Ice Was Nice When I first moved to Southern California, I was amazed at the size of some of the houses and the yards, but what really blew me away were the driveways. The what? Yep, the driveways. When you’re a California native, a driveway is, well, a driveway. When you’re from the Midwest, a…
Time for another edition of Talk Story with Bob Babbitt. I’m sharing some of my favorite stories. This week’s story is about my experience at the Western States 100 and the 4th of July “…The idea was to give some of the less ambitious in town (namely me) the chance to run the Western States 100…
Time for another edition of Talk Story with Bob Babbitt. I’m sharing some of my favorite stories that I’ve collected from my years in the wonderful world of endurance sports. This week I share a story that I wrote in 2005 about Jim MacLaren. I called it Unbreakable Spirit, and it appeared in my book Never…
Introducing a new feature for Babbittville Radio: Talk Story with Bob Babbitt. I’ll share some of my favorite stories that I’ve collected from my years in the wonderful world of endurance sports. Today: Chicken Soup and a Glow Stick. Aussie Chris Legh had won north of 60 races in his career including Ironman California in…
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…
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…
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.…
Bill Walton is a basketball legend. He led UCLA to 88 straight wins and two national titles. He was the number one draft pick of the Portland Trailblazers, led them to the NBA championship back in 1977 and was the most valuable player of the championship series that same year. He won another NBA title,…