Hi, Your Faris Al-Sultan

Honestly, thats how I introduced myself. What a great night. I spent four hours at the party for Faris and I gotta say he was so humble and polite. There was only about two dozen people there so it was so easy to converse and ask questions. It was great to listen to this ultra-competitive guy speak so humbly about himself compared to his peers.

A surreal moment occured when someone put on the 2005 Kona Ironman, which Faris won, and watch it with him. At one point the narrator remarks, "It looks like Faris is struggling right now." My trainning partner John, who is sitting next to Faris say, "So Faris, where you really struggling there?" And he responds. Kind of laughingly he says, "No not really but it sounds good."


The party was actually a lot of fun. I ran into some people that I had rode with in the past year and it was good to catch up with them. I was talking to one guy in a group for ten minutes before I suddenly blurted, "Ah crap, your K.K." "Ah yeah and your Commodore". "I didn't recognize you in normal clothes, I haven't seen you since September and it was always in cycling clothes." So we had a good laugh and now that I was clued in that I was a tool, we had a fabulous talk about dogs and current rides. He recognized me on the Ironman Arizona course last weekend but couldn't loop around.

I ran into another triathlete, whom I had met at the Tribe, but couldn't remember her name. Claudia. Well Claudia did IMMOO last year and is going back this year. Oh really. Well tell me all about that because I have some really good friends doing that this year. I asked her about some of the hills she trained on here for IMMOO and how they compared. Her response, "Madiaon is shorter and steeper." She said as hot as they said it was last year, she felt great, "Felt about 20 degrees cooler than what we train in during the summers in Phoenix. If you can handle a 6 hour workout here, your breezy there."

I met another woman who had done Ironman Florida twice and had some great feedback. She said the water is usually cold, so wetsuits are allowed. That it can get very windy on the course, she said it was so hard on the run that gusts would throw her trail leg into her planted foot. It gets dark early and they put up giant generator lights along the run course since its pitch black out there.

I had a great time talking with Sue Berliner, who publishes a popular magazine in Arizona, SWEAT. She writes and puts out some great articles and we spoke at length about great century plus rides from Phoenix. This woman is a monster cyclist and has done some huge rides, 300-400 miles in three days, with 20,000 foot total ascention. Stuff I dream of. We have been introduced before and have some mutual friends, she is very recognizable so I have seen her at different local races so we had commonality from being on the same courses. She and I hit it off and she gave me permission to send her articles and ideas to be reviewed for publication. As I was leaving I noticed her and Faris in the living room alone, she was interviewing him for the magazine. I was heading for the door but decided to turn around and snap off a picture of them sitting together talking. I am going to send it to her as a momento.

I even had a great conversation with a woman who worked at the place we were at, who studied special education in college, so she was very interested Mighty Mo and his issues and how we taught him sign language, and continue to do so, to limit frustrations. Behind the office is a farm with a bunch of animals and she invited us to come over to see and pet them. She has some siblings that are young and we will try to put something together.

I consider myself an introvert, but deep inside of me is a true connector. If I am in the right mood, I can sweep up a party. I did that last night. I had a blast. I made about six great friends. The tri community is not huge in our area, so any new contact is good.