…on the bike course pedaling with ONE crank-arm?! And no, he was not a physically challenged athlete…his left leg was just dangling with a shoe on – no crank arm in sight. Anyone know if or how he finished?
Or, what about the guy who carried a huge American flag on about a 4ft pole for the entire run?
Amazing…both of them.
Uhh, those were the same guy, I believe.
Aaron Patel ( aka JeepFleeb ) is his name.
He carries the flag in every run he’s done, including several other IMs this year, a couple marathons, and at least one ultra.
He’s a really cool guy. I know he had crank issues at FL and one-legged it for 15 miles before the tech van caught up with him, so it’s quite possibly the same guy you saw.
Wow, more I think about it, you’re probably right. I wasn’t sure, but I thought it might’ve been …as I thought I remembered him having a full beard (not many of those out there). Carrying the flag in every race, that’s awesome. Glad to hear that the tech van was able to catch up to him!
We have a guy locally that does the same with a flag. I wonder if that is him. The guy can run with the thing also.
If it was the same guy, he had an small american flag flying from his seat post and an m-dot tattoo shaded with the american flag. When I saw him on the bike he was passing me with two legs pedaling. We ran together for the first mile. Many people were asking if he was seriously going to carry the flag the whole distance. He definitely did as I saw him come into the finish line. If I were him I would train carrying a pole that weighed about 10 pounds or so. After 4+ hours of running that thing has got to seem like 30 pounds. Or just think about when the wind picks up. Whew.
Saw him on the run with the flag and was amazed by the patriotism that that took to schlep that flag 26.2; simply amazing.
The flag carrying guy does a lot of races in Texas, he’ll carry the flag in any race, mini on up to IM.
He’s not all that slow on the bike I must say and if he’d get serious about it he could probably be a pretty good triathlete.
P.S. I love my country too, but would not feel right doing anything so attention grabbing as carrying a flag. To each his own though.
for the record…he did the Marine Corps Marathon the weekend before too.
He carries it for all races, and he does quite a few in a year.
If this is the one, that’s Aaron P from Dallas (or FW).
This was taken at BSLT.
He obviously loves his country MUCH more than you or I.
Fine, I’ll just get a horse trailer with 10 flags mounted on it and pull it with my teeth. That will show him.
That pic reminds me of forest gump, except forest didn’t carry a flag…slacker.
Traitor! Why to you hate freedom?
~Matt
Yep, that was him.
If I ever become a Christian I’ll carry a cross in my races and write off the entry and travel expense.
As seen around the country and in Texas…
(from the PCB paper: http://photos.emeraldcoast.com/nherald.showalbum.db.php?aID=202&pNum=19)
Anyone know the story here? Attention whore or what?
no, an attention whore he is not.
This guy is a class act. I don’t know the full story on the flag, but I think he started carrying it after Sept. 11th.
That must be the IM pole. I have been in HIMs with this guy and he totes the massive wood pole for the shorter distances. Seriously.
========
just think how much faster he’d be if he didn’t love America.