Because these go to 11….. Even though I left Competitor in 2014, I will always treasure the brand that I am proud to have created and nurtured with my partner Lois Schwartz. I have kept copies of every issue we produced, from our first issue in June of 1987, through 2012. In my mind, being…
In June of 1987, my business partner Lois Schwartz and I launched Competitor Magazine. We’re celebrating our 30th anniversary this month. I will be featuring a few of my favorite editorials and articles from the magazine. You can also check out 11 of my favorite covers here. Editorial By Bob Babbitt Competitor, January/February 1998 Nervous? Sure,…
I love racing. There is nothing better in the whole wide world. Some people I know get stressed out just thinking about race morning. But for me, if it’s a Saturday or Sunday and there are no numbers scrawled on my legs and arms, I get the shakes. Here is why racing is a heck…
Their first meeting came after the 1972 Olympics. At those games in Munich, America’s young gun, Steve Prefontaine, took fourth place in the Olympic 5000 meters while New Zealand’s Rod Dixon took home a bronze in the 1500. For the man called Pre, finishing off the podium was a bitter disappointment. Check that. The guy…
Scott Brown and Chris Fuller fit the profile for Muddy Buddies perfectly. After all, the Muddy Buddy is for folks looking for a good time running and cycling with a little bit of pizzazz added to the equation in the form of mud pits, wall climbs and an inflatable or two to get over,…
With the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run happening this weekend and the 4th of July right around the corner, I got to thinking about this editorial I wrote a few years back. Fourth of July in River Forest I am lightheaded. Floating on air somewhere between Squaw Valley and Auburn, California. Vaseline has proven useless.…
From the archives: Remembering my dad on Father’s Day…… The ceiling above my head is a mere four feet high. The pavement my knees are scraping against is raw and abusive. As a child, the crawl space under my parent’s home was always one of my favorite places to be… Memories stored in rows and…
I can tell she is pissed from the way she is walking toward me. Long steps, purposeful steps, I-can’t-believe-I-just-did-that steps. I am doing the announcing up in the tower at what is affectionately called ‘The Hot Corner’ at the Ironman 70.3 in Oceanside, California back in March of 2008. It has gotten that cool ‘The…
From the Never a Bad Day archives, a classic story about the unbreakable bond between Danelle Ballengee and Taz the Wonder Dog. What do you do now, Danelle? That had to be the question rampaging through her mind. Forget winning the Eco Challenge and Primal Quest multi-day adventure races, climbing all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000…
The year was 1986, and for some reason I felt it was important to focus on my swimming for that year’s Ironman. I swam pretty much every single day that summer and ended up having my best swim ever in Kona, something in the 1:02 range. Great. So I took a few minutes off…