Editor’s Note: I wrote this about David Bailey as part of our pre-race coverage of the 2009 Ironman World Championship It was the day after the 2008 Ironman World Championship. David Bailey, who had been one of the best motocross athletes on the planet before he was paralyzed, was barreling down the Queen Ka’ahumanu…
From 30 Years of the Ironman World Championship, by Bob Babbitt The room is hospital white, the floor polished squares of institutional linoleum. Sterile. Unforgiving. The smell of despair hangs in the air like a soggy cloth coat on a withered old man. This is no place for a little girl. Barely five years old,…
By Bob Babbitt Mark Allen came to Kona five times trying to win the Ironman and to beat Dave Scott. On his sixth attempt it finally happened. I am sitting in the back seat of a Ford Mustang convertible on the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday October 14,…
At the 1987 Ironman World Championship, the growing rivalry between Dave Scott and Mark Allen played out in dramatic fashion in the lava fields after the two greats left T2 together. Allen led late into the run, but faded hard, and Scott passed him to get his 6th title. Heading into the 1988…
From Competitor Magazine, November 1987 by Bob Babbitt Ironman Commandment Number One: Thou shalt never take thine eyes off the road. It was mere seconds since the end of the swim. Dave Scott was looking down, trying to get the bike shoe on his right foot to stay on the pedal. Mark Allen,…
Every time I look at this one particular image, it makes me laugh. Technology, money, media, and the masses were coming fast, but the classic image of Cowman on the bike wearing his miniature cow horns in the same frame as the eventual champion never gets old. Even 33 years later, it continues to…
As I look back, 2017 was an awesome year, filled with tons of great memories…. I was able to race 35 times, and loved chatting with all my racing buddies at what I like to call, “a catered workout.” 35 races means a lot…
Lois Schwartz and I launched Competitor Magazine in June of 1987. To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of our first edition, we invited some of our closest friends to a get together on June 29th at the amazing Deni and Jeff Jacobs Challenged Athletes Center, home of the Challenged Athletes Foundation. We spent a fun…
2017 Ironman World Championship Boston Marathon Qualifiers From our friends at SportStats…. There were 135 Ironman World Championship finishers who ran qualifying times for the Boston Marathon on October 14th. Which means they are the chosen few who, after someone tells them they qualifed for Boston in Chicago or New York and then asks…
It was the toughest call she had ever had to make…. Three-time Ironman defending champion, Chrissie Wellington, was forced drop out the morning of the 2010 race with a viral infection. With Wellington not in the race, Australia’s Mirinda Carfrae won her first Ironman World Championship title. So when Wellington crashed hard during a group…