Bob Babbitt: Ironman, Legend, Story Teller?

This is for Jay (Hike the Geek Jay). Go TEAM!!

Bob Babbitt is the editor of Southern California's own Competitor Magazine. He is also an Ironman finisher, and one of the first. He spoke about his first Ironman at the pasta dinner before my marathon and he had us all in stitches.

Bob Babbitt completed his first Ironman back before the earth cooled, in February of 1980. How big was the Ironman back then? Only 108 idiots were entered that year and Babbitt completed the race on a $75 police auction bike that had been charred in a fire. He raced with panniers on said bike with a tent and a sleeping bag because he didn't know you were supposed to do the whole thing in one day, plus he had a support crew that provided him with the best in the world of nutrition- Big Mac, fries and a coke plus a snow cone. He also is the only athlete in Ironman history to complete the bike ride wearing regular shorts and a belt plus a wool cycling jersey.... in Hawaii.

Babbitt's fascination with triathlon began in 1979. He had moved to San Diego to teach and like so many others was intrigued when he read Barry McDermott's Sports Illustrated account of that year's Hawaii race. The race was won by San Diegan Tom Warren, proprietor of Tug's Tavern, a beach bar and restaurant.

Babbitt called Warren, wanting to pick his brain.

"He tells me to meet him in his office," says Babbitt.

Only Warren didn't list the bar's address. Instead, he gave a location near Crystal Pier.

"I get there and there's no building," says Babbitt. "Just this motor home. There's this paddleboard on top, a bike hanging off the back and running shoes hanging off the side view mirror. I look inside and there's this guy putting Vaseline on, getting ready for a run. He says, 'Babbitt? I'm Tom Warren. Welcome to my office.' "

Reading Babbitt's perplexed expression that the motor home didn't quite fit his definition of an office, Warren pointed across the street and said, "See that pay phone? See that roll of dimes (on his dashboard)? This is my office. I ride up the coast and back, swim around the pier and run from here."

Adds Babbitt: "That sounded good to me."

Babbitt and his then-roommate, famed mountain biker Ned Overend, had trained for Ironman Hawaii's 2.4-mile swimming leg in a 15-meter apartment pool, 120 lengths to the mile. "Basically, you got dizzy," Babbitt recalls. "If somebody jumped in the pool it was like a tsunami."

Not the strongest swimmer, Babbitt hardly complained when the swim leg for the 1980 race was shifted from the site of the Waikiki Rough Water Swim to the protected Ala Moana Channel.

For the bike ride, Babbitt was adorned in socks pulled to his knees and shorts with a belt. "I had to be the only guy to do the Ironman in shorts and a belt," says Babbitt. At Mile 25, Babbitt's crew handed him his nutritional replenishment - a Big Mac, fries and a Coke. At Mile 80, Babbitt wolfed down a snow cone. His other feedings included Hawaiian sweet bread. After the bike, his crew asked if he wanted to lie down on a bamboo mat for a massage.

"Sounds good," he said.

Forty-five minutes later, he took off on the run, which consisted of a lot of walking, as indicated by his 5-hour, 25-minute split. Back then, Ironman Hawaii had weigh-station checks. If an athlete lost more than five percent of their body weight they were yanked for safety precautions. By the second weigh station, at about Mile 7, Babbitt had gained four pounds.

Recalls Babbitt: "I hear the guy on the walkie-talkie: 'Give me that again.' "

"He gained four pounds."

Replied the medical aide, obviously unaware of Babbitt's addiction to sweet bread: "You're not supposed to gain weight doing this thing."

Near the end of the marathon, in the dark of night, nearly 14½ hours after his race had begun, Babbitt jogged down a hill, then slowed when he saw a dangling light bulb and a chalk line in the pavement. "I heard this voice out of the darkness saying, "Hey, you. Are you in the race?"

Babbitt confirmed that he was.

"Then you're done," said the voice from the dark.

The finish was somewhat anticlimactic.

"Where's the brass band?" said Babbitt. "Where's the action? Where's the celebration?"

His finishing time that year: 14 hours, 28 minutes, 33 seconds. He finished the race five more times. His personal best: 11:39:27.

The moral of the story? He told us if we start to think we are having a bad race to remember that a bad race is crossing the finish line at the same time the newspapers (which are announcing the winner of the race you are just finishing from the day before) are being delivered.