Trilogue

Props to Simon Lessing for finishing Ironman Canada even though he blew up a bit and didn't win. The online coverage indicated he was conserving some on the bike - maybe he swam too hard staying with Sibbersen. Good on Chris Lieto for pulling out the win after riding the hell out of the bike course and managing to hold off a fast running Vuckovic. Karen Holloway also broke out to win the women's race and claim her Kona slot - what, no website?

Thumbs down to IMNA and WTC for making the fact that they crammed over 2200 people on the starting line sound like a good thing. IMC, as the only remaining event other than Kona with just one loop on all 3 legs, is an awesome course and the volunteers are the most capable in the world, probably the best equipped to handle the volume, but it's still just too many. That's capitalism for you though, you've got to take the bad with the good. Finally, spare a warm thought for 2001 winner Gillian Bakker who crashed out on the bike and was planning to retire after this edition of IMC to turn to the noble profession of schoolteaching.

Sanctioning Battle Heats Up - Rumor has it that to validate a lottery slot for Kona in 2006, you'll have to finish not just any half ironman or longer race, but a Global Tri Group sanctioned race. How's that going to work for International lottery entrants? Will GTG really have a sufficient presence worldwide by next spring? And no domestic slot validation at, say, Wildflower - that seems a bit odd. I mean, is the purpose to make sure you are prepared to safely go the distance, or is it simply to force entry into affiliated events? Based on the prominent "70.3 Ironman" logos on their sites, Eagleman, Vineman and BSLT are already chugging the koolaid - they're not going to risk their Ironman slots by sticking with USAT. Of course this only affects 150 people or 200 if you count the overseas contingent, and the North American folks probably won't care about the possible added travel expense and logistic hassle of getting to a sanctioned event because they'll be so giddy about making it to the show. So no problem!

RunnersWeb.com has a nice article on Heather Fuhr, the Canadian Ironman competitor who recently won Ironman USA Lake Placid for the fifth time. The interviewer was fellow Canadian and "former World-ranked Ironman competitor" Lynne Bermel, who I hadn't heard of, or perhaps had forgotten, and a little digging led to another Runnersweb.Com article, an interview with Lynne herself from 1999.

The Earliest Days - stumbled on this post which popped up as a "related link" in gmail: Jack Johnstone's Early History of Triathlon Set the wayback machine for the early 1970's on Mission Bay and check out the details of the early multi-leg swim/run races which eventually morphed into the first known swim-bike-run in September of 1975!