Starstruck

Another thing that came out from the weekend's Long Distance Triathlon World Championships was that 2008 and 2009 Ironman World Champion, Craig Alexander a.k.a. Crowie was the ambassador of the event.

...and, last Saturday, he made an appearance at the local tri shop, Total Triathlon in Claremont!

It was a pretty informal Q&A session. No journalists or anything like that (although there was a photographer). There were only about 5 people there when he first came, but the crowd started to increase later on. He spoke mainly about Kona, his training, some of the other competitors (including how shy Norman Stadler is in person, and that Chrissie Wellington trains harder than all the guys put together!). Clearly a family person, always talking about his kids and his wonderful wife, who does all his ground arrangements for his various training bases and races.

All great triathletes - Beijing Olympics gold medalist Emma Snowsill, Crowie, former ITU World Champion Peter Robertson, and David Wrighton, proprietor of Total Triathlon

It was also nice to have finally met, John Cooke (Cookie) in person. John did his maiden Ironman in Austria in July, and he's training for Ironman Busselton in December. He's also considering signing up for Ironman China in March next year! Talk about getting hooked!

Hmm, he looks a lot smaller size in person than in the big screen. Very lean. More pictures here.

I should have brought something better for the autograph, and not my greased out water bottle. I had plenty of running caps and visers, but somehow that didn't come to mind. Good thing David gave everyone print outs of Crowie for him to sign.