Just got home from Muncie Endurathon - and the very first thing I’m doing is throwing out some praise for Zach Ruble…not only did he finish strong (although I have no idea where he ended up placing, I HEARD 3rd OV), but this is what struck me - a pro (Zach) finishing a race and then going a mile down to the last aid station to help hand out water and Gatorade. Have you ever seen that before? He was just standing there, like all the other wonderful volunteers, yelling “Water? Gatorade?” as I ran by. Pure class. There WERE a few sexy 17-yr olds at that aid station, but I doubt that had anything to do with it. LOL - just kidding (they were 13).
hummm, Zach??? classy?? please dont let a one time experience leave you with a positive experience of him,
i would more likely think that the aid station and something like pizza for food for volunteer and he wanted food. Or maybe there really was a cute 17 years old girl or something else… but what you describe is definitly not normal zach behavior and please, dont let the first impression fool you, he is dangerous…
I did Guelph Lake Oly a few years ago and Lisa Bentley came back along the run course to cheer us on after finishing her race. I always thought that was really cool. One of the great things about this sport is how down to earth the pros are.
Where did you see the results posted? I’m looking on the website and they’re not up yet, and I didn’t expect them to be anyway.
DawnT - yeah that’s cool that they do that. The only problem is that Tri pros are not celebrities like in other sports, so very few people know what they look like. The run-of-the-mill local wouldn’t have known it was Zach anyway. He left his “I’m Zach Ruble, Pro Triathlete” name tag back at transition. I’m embarrassed to say this, but at last year’s IMMoo, I was standing next to PNF for quite some time (maybe 10 minutes?) while she chatted up with people and such before I had any idea it was her. And I knew who she was, I just wasn’t paying attention.
Re: helping out at aid stations after the race, BIGZACH is actually a really nice guy beneath the ultra-masculine, tough guy, tearing telephone directories in half veneer. I hear he is going to raffle off his custom aero helmet for charity!
LOL! Yeah - on Friday night he seemed a little upset about not bringing it with him to Muncie, and needing to find another reason to be DQ’ed. We did have one guy DQ’ed due to his helmet, and I believe I saw it - looked like one of those kiddie frog helmets you buy at Walmart or something, but it looked to be about 20 years old.
Always cool to see this. Like I said, at St. Croix at the mile 3 aid station after the race, Chris McCormack was out there handing out gatorade and encouraging the athletes about 45 minutes after he finished.