Pro Triathletes NEVER Lie!

Chris McDonald is a 3 time Ironman Champion. And he’s not a liar.

Chris was the first finisher at Ironman Wisconsin last year, so this year he was on posters and on the cover of the “spectator’s guide:”

Remember the “wetsuit strippers” post from IM WI a few weeks ago? That was the post where I talked about Chris McDonald (AKA “Big Sexy”) and how I got to wear his goggles that he had dropped during my time helping peel wetsuits. (Afterwards, I placed them in his gear bag.) Chris saw the post and said this:

Hey..... Big Sexy here :-)

This is Very very funny and steve should have just kept them as a souvenir. I will have to send him out a pair :-)

Chris

Well, when I checked the mail on Monday, there was a package from Chris McDonald himself. I think I squealed with joy. And peed my pants a little.

Yes, those are goggles from Chris McDonald. Chris told me that they are THEE goggles that he wore at IM WI this year (where he finished 5th overall in 8:56:47), so they were the ones that I had around my neck after he had dropped them in T1:

There was something else in the envelope too:

To Steve:
Dream big and live your dreams!
Chris McDonald
“Big Sexy”

I’ll never be able to wear the hat (it’s more of a keepsake), but I might actually use the goggles. Embarrassing revelation: I’ve been training and racing in the same pair of goggles since I started in this sport nearly 4 years ago!

THANKS CHRIS!! You're the best!! Good luck at Kona in 10 days!! We’ll all be rooting for you!!

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Ironman Wisconsin 2009 Highlight Video

Last night (while flipping between the Emmys, football, The Simpsons, and King Kong), I finally put together a little highlight video of IM WI 2009. Being Pharmie and I volunteered all day in Madison, there are no clips from the bike. Sorry. Anyway, enjoy:

Direct link on YouTube

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Friday Funny 54: Overheard in T2

There are so many people that I helped in T2 this past weekend at Ironman Wisconsin who I will NEVER forget. But there’s one guy that stands out (for hilarious reasons).

A few hours into my shift in T2, I found myself helping this 45-55 year old man. He was a little shorter than average, and he had a round face and round features (think of a short Santa with no beard and a smaller tummy). He was SO GRATEFUL for anything I did. “Can I dump out your transition bag?” I asked. “Yeah! Thanks man!” he replied. He replied that way to most things I asked - everything he said ended with “thanks man!”

As he was getting geared up for the run, I was helping him put his bike stuff back into his transition bag: “Do you need this anymore? Can I put it in the bag?” He’d reply with “yeah, bag it up. Thanks man!” He was so sweet and so sincere the entire time. “Want these gels with you?” “Yeah, I'll take em,' thanks man!”

As he was nearly ready to go, he asked “Hey, do you guys have any Vaseline?...” People use Vaseline in some areas to prevent chaffing: nipples, armpits, thighs, etc. “Yeah, it’s over on the ‘med table.’ I’ll be right back...”

I came running back with a container of Vaseline. “Hey thanks man,” he said again. He reached 3 fingers into the Vaseline and came out with a huge glob of goo.

It’s the next line that kills me. This soft-spoken, middle-aged man spoke up a little louder this time. He loudly stated “God, my fuckin’ balls are KILLING me!...” as he reached his 3 fingers covered in Vaseline into his shorts and smeared them all over... well... all over his “fuckin’ balls.”

I nearly exploded with laughter. I had to hold back. I think he slightly apologized for being so blunt. I didn’t care: “Well, ya gotta do what ya gotta do” I said with a smile.

I wish I got his name or number so I could check his results. I hope he finished well, and I hope his balls are A-OK!

****************
Update: Many of you left funny comments in the “wetsuit strippers” post from Wednesday (3 posts down). That was the post where I talked about Chris McDonald (AKA “Big Sexy”) and how I got to wear his goggles that he had dropped during my time helping peel wetsuits. (Afterwards, I placed them in his gear bag.) Some of you commented with remarks like “I wonder what Chris would think if he sees this post!”

Well, he saw the post. He actually commented. Yes he did.

Hey..... Big Sexy here :-)

This is Very very funny and steve should have just kept them as a souvenir. I will have to send him out a pair :-)

Chris

Holy crap. He’s sending me his goggles! Oh, and check out Chris McDonald’s blog. It’s so interesting for us “normals” to hear what the pros are thinking during their race. And it’s amazing that IM WI was Chris’s 29th Ironman! Thinking about that brings that slight vomit taste to the back of my mouth... ;)

Happy weekend!!

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Hot, Sweaty People Doing Ironman Wisconsin 2009

There were too many people that Pharmie and I saw on Sunday to list by name: there were friends racing, friends volunteering, blogger buddies left and right, and even blog “lurkers” popping up everywhere to say hi. So I’m not going to try to list the names of everyone that we met up with for fear of missing 1 or 2 and making them feel bad.

Instead, I’ll show you photos of our friends at work. The majority of these are mine, but there are a few that I borrowed from friends on Facebook who have all created large “IM WI 2009” albums filled with great photos! Here we go:

Delicious pizza with friends the night before. That’s Pharmie’s hand snagging some burnt cheese off my crust.


HALF the bikes the day before the race.


The other half on race morning.


The sun rising as the water fills with athletes.


Treading water, waiting for the “starting cannon.”


Ready, set, GO!!


Swimmers in the distance, turning at the buoy on the far left to start their second loop. And the helix full of spectators.


The madness in the “wetsuit peelers” area. (That’s popular IM announcer Mike Riley on the right.)


Chris McDonald “Big Sexy” getting ready to ride. He had the fastest bike split of the race: 23.8 mph!

After helping out as a wetsuit peeler (see video 2 posts down), Pharmie and I got ready to help change the athletes in T2 after their 112 mile ride (with still a 26.2 mile marathon to look forward to!). They would bike up the helix, run into Monona Terrace, grab their “gear bag” from the room FULL of bags, run to the male or female changing room, and get changed into (or out of) whatever they’d like. Here’s the room full of bike-to-run gear bags:

Gear bags.


What the athletes saw after grabbing their gear bag: left for female, right for male.


I worked at that spot “directing traffic” for about the last hour of my T2 shift.


T2 male changing room just before the first pros arrive. It got hectic QUICK!

Pharmie and I had a LOT of fun helping people change in T2. We’ll have stories about that shortly. Guess who I got to change?! Yes, I helped Chris McDonald Big Sexy with his gear bag!! My SECOND brush with greatness on the day!! (Check 2 posts down if you don’t know what I’m talking about - I got to wear Big Sexy’s goggles all throughout the wetsuit peeling!) I did the best I could, but unfortunately I couldn’t understand Big Sexy when he asked for his sunglasses, so he had to reach over and grab them himself. I felt bad. I hope I’m not the reason why he didn’t win....

After 5 hours of helping in T2, Pharmie and I grabbed a quick bite and headed for our next duty: a water stop on Capital Square. On our way to the aid station, we spotted XT4:

XT4 flying through the run!


Marie walking through the aid station.


Dr. Joe was THRILLED to see Pharmie!


Tanya hamming it up!


Kris looked great all day!


Jeremy “toasting” me.


Iron Girl Nyhus cooling off with a wet sponge.

I was giving out gels all night while announcing what the next table had: “GELS *pointing to gels in my hand*, ORANGES, GRAPES, PRETZELS, CHIPS, BANANAS” *pointing to the table just past me.* Pharmie was next to me giving out goodies. Here she is with a cup of grapes and an orange as Robby and Kris (the wetsuit peeler “captains”) stopped by to say hi:

Robby, Pharmie, and Kris.


WI State Capital near our aid station as it was getting dark.


Handing out glow necklaces to the runners.


Brian (with a scraped knee from a bike crash)


XT4 sooo focused on the finish line!


Dr. Joe again!


Wedgie (1199) and a Team Disney buddy headed to the finish!


Kris heading to the finish of her first IM!


Molly and Pharmie at our aid station.

Our shift was over, and we headed to the party at the finish! Here’s everyone on either side of the finisher’s chute doing the YMCA. (Can you spot Pharmie and I in here? She’s doing the YMCA and I’m fussing with my camera...)

People beating the signs near the finish to make some NOISE!

We found Jeremy and his family. He had just finished IM WI #2!! Congrats Jeremy!

What a day! We didn’t race, but we were EXHAUSTED! Up at 5, at the race by 6, volunteering at the swim from 7-9:30, volunteering in T2 from 12-5, volunteering on the run from 6-10, and cheering at the finish until 12:30! We slept HARD that night! What a great day! Congrats to ALL the athletes out there!!

(To see a few more IM WI 2009 images, click here to see an album that contains many of these images, and a few more not seen here.)

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Ironman Wisconsin Swim and Bike Cut-Offs

There’s a 2 hour and 20 minute cut-off for the swim at most Ironman races. It always gets a little emotional when that time is nearing. The 2:20 cut-off was a little loose at IM WI on Sunday: they kept saying that you just need to be standing in the water by that time, even if you aren’t quite across the timing mat.

Here’s the last few minutes and seconds of the swim at IM WI 2009. The crowd hears Mike Riley say what they’ve been wanting to hear at the 1:50 point in this video, and they erupt!

Direct link on YouTube

There was actually one more man JUST behind him in the water. They let that second man keep going too. Anyone else out there finished the swim, their timing chip was removed, and their Ironman Day was over.

I dug through the results last night. The man that finished just behind the man in the video went on to finish the race in 16:22:03. Unfortunately, the man in my video didn’t make the bike cut-off - he never finished the race.

This next video is RIGHT at the bike cut-off time (which is 5:30 pm - 10 hours and 30 minutes into the race). Usually, athletes are told to dismount well before the 2 timing mats, and then run over the mats and into transition. This woman was SO CLOSE to missing the cut-off time that the volunteers didn’t even let her dismount; they just drug her across both timing mats while she was still on her bike so that she’d make the cut-off time!


Direct link on YouTube

I think at the end of the video, you can hear people shouting “Good job, Julie.” I searched through the results, found a “Julie” with one of the slower bike splits, and she didn’t end up finishing the race. Dang.

The saddest thing (which I couldn’t bring myself to film) was the 2 people that finished just a few minutes after Julie. The next person to finish the bike dismounted and went sprinting across the timing mats as if he knew it was going to be close. A volunteer had to grab him around his waist to stop him. The athlete’s head dropped - he knew why the volunteer was holding him back. They took his chip and ended his race.

A minute after he came in, a woman came riding up. She dismounted, was told that she couldn’t continue, and she placed her head in her hands and just stood there and cried. I think everyone around her was crying too.

Later today I’ll post photos of a lot of our friends rocking the race. It will be more up-beat than this post! ;)

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“Those are the ONLY Strippers That I EVER Want You Around!...”

...yes, that was a famous line from my lovely wife Pharmie in reference to being only let around “Wetsuit Strippers” instead of the... well... the “other” kind of strippers. Apparently, she’s got something against paint strippers. ;)

Here are some photos from the beginning of our huge day of volunteering last Sunday at Ironman Wisconsin 2009. If you don’t know what “wetsuit stripping” or “wetsuit peeling” is, make sure to keep reading.

Here’s nearly 2500 athletes getting ready to start their 2.4 mile swim:

As everyone was swimming, Pharmie and I got ready to help peel wetsuits. Can you see all the people lining the helix behind us watching the swim?

Here’s Mike and Rachel, another pair of St. Paulites, also ready to strip:

Here’s Robby B, the wetsuit peeler captain, putting final touches on the way out of the water. The best thing about this photo is the other volunteer checking out Robby’s sweet, sweet ass:

Watch yourself, Robby!

The athletes started coming out of the water. What did we have to do as “Wetsuit Peelers?” The best way to explain it is to show you this video I made on Sunday:


Direct link on YouTube

So that’s what we did. I actually got to help strip Pro Triathlete Chris McDonald when he came out of the water. Chris was the winner of IMWI last year! Shortly after Chris ran off, I ran up to peeler captain Robby B (all giddy like a school-girl) and said “I got to strip big, sexy, Chris McDonald!” Robby laughed, reached into his pocket, pulled out some goggles, and threw them into my hands. “Here. He dropped his goggles as he ran off...” So for the rest of my time helping as a peeler, I had Chris’s goggles around my neck:

My brush with greatness!

Madison.com (an “internet newspaper” sort of website) had a few images from Ironman. Two of them featured Pharmie and I in the swim peeling area. Here’s the first one that is an intense photo of us at work:

Close-up of our intensity...

And here’s the second one that shows how wet you get as a peeler (with all the water flying), which is why we were both wearing our Sugoi tri shorts:

I like that image because (1) you can see that I’m still wearing Sexy McDonald’s goggles around my neck and (2) Mother Nature placed a shadow line in the PERFECT spot so my junk isn’t TOTALLY on display for you all.

Close-up

After a fun few hours of peeling, it was time to go inside and get ready to help these triathletes change out of their bike gear and into their run gear after riding 112 miles. But before I did that, I kissed Big Sexy’s goggles for luck and placed them back in his gear bag:

I hope Chris doesn’t mind lip marks...

More photos and videos coming in the next few days! If you missed the post below about Mike and Jenny at IM, make sure to check it out.

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Best/Worst Possible Outcome to Ironman Wisconsin 2009

I bet you all remember Mike and Jenny. Mike was the winner of the “Tales of a Virgin Athlete Contest” a few months ago on my blog. He had a great story of Jenny’s and his amazing weight loss - and their discovery of marathons and triathlons in the process.

Sunday, we were cheering for Mike and Jenny at their first Ironman. Here they are coming through the water stop where Pharmie and I were volunteering:

Just as Pharmie’s pulling away after a hug

Pharmie and I stationed ourselves at the finish line with about 70 minutes left in the race. Ten minutes before the race closed (at 11:50 pm), I jumped off the bleachers at the finish line and started running the course backwards. I was looking for Mike and Jenny. I sprinted for about 3 minutes, and there was no sign of them. I ran back to the finish line just a few minutes before midnight. I saw Pharmie, pursed my lips holding back some tears, and shook my head as if to say “No Mike... no Jenny...” Pharmie started to tear up a little too.

Right as the race clock was hitting 17 hours - midnight - and the race was officially “over,” I went to go find Mike and Jenny. I didn’t know if they had made the cut-off at State Street at mile 19ish. I ran around the capital, through the closed-down aid-station where Pharmie and I had been working, and headed down State Street. After a block or 2 down State, a figure emerged into the middle of the road around a corner. It was Mike walking with a volunteer. My eyes welled up a little more. I ran up to him.

“Steve, hey man, it’s good to see you...” Mike said to me with a smile. I replied, “Well I wasn’t about to leave you out here...” as I smacked him on the back and started walking with him towards the capital. We chatted a bit. He knew the race was “over,” but he still was going to get in his 140.6 miles. That’s what I wanted to hear.

Mike was near another man also still trying to finish. A different volunteer with a walkie-talkie ran up to them both and told them they needed to start running: the people were sticking around the finish line, and they could only keep it going for another 7 minutes or so. Both Mike and the other guy obliged, and we were all running. Mike looked GOOD. I mean he still had some form, and he looked great while working towards the finish. I was shouting out any little generic bit of motivation that I could: “Looking good Mike!” “Keep it up!” “You’re gonna do this Mike!”

Here's Mike's take on hearing the news that they were keeping the finish line open for him:

...they will let us run down the chute and even though I will not be an offical finisher, we can cross the line. I thought that was cool and suddenly I could run the 4 blocks. I am not sure even now how I did it. When I got my chance to run down with the crowd freaking out, I felt no pain. It was very cool and Ironman and WTC did not have to do that for me. I didn't make it. Bottom line. I didn't make it. They gave me a medal, t shirt and hat too. Right now it doesn't feel right to have it and not have made it. But I went the distance. I finished.

Damn right you finished, Mike! It was the same 140.6 miles that everyone else covered! And I don't know if Mike knew it, but I was taking a few quick videos as he was running. The following video is made up of 3 short clips:
1. Mike just after he started running.
2. Mike running and joking with his sons (in a black shirt and a white shirt).
3. Mike rounding the last corner, throwing high-fives like a rockstar, and heading into the finisher’s chute.


Direct link on YouTube

Here are some photos that Pharmie took of Mike hitting the chute just after I stopped filming:

Pharmie and I had to catch a shuttle back to our hotel, so we couldn’t stick around for Jenny’s finish. But we heard that she made it to the finish line as well. So both Mike and Jenny got finisher’s medals!

So it was a bad finish to Ironman Wisconsin because Mike and Jenny didn’t make the time cut-off. But it’s also a great finish to Ironman Wisconsin, because they both made it through the whole race and covered the distance. And their boys were there to cheer them home!! Mike and Jenny, you 2 are the f’ing strongest Iron Couple I know! Congrats!

(I’ll be back with a lot of fun pictures and videos from IMWI in the next few days. And race photos from the 20 Miler and 10K on Saturday. So check back...)

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