Ironmammoth

Two years ago, I was skiing in Deer Valley, Utah and saw a guy wearing an Ironman Coeur d'Alene sweatshirt. This was still a year before I decided to do CdA, back when I admired Ironmen. (Now I realize that Ironmen should not be admired, but pitied.) I went up to him and asked him about Ironman and he was excited to talk about it. I enjoy skiing, and thought it was cool seeing the triathlon/skiing connection. Someday, I thought, I'd like someone to come up to ME at a ski resort and ask about Ironman.

This past weekend I went skiing in Mammoth. I don't have any Ironman shirts that would be good for skiing, but I have a medium-weight Ironman Coeur d'Alene jacket. Not quite warm enough for skiing, but I figured with enough layers underneath it would work. Fortunately, I have a lot of cold-weather bike clothes which can do double-duty as ski layers.

I was riding up in the gondola with a group of people and one of them was wearing a Deer Valley hat. We chatted briefly about the resort, and then someone else saw my jacket and asked "so, you did Coeur d'Alene?" Turns out he was a former triathlete although he stuck with shorter distances. But the group had a friend who qualified for Kona and so they were very familiar with the race.

I wanted to make a connection between skiing and Ironman. Mission accomplished.

One other thing: the people in the gondola were the nicest bunch of anti-snowboard bigots you'd ever want to meet. (I am a Ski Snob myself). When talking about Utah, the guy in the hat said "what I really like about Deer Valley is that they have a no-snowboard policy". Preach on! Another person in the group said that he had two compressed vertebrae because a snowboarder ran into him. More proof that snowboarders are evil. (He had a legitimate reason for his bigotry; me, I'm just petty.) Poor Stupid Dutch, a snowboarder, just had to sit there and take it.

They were Good Folk.