TriDot Ambassador Camp at the Ironman World Championships

My heart is full, and my triathlon brain is enlightened after spending the last four days at TriDot’s 2nd Ambassador Camp in St. George, UT, and the first since we first all met in February 2020.  Like the last time, one of the best aspects was meeting our TriDot ambassador, coach and staff members in person.  Since the last ambassador camp, I’ve met some my fellow ambassadors in person at races and through meet ups when we found ourselves in the same location so this time, I formed deeper connections and met new friends too.  We had amazing speakers who inspired us each day:

Day 1: “Triathlon is a little sport with a big heart.” – Bob Babbitt

 

After long and complex travel to arrive at the beautiful Red Mountain Resort in St. George, more than 70 TriDot Ambassadors were treated to an opening talk by Bob Babbitt, co-founder of Competitor magazine and the Challenged Athletes Foundation, which has helped over 26,000 individuals with physical challenges to get access to sports since 1994.  Bob shared his stories from racing in the 3^rd ever Ironman in 1980, and in five more events during the early days of the Ironman, which was founded in 1978 by John and Judy Collins.  He recounted his own stories that have been told through different perspectives of those early days athletes before Ironman was a known brand and when it was a local, niche event that ultimately became famous as ABC’s “World Wide of Sports” happened to be in town for a cliff diving event in 1980.  From there many California athletes got wind of the event and showed up the following years, including Julie Moss, who was famously captured in 1982 as she struggled and crawled to the finish line, and Kathleen McCartney passed her to win the women’s title.  But it was Julie who became famous and made the event a household name as callers flooded into ABC wanting to know more about her and if she had actually survived the event.

 

Bob Babbitt gave the opening talk

Bob also shared stories how in the 1980s, Dave Scott became the reigning men’s champion with wins in 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, and 1987, and Mark Allen was determined to have his own title.  It took seven attempts for Mark to win the championship in 1989 and then go on to win five more.  Bob co-founded Competitor magazine with Lois Schwartz in 1987, and a 1989 cover photo showcased Lois’ famous photo of Mark and Dave running side by side with the headline IRONWAR, when the race was still undecided with less than two miles to go. The stories of these early days make for a good book, captured in “Iron War, Dave Scott, Mark Allen & the Greatest Race Ever Run” by Matt Fitzgerald.  

 

Like many big-hearted entrepreneurs, Bob has found a passion and purpose in the Foundation he co-founded.  He relayed stories of the kinds of athletes the Foundation has helped, with a focus on Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah from Ghana, who first just asked for a bike so that he could raise awareness for the needs of the disabled, having lost his leg.  The Foundation ultimately made Emmanuel famous as he met with Kofi Annan from the UN and President George W. Bush, allowing him to return to Ghana and convince the President to initiate legislation to help the disabled and show his country that disabled people can be just as able as those without a disability.  His story is highlighted in a documentary, Emmanuel’s Gift, narrated by Oprah Winfrey. 

 

The collection of Bob’s stories reminded us how we ended up St. George, UT for the 2021 annual Ironman World Championship.  However, this was the first time in the race’s history that it was not being held in Hawaii due to the Covid cancellations that transpired in 2020 and 2021.

 

Day 2: “Treat yourself as an individual, don’t just copy what other athletes do with regards to hydration.” - Andy Blow

 

On day 2, we got to experience a portion of the Ironman bike course up Snow Canyon.  It was an epic ride with over 4,100 feet of elevation that athletes experience on tired legs as they hit mile 100 approaching the top – that is after they have already experienced nearly 5,000 feet of elevation.  The red rock vistas made for stunning background with the desert foreground.

Riding up Snow Canyon!

In the afternoon we heard from Jan Sibbersen, a former Pro triathlete from Germany who holds the world record for the Kona swim, a feat he accomplished in 2018 at the age of 43 – after he actually had retired and was racing as an age group athlete.  Jan was an investment banker who decided to go pro in 2001.  Upon retiring, it was fitting that he founded the wetsuit company Sailfish.

We also nourished our brains with talks by Andy Blow, a former British pro who founded Precision Hydration, and Dr. Krista Austin, a PhD in Movement Science, who helps pros and amateurs optimize their performance with nutrition and training and racing fueling plans.  They say nutrition is the 4^th discipline and these talks further educated us on it.  Most helpful, many of us opted to do a sweat test and receive a personalized plan for our electrolyte needs.  Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to work out and sweat to do a sweat test.  It can be done while sitting with electrodes in your arms.  The sweat test measures the amount of sodium your body releases, which is genetic and does not change much over time or based on other environmental factors.  Your sweat rate does change with environmental factors.  It’s a fascinating area of science that Andy was fueled (pun intended) to pursue based on his academic background in Sports and Exercise Science and his experience having struggled in hot weather races as a pro triathlete.  This topic is so interesting that I will dedicate a future full blog post to it.

 

Day 3: “Dreams don’t happen at the speed of Twitter.” – Mark Allen

 

Friday began at 6:00am with my functional movement screening with B.J. Leeper.  BJ holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science who specializes in comprehensive movement testing and injury testing among athletes.  BJ is exploring methods to allow athletes to self-screen themselves so that they can pinpoint weakness areas and understand how to correct them.  I was in a group of three and it was interesting to see how we each had different weakness areas.

 

After breakfast we set out for our second day of cycling, this time going up Red Hills Parkway and Skyline Drive.  After elevation of more than 3,100 feet, I then opted for another ride up Snow Canyon.  It was definitely harder on tired legs, but my legs were nowhere near as tired as the athletes would face the next day.

 

In the afternoon, we headed to a local community pool for a swim session – and waited for our “surprise” with anticipation.  Finally, our camp director, John Mayfield, introduced Mark Allen!  Mark talked about the determination that is required to succeed in our sport.  He also encouraged us to get off of our trainers and mix up the environments we train in. He, along with Jan Sibbersen, stayed on the pool deck throughout our swim session to give athletes pointers.

Mark Allen was our surprise guest!

We concluded our day with Jeff Boher, founder and CEO of TriDot, giving us a preview of new features to come.  Jeff’s new goals are to “make training as fun as racing” – but we are sworn to secrecy on what that means:-)

That evening after dinner I had the pleasure of sitting down and engaging with Tom Watson as we recorded a short interview for one of his upcoming podcasts in which I talk about how structured training has helped take me to new levels – stay tuned!

 

Day 4:  “Let’s bring them home!!!” – Mike Reilly

 

Saturday began with a 4am alarm – and I wasn’t even racing! The TriDot Ambassadors piled into vans, and we headed over to Sandy Hollow to work the T1 swim transition for the Ironman World Championship. Our jobs included directing men and women athletes to the right tent, helping them as requested with their gear, and watching for signs of medical distress. The water was 64 degrees – very cold, even with a wetsuit. We did have some athletes suffer from hypothermia coming out of the water and some of our volunteers assisted at the medical tent to help warm them up. One woman took an hour to warm up – but she went on to have a great

race and finish with a great time.

Pro Men in T1

One of the great perks of this volunteer stint was that we had an up-close view of the Pros swim transition. We also got to cheer on all of the athletes as they made their way in their age groups to the water. It was interesting to observe the ways different age groups reacted to our enthusiastic cheering – ages less than 30 and over 50 were generally more engaging, while those competitive 30 – 49 groups were focused in their own world.

The TriDot Volunteer Crew

After the last athletes were out of the water, we helped to break down the changing tents and then headed back to the resort for our own transition and refueling, which was quick as we learned that some of our TriDot athletes were on the bike course approaching the resort. We cheered them on as they ascended towards Snow Canyon.

 

Almost empty!

Some of us loaded up in John Mayfield’s van in hopes of catching the men’s pro finish. As we tried to make our way downtown, we were stopped and rerouted multiple times with detours. We then had our own race fueling issues – we only had 1 mile left on our tank of gas!  John stopped and fueled at our own “aid station” and then proceeded to race down and drop us off at the finish line just before Kristian Blummenfelt arrived with a time of 7:49:18, followed 5 minutes later by Lionel Sanders and Braden Currie, who were just 16 seconds apart.  It was an amazing finish by Lionel who caught and passed Brad just before the finish line to take second place.  Daniela Ryf who had held the women’s lead by 10 minutes for most of the run course, captured her fifth championship title and arrived to the cheers of the crowd followed by Kat Matthews and then Anne Haug.

 

Many of us stayed in the finish line area the rest of the day to welcome home our fellow TriDotters and athletes, all of whom we had sent off that morning.  The course is open for 17 hours after the last person enters the water, although you technically have to finish within 17 hours and meet intermediate cut offs to not receive a Did Not Finish (DNF). At midnight, with one hour to go, Kristian and Daniela were at the finish line to give the last wave of finishers their medals. Mike Reilly, the famous voice of Ironman, came out onto the red carpet and hosted the greatest party in Ironman – enthusiastically revving up the crowd and welcoming home the last finishers with his famous, “YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!"

 

Epilogue:

 

I awoke in a fog on Sunday morning after not a lot of sleep. I decided a recovery swim was in order after my extended day and before my long trip home. The texts on our camp What’s App group flooded in. We all were so grateful to the TriDot staff for hosting an amazing experience, and for the memories we made engaging with each other and giving back to sport we love through our volunteering and spectating.

 

As Bob Babbitt said, “triathlon is a little sport with a big heart”.  Every once in a while you will find unsupportive people in the sport, or see a group get torn apart by politics. At TriDot we are so lucky to have a group of staff, coaches, ambassadors, and athletes who truly support one another. #WeAreTriDot!!!