Bruce (Iron Bison) and me at Mrs. T's Triathlon in Chicago, 2002. Bruce is now in his early 50s and shows no signs of slowing down.
Me (left) with Buffaloes (left to right) Iron Bison, Heart Rate, and the Undertaker at Muddy Buddy, Chicago burbs, 2002. The Iron Bison was my partner at this fun race, which featured crawling in the mud.I was awakened this morning at 3 a.m. by lightning and thunder, and unable to sleep I got up at 5 a.m. Swam at 5:30. This triathlon training and upcoming events of fellow buffaloes brought back memories of past events. My buddy Bruce, the Iron Bison, will be doing his fifth Ironman, this at Lake Placid this coming weekend. Bruce just isn't right in the head, telling me he planned to bike and run early in the morning before driving 16 hours to New York with his family. He is a masonry supervisor at the U of I, and I tell others a few too many bricks have fallen on his head. He has tried to get me to commit to an Ironman, but I know what a marathon feels like, and I can't imagine doing 112 miles on a bike just before that long run.
I don't train with Bruce very much any more (I have to consider my sanity), but when I did train with him I had some of my best triathlons, especially at Mrs. T's (now Accenture) in Chicago. That tri has always been labeled "the world's largest triathlon," and man were those races crowded. My finest effort at Mrs. T's was the 2002 Olympic distance, where I finished 11th of 56 in my age group (50-54). Swimming almost a mile in Lake Michigan with its "fragrant" waters was a chore, but biking on Lake Shore Drive and running past Soldier Field, McCormick Place, the planetarium, and the Shedd Aquariam was special. I miss the Chicago tri, but the $130 race fee and Chicago hotel rates have soured me. Might try it again sometime, though.
Good luck to the Iron Bison and to Lard Ass (Steve O'Connor) at Lake Placid. Those are two tough Buffaloes.
TOMORROW: Hawt Dawg and the Skewered Mechanic - Buffaloes in the Valley of Death
3 comments:
I think the look on your face in the first picture with you and Bruce could fairly be described as "intrepid." As in, "The Iron Bison and the intrepid Tom Rice steel themselves for a 1-mile swim in the treacherous waters of Lake Michigan."
Go Iron Bison! Go Lard Ass!(that just doesn't sound right)
Intrepid? Maybe blissful. I had just finished a tough race and had downed a beer with friends. I remember getting up at a very early hour because of the crowd at the check-in. The water temp was in the 60s, freezing even in a wetsuit. There was a bike crash among a group of triathletes not far from me during the race that sent at least one of them to the hospital. It's a fantastic race and venue, though.
Getting a buffalo nickname is a badge of honor! Lard Ass got his when he sat in a wooden chair that had been crafted by a proud buffalo who occasionally did carpentry. The chair fell to pieces. Actually, Lard Ass is thin, but he got the nickname instantly.
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