Swim, bike, run AND give back: Kona Diary Day 4: Blazeman and Super bikes!

friends and family,

The show that is Ironman Hawaii goes on, each day the intensity of this place grows! Some of it is truly hilarious, like guys running in speedo, compression socks, no shirt. Sure, they have rock bodies but please, get a grip!

I heard a great quote yesterday: Training hero; Race day zero. That happens a lot here. Guys hammering their runs and bikes along Alii Dr only to be absolutely bullocks on race day. Bad for them; good for me-:)

So, what did day 4 bring Meredith and I? First and foremost an incredible 20 minutes with Bob Blais, the father of the passed Jon Blais, ALS Warrior poet. If you don't know what I am talking about, please click through here: www.waronals.com and also watch this 6 minute video on You Tube to understand what Jon did to put the discussion about ALS into the sports space: http://youtu.be/9Vrjp2P0GlE

I get inspired by people doing extraordinary things. Many have probably read my experience with www.tourforkids.com as a great example of my being inspired by everyday people doing extraordinary things.

Jon Blais did an extraordinary thing; he did an Ironman with Lou Gehrig's disease. 12 months later Jon returned to Kona in a wheelchair; 6 months later from that, 18 months after finishing Ironman Hawaii Jon was dead. But his legacy is far from dead. He and Team Blazeman are spreading the awareness message about ALS and recently in partnership with Northwestern University funded a major research breakthrough re: the common cause of all ALS. Knowing the cause is the first step to understanding how to treat it. To put this work into perspective, no breakthroughs from 1939 when Lou Gehrig died to 2011 now the Blazeman Foundation has raised funds since Jon's passing and in 5 years have a major breakthrough.

Stopping by the Blazeman booth and sharing time with Mr. Blais was inspiring. Want to join the cause go to the website above or email Bob at info@waronals.com

After passing by the Blazeman booth I sought out what I term "the super bikes". The next generation of aero fast bikes. I dropped into the Specialized booth to see their 1 day old Triathlon Shiv. My initial thoughts are: BLAH. If you are going to build a super bike 100% dedicated to triathlon, PLEASE GO FOR IT! Don't take your current model, add a few bells and whistles with no aero data to support it and call it the fastest there is. From there I visited the BMC booth and really dug the Swiss precision. Clean lines, integrated front and rear brakes, dropped rear triangle. Integrated aero cockpit. Only thing missing was BB30 (Cervelo version being the BBright) bottom bracket to shave weight, and add stiffness/power. Then onto Trek to see their Speed Concept and like the BMC very clean lines, integrated brakes, great aero cockpit but they have not integrated their own BB30 bottom bracket system.

Last I visited my bike support crew www.cervelo.com where they had their wind tunnel tester with a vague promise for January 2012 launch of the NEXT GEN P series. I ride currently the "THEN GEN P3" (see picture right side bar of blog.) NEXT GEN P will have the Cervelo BBright bottom bracket but otherwise they are tight lipped re: bike features!!!!

Here are some photos of those bikes:

Specialized: