"Not a bad exit strategy..."

There's a terrific article in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, called "Mud, Sweat, and Beers." It focuses on the rise in popularity of endurance sports in America, including triathlon. There's also some extensive commentary from Competitor magazine co-founder Bob Babbitt, who ran last year's Las Vegas Rock n Roll Half Marathon dressed as Elvis, along with the article's author, Austin Murphy. I particularly enjoyed the last couple of paragraphs of the article:


(Bob) Babbitt is the Zelig and Bill Veeck of endurance sports, beloved by thousands, so it was no surprise to see him exchanging affectionate greetings with Kendall Webb last Aug. 26. Both men were competing in the Surf Town Triathlon and Duathlon in Imperial Beach, Calif. Webb, a remarkably fit 80-year-old, finished first in his age group in the duathlon, took a few steps past the line, collapsed and died.

"Not a bad exit strategy, if you think about it," Babbitt said at the hotel bar in Vegas, gazing into his second pint with his pompadour pitched precariously forward, like a rodent contemplating a leap into the cocktail mix. "You won your age group, you're smiling, sweaty, happy, high-fiving people as you cross the line, then boom! "

We raised a glass to Kendall Webb and agreed that if his was the fate awaiting us, well, then, we were O.K. with that.