Babbitt - Never a bad day

Never A Bad Day

Bob Babbitt writes with an evenhanded honesty, an astute insight and an outrageous sense of humor! Whether you pound the pavement, grind the gears or slash through the water likely all of these his stories are sure to captivate and inspire.

Dean Karnazes, Ultra Endurance Athlete

Bob Babbitt has never written a sports story. His stories are about humanity and that is what makes you laugh and cry and think. Sports are just an excuse for writing words that matter.

Ken McAlpine, award winning author of the books Off Season, Islands Apart, Fog and Together We Jump.

Bob Babbitt is the co-founder of Competitor Magazine and a man whose grinning mug would appear on a Mount Rushmore of endurance sports.

Austin Murphy, Sports Illustrated

Bob Babbitt is the sage of the endurance sports world, a knowing and humorous voice who reminds us all that life is just that much better when we learn to push our personal limits.

Martin Dugard, New York Times bestselling author of To Be A Runner and co-author of Killing Lincoln and Killing Kennedy

Few people on Earth enjoy their jobs like Bob Babbitt. Bob is universally loved and respected. His energy is contagious. Bob is one of the best ambassadors for the endurance community.

Meb Keflezighi, 2004 Olympic Marathon Silver Medalist and 2009 ING New York City Marathon Champion

If there is anyone in the world that knows anything about endurance sports it is Bob Babbitt. I love to listen to Bobs interviews with other athletes and coaches across a variety of endurance sports because I always learn something. I am grateful for the work Bob has done in the endurance sports world. He has inspired me to be a better runner!

Ryan Hall, two-time U.S. Olympic Marathon Team Member, 2:04:58 marathon personal best

(Left) Bob Babbitt and double above knee amputee Cody McCasland at The Muddy Buddy Ride and Run Series. photo courtesy The Competitor Group.

(Right) Bob Babbitt at the 1980 Ironman Triathlon World Championship. Photo courtesy Bob Babbitt

These columns originally appeared in Competitor Magazine and Triathlete Magazine. A huge thank you to The Competitor Group for their support of this book.

NEVER A BAD DAY

BY BOB BABBITT

Meyer & Meyer Sport

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Never a bad day

Maidenhead: Meyer & Meyer Sport (UK) Ltd., 2013

ISBN: 9781782550303

All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, no part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means now known or hereafter invented without the prior written permission of the publisher.

This book may not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form, binding or cover other than that which is published, without the prior written consent of the publisher.

2013 by Meyer & Meyer Sport (UK) Ltd.

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Member of the World Sport Publishers Association (WSPA)

ISBN: 9781782550303

eISBN: 9781782553618

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www.m-m-sports.com

From the age of 9, I lived in Wilmette, a small suburb north of Chicago. I grew up playing recreational baseball, football and basketball and, while I had absolutely no skills whatsoever in any of those sports, I did have an ability to get the kids from my block together for semi-organized games in the street in front of our houses. Now some might think it would be a no-brainer to get kids out to play, but Im here to tell you that its a bit of an art form.

If I stop by your house and ask you to come out and play some baseball, the first question youre asking is a simple one: Who else is playing? No big deal if Ive got a group already committed, but if yours is the first house Ive approached I have to be a tad creative. Even as a kid we all want to be part of something cool. If no one else is there, youre just another dweeb with a baseball glove.

Jimmy, Johnny, Darren and four others are in, Id insist. Grab your bat and your glove and meet us out there.

Now Ive got to get quickly over to the other guys houses and have them buy in as well. I was the organizer, the guy who always arranged the games and gathered the players. It was a role I happened to excel at, and a role I have embraced every day since.

When I moved to San Diego in 1978 and created a physical education program at a small private school, we didnt have large fields to play ball on, so I moved away from traditional sports and fell in love with running, swimming, cycling and a brand new sport called triathlon.

When I flew to Hawaii and finished the 1980 Ironman Triathlon, the third running of that event, I knew that my life had been changed forever. I felt like completing that event which I was totally unprepared for gave me a business card that I would carry with me for life. That card, based on finishing 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of cycling and 26.2 miles of running all in a single day, would allow me to take on any challenges that came my way and to conquer any task that looked to be too ridiculous for me to overcome.

Finishing the Ironman gave me the courage to leave my job as a teacher and, along with my dearest friend, Lois Schwartz, the art teacher at that small private school, to eventually create a magazine called Competitor that would showcase the athletes, the personalities and the events that Lois and I had grown to love so much.

We didnt rely on focus groups or statistics or someone with an MBA. Nope. We relied on our gut even though the sports we chose to cover were about as non-mainstream as humanly possible.

Over time, we expanded Competitor magazine to numerous publications around the country, added a weekly radio show called The Competitors and an awards gala called The Competitor Magazine Endurance Sports Awards. Our goal was to make something big out of something small. We believed in our heart and soul that what we were doing was right, even if advertisers sometimes chose to ignore our pitch.

But we hung tough and eventually big business started to realize that the world of endurance sports is a huge one. Now the small company that Lois and I created back in 1987 is called The Competitor Group and underneath that large umbrella are the Rock N Roll Marathon Series, The Muddy Buddy Ride and Run Series, The Tri Rock Triathlon Series, A Womans Half Marathon Series plus Competitor, Triathlete, Inside Triathlon, Velo and Womens Running magazines along with a ton of websites.

When I first came to California, my goals were simple: l was hoping to never hold a 9 to 5 job, never work at something that wasnt my passion, and to wear shorts to work as many days as possible. I am proud to say that I have been successful at all three.

When I speak to groups from time to time about the growth of endurance sports since the creation of Competitor magazine, I like to finish up by telling the story of a young man named Michael Collins, the son of the creators of the Ironman Triathlon, Commander John and Judy Collins.

Michael raced in the 1979 Ironman, the second edition of the event, when it was still on the island of Oahu. There were no time limits back then, Michael was only 16 years old and, after mechanical problems and much, much more, Michael ended up taking over 24 hours to finish the race.