…with long course triathlon talent these days. Women: Angela Duncan (70.3 monster and won Ironman Chattanooga) Magali Tisseyre (another 70.3 monster) and most notably Heather Wurtele (70.3 monster and multi time IM Champion). Men: Brent McMahon (won debut IM last year at AZ under 8 hours) Lionel Sanders (won debut IM last year at Florida without any difficulty, 70.3 monster, of recent fame for riding up Mt Lemmon in Tuscon and getting Strava KOMs which caused quite a hubbub on the internet) Trevor Wurtele (IM champ and 70.3 champ and Heather’s starter husband) and now Mr Jeffrey Symonds just won the first championship Ironman of 2015 by taking the title in Melbourne. That is a good amount of talent and I probably forgot someone.
Canadians are probably too calm and modest to get fired up about this lineup of top performing athletes. They should be hyped though. These are exciting days, these athletes could contend for the title at Kona. As you know I am generally quite derisive of Canada because of the people who live there BUT I will give them credit for producing this crop of top tier talent. Also most of these athletes seem pretty cool which is neat. It seems like most Canadians I meet are actually very neat individuals yet I maintain that the overall populace is reprehensible. This is a bizarre phenomenon that I do not fully understand but I will not be swayed from my anti-Canada belief system.
Unrelated, if you didn’t know it was Doug MacLean’s birthday the other day. Doug is my little brother and I wish him a very happy birthday and for 2015 to be another fabulous year for him. We may have different parents and he may be seven years my senior but as of now I am claiming him as a little brother.
Unrelated, my modeling peer and fellow QR PRsix rider Callum Millward made his Ironman debut at Melbourne. He put together a very smart day swimming and riding sensibly with the chase group and running mid 2:50s. It ain’t easy to go 8:14 your first time. Callum works in hand modeling while I obviously work in spokesmodeling so we are never vying for the same jobs. He rode his PRsix very well and his hands looked great the whole race.
Missy Franklin swam her 200 free at the NCAA meet in 1:39. If you’ve never swum a 200 under 1:40, just rest assured that is wicked fast. I believe she is leaving the NCAA to go pro as she preps for the 2016 Olympic Games. Good call Missy. Very few athletes are in a position to make more money as a pro than they make via scholarship but Missy is definitely of a caliber that the money would be way better as a pro. Get paid!
Devon Palmer 