Not sure if this has been mentioned before but Ryan Hall was interviewed in Competitor magazine and was quoted:
"Here’s my proposition: What i’d like to do with Lance someday… is an Ironman relay — me, Lance and Michael Phelps… and do it all for our various charities we’re all supporting… I think maybe we can put a quick time out there for the Ironman. We can spot the pros a couple hours. I think we can run them down.
While I think this would be pretty awesome, pretty much the dreamteam of IM relays and I would probably pay to watch this event, I find it a little offensive that he’s calling out the pros, I mean, he’s trying to talk smack doing an IM relay… BFD… he’s running one leg of an IM, I would hope he’d be able to catch some guys on the run… now if he could do all 3 disciplines on his own and still run a low 2 marathon… then i’d be impressed.
I don’t see that as him calling them out. I do think it would be an awesome event which would bring more notoriety to the sport and raise a lot of money for some very good charities.
i dunno, i just think that if i’m a pro, i would be a little taken back by that statement… sure if he thinks he’s fast enough to spot the pros a couple hours and run them down, more power to him but then again, if you’re only doing one discipline of a 3 discipline sport i just don’t think it’s his place to reference his time to anyone elses, especially pros doing the whole race.
another cool race idea… phelps/armstrong/hall vs. alexander/lieto/macca
Man some of you are uptight. The proposition IS interesting to me. Sure, they’re doing a relay. Sure, they’re 3 pros who are arguably some of the best in their respective field. But giving the tri pros a significant head start certainly would make for an interesting fantasy competition. Jeebus, it’s not an apples to apples race, but I’d certainly enjoy watching it. At IM distance, I think the relay team could realistically recover from yielding a 90 min head start, course variables notwithstanding.
Why would he choose Phelps?..he is only good if there is a wall to push off of…
It should be Larsen Jensen for the swim; he is the current American record holder in the 400/800/1500!
There was a new wrinkle at the recent national triathlon championship on South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island. In addition to the 1,000 or so individual entrants, the field included 26 three-person relay teams, one of them an all-star team assembled by the promoters. First Paul Asmuth, who set the men’s English Channel record in August, churned through the 1.5K swimming leg. Next John Howard, who four months ago set the cycling land-speed record of 152 mph, pedaled 40K. Howard then handed off to Rod Dixon, the 1983 New York City Marathon champion, who ran the 10K anchor leg.
As might be expected, the all-star team turned in a terrific time—1:50:23. But the trio was only seven minutes faster than the individual champion, Scott Molina of Del Mar Beach, Calif., who did all three events by his lonesome and whose 1:57:16 clocking beat Djan Madiuga of Brazil by 25 seconds. Most impressive of all: Molina, Madiuga and eight other triathletes finished ahead of the remaining 25 relay teams.
anybody every watch Shaq’s show? yeah, some of the stuff they do to level the playing field is silly…but it’s entertaining. show gets decent ratings though.
i think this would be awesome. if the WTC is monitoring this post, yes…I WOULD PAY TO WATCH THIS. let’s get a show runner and pitch this to some of the studios here in LA.
Phelps MIGHT put 15 min. into the pros (at 15min/mile).
Armstrong MIGHT put 30 min. into the pros (at 28mph).
Hall MIGHT put 30 min. into the pros (runs a 2:15).
That ain’t a couple of hours.
I remember when Arturio Barios figured that since he runs a 2:08 mary he could do a 2:17 in an IM no prob. (he wised up and never tried).
PS: What’s Ryan’s deal with the douche popped collar in the photo?
I hope that whoever sets up this relay “event” invites AFLD to oversee the doping tests. One would like to make sure it doesn’t turn into a freak show, right?
i dunno, i just think that if i’m a pro, i would be a little taken back by that statement… sure if he thinks he’s fast enough to spot the pros a couple hours and run them down, more power to him but then again, if you’re only doing one discipline of a 3 discipline sport i just don’t think it’s his place to reference his time to anyone elses, especially pros doing the whole race.
another cool race idea… phelps/armstrong/hall vs. alexander/lieto/macca
i would pay to see that too!
I think you meant Potts/Lieto/Alexander - I would pay to see it as well.
Why would he choose Phelps?..he is only good if there is a wall to push off of…
It should be Larsen Jensen for the swim; he is the current American record holder in the 400/800/1500!
Because Phelps has more exposure than Larsen Jensen…
This is like the really fast runner, bragging about being able to steal a lot of bases in Baseball. Uhhhhh…you can’t steal 1st base.
Entertainment to me. Call it the home run derby in baseball, skills challenge in golf, we watch (maybe you don’t) a lot of “stuff” that is not the full sport.
Does anyone else not think that Michael Phelps is the worst swimmer option? The guy doesn’t swim distance. Maybe if he were the first leg of swim relay in an IM, but my guess is he wouldn’t even ben in the top 10 of swim finishers at IMKona. There is no way he could maintain a 1:03/100 pace for 2.4miles.
