Lee Gruenfeld <http://leegruenfeld.com/> almost got us some publicity in Competition magazine. He's a friend, golf nut and writer (golf novels are his best work), that visits here every year while his wife competes and often wins her class in the Ironman event. This year he wrote a daily blog on Kona, the event and the people. I don't think this one was ever published though.
Odds and Ends
The Big One is tomorrow so this is my last dispatch, with the possible exception of some post-race musings Monday if there's anything muse-able. No theme today, just a couple of items of interest.
A really extreme sport: I was hoping to do a feature piece on my friend Bill Graham, but somehow time and space got away from me, so I'll mention him briefly, just enough to pique your interest for next year. If you think Ironman is an off-the-wall nutzoid sport, listen to this:
Bill and his wife Sandi live here in Kailua-Kona, where they settled after Bill retired as a United Airlines pilot. Bill is a major-league water-baby. His idea of a fun way to start the day is a little underwater swimming in the ocean.
When I do a little underwater swimming in the ocean, I stick my face in the water and flap around on the surface while breathing through a short tube sticking up over my head. If I'm lucky, I'll see some parrot fish, a few wrassies and maybe a turtle.
When Bill does a little underwater swimming in the ocean, he dives down to about 200 feet. If he's lucky, he sees a giant squid or a Russian submarine.
It's not unusual for people to dive down to 200 feet, even though that's way deeper than most scuba divers would dare to go. What is unusual is that Bill isn't a scuba diver. The only gear he has is a mask and fins. He does the whole dive on a single breath. He's been down as deep as 215 using only fins, and has hit 231 feet pulling on a rope. (You'd think he would have been able to go much deeper pulling on a rope, but the rope was only 231 feet long. He plans to do better this year.)
This isn't even Bill's actual sport. He does deep dives like that just for fun. His sport, the one he actually competes in officially, is breath holding. The athlete lies face down in a pool, perfectly still, and then someone clicks a stopwatch. Some time later the competitors picks his head up out of the water and the time on the stopwatch is noted. Whoever stayed down the longest wins.
Bill, who is 67, is the current U.S. record holder. Take a guess at what his record-breaking time was, then check the end of this article to see how close you came.
Ironman CEO Challenge: For the last five years Ted Kennedy (not that Ted Kennedy – the one who was formerly with Ironman North America) has been organizing an event within the Ironman called the CEO Challenge, which gives corporate execs the opportunity to compete against each other in IM qualifying events as well as the World Championships here in Kona. It's been a terrifically successful program, and this week the CEO Challenge got some great ink in BusinessWeek magazine. It was the centerpiece of a major feature called "And Now, The Chief Endurance Officer." You can read it on-line here: http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_42/b3955104.htm
But yeah, okay, big deal, whatever, because the real news is that Ted, a true visionary, has decided to branch out and create the CEO Golf Challenge. This is a series of private tournaments events throughout the year aimed at finding out who the best CEO golfer is. In the same way that CEOs doing the Ironman get a world-class experience when they race, those doing the Golf Challenge will also get the full red carpet treatment.
The coolest thing is that each of the "qualifying" tournaments will take place in conjunction with a major PGA Tour event. I mean "major" literally, because the events we're talking about coincide with all four of pro golfing's majors – The Masters, British, U.S. Open and the PGA – as well as the Nissan and Players Championship. The CEO tournaments will be held at high-end courses close to the PGA event, and the CEOs will be teamed with pros from the PGA Tour who entered the major events but didn't make the Friday cut. The execs will also receive full access, VIP passes to the PGA events during breaks in their private tourneys.
Read all about it here: www.ceogolfchallenge.com
…and if you know of any corporate kahunas who might be interested, tell them ASAP, because each event will be limited to 24 entrants.
Oh, by the way: Troon McAllister his own self will be involved in the CEO Golf Challenge to ensure that everyone has a wonderful time (by making sure that every other golfer looks good by comparison).
A nifty blog: My buddy Mitch Thrower – author, publisher, raconteur, triathlete – has a great blog going in the lead-up to Ironman. It's called Triathlete Magazine's Memoirs of an Ironman 2005 and has all kinds of interesting and useful stuff in it, including "90 Tips & Secrets for Your Best Ironman Experience." It's fascinating even if you're not doing the race, and will give you all kinds of insight into what it's like. Click on the title in the last sentence, or cut and paste this into your browser: http://ironmitch.blogspot.com
Following the race: If you were planning on following an athlete or two in tomorrow's Ironman, you probably already know that you can get real time splits throughout the day at http://www.ironmanlive.com/. Every time an athlete passes an official chip timing point, the time is supposed to be posted on the site. My personal experience is that this works fairly well, except when it doesn't. Of course, you have to be near a computer to get these splits, which can put a bit of a damper on your day.
There's another way. An outfit called WiggleWireless will let you choose up to three athletes and will then send text messages to your cell phone every time any of those athletes passes over a chip timing point. You can also optionally get messages about the pro field, weather, course conditions and what's happening in and around Kona.
When I tried to use this service last year there were some problems. Company officials have assured me that those bugs have been thoroughly ironed out now and all is well. A text message should be on its way to you less than half a minute after the athlete hits the timing mat, although it could take as long as three minutes depending on traffic.
The service is also free this year, except for whatever your cell provider charges for incoming text messages. (Mine is ten cents a message.)
Give it a shot. You can sign up in about two minutes by going to http://wigglewireless.com/signup_kona.html There's also a way to test your phone's ability to receive the messages, which I'd recommend you do before enrolling.
_______
Answer: Bill Graham's U.S. breath holding record is 7 minutes, 21 seconds. He's gone 7:42 in practice.
The world record is 8:58.
Odds and Ends
The Big One is tomorrow so this is my last dispatch, with the possible exception of some post-race musings Monday if there's anything muse-able. No theme today, just a couple of items of interest.
A really extreme sport: I was hoping to do a feature piece on my friend Bill Graham, but somehow time and space got away from me, so I'll mention him briefly, just enough to pique your interest for next year. If you think Ironman is an off-the-wall nutzoid sport, listen to this:
Bill and his wife Sandi live here in Kailua-Kona, where they settled after Bill retired as a United Airlines pilot. Bill is a major-league water-baby. His idea of a fun way to start the day is a little underwater swimming in the ocean.
When I do a little underwater swimming in the ocean, I stick my face in the water and flap around on the surface while breathing through a short tube sticking up over my head. If I'm lucky, I'll see some parrot fish, a few wrassies and maybe a turtle.
When Bill does a little underwater swimming in the ocean, he dives down to about 200 feet. If he's lucky, he sees a giant squid or a Russian submarine.
It's not unusual for people to dive down to 200 feet, even though that's way deeper than most scuba divers would dare to go. What is unusual is that Bill isn't a scuba diver. The only gear he has is a mask and fins. He does the whole dive on a single breath. He's been down as deep as 215 using only fins, and has hit 231 feet pulling on a rope. (You'd think he would have been able to go much deeper pulling on a rope, but the rope was only 231 feet long. He plans to do better this year.)
This isn't even Bill's actual sport. He does deep dives like that just for fun. His sport, the one he actually competes in officially, is breath holding. The athlete lies face down in a pool, perfectly still, and then someone clicks a stopwatch. Some time later the competitors picks his head up out of the water and the time on the stopwatch is noted. Whoever stayed down the longest wins.
Bill, who is 67, is the current U.S. record holder. Take a guess at what his record-breaking time was, then check the end of this article to see how close you came.
Ironman CEO Challenge: For the last five years Ted Kennedy (not that Ted Kennedy – the one who was formerly with Ironman North America) has been organizing an event within the Ironman called the CEO Challenge, which gives corporate execs the opportunity to compete against each other in IM qualifying events as well as the World Championships here in Kona. It's been a terrifically successful program, and this week the CEO Challenge got some great ink in BusinessWeek magazine. It was the centerpiece of a major feature called "And Now, The Chief Endurance Officer." You can read it on-line here: http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_42/b3955104.htm
But yeah, okay, big deal, whatever, because the real news is that Ted, a true visionary, has decided to branch out and create the CEO Golf Challenge. This is a series of private tournaments events throughout the year aimed at finding out who the best CEO golfer is. In the same way that CEOs doing the Ironman get a world-class experience when they race, those doing the Golf Challenge will also get the full red carpet treatment.
The coolest thing is that each of the "qualifying" tournaments will take place in conjunction with a major PGA Tour event. I mean "major" literally, because the events we're talking about coincide with all four of pro golfing's majors – The Masters, British, U.S. Open and the PGA – as well as the Nissan and Players Championship. The CEO tournaments will be held at high-end courses close to the PGA event, and the CEOs will be teamed with pros from the PGA Tour who entered the major events but didn't make the Friday cut. The execs will also receive full access, VIP passes to the PGA events during breaks in their private tourneys.
Read all about it here: www.ceogolfchallenge.com
…and if you know of any corporate kahunas who might be interested, tell them ASAP, because each event will be limited to 24 entrants.
Oh, by the way: Troon McAllister his own self will be involved in the CEO Golf Challenge to ensure that everyone has a wonderful time (by making sure that every other golfer looks good by comparison).
A nifty blog: My buddy Mitch Thrower – author, publisher, raconteur, triathlete – has a great blog going in the lead-up to Ironman. It's called Triathlete Magazine's Memoirs of an Ironman 2005 and has all kinds of interesting and useful stuff in it, including "90 Tips & Secrets for Your Best Ironman Experience." It's fascinating even if you're not doing the race, and will give you all kinds of insight into what it's like. Click on the title in the last sentence, or cut and paste this into your browser: http://ironmitch.blogspot.com
Following the race: If you were planning on following an athlete or two in tomorrow's Ironman, you probably already know that you can get real time splits throughout the day at http://www.ironmanlive.com/. Every time an athlete passes an official chip timing point, the time is supposed to be posted on the site. My personal experience is that this works fairly well, except when it doesn't. Of course, you have to be near a computer to get these splits, which can put a bit of a damper on your day.
There's another way. An outfit called WiggleWireless will let you choose up to three athletes and will then send text messages to your cell phone every time any of those athletes passes over a chip timing point. You can also optionally get messages about the pro field, weather, course conditions and what's happening in and around Kona.
When I tried to use this service last year there were some problems. Company officials have assured me that those bugs have been thoroughly ironed out now and all is well. A text message should be on its way to you less than half a minute after the athlete hits the timing mat, although it could take as long as three minutes depending on traffic.
The service is also free this year, except for whatever your cell provider charges for incoming text messages. (Mine is ten cents a message.)
Give it a shot. You can sign up in about two minutes by going to http://wigglewireless.com/signup_kona.html There's also a way to test your phone's ability to receive the messages, which I'd recommend you do before enrolling.
_______
Answer: Bill Graham's U.S. breath holding record is 7 minutes, 21 seconds. He's gone 7:42 in practice.
The world record is 8:58.
