. Their training is incredible and this is who I want to see in my SPORTS coverage.

In short, triathlon is a strange sport in that the layman races alongside his or her heroes in the sport. It is akin to playing in your Thursday night beer league with Ovechkin on your wing. Sure he is faster and better but you both came to the same spot in the same race on the same day. However this is the same with everyone. My story is no better than or worse than anyone else'. The pros do their work to get there and so do I and everyone else. As a fan of the sport I want to see the pros race in drama and spirited camaraderie. If this is promoted more I will have more interest in the sport and the manufacturers will have more money available for R & D, training, development and sponsorship. Focus on the drama of the sport and not the drama of life.

Courtesy Wave Gone the Way of the Courtesy Flush?

A little background:

In the last couple of years I moved from, arguably, Canada's cycling and triathlon Mecca of Victoria to the Nation's frigid capital of Ottawa. Weather has not been the only difference.

While doing training rides throughout the Victoria area, cyclists acknowledge one another. Pros and fat old bastards like myself lift our hand, if only for a moment, or nod our heads ever so slightly to acknowledge the fact we were both out there doing our thing. Part of a community within a community.

Ottawa has been different. Pro looking cyclists (albeit unlikely pros) refuse to acknowledge a lowly citizen. Especially a citizen riding with aerobars. I believe it is probably akin to laying down on the job to them. Unfortunately it cannot chalked up to elitism of the euro-wannabe. For while out on rides there are those riding a triple ring low end road bikes with basketball shorts and a sweat shirt that somehow, while over sized, still proclaims its limited elasticity with a soft white underbelly squeezing its way into the world, glistening in the sun (cause these are fair weather riders only) and yet refusing to acknowledge a wave given by a fellow cyclist.

They stare right you, or maybe right through you. Who knows the thoughts going through their minds. The poseur will offer no wave for you are clearly not as good as they are. Sure they struggle to place their awkward cleat tipped carbon platforms at every stop light but somehow with their unlimited budgets they are unable to nod. Perhaps this is due to keeping their brow higher than everyone that their neck muscles have become so pronounced that the nod is akin to a Ferigno /Hulk run. Maybe its my fault and I cannot see it.

So this brings us to the title. Once upon a time if one had to conduct number two in a public restroom, you would offer a courtesy flush to alleviate those lingering nearby of your processed scent. But nowadays this is almost impossible. On one point you could be possibly branded as an environmental terrorist for having wasted precious resources. Flushing twice will likely kill a baby seal or eliminate a patch of old growth forest. For those not worried about the double flush affects on the ecosystem, the makers of our fine faux marble mall and restaurant thrones have offered the obese, lazy North American graffiti artists the ability to concentrate on the churning and/or awkward burning at hand with an automatic flusher.

Is this where all of our courtesy has gone? An obese population so fixated on the easy way that all courtesy is gone. So ask all of you, cyclists and shitters alike: Show some courtesy. Throw up a wave, a flush, allow a car in front of you, open a door for someone and generally become a little less fat and a little bit nicer.

BACK!!!

OK so I haven't posted since November last year apparently. Maybe it was the depression of constant injuries or maybe lazinesss or maybe laziness because of constant injuries.

But I am back at www.slow-triathlete.blogspot.com

I am planning on updating a few things like some training I am doing and other observations about triathlon, cycling, swimming and the world in general. I am hoping that I can illicit some humour a' la bike snob NYC and those similar.

I will not always be writing from home as I am off to Afghanistan sooner than my wife and kids would like. So with the apologies out of the way, watch for future posts @ www.slow-triathlete.blogspot.com