Of all the luck...

I have oft mentioned my training partner John. He completely changed my triathlon paradigm by walking the entire marathon course of Ironman Arizona and finishing the race in 16:34. John is a big guy, certainly not the prototypical ironman form. However he shows consistancy, grit, determination and a uncanny awareness of mathmatical percentage during mind blowing training.

John is just a great dude, with suspect luck when it comes to triathlon. Of all the people around us that applied and got into the Javelin clothing thing, he didn't make it. Heck I applied three months later and got in. Team Polar, this and that; John sacrasticly feels that the rest of us have an unfair advantage in our triathlon life.

So imagine his surprize when he recieves this e-mail:

John, Heather Gollnick and the Iron Edge Staff would like to personally congratulate you on qualifying for the Ford Ironman 70.3 World Championship, which is sure to be one of the premier events in all of Triathlon. We are proud to be part of the Ironman Team!! (Blah, blah, blah stuff follows)

High as a kite.

Then a day later he gets this e-mail:

Dear John, You may have recently received an email that announced Heather Gollnick's IronEdge training camp and congratulated you on qualifying for the 2006 Ford Ironman World Championship 70.3 taking place on November 11 in Clearwater, FL. This email was sent in error and we apologize for any confusion this may have caused you. Ironman Triathlon

Yes. A dear John letter. From Ironman. He called me laughing about this. It really is all you can do. I told him I had to post this and let everyone else have a good laugh.

John you have all the triathlon respect you will ever need from your Ironman Arizona finish. Remember the look on the face of that cyclist (read: elite snob) that rode by us the other day and did a double take on your Arizona Ironman Finishers jersey, and turned all smiles saying, "Nice shirt" as he rode by?

Thats all the street cred you need.