Triathlon Forum

I'll put the over/under at 34. I think it's the little things that are the biggest risk (blood blister, saddle sore, sore knee, etc.) since there's really no down time to let anything heal properly.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

That and what about mechanical or a weather delay making travel impossible. I assume he will always have some local support and can get on another bike if need be etc, but so many things. If this guy gets it done I think UPS or FEDEX should hire him as their CLO (Chief Logistics Officer).

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I'll take the under. I'll call either a logistics problem or plain and simple lack of (good) sleep, followed by saddle sores etc, followed by weather, etc.

I'll be thoroughly impressed if he succeeds (with sufficient witnesses/proof).

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Eliot
blog thing - strava thing

Agree with the 34. 2/3rds of the way in ultradistances is when a lot of bad things happen both physically and mentally. That said, 8 of 21 starters (38%) finished the Triple Deca (30 in 30) in September 2013. With the additional travel and 20 full distance tris more, perhaps a 10-15% chance? We need a betting pool or something.

I've heard crew mutiny as a possible source of failure. Evidently the stress on the support staff is pretty high even in RAAM, which is <2weeks. Nearly two months supporting might make Big Brother look like a cake walk.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Gonna have some hot ones for sure. Planned 13-14 hours to complete them it looks like. If/When he makes the Missouri/Illinois/Kentucky ones I might have to go see this.

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Formerly TriBrad02

A lot of these endurance challenges, while daunting, are doable. Serious props to him for attempting something that there's a decent chance he won't complete....pushing the envelope, and taking that risk.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

He/They did a nice job with the intro video to this project. Basically, someone has to push the envelope to prove that it is possible. Upward and onward.

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We had a different thread on this before where we kind of looked at the logistics and travel time etc, along with recovery. What I'm wondering is, this guy is doing it to promote healthier lifestyle etc. A good cause. But he has absolutely no time after every race to stick around to raise awareness, visit schools, speak at community centers, or do some interviews or whatever, unless maybe it takes place in his RV enroute to the next state. This does kind of diminish the scope of his message, at least while he is in the middle of his 50 days, I would think. Alot can and most likely will be done by his support staff I'm sure but the guy himself has to appear from time to time as well right? And if he does take the time for all of this...then there really is no time for recovery at all.

50/50

I will take the (way) under. 15 would be monumental in my book.

WAY under.. Give me 13.. Way to much logistically going on. Something will go wrong.

I will lay 5 to 1 for anyone that wants to bet that he will complete this thing ($10 bet, first person to reply with full name and reasonable posting history)

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Austin Hardy -

I'll take the under as well, probably way under. One of his biggest logistical challenges is going to be getting through the first 3 days with Hawaii-Alaska-Washington.

As I mentioned in the other thread, he's going to be passing almost by my house on day 30-something. If he makes it that far, I will personally ride out there and tell him I was wrong.

I wonder what his chances would be on his "home course" of doing 50 IMs in 50 Days. I would imagine even that would be less than 10%..

Given the travel requirements and support needed for the travel and changing venues the chances of success on this are less than 1% OF 1%..

I wish him luck, and IF he completes 30 I will turn into the biggest fan boy, and will be tracking and cheering every step.. Until then, I will watch with detached amusement as he attempts the impossible (foolish?) goal he has set.

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Austin Hardy -

That's some sweet action...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Esa1uNhgTKQ

Agree, I think logistics are going to be the biggest challenge. Would be great if he is able to pull it off (I'll put it at 20 days max which in and of itself is still a huge accomplishment). He has some interesting course setups, including full Boston Marathon course as well as IMWI course. Like you, if he is still going when he reaches MA on July 6 I'll try to find him along the last mile of the marathon route to personally say I was wrong and to wish him well on his journey.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

I feel like I must be missing something here...wouldn't setting up the bike and run courses to work towards his next location make far more sense logistically? By doing loops, out and backs, etc. he is adding an incredible amount of RV travel time to this already impossible task. I would guess that if he set up each Ironman to get him closer to his next location - other than the swim of course - he would save 100+ hours of travel over the 50 days.

Is there a self-imposed midnight cutoff? For example, a flight gets delayed or the freeway that he's on, to go from one state to another, comes to a crawl or closes due to accidents/constructions and causes him to start later in the day hence making him finish after midnight.

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__________________________________________________________________________
My marathon PR is "under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."

If he completes it, I put the odds of someone accusing him of cheating to get it done at 100%.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

I'm tempted to take that, if only to make his progress more interesting to me.

While I'd also love to see him pull it off, also give me the WAY under. Less than 20. The logistics are daunting, plus lack of sleep, the hot temps he'll often see, etc.

I just hope there are not legs where he has to ride a trainer or run on a treadmill ....hopefully weather/travel will cooperate and prevent that from happening. The guy is nuts...and I will be following :) I want to see his PMC in Training Peaks too.

I believe he will finish under 6.
Not to say that I don't believe in the guy, its just courses like Las Vegas are brutal and having done a few ironmans before times travel will equal blow out.
If anyone can complete something like this, its the IronCowboy... Good luck

So few?

I'm not knocking the guy for attempting an amazing feat. However there is a few factors, How long will he average on each Ironman? Lets say he does 8 to 9 hrs
Travel time? Lets say 3 to 4hrs
Prep time, Breakfast lunch dinner and so on.
Just trying to work it out on a 24hr basis how each day will fold out. Plus Recovery! I hope he completes it

I think he is planning on 10-12 hours to complete each one.

Then he gets in his RV, where I am assuming has a driver.

8-9 hours per ironman?!?! If he could just do 2 of those in 2 days he would be among the most amazing endurance athletes in the world. Isn't his PR like 11:10? He should be shooting for more like 13-14 hours. And food prep can be done by other people. Travel, recovery, food prep and sleep can all be done simultaneously since he is traveling in an RV.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
VeloVetta is developing AERO cycling shoes with CFD and wind tunnel testing.
Instagram • Facebook

I am sure when he did his 30 in a hear there were a many where he was sub 10

This says he averaged "just under 12 hours" but I cannot find results for all the races anywhere. Is there a list somewhere?

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/...owboy-james-lawrence


Edit: In here he says is PR is "Low 10 hours"

http://news.maccax.com/...n-cowboys-big-dance/

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
VeloVetta is developing AERO cycling shoes with CFD and wind tunnel testing.
Instagram • Facebook

One article I just saw (from October 2014, just after Kona)said that he is a 36 time Ironman finisher. Assumingly those 36 include the 30 long-courses he did in his 2012 Guinness Book record

He did do Kona in 2014 with a time of 12:46

EDIT: Two more I found

Ironman Canada - 2014 : 11:16
Ironman Canada - 2011 : 11:45

I definitely hopes he makes it to #12 (TX), as he'll be running about 10 minutes from my house. I'd like to meet him and shake his hand.

Boy, you guys sure are throwing around some fast times for this guy, 8 to 9 hours, 12 to 13? If he even gets close, i would guess average times will be easily 15+ hours, and several would not make the usual 17 hour time limit. If he hopes to do this, he will have to mostly fast walk the marathons, and ride around 14/15 miles an hour. Swims will just be relaxing, so probably in the 1;30 range.

To finish this he will have to go as slow as possible, and just make the travel. Any speed pressure he puts out without having to, will doom him later on. Wouldn't surprise me if he averaged 17 hours in the end..

This is absolutely incredible. It makes me hurt just scrolling down the page. I personally don't think that it's possible. This might really test the limit of the human body. It'll be fun to watch.

I go with 15 consecutive days before a modification needs to be made. I hope I'm proved wrong though.

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New Training/Racing Log - http://www.earthdaykid.com/blog --- Old Training/Racing Log - http://colinlaughery.blogspot.com

I cannot imagine getting to the end of day 3. Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, an ironman in each + transfers + airports + hours in the air + any sleep? Big ask. Unless there is a contingency, like setting up a turbo at the airport and including those miles. This is perhaps harder than 7 marathons in 7 continents in 7 days?

2 things: he can sleep in the RV and he can travel as he races. Find a lake, swim 3800M and bike 112 + run a marathon towards the next state line. I think the logistics get a lot less complicated once you hit the continental 48. Mind you I still think he is crazy!

Some of these state to state drives could be extremely long.

Physically, he can probably do 50/50 in the same spot over 14h each. (I'm not gonna go over the mental strain that would be).

But like said, 14h + driving + sleeping + logistics + eating + whatever... One mishap and the whole thing will get a lot more stressful. RV breaks down, etc...

I say 20 and not because of fitness, but simply because some travel plans will screw up.

His quest starts tomorrow.

I posted the below in another thread a few months ago. His logistics early on are incredible.

"On the 4th (PDX) and 5th (Santa Cruz) legs there is less than zero margin of error. With a 11 hr drive in an RV, you are not cruising at 70-80 mph. Granted he does not have to adhere to the traditional 7am start, but the ripple effect could be very difficult to overcome if he is delayed that early on in this."

I remember reading about that group that did the triple deca ironman (30 ironman races in 30 days), I believe in Italy, a couple of years back. They were all held on the same course, but even then most were working on 3-4 hours sleep. Logistically, just seems very improbable.

He's also going to race in extremely hot conditions. The Vegas course is going to be pretty bad in June. Same with Ridgeland, MS right by where I lived for a year. It'll be in a few weeks and it could be really really hot.
I assume he will have a bike ready on mainland in case the bike doesn't make it from Hawaii, or from AK?

Might have to ride along for awhile if he makes it to SC/NC.

I'll take that bet. I think your odds are about right, but I got to believe in my home town guy. If he does make it to Utah. I am going to do the last one with him.

Wait, so are you now giving 10,000:1 odds? If so I'll take that right now.

there will not be enough popcorn on the planet for that thread.

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Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.

Yeah...I can't imagine what it will be like for his support crew. In Italy, it was a very small course with a shit ton of loops. So support crew and race staff could basically sit in a lawn chair all day as racers would pass by every 10 minutes on their bike or run loops. It looks like this endeavor is going to be mostly point to point courses...so his support crew will need to follow him, or leap frog him in order to provide him with aid and make sure he's doing okay. Then when that day's IM is done...they need to drive to the next site. Also factor in that they can't store 50 days worth of supplies for the entire crew in one RV. They will constantly need to make stops for fuel, food, supplies, do laundry (do RVs have built in washer/dryers these days?), etc. I'm guessing the RV will also need maintenance...such as refilling water supplies, emptying the septic tank, etc.

It seems like a huge task not including the actual IMs that need to be done.

I'm still trying to find these races on any race calendar. Or are these all 'Iron-Distance training sessions'? Which while still beyond impressive is much different than performing actual Ironman races, which require in-person check-in 2 days in advance, bike set-up the evening prior, etc.

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no they are mostly if not all "Iron Distance Training sessions". Obviously it's not his fault
that there are no IM races on Wednesdays.

So he should win all of them I'm thinking.

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Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.

I believe some of the course/cities have changed.

I happened to remember that his NJ race was going to be in Atlantic City, but now it is Sea Bright

Yeah me. I beat him by 46 seconds.

Misses on day 19 due to injury. Texting/blogging/twitter finger dislocated. No sense doing it if the world can't know.

I rarely mention my podcast here, it's for slow and/or fat people - but we get some pretty good guests. (Mark Allen, Jeff Galloway for example)

We interviewed the Iron Cowboy this week. If you want to skip the intro of two middle aged obese men complaining about their training and injuries, come in at the 20 minute mark.

The show is also on iTunes and Stitcher.

http://backofpack.com/2015/06/01/episode-79-the-iron-cowboy/

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I'll tell you all right now, my seat is too low, I'm not aero and I carry too much fluid on the bike.

5 max

Looks like he was able to schedule one actual race. The HITS race in NY, so he should win the rest of them.

Of course, he has to survive all the way across the country before he gets to NY, which is a pretty tall order:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I'm starting to think that he's channeling Fatcyclist and his 100 Miles of Nowhere. Invent a category that only you can win. This is how I won the first century I ever did. (If you don't understand, exercise your googlefu)

First - I wish him well and would be awesome and amazing if he can pull it off....or even a part of it off. There's no downside for him in my opinion.

And I agree - this will be a huge toll on support crew. From just one day's experience (Norseman last year)... I saw how exhausting it can be for a support crew to follow an IM racer, handing food, drink, driving ahead, waiting, etc etc. Even if they want to try to make it easier...follow him... that would be super taxing because the cowboy will be going slow, RV could be blocking traffic, etc. And yeah, that's a lot of miles begging gremlins to come out and mess with things on the RV, etc.

From one day of little rest, full day supporting, my support crew all crashed in exhaustion like I did. I would have to think they will need to cycle people in and out to keep it all fresh and alert.

Here is his live bike tracking. 12:05pm (EST) he is @ mile 80

http://livetrack.garmin.com/...75C3F0F2646C96E854C4

#GiddyUp

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where did he swim? The tracker starts nowhere near the ocean or a lake.

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_____________________
Don't forget to attack!

Pool.

If he makes this I may have to buy this shirt. Wonder how he is doing.

probably a pool. Looks like he's going to do a number of pool swims.

It's the pool in Lahaina, Kauai. I swam there last year during my Vacation. There's a masters team that swims there three mornings a week.

It looks like he has several pool swims in his 50 days.

Scott I.
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"You're not old until age becomes your excuse." Joe Friel

If he can get through the parts involving air travel (1st couple of days) I think he can do it.

Think he can do it? Or HOPE he can do it?

Logistics alone make this almost impossible. There is ZERO margin for error in his current plan.

I HOPE the guy does it. But I think it is a fool hardy plan.

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Austin Hardy -

Both.

Did he finish today? For the life of me I can't figure out where updates are on his site. Also check Twitter and didn't really see anything useful. Something about being pulled over by the cops but noting about the day that I could see.

Wouldn't it be better to travel east-to-west for this venture? Every so-often he'd get an extra hour of rest, seems like that'd be beneficial.

Good thinking. Actually he should have incorporated a few flights around the world east to west to give him a few extra rest days.

Would seem like it to me. Would be a great question for him as to why exactly he structured it the way he did.

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Save: $50 on Speed Hound Recovery Boots | $20 on Air Relax| $100 on Normatec| 15% on Most Absorbable Magnesium

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I want garmin proof for every leg for all 50 events.

But I agree, Logistics will get him.

He seems fit enough to do 50 of them back to back.

NFI why he is doing 50 different locations.

Should have just done 50 locally.

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Yeah, his team is really not utilizing social media in promoting and update his trek on this.

He did finish. Seems like he swam ~1:10, his bike was 6:20:56 (His coach posted his Garmin file on his website), but can't find anything about his run

He goes east to west on the back half.

Apparently his coach thinks it's super important to have 50/50 L/R power.


http://www.ironcowboy.co/blog/2015/6/6/day-1

I did ask him that question actually. I mentioned a podcast in an earlier post.

The structure is so that the most difficult logistics come early instead of later. Flying from hawaii to alaska, then to the lower 48, that's the worst of it. He said that they didn't want to be in a position where if something went awry on the hrdest pieces, it wouldn't be a "made it 48 out of 50" situation. If something throws it off early, it might be easier to reboot. The first 5 days of this are the most insane.

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I'll tell you all right now, my seat is too low, I'm not aero and I carry too much fluid on the bike.

Just wondering if anyone has gone through his whole calendar and seen any of his days and though "hey that would be a great place to do an Ironman"? I realize that most are probably point to point, but just skimming through and there is some pretty cool photography.

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AJ

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IM WC Hawaii 2024

So that's 2 out of 2 so far?

Judging from his facebook-pictures, that cowboy beard must be costing him 20 min on the bike every day?

Simple data points and updates are still very poor.

frpm Garmin and/or comments
Day 1 - Hawaii - ~1:10/6:20/? = under 13hrs
Day 2 - Alaska - 1:09/6:33/? = ?

I say he makes it to day 5.

He'll do a few weeks at least. This is the same guy who has previously done 30 IMs in 30 days.

Based on the comment above, I would say that he's maybe doing a little too fast though.

If he wants this thing to be legit, he needs to upload those run files. Otherwise, he may be taking a page from Dane Rauschenberg and his RV for all we know.

I'm pretty sure he did 30 IMs in a year, not 30 days.

There are guys who have done 30 IMs in 30 days, all on the same course. Logistically much easier.

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.

He posted earlier today on Facebook that's he's only gotten 7.5 hours sleep over the last two days. That's not good though it highlights I guess that doing Hawaii and Alaska first made a lot of sense. Get the long flights out of the way early.

What's the best way to follow this? Too much stuff, scattered around. I was thinking he'd make it about 10 days, unless logistics got him first.

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

Facebook, under Iron Cowboy

Exactly. The travel on top of everything is brutal. I hate commuting 25min to work... let alone a new state each day.

Yeah the Facebook page seems the best. The website seems to have a very high style to useful information ratio. Like others have mentioned, I'm surprised the social media part of it isn't much better given all the obvious effort that's gone into this.

I worry that he's going to get RAAM tired and just ride his bike into an oncoming car.

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

I am following this very peripherally, basically via ST so I have not looked a the logistics at all.

If he does each one point to point, he can have a big chunk of the commute to the next state done under his own power. Basically 138 miles of "racing" toward the next state. His support crew can pick him up in the RV at the end of the "marathon" and he crashes out while they drive him toward the next state. He gets over the border and sleeps until it's time to start again.

Might help a little bit..... I'm sure that someone undertaking something this massive has looked at doing things like that.

If he could do something like this, would he wind up insanely fit or would he wind up a broken down shell of his former self? I guess we have to wait and find out.

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.

I said the same thing about setting up the courses to be point to point to get him closer to his next location. Looking through the routes that did not seem to be the case for all the states, which seems like a bad decision...we'll see.

I am very curious how his support situation looks. If he has people taking care of everything for him there is no reason he can't sleep 7-8 hours a night...13-15 hr IM then hit the hay while your support staff takes care of everything else.

Looks like he is using many existing 70.3 and IMs courses plus at least one Challenge and HITS courses.

I don't see any point-to points.

He is promoting the "Run the final 5K" with him for free or a donation, so he needs to finish around some sort of larger urban area

I looked at the routes too. No point to point.

I bet he goes close to the 14-15 mark after the first couple of days. Which doesn't leave a lot of time for eating pre-breakfast, post-dinner, shower, etc, then sleep. And he has to do all that while in the RV that is moving to the next destination.

I estimate he won't be able to get his HR much into the 100's after day 4.... therefore my prediction.

Updated splits

from Garmin and/or comments
Day 1 - Hawaii - ~1:10/6:20/? = under 13hrs
Day 2 - Alaska - 1:08/6:33/5:23 = 13:05

We are day 5 in Santa Cruz - so I hope that he at least makes it this far! He's going to have a pretty amazing support crew here so I hope he makes it through. We are going to provision aid stations on the bike course, not so much for James but for all the people who want to do the ride with him from our local club, so there will be food, gels, water and electrolyte available on the bike course. Weather for the bike could be foggy and windy for the start if the wind blows the fog onshore. It's clear today but it's summer here so it could be anything!

Is this information good enough??

http://www.ironcowboy.co/blog/

Makes me wonder if he's willing to accept draft help from people on the course...

Or run with gorillas?

You're kidding right? Is that supposed to be in pink?

If you're not, the dude can do whatever he wants from my perspective as long as he swims, bikes and runs a full Ironman-length distance a day for 50 days across 50 states. This isn't an Ironman race.

I tend to be a fairly cynical person about things like this...but I'm all in for the IronCowboy. Will he make it? Of course, lots of things that could end it for him. But I hope (and actually expect) he goes a lot farther than most people here are thinking he can.

If he makes it to day 39, ill go ride with him, he will be getting close to my office. If he makes it that far I am sure I will be able to keep up at that point.

I'd rather he take extra effort to not draft on the bike. But jeebus, whatever he wants to do is good, too. I don't think it's possible to finish this. I'm blown away he's even trying. If he even gets close, then he's setting a bar for others to try to beat.

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

Does anyone know if they're videoing this for some variety of production later?

If he makes it he will definitely have raised the bar.

BTW, he did a great interview on Rich Roll's podcast recently. Really in depth on why he's doing it and how he'll think he'll do.

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

Any thoughts on what´ll eventually make him cave - If he does so? I saw his coach wrote he reckoned it would be the bike that brought him down if he failed (and that the key part of success was pacing the bike slowly enough).

I guess if he gives in it will be due to the total fatigue - but I would have thought that the run would prove the hardest part in this 50/50/50? Any thoughts on this?

I'd bet he'll end up being a broken-down shell. I would venture to guess that, if indeed he ever even does another iron race after this series, he'll be at least an hour slower than his pre-50 PR, assuming equal difficulty of the races, of course. He will prob never feel the same after this extreme bout of over-training.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I hope not. People at the edge always inspire me.

It wasn't that long ago people questioned being able to cover the distance in a regular iron-distance race - and now there are tens of thousands of finishers every year.

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[ The sign of intelligence is you are constantly wondering. Idiots are always dead sure about every damn thing they are doing in their life. - Vasudev ]

+1

I'd like to see the run data. Now, I don't think he's cheating, but take some or all of the marathon out of the equation every day (or many days) and this gets much easier. Dane Rauschenberg hopped in an RV for stretches of his solo 202 mile American Odyssey Relay run, and was only caught out due to internet sleuthing and poorly timed tweets by Dane. Again, I don't think 50/50 is doing this, but he should be producing Garmin files of these runs to allay any skeptics out there.

Sure but 1 day is very diff from 50 in a row. We'll see...:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Well, he's running the Boston Marathon route which is net downhill so that makes this whole thing a sham.

Ah, so you want the actual map he ran? Because all the other run data is right there.

Why would I be kidding? He's either willing to draft or he isnt. The question was simply: Is he? I personally think that if he is, it'd be pretty damn cool to lend that little bit of support for a bit. I agree 100% that it matters not how he does it. I just want to see him cross that 50th finish line.

He's basically invited anyone who will join him on the routes. That will greatly break up the monotony of the whole thing. Doing 112 mile social group rides is a lot less taxing on the brain than solo TTs.

Thought you were being critical of him potentially drafting off folks who might want to join him. Read it the wrong way. My bad.

If the dude makes it to Benton Harbor MI (granted a big if)... I will go share some of the ride and break the wind for him a bit.

Does it matter even if he did draft?

He is doing the distance not actual races.

Its not like Jimmy R is on a motorbike next to him handing out cards.

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just noticed the guy is sponsored by Young Living.......he should 100% make it knowing that he has his essential oils to get him through the rough patches!!

On Rich Roll's podcast, he said that a film crew is documenting it.

Like many here have already mentioned, I am a big fan and look forward to the updates every day! If he makes it to #40 in Indiana, I'll be there to run with him!

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Boiler Up!

I agree. If anyone wants to complain about him drafting they should duplicate his effort and show it can be done without any drafting. The guy is a hero in my book if he completes half his goal.

I now know what a hiatal hernia is. Do not want.

 
Day 4. I was a skeptic that thought he couldn't make it past 2. See how the next couple of days go.

Today is an early start day. Based on his calendar and a comment of his FB page, he was in the water today at 5am (PST)

I'll be there too, already in my Outlook calendar.

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I was not criticizing him for drafting. I was defending him if he did or was going to. I thought someone else was questioning him if he did draft. But, I don't think that's the case.


So...

I believe no one here would fault the guy for drafting.

That clear to everyone?

I would. Just because.

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

I can't begin to fathom the triple anvil races let alone duo or triple decas but this seems so much harder even if it's not a "race". it's more akin to Dean K running coast to coast vs back to back ultras.

So I think what he is attempting is amazing physically, mentally and as others stated - logistically as well. there is just so much that can go wrong that is out of his control and I wish him all the luck and good fortune to complete it. If he gets to day 45 I am going to join on the ride and 5k.

good luck Cowboy!

The story I got from talking to Utah peeps about this last weekend was he was living in a parent's basement, unemployed, with his wife and kids on welfare, while trying to make himself famous by doing multiple IMs instead of getting a job. He sounds like a clown desperate for attention, not a hero.

First, it is amazing what this guy is doing.

With that said, I am curious as to how is he financing this (and all of his) endeavors? Is he independently wealthy? Is this being entirely funded by sponsors? I can only manage to sign up for one or two (or three) races a year and I am pretty financially secure. All I could find on the guy is that he is a coach (triathlon) and personal trainer...he must be one hell of a coach/trainer. He has been all over the world doing 70.3s and full Ironman's over the past few years, great that he is able to do it, just am curious as to how he is doing it.

Good luck to him, maybe I can make my way up to Sea Girt, NJ on July 4th to ride/run a bit with him...but my prediction is that he doesn't make it past day 20.

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Jamie

Well obviously I wasn't speaking of his personal character as I know nothing about that. My "hero" comment was from an athletic/physical ability aspect. I hope you have confirmed all of that before posting it in a public forum.

Do you know any of this to be true???

His sponsor list is pretty impressive


http://www.ironcowboy.co/partners/

The guys who did the triple deca (30IM in 30days) last year or 2013 all said they got stronger after the first 7-10 days until the last 2-3 days and their times showed it. It'll be hard to compare his times as the course is different everyday but ff he can make it through the first week I think he'll do fine barring injury.

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Rodney
TrainingPeaks | Altra Running | RAD Roller
http://www.goinglong.ca

Updated splits

from Garmin and/or comments:
Day 1 - Hawaii - ~1:10/6:20/? = under 13hrs
Day 2 - Alaska - 1:08/6:33/5:23 = 13:05
Day 3 - Washington - 1:23*/7:12/5:33 = 14:08
.............Swim: 1:15:23 + 7:49 = 1:23:12 (as per his FB page, he needed to swim an additional 300 yds between B and R due to him swimming yards when he thought he was swimming meters.)

It's all pretty impressive

Not sure how that matches up with the cost of attempting this.

Granted, I'm tapering, but over these three days I ran 10 miles, swam 2600 yards, and ran 5 miles. Oh, I had a day off, too.

Who's the Iron Cowboy now, bitch?

Updated splits

from Garmin and/or comments:
Day 1 - Hawaii - ~1:10/6:20/? = under 13hrs
Day 2 - Alaska - 1:08/6:33/5:23 = 13:05
Day 3 - Washington - 1:23*/7:12/5:33 = 14:08 (Swim: 1:15:23 + 7:49 = 1:23:12. He swim an additional 400 yds between B and R due to him swimming yards when he thought he was swimming meters.)
Day 4 - Oregon - 1:23/6:30/5:04 = 12:58

Agree with all your statements except for this one.

I've learned to be very skeptical about saying that any feat of endurance is impossible to finish. Individuals just keep proving me wrong.

The blog on his website that his coach is writing is very interesting.

He want's him taking 7 hours on the bike, almost using it as recovery time.

Today is day 5. The next 5-10 days are going to be the hardest.

Days 35-45 will be killer as well.


Ah fuck, it'll all be stupid hard..mentally more than anything.

Apparently he was dozing off on the bike yesterday. That's not surprising as it sounds like he's not getting the sleep in. As so many have said in one way or another, the logistics are a big, if the not the biggest, obstacle.

As I stated somewhere in this thread, I really wish his team utilized social media more, especially some type of "on the road" type blog of the behind the scenes.

I don't even look at my own data files, so I have zero interest in his and what his pedal power ratio is, etc

To me, and I think like many, the logistics of all this is the most intriguing aspect of it.

I enjoy looking at his map and trying to figure out better routing and/or why did he choice location "A" or "B"

I want Garmin and/or Strava files for 50 bikes and 50 runs. If he pulls this off it should be unimpeachable. Dane Rauschenberg proved to me that you can go in with the best of intentions for an epic endurance feat, but when the going gets tough and the comfy RV is right there next to you, that the urge to hop a ride may be hard to overcome. Power files and HR stats are nice, but I would think that for a "world record" attempt like this that they would provide GPS proof for each and every bike and run. Right now for the runs we're essentially just getting a time.

Did you look on his website?

It's all right there.

I'll look again. That's good. When I checked the blog it was just screen caps of a mobile app summarizing the workouts.

the problem with these endurance feats, if he does complete someone else will go for longer, rather than faster. (ex, 100 ironmans/100days or 50 ultramans 50 days). No one wants to be fast these days.

You seem to be confusing "endurance" and "speed".

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float , hammer , and jog

You can't be serious. Have you ever read the ST forum? There was a discussion here last week on the aero penalty of a watch.

Four IM distances in four days at around a 13 hour average is pretty darn quick. Could you duplicate the effort thus far?

50 Ironmans in 50 days = over 7 weeks. Avg Ironman of maybe 13-16?
That's 91 to 112 hours per week for over 7 weeks!!!

How many 100hr weeks do you think you could do before you pop?

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http://www.MattRussellTri.com -Pro Triathlete -Tri Coach

Day four was interesting. He fell asleep on the bike, took a nap. Then did the run in time to get a plane to avoid the 10.5 hour drive to the next site. Hopefully he is wellrested for today.

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===================================
I'll tell you all right now, my seat is too low, I'm not aero and I carry too much fluid on the bike.

I wonder- If he rested and tapered after all of this was over and then actually raced an IM, how would he do? I'd guess sub-10 easily.

Not that he would. I'd imagine this experience will ruin racing IMs for him in the future.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

If it was all low zone 1 I think I could keep it up for quite a while but I have no interest in finding out.

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We are at 28 miles on the bike on day 5. We've got a group of 4 riding with James. Swim temp was 59 and he was very cold coming out of water. Weather has been good but wind is starting to come up.

More later as we progress through the day

Did he start as planned? Both time and location?

Based on the tracker info, he seemed to have started the bike about 15+ miles away from the Santa Cruz boardwalk, and much later than 8:30am-9am (PST)

I assume that the tracker was not working properly

Yes. He started right at Cowell beach and the wharf by the boardwalk. We couldn't get his Garmin to pair with Bluetooth so he just took off. It may have started working later.

We are currently waiting at the top of what is likely the biggest climb of the day between Pescadero and Half Moon Bay. We have convinced him to do a course change and turn around at HMB and not climb hwy92. It's too steep and not very safe. He will make up the distance with a couple of loops back in Santa Cruz.

I am not sure about the time but I am positive he started riding from Cowells Beach.

Big hills and headwinds. Headed back to SC at mile 40. Now doibg an out and back on hwy 1 to davenport and back to make up additional miles. Brutal wind and the temperature has dropped.

Luckily there were some fresh riders who picked up to do some pulling in Santa Cruz. Hope to be on the run by 4

boy, if you guys can update this thread in real time that is great! good luck to him today. good to get him off 92 and yay for the cyclists out there with him!


okay i don't know why but i hate the website. i cannot find a calendar that is a real calendar - showing where and when. and NONE of the pictures? are loading.

anyway, teh FB page is MUCH better (IMO) than the website. pictures,info - all there. https://www.facebook.com/Ironcowboy

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http://harvestmoon6.blogspot.com
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katasmit

I will have to sign off when they get on the run. I have to go coach s swim workout.

They turned around and are headed back to town right now. There's also spitting rain! Go figure. I think from the hurricane down in Mexico. Way more humid here than normal as well

Did he take the lane?

No. Shoulder us plenty wide.

He's about a mile out from transition.

Yep, talk about crazy weather. It poured at my place on Thursday. Been raining all day starting last night and might go into tomorrow. Then 100 for Friday. Nuts.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

Awesome updates. Thanks much!

You win the internet today...

FTW

control and release, baby. control and release...

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http://harvestmoon6.blogspot.com
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katasmit

Day 5 is in the bag. A big group ran the last 5k with him. Besides James' incredible feat, watching how his crew and family work as a team was inspiring too. If he comes near your area you would be doing him and yourself a favor to tag along for some of the swim, ride or run.

If he DNF's tomorrow, I win this prediction thread.

What a crazy mofo... his muscles have to be in rough shape.

There is not an once of quitting in this guy. I hope he holds together and his whole crew is spared any major logistical complication.

While certainly having his family along for the journey thus far provides very positive motivation, inspiration and encouragement, I can also see how this could become a unnecessary hindrance and complications especially if they are all travelling in the same RV. How do you keep 5 (I think?) small children occupied for that long in a confined space? Plus with the limited amount of downtime that James has it is filled with fueling, resting, treatments, etc

Also, as this journey keeps picking up steam and it moves eastward towards more tighter and more urban places especially when the race occurs on weekends, what appears to be the growing amount of "tag alongs" could be hazard and squashed by local law enforcement if they are not being controlled, monitored and planned for.

Hopefully James has an advance team that is working ahead in each location to go thru the day plans with the powers to be.

At least the logistics get somewhat better after last night. The next 3 legs after Las Vegas are all between a 4 and 5 hour commute.

I may have missed it but this story doesn't even seem to have hit the front page of this very site.
Wonder if that is meant as a commentary on how likely its success is viewed.
While he isn't going to "win" anything, I'd say this is pretty serious news in the world of tri.

I think we need to see at least 1/3 completion before any media picks up on this thing.

The plan is too audacious and too far fetched for media to waste their time on it. Once he gives a good faith deposit of 16-20 in the bank, I think folks will start to cover the story.

BTW, I don't think he has a chance in hell. Logistics alone are WAY too complicated.

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Austin Hardy -

I didn't mean imply that it is worldwide coverage, just that it seems that the "tag alongs" have gone from just a handful to a dozen or more and has grown with each leg 1 to 5, it is not going to take many on a bike or run leg to cause traffic and/or safety concerns, etc

In a statement I never dreamed I would every make as a adult....in monitoring his "Likes" on his FB page, they have gone up about 1K a day since this has started. So more and more people are becoming interested, or at least curious

From Facebook... looks like they just hit first big logistics snag. Think he had to sleep in back of a Suburu on way to Vegas (as RV could get there "fast enough" going to start late this morning, etc. Hope they can get it sorted...but when you start "burning matches" with logistics, start-times, etc... would imagine it will be tough to make them up. Wishing him luck...

From Facebook... looks like they just hit first big logistics snag. Think he had to sleep in back of a Suburu on way to Vegas (as RV could get there "fast enough" going to start late this morning, etc. Hope they can get it sorted...but when you start "burning matches" with logistics, start-times, etc... would imagine it will be tough to make them up. Wishing him luck...[/quote]
Wow.. Let me show you my shocked face.. A logistical issue when someone was trying to do 50 IM in 50 states in 50 Days.. Shocking!! /pink

For reference, even God took a day off in case something went wrong!

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Austin Hardy -

Not even sure I would make it through a 70 hour week, let alone consecutive 100s

We had some of the same thoughts yesterday. Here's how the day went, outside of the posts on progress that I made. Now take this from an outsiders perspective because I am sure that this crew is working really hard and over 50 days I can't imagine that he will be able to maintain the same crew unless they are all on vacation or not gainfully employed!

He arrived in the Subaru in Santa Cruz at the beach about 6:45 with 4 bikes on a rear rack and a kayak on top. A photo crew arrived in a separate car.

They get in and swim and when James gets out he's literally shivering from head to toe. Plus he has some blisters and we have a discussion with one of the crew about somebody going to get him some moleskin but our problem is we don't have anyplace in our town that is open that early in the am that is easy to get to that wouldn't result in a big delay.

Finally get him warmed up and dressed and he gets on a bike he has never ridden before (yes...evidently true) and then the call goes out for some tools to fix the seat because it's too high. Luckily we have enough people there with wrenches to fix that problem. Next problem...tubular tires with no spares. But off he goes hoping that it will be okay and luckily it was but he had nothing on that bike.

His crew gives us his food and water bag because if we are going to be out there supporting the club/local riders who are coming along then we can take his stuff too. That's okay, not an issue there but here was the strange thing...no RV yet because it couldn't get there from Portland in time, no other cars in their caravan and we didn't see any of his crew on the course at all until the very end coming back into town and they were parked at a deli getting lunch about 12 miles out of town. Also okay because they have to eat too and we had been texting back and forth so we knew they had at least arrived in town. His wife and kids parked the RV and went off to the National Marine Sanctuary Center (I can't even imagine what it would be like to try and do this with 5 kids in tow!).

We also have to have a discussion about the bike course because there were a couple of spots where his posted course wasn't going to work because you can't see concrete barriers and no places to turn around on a map my run course! So the whole course is a kind of on the fly thing and we turned around before getting to HMB because of the hills and he wanted a flatter course. So we head back into town and then back out of town to Davenport again but the wind has come up something fierce and back we go into town to finish the ride on some flat loops around town. I think he was pretty tired back in town and it took him quite awhile to eat, change, get his feet looked after and get back on the course. By this time we count about 7 or 8 crew people (including the cameras) and I have to give him this...he was incredibly focused and patient with all the fussing and rearranging going on. One of our crew set up a "picnic" and a towel for him in the parking lot with tons of food, nuts, drinks, chips, etc plus he had a paper bag with some food set in the lot so he just sat down and started to eat and recover a bit.

So when we get back into town and parked while waiting for the riders to finish their last little bit and there are probably 5 people from his crew milling around. One is wondering who the local organizer is who set up their 5K for them. We all look at each other like "What?" He says "who is the race ambassador for Santa Cruz?" One of the runners who drove almost three hours to come and run with him says there isn't anyone listed on the website. So this guys goes into a bit of a tailspin about how they are going to figure out a 5K course and where it starts and ends and how are they going to know where it is, etc. We all stand around looking at each other like WTF???

So I go onto our website and pull out a 5K from one of our races give it to them. He asks if we can stick around and handle this and we have to say no because I have to go coach my swim workouts. So two people from our tri club are there with mtn bikes to help lead him and out I tell them where the turnaround point is because they have the local knowledge.

We wrap up the day by cleaning everyone's gear out of our truck that we had been using for course support and I give the crew guys the bag of food that James had used on the ride, wish him well before he starts off on the run and we take off.

Over the course of the next few hours people were texting and posting on facebook about where to start the 5K and what time to show up, etc. Somebody finally sent out a message on Jame's blog about it. Then his crew sent me another text wondering if I still had his bag of food.

Now in all fairness we realize it takes a village to pull something like this off but we all walked away with the perspective that nobody is really in charge (except James) and it was pretty disorganized. Nobody really seemed to be in charge of the overall logistics and schedule. Now maybe that's not the case and we just didn't see it but if this is going to be successful they are going to have to tighten up their logistics pretty substantially. I think that distances on a map look a lot shorter when you're plotting out your routes but two back to back days that require 10 - 12 hour drives between does not bode well for his well being. He told me he hadn't been able to get much rest and that is going to really take a toll as this goes on.

Just my 2 cents.

Wonder what happens if logistics gets the best of him and he can't pull off one day. Cut the run short to get back on schedule for the next day? Take a day off and continue? Or, pull the plug and go home. Is this all or nothing, or does he recoup and move on should plans need to be altered?

if he makes it to july 13 let me know and i'll see if i can find a group and pull him thru the bike

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Fruit snacks are for winners

Here's what I think will happen... At some point, a group of people will join him, all in good will. And one of those nice people will accidentally take him out of the journey. It won't be on purpose. It might be a trip and fall. Although, I'd bet on some sort of virus. His immune system will be running on low and some nice bloke will pass on their virus. The more people that come out, the more likely this will happen.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Good questions.

The web site certainly seems to have the all or nothing tone to it. Expectations for this thing are set way to high. I know 50/50/50 sounds nice.. But Memorial day to Labor day, all 50 states and someone MIGHT be able to pull it off.

He doesn't have a chance logistically to make this happen. Too bad.

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Austin Hardy -

I had no idea you felt this way, only 3 posts in the past hour

Yikes - I thought this guy had a shot at doing this, but if this is how disorganized his planning and logistical support is, then I would have to say probably not. He should have recruited an ex-armed forces logistics manager to plan and run things, and probably just had his family meet him at a few locations. So my prediction is he gets to about 20, and then comes back in a year or two for a second go at it with a more organized and better planned effort.

He might not want to quit, but his body cannot sustain this.

It's going to be blazing hot today in Vegas. He's done.

I have to agree with you. We were discussing yesterday what a bunch of totally Type A triathletes and project mangers would do with something like this...a professional project manager and a serious operations plan and regimented schedule would definitely be in the mix. I mean really...having the guy sleep in the back seat of a Subaru all night while driving to Las Vegas is not the way to do this. I never got to see the RV so I have no idea if it's new, how big, etc. but it takes a car about 10 - 12 hours to drive to Vegas from Santa Cruz. It takes an hour to get to a major highway that would get him headed in the right direction!

If this was me (and that's not ever going to happen - LOL) I'd probably have an advance crew at the next day's location doing some major route scouting and route verification, fly into the area instead of even trying to drive so that a hot shower and a good bed was waiting at the hotel, etc. on some of these days. If you look at a schedule on a very good day assuming a finish at 8 - 9 pm you have at most 9 - 10 hours before the next day's swim start. Somewhere in there is food, massage, planning and sleep. I am sure the thinking was to get in the RV and get on the road almost immediately but that just isn't happening. Maybe possible if you only have a 4 or 5 hour drive between places and that's still not optimal for rest (and you've got 5 kids in the RV?).

I hope he does it but my gut tells me that at some point there is going to be either a physical or mechanical issue that derails the plan because there are just no contingencies possible in this whole operation.

Thanks for the wonderful recap.

From someone with a even further outside perspective on this, the above certainly seems to be the case.

On one of his earlier run, he was given a pair of sneakers that was a size too small. He has misplaced his HR or GPS. Simple stuff that should not be occurring

On his one and only podcast, he stated "we probably need to come up with a checklist or something". Really?!?!?!? (He is also appears to be the his own Social Media Director)

Its quite disappointing honestly that something that should have been a "no brainer" easy solution months ago and not a discussion point "today" could be his end game.

He does not have to be Captain and Crew for this entire thing. Though hopefully it is not too late for someone to step-up as the Logistics Capitan, or have someone with experience to come along that is willing to jump on this trek and take over.

This is my guess too. He reported that he slept in the back of a car to get there so started late and it's going to be super hot. Earlier in the week he reported that he was falling asleep on the bike while riding. If he makes it to the start tomorrow I'll personally be surprised. But my original guess was that he'd make it 5 days so I was wrong before and I could be wrong now too.

The logistics of this are just insane.

Facebook page says he had to swim 3000 yards with 1 arm because he hurt his other shoulder. Got through it, but definately could be in trouble going forward.

Keep in mind this is the guy who was hyping this thing by saying doctors said it could kill him. There may be a bit of P.T. Barnum involved here.

He does seem to be remarkably adaptable, to make up for some lack of organization.

OMG i'm SHOCKED. i ASSumed he had all the routes already planned! I can't imagine doing this AND figuring out your routes on teh fly (well actually I did an IM like that once but the organizers knew the route - they just kept it secret from the athletes...). I agree Kay. I'm a bit dumbfounded here that nothing is planned in advance...

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http://harvestmoon6.blogspot.com
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katasmit

Thanks for the first-hand insight on what is happening. For such a massive undertaking as this, the amount of pre-planning and also having contingencies in place is staggering, and something is bound to go wrong or even be out of their control regardless of how well they planned. Some of the things you've described though sound like they are winging it as they go (sleeping in a Subaru?) and could be things that would ultimately thwart the whole plan.

Still, huge props for what he has been able to do so far (remembering how I felt the day after doing IM each time I did it, could not imagine summoning the physical/mental energy to do it again the next day never mind the five he has finished already since starting this quest). I really hope he does pull it off but as I mentioned earlier in the thread a few weeks back, I think the logistics involved will ultimately be what brings this to a halt. I hope I am wrong, still planning on meeting up for the end of the run if he makes it to Boston on July 6 as planned.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

I am curious as to how much it is expected to cost? Anyone know? Flights, food, etc etc.

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________________
Adrian in Vancouver

He has them all mapped out, if you view his website you can see all the routes

He has had some issues that he has had to change his routes though

I looked at his list and he appears to be picking existing courses when available rather than planning this to minimize travel time. He also does not appear to be taking advantage of geographic locations where he could stay in the same place for a couple nights and knock of three or four states with minimal travel. Heck, even rock stars these days plan their tours so, whenever possible, they can stay in the same hotel for several nights and make short bus trips to multiple venues . . . .

You wonder how much of his shoulder discomfort today is relating to sleeping in the back of a cramped Subaru?

For example, there are at least 3 lakes in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio that are about 5 miles from each other. Get a hotel room in Angola and you are off the road for 3 days. https://www.google.com/...f:0xd1878475af633463 [edit, I tried clipping the map but it did not work]

Instead he's driving from Cleveland, Ohio to Benton Harbor, Michigan - 313 miles. Then to Muncie, Indiana - 183 miles.

His FB page says he hit the deck on the bike today. That's what happens when your fatigue is too high...

You mis-read his post.

" Something happened with my shoulder today and I literally swim 3000 yards with one arm. Then out on the bike trail big John Rose took one for the team and hit the deck hard. He is okay though

I think that was somebody he was riding with, right?

Was there any explanation for this? I can somewhat understand some of the other logistical difficulties that he and his support crew were having...but riding your own bike and having at least a plan for a flat seems like one of the few things that shouldn't be hard to plan for.

If they can't get that right...it's scary to think of all the other things they could possibly fumble on.

Nobody said anything about why. There were three other bikes on the rack

Falling asleep on the bike could kill him.

Another logistic misstep IMHO. It does not appear that even once is he taking advantage of doing a point to point bike/run and cutting down on car or RV time. If you are going to ride/run 138 miles, why retrace that for 2 hours in a car? In my camp out in Angola, Indiana example, on the Indiana day, he could head west out of town after the swim and be within sight of Illinois at the end of the run. He could have done Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois with less than an hour of total drive time.

As mentioned somewhere in this thread, it appears that he is trying to keep these as close to urban/larger population areas as much as possible for his 5K charity runs, support, etc

While your Angola works perfectly as described. It is really out there in nowhere land.

In looking at the map, I do see some logistic anomalies (I assume there are a few others, I quickly spotted these) that unless there is specific reasons why he could not do it the best way, makes him go out of his way for no reason.

He is doing VA>WC>MD.

He should have done VA>MD, and then pick up WV in PA>WV>OH

Also, he is doing MA>NH>ME, where it is logistically more prudent to do MA>ME>NH

There is a lot of head scratching just prior to that too. Pensacola > Atlanta > Myrtle Beach > Charlotte > Williamsburg > Morgantown > Cambridge. That is a ton of back and forth across states that doesn't make any sense at all. If he did Pensacola > Savannah > Myrtle Beach > Wilmington > Williamsburg > Cambridge it would drastically cut out travel time. Do as you say and cut out WV until later.

This thing is looking like it could really become just a huge comedy of errors

Hitting high population areas makes sense. But he's doing Benton Harbor, MI, which is only slightly bigger than Angola, Indiana (both are around 10,000) but to get there he's driving an extra 2.5 hours after passing by Detroit (population about 4 million) on his way there from Cleveland . . . . Benton Harbor does have a longstanding HIM race and it he appears he is basically doubling up on that course so that's probably the reason. A quick glance at his itinerary leads me to believe much of this was done by selecting existing triathlons to work off of.

I'm no expert but my thought is this comes down to how well you manage the off hours and travel, and this does not look to be set up with that as the number 1 priority. But, raising money is a worthy goal if that is his no. 1.

Hell, he could do double Morgantowns, SavageMans, and Pittsburghs and hit three states while keeping one HQ location.

He's going to have to be flexible. On-the-fly course changes to avoid hills and wind seems to be par for the course, and is surely wise. I wish he had scheduled in a few rest days, because I think it would dramatically increase the odds of him completing this. It would give them just a little leeway room for the inevitable complications and give his body just the slightest chance for recuperation. But, 50/50/55 isn't quite as cool, I guess.

I have been following the Cowboy for the last few days and today is looking quite brutal.

According to Garmin LiveTrack, he has been on the bike for 4 hours+ and he is clocking in at 13.87 mph (56.06 miles). He has climbed 3600+ feet, it is hot and he still has a marathon to go. Not to mention a four hour drive to Flagstaff. The logistics seem to be getting very difficult, very quickly and there are just not enough hours in the day.

I hope he gets it done but there seem to be some problems early on.

I'm with you. I hope he does it - but it seems so unlikely. Logistics, injuries, small details, big details, travel, weather. He is a few days in and a lot is catching up with him. Hopefully he finds some cooler weather and better sleep. Maybe that will help.

My bad. You're right. But seriously... at that level of fatigue, cycling on public roads is a recipe for getting killed.

Over 6,000 ft of climbing on the bike tomorrow. Ouch.

Lord knows I am his biggest supporter, I want him to do this so bad, I believe he can.


That being said, today doesn't look good...

Idk.

At a certain point, I think he's going to have to pick some 2-5 mile loops that are favorable in terms of lack of climbing, road surface, shade, and shelter from any potential wind. I also think it will be a huge benefit to his support crew as it will allow them to stay stationary for the most part. Since he isn't taking advantage of point to point courses to cut down on travel, I think we're going to see these adjustments soon.

From his FB page...

Quote:

We're now deviating from our original course as we've only been able to average 13 miles per.

Looks like that started today. Original route was 7,600 ft of climbing.

i'm missing that. i see nothing but blank pages with the cities. the website SUCKS. I really hate it. they need to have:
1. a map of the country with each state linking to its own state wtih signups and coordinators designated.
2. identify the highschools in each town he leaves from and get volunteers there.
3. have signups for each swim coordinated by the masters/local/HS swim team for donut and coffee brought to the pool/swim start along with volunteers for swimming and T1.
4. RV needs to kick the family out and put them in a van.
5. cowboy goes in RV.
6. have a point person per town (IDd on website so you can contact them for info/volunteering) to coordinate food/first aid/mechanicals/athletes to accompany and maybe even a driver to the next town. this would give a fresh driver each and every night.
7. have signups to buy breakfast/nutrition from a local food place or LBS as support (i.e. random acts of donuts/pizza).
8. have a person dedicated JUST to social media. have the point person for each town have each event (S/B/R) point person write up a blurb and take lots of photos and pass this to the main social media person. once the state is done update the website and have a thankyou page replace the state signup page in item 1.
9. i need to work a bit but back with more.

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http://harvestmoon6.blogspot.com
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katasmit

"i'm missing that. i see nothing but blank pages with the cities. the website SUCKS. I really hate it. they need to have:
1. a map of the country with each state linking to its own state wtih signups and coordinators designated.
2. identify the highschools in each town he leaves from and get volunteers there.
3. have signups for each swim coordinated by the masters/local/HS swim team for donut and coffee brought to the pool/swim start along with volunteers for swimming and T1.
4. RV needs to kick the family out and put them in a van.
5. cowboy goes in RV.
6. have a point person per town (IDd on website so you can contact them for info/volunteering) to coordinate food/first aid/mechanicals/athletes to accompany and maybe even a driver to the next town. this would give a fresh driver each and every night.
7. have signups to buy breakfast/nutrition from a local food place or LBS as support (i.e. random acts of donuts/pizza).
8. have a person dedicated JUST to social media. have the point person for each town have each event (S/B/R) point person write up a blurb and take lots of photos and pass this to the main social media person. once the state is done update the website and have a thankyou page replace the state signup page in item 1.
9. i need to work a bit but back with more. "

Those are great ideas. If you could load the website and FB page you would see that most of that is already in place.

ah, well, then, nevermind. i wonder how he keeps ending up having to make up routes on teh fly though? and why he seems to never have food? maybe they put the most incomplete states first when he'd be more fresh. dunno. wish all that showed up when i load their website though. i'll try on my laptop and then try IE.

OMG! what a difference! there is SO much i missed. i thought they were just really lazy with the website. i loaded in IE and SO MUCH more appears now. thanks!

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http://harvestmoon6.blogspot.com
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katasmit

I had a glimpse into how they operate yesterday. They changed the bike course halfway to avoid too many hills and strong winds. Hills could have been foreseen with better planning, but even us locals would have had a hard time predicting the winds. They do try and have a local 'ambassador' for each stage whose job it is to plan courses and offer logistic help. The ambassador was MIA and pennib on this forum and a few others jumped in to offer any help they could provide. I am unsure about the food situation. They did plan the route with Hawaii and Alaska first to tackle the longest travels when fresh. Check the calendar page on the website when you can. I agree with Jason who said he expects adjustments on the fly will be needed. They do seem able to make those in strides.

This is actually a fantastic idea for WTC, and one which I am sure would prove to be very popular. If you are part way through an IM and it seems too tough, there could alternate routes that cut out the hills.

You are welcome to do your own ironman distance triathlon anytime and on any course of your liking. That has nothing to do with WTC. As long as the distances are proper it is an ironman distance course.

With that said, "there could alternate routes that cut out the hills." is exactly what they have done to the Ironman Lake Tahoe course over the years. It is clear that if you want a tough course you would be better of avoiding WTC but go to Norseman, Embrunman, etc

Huh? I don't think ANY of them are in place. Certainly not an advance team and detailed volunteer info.

I am really fascinated by all the logistics of this and rooting for him to go far in his quest, but this was poorly planned

Did you see the information about ambassadors? Did you see the FB events for each state? It's all there - even though unfortunately scattered, I agree. Could it be different and better organized? Yes, of course. But it's a first time event and I repeat his whole team seems to take it in strides and smoothly adjust on the fly.

can you give a direct link to the FB/state stuff? I have looked everywhere and loaded the website in 2 different browsers but am missing that. Fuck me that was HARD! JHC they need to do something about that.

here is tomorrow. https://www.facebook.com/events/374544936072597/

no, that might not be it. JHC it should not be this hard.

https://www.facebook.com/...aironcowboy/?fref=ts

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http://harvestmoon6.blogspot.com
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katasmit

Honestly I wasn't even aware of the FB event pages, but that is still direct to the point. You need to search individually for them and there is no master link on the offical FB page or website.

I see nothing about ambassadors on the website (unless you are referring to the individual FB pages)

Its is quite simple to have all this in one place.

Who cares this is a first time event and his team takes it all in stride. They are not planning a High School dance.

All these issues should not even be issues with just a little foresight, planning and having a a designated or quasi Social Media Director

Main FB page: https://www.facebook.com/Ironcowboy?fref=ts
State page list: https://www.facebook.com/...nk/1583693791914957/

I agree the information is scattered.
You can apply to become an ambassador by clicking the links at the bottom the website. For example, scroll down on this page: http://www.ironcowboy.co/media/
Note that they already have media links to article published yesterday, so they are on top of that.

I am willing to cut them some slack because of the first time and the magnitude of the task. Alternatively, they could have spent another 3 years planning each minute details, listening to the no-sayers and never left Utah. He has already achieved more than many expected. What is wrong with that?

As Trirunner says they did a great job of adjusting on the fly. I think that will be the key to success. But it's really James who makes those calls based on how he feels. Today they made changes for flatter roads.

I noted that there is a lot of climbing tomorrow. Isn't there some significant elevation in Flagstaff? That could also be a critical factor that you can't adjust for.

What was missing in Santa Cruz was that local input. Plus any local input should take into account the ongoing fatigue factor as well. The distance can't change, but there needs to be continued flexibility on the courses. Just picking an existing local race course may not cut it.

I came across harsh and I did not mean that. I apologize.

But :)

Here is the link for tomorrow. There is NOTHING that I can see on it about who the ambassador is, volunteering, meeting places, what is needed, etc
https://www.facebook.com/events/374544936072597/

I am focusing solely on the "off road" stuff that should have been planned, or just delegated properly to people that has expertise in it, and let his core support crew focus on the daily race.

The "on the road" stuff does seems that James is doing a wonderful job in adpating for the unknown, the unforseen.

Boy does this bring back memories when I crewed for RAAM in 2009. I remember the climb to flagstaff. Just driving the RV was tough.

But the route was planned to every turn and it was still super super tough, on both the rider, and the crew. And that was only 12 days of no sleep.

.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

Good point about tomorrow's event. I guess it will be updated later? If you look at today's page you will see more details. It does appear they are barely managing the day at hand and have no time to focus on the next day.

I went out to meet him yesterday. In the end, I chose to leave him alone after exchanging just a few words as it was the end of a long day, he looked pretty beat and I did not want to become a burden. I did not foresee spending time with his supporters, crew and family while we were waiting for him but I am very glad I did. There is a dimension to his venture that is easy to overlook and difficult to explain, but they all operate seemingly in an harmony which I found very inspiring. They may be making mistakes, lacking planning and organization to the point where it may jeopardize the whole project, but I have no doubt they will learn, adapt and rebound, in one way or another.