Newsletter ep. 116: AMA + our Kona review

After watching the Kona NBC coverage this weekend, I think I’ve decided I’m ready to do an Ironman again. But which one? Because the women’s pro calendar in N. America for next year hella suuuuuuuuucks. I’m thinking Roth…

Anyway, I need to get through the end of this year first. As always, if you see me at Indian Wells this weekend, yell at me to go faster. (Also, yell at me that off-season starts at noon.)

Speaking of Indian Wells, the athlete guide for this weekend lists a Women for Tri hair-braiding event on Saturday. 

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Ask Us Anything

We’re going to do an AMA episode, so we need your questions. If you’ve never been on the internet before, AMA means ‘Ask Me Anything’ and is a frequent theme on worldwide web forums. The idea is to ask anything and get genuine yet random answers. (This doesn’t have to be serious, it doesn’t have to be real journalistic questions, whatever.)

So, ask me anything, ask Sara, ask us. AUA instead of AMA I guess. Depending on the questions, we’ll do an AMA episode on the podcast coming up. I may do a mailbag version of the newsletter here for the holidays too.

Press reply to send me a question. Or email kelly@livefeisty.com. (Or, if you want Sara for some reason, sara@livefeisty.com.) We’ll also be posting on Instagram and Facebook, and maybe Twitter if I remember the password, so you can add questions there too.

Kona: reviewed

Did you watch the annual NBC Kona coverage this past weekend? I was driving, so I ended up watching the video online later — which came without the NBC TV ads, which is actually a bit disappointing because those ads are hilarious/amazing.

Still, I felt like it wasn’t as much fun as I remember. The announcer changed last year, which has contributed to it partially feeling fake-serious instead of real-serious. And every time they referred to Lucy as “Charles Barclay” it was hard not to laugh — if you know anything about NBA basketball. The coverage story line also felt more all over the place to me: now the pro men summed up real fast, now the age-groupers, now pro women — and there were a few spots where time jumped and gaps opened, which felt like something had been missed or edited weirdly?

(When the announcer ran really fast through the list of all the pros in contention it also became super clear it’s like: DNF’d last year, missed due to injury, DNF’d, DNF’d, injury, injury, overtrained, heat exhaustion. It’s almost funny how clear it is when stacked like that. But it also makes it hard to…care?)

Of course, it’s still good coverage, but it was a GOOD MOTHERFUCKING RACE this year. And it didn’t feel like it did the race justice.

I dunno. Am I just a hater?

Two other notes: 1. This is the coverage that airs on NBC, so it is the coverage for people who know nothing about triathlon. It’s weird, then, to continuously refer to “age-groupers” instead of “amateurs.” Non-triathletes don’t know what “age-groupers” are. 2. I wanted to watch the Quest for Kona shows before (or after), but they don’t seem to be anywhere on Ironman’s Facebook or their terribly redesigned website. Though, in all fairness, the videos could exist somewhere on the website and are just impossible to find.

One actually heartfelt thing: Watching the first above-the-knee amputee to finish Kona was genuinely moving. We were very worried he wasn’t going to make it. But, come on! That’s some real drama shit. You can sell that better!

Kneeling in triathlon

My bartender the other night started in on a whole string of unfortunate topics — including how men are pretending to be women to win sports competitions (sigh) — and among his highlights was: kneeling in the NFL was never really about politics.

Which made me wonder why kneeling never really caught on in triathlon. In fact, it never really happened at all. Why?

1. Triathlon is definitely a more conservative (and less diverse) population. 2. It’s also an international sport, and kneeling is very much an American protest about American issues. It’d be weird to do during the Peru national anthem at a race in Lima. You know? 3. The start of triathlon isn’t exactly set up for the same kind of show as team sports or even marathons. Usually you’re in a crowd, waiting, when the national anthem plays. I once seriously weighed kneeling during the height of the protest, at IM Louisville, but it was super awkward over behind the pier while a bagpipe played, off to the side of the pro men starting, where we were huddled in a group trying to warm up. 

I don’t know exactly why no one has kneeled in triathlon, but the moment has probably passed?

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• In the most unsurprising Ironman announcement recently: There is a new 70.3 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Given CEO Andrew Messick has said they were going to launch races in Russia, I was actually expecting an Ironman Russia announcement. (It does sound like IM is about to announce something else in N. America too. Maybe they’ll make this one a pro women’s race that actually fits into my schedule…) (Twitter)
   
• I heard Holly Lawrence won the L.A. Turkey Trot outright. I heard because she beat a friend of mine who got 2nd overall/1st male and he was like ‘I think she’s a triathlete?’ Hah. (She’s off to do Bahrain now as the first race of her new season while we’re all finishing the last races of this season.) (Instagram)
   
• Speaking of Bahrain: It sounds like there’s going to be an epic relay team racing the 70.3 — Mo Farah on the run, Mark Cavendish on the bike, and Chloe McCardel on the swim. (She’s a record-setting open water swimmer.) I’ve actually always had this idea that each country in the Olympics should field a relay team of their best in each discipline on the last day. It’d be super fun. (Instagram) 
   
• Alistair Brownlee is officially going to try for the Tokyo Olympics and Kona next year. Which sounds, uh, challenging. (220Triathlon)
   
• For all of us who aren’t Holly, it’s the end of the year: Which means Kelsey eked out a back-to-back win (and redemption from Kona) at Cartagena 70.3, Brownlee locked down that Kona 2020 thing at Western Australia and Teresa Adam broke the course record there — as did second place Sarah Piampiano. I also saw the Beijing International Tri on TV when I was looking for Kona NBC coverage. Whew. (Instagram/Witsup)
   
• I never thought about this but: Just let triathletes race in a goddamn hijab if they want. It definitely isn’t an advantage. (Runner’s World)
   
• How much could NCAA female athletes make if the NCAA gets rid of its stupid rules limiting what athletes can make? (SB Nation)
   
• There are some interesting details in this Mary Cain interview — namely the continued lack of a third-party investigation. BTW, if you want a contrarian viewpoint on where track and field is, here you go. (WWD/3WireSports)
   
• On that note, the track and field world champs are going to be in the U.S. for the first time and Eugene is struggling to figure out the finances. One of the details I never realized: prize money is subject to U.S. state and federal taxes; usually world champs locations get around this by exempting the event, but Oregon would need to pass a law and they would have no control over the federal taxes. Which is a little problematic. (The Oregonian)
   
• Also problematic: Russia tried to fabricate fake text messages and lie in the data they were handing over to WADA that was supposed to clear them from all the lying and doping. It did not clear them. Also, holy shit. (New York Times)
   
• There are a couple of new newsletters and podcasts I want to recommend if you happen to be into women and sports: The new Clean Sport Collective episode with Emma Coburn (after she was on Ironwomen) is good, as is the Keeping Track podcast. And the new Power Plays newsletter is my new angry women’s sports go-to. If that’s something you need in your life. And it is. (Clean Sport Collective/Keeping Track/Power Plays)
   
• Why does biking suck in cities, especially in San Francisco? (SF Chronicle)
   
• Meet Princess Leia, the cycling bulldog. (Bicycling)
   
• And a personal question: What the hell is with the weird Omius headbands everyone is wearing now? Can someone report out on these and if they really work?

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Comments & thoughts

– I was listening to the Ironwomen podcast and they got asked the question: How many flats do you get biking in a year? I only get 1-2/year, which apparently is low. Though the flats always come when I’m already running late. How many is normal for everyone else?

– Michelle had a similar story to mine on the podcast: She also had a black eye from a collision in a race and her doctor was also convinced it was from a domestic violence incident. There are other ways women can get hurt, y’all.

– Erin also suggested this Netflix doc and Brenda this bizarre story. 

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‘If We Were Riding’ is a weekly triathlon-ish newsletter written by Kelly O’Mara and produced by Live Feisty Media. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every Wednesday morning. You can also read past issues. This episode is from Dec. 4, 2019.