No more hanging around waiting for the race. The race is now on and it is time to do what all these nearly 2000 athletes set out to do. Each one of them has a story. Many personal ones and only known to their loved ones. But these are surely stories of dedication and perseverance none the less. One of our athletes Michelle Landry has a great story. She is a second generation Ironman. Her dad participated in the 1982 Ironman if I am not mistaken. So as a little girl she watched her dad train for this race. Now she gets a chance to do it and her dad is here to watch.

Another one of our athletes is Jeff Conine a retired Major League Baseball player who won the World Series with the Florida Marlins. His competitor band and fist is shown above.

Getting to the start line of this is a goal in itself. Crashes, illnesses, injuries and many other challenges have faced some of our athletes and that is just among the 41 of ours. Imagine all the challenges among all the other athletes. Of course some of these stories will be part of the NBC and we will all learn about them. But each one has surely overcome many challenges.

Today was the last day of the expo. A short day but we went on stage and picked names for the winners of our sweepstakes. Below is the list of our Kona Sweepstakes winners. Thge next drawing is at the Clearwater 70.3 Championships.

Kenneth Gray
Catherine Garber
Tim Matthews
James Tomko
Roger Wacker
Yannick Valet

Tomorrow I will not be helping the NBC guy as I thought I would so I will be riding my yellow scooter. I am not sure I will be able to get a good spot for the swim start so I may wait to get some good shots and look out for our athletes later.

Now to my predictions. The safe bet here is to go with Chris McCormack and Crissy Wellington. But in each case there is a small window of opportunity for others. McCormack was tested earlier in the year by Llanos from Spain and Craig Alexander came real close last year on his first Kona. So with more experience it is possible he can win and beat Macca. We have to also consider the Germans with Stadler and Al Sultan. Plus this year we have swimmer Andi Potts who is also an excellent rider and runner.


Who to go with?

1. Eneko Llanos
2. Chris McCormack
3. Craig Alexander

The woman seem to all be riding for second place as Chrissie Wellington is a league of her own. However coach Vargas is not sold. Chrissie is young and has not been doing this too long so she has an engine with low miles. But her racing schedule this year was very heavy. Maybe she can continue this pace maybe not. She can only beat herself as she is that good. But it is possible someone can sneak in there.

One can be the new Ironman World record holder from Holland. The other can be Nina Kraft. Nina looked very good when I saw her. She not the fastest runner but maybe good enough. I hope she has a good bike.

Here is what I am gong to go with.

1. Crissy Wellington
2. Yvonne Van Vlerken
3. Nina Kraft

Well that is it folks. Maybe I can get a good night sleep and go out there to check things out. Tomorrow I will bring you my thoughts on the race from my vantage point and news on how our 41 athletes did.

Talk soon.