i'll answer my own question...Laird married volleyballer Gabrielle Reece

(bastard!)

EDIT: LOL...i go to wikipedia for 5mins & someone beats me to it

---

---

blood, sweat...and big gears

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ''Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.''
- Muhammad Ali

"Usually you don't get any breaks until after the turnaround boats"

Spot on, as usual, Monty.

Okay, enough anthem talk.

We've got a race to watch. Focus!

She's nicely positioned to come out of the swim, it will be interesting to see if she can make the leap from 70.3 to IM as well as MJ.

---

"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

Finally, someone talking sense :).

---

------------------------------------------------------------
Searching for the bliss of ultimate exertion.

man, they have really stepped up the coverage from past years. This is fantastic. The breakways shots to pre race interviews with specific racers is a nice touch. So far this is A++

Divorced now aren't they?

---

.

Just like I thought, the gaps are forming, and it appears they swam into the current on the way out, over 25 minutes at the turn. A few men have taken the lead, but in the top 6 are Gallo, Zeiger, and my dark horse pick, Leanda Cave. SHe is a great swimmer, beating all the men pros in Florida 101..She will have a bit of time to settle on the bike before Michelle catches her, which will be a good stragedy for her..Gallo and Zeiger will fade, but Zeiger will probably lead the bike for an hour or three......

Jonnyo's a fast swimmer, isn't he? Can he hang with the top swimmers here?

Agree on the coverage thus far, except for the breaks...awesome, awesome...can't wait for the bike.

seems the same as last year to me...

---

------------------------------------------------------------
Searching for the bliss of ultimate exertion.

This is where you start to see the different dynamic of the seperate pro start for the women - real race favourites like, Jones, Cave, Zeiger etc. . who can swim with the top men are in a better postion to get a great draft than the slower swimming women who swim 55+ who may have to swim almost the whole way on their own!

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Go Dr. Tommy!!! If anyone has done the climb from Penticton up Apex mountain, this climb is as hard as Alpe d'Huez and Dr. Tommy does it around 46 minutes at the end of his 6 mountain 8 hour ride...he's no slouch on the bike and put down a 2:56 at IM Cour d'Alene. He's pretty lame on Alii Drive though on taper week. When everyone else is running at 5:45 pace, Dr. Tom resists the temptation to test himself and caps it at 7 min miles!

Dev

No, sorry. My bad. They're expecting a baby in January.

---

.

I expect Natascha to have a good swim. I did an OLY in August and she started with the PRO men (ITU racers mostly) and I was impressed with her swim considering she probably had to swim most of it by herself (without a wetsuit).

---

------------------------------------------------------------
Searching for the bliss of ultimate exertion.

Cool, a little talk about Hellreigel...havn't heard his name much lately. Talk about a sentimental favorite!

<and I know "Dr. Tommy" is not Hellreigel...>

I don't remember the Helicopter/boat shots like this from last year.
Better commentary this year.

Fleck, it is totally bogus that the women pros start with the pro men. Its completely ridiculous that MJ can swim along with the top men and get towed to a huge buffer. While, we're at it, let's throw Grant Hackett in there to tow the pro men.

Like the NYC marathon, the top pro women should have their own start. This is totally bogus and this ruling has to change....if they want equal prize money they should have equal conditions....which means the front runners don't get a tow off the other gender and that applies to the men too....we don't need anymore complaints of the likes of Joanna Zeiger claiming to get clobbered by pro men!!!

Did McGlone start? I haven't heard her name. Although with the number of feed losses....

---

"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

Water conditions appear to be great, I am very curious about the age group swim times already.

H

2 women leading well into the swim!

Shows you how important technique and efficiency are, over pure strength.

---

.

dude, if they dont draft off the pro men they'll draft off the AG men...in the current format the strong survive, or even excell (as we're seeing today)

---

---

blood, sweat...and big gears

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ''Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.''
- Muhammad Ali

Yes, I'm pretty sure she started. There was a little interview with her before the start.

---

------------------------------------------------------------
Searching for the bliss of ultimate exertion.

Looks like it is getting tatical betwen the men. They have let Gallo take the lead, rather than keeping the pressure on, so the front group is bunching up again. There are some breaks, but still a fair number in the lead group. Unless one of the fast men makes a move, it will hold together with lLinda being the pack mule.....

good luck in the rugby Julian

---

---

blood, sweat...and big gears

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ''Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.''
- Muhammad Ali