Bob Babbit, Funky Dude and publisher of Competitor Magazine sent out this email last night about Barbara Warren, wife of Tom Warren (Ironman Triathlon World Champion)…
Please read the note below. One of our pioneers needs our thoughts and prayers. Brian
>
> When I first read about the 1979 Ironman in Sports Illustrated, the author
> focused on the men’s champion, Tom Warren of Pacific Beach, California. My
> roommate Ned Overend and I knew of Tommy because we had competed in his
> infamous Tug’s Swim Run Swim in 1978. In fact, I am looking at a framed
> photo right now of Ned and I with our scruffy beards standing in front of
> Tug’s in PB with our Speedos on, goggles dangling around our necks and the
> post-race breakfast plate of tortillas, beans and eggs-plus our Tug’s glass-
> proudly on display. The top 75 or so finishers received free breakfast, so
> the key was to run through the finish chute on the beach right up to Tug’s
> Tavernand grab your feast so that you would be there eating it when the
> 76th, 77th and 78th losers-I mean finishers, showed up. Rubbing it in made
> that breakfast pretty darn tasty.
>
> With this Ironman idea now on the front burner, Ned and I then tracked down
> Tom Warren at his “office”-a motor home parked by Crystal Pier with a
> surfboard on top, running shoes tied around the side view mirror and a bike
> mounted on the back- to ask him about how to apply to get in and how to
> train. I’ll always remember Tommy showing us his sauna where he had his bike
> mounted on a trainer so that he could heat train for Hawaii. He would spend
> four –six hours at a time riding his brains out in that sauna.
>
> He was our mentor, the guy who taught us what the Ironman was all about.
> Ned, who went on to become the World Mountain Bike Champion, and I never
> forgot his kindness to two knuckleheads who had way too many questions and
> far too few answers. One of my prized possessions is one of Tom’s hand
> carved Tugboats that he gave to me when we inducted him into the Ironman
> Triathlon Hall of Fame at our Competitor Awards Gala.
>
> When we first started Competitor Magazine back in June of 1987, one of the
> people who helped us out with his own dollars and with sound financial
> advice, was 1979 Ironman champion Tom Warren. He was our rock, the guy who
> helped my partner Lois Schwartz and I understand how to run a business that
> lasts.
>
> In the late 1980’s I met the lovely twins, Barbara Alvarez and Angelika
> Castaneda. We were with the American Medical Joggers Association for a four
> day 100 mile run mile from Lake Tahoe to Auburn on the Western States 100
> trail. I wrote about that journey in the August issue of Competitor
> Magazine. The twins had matching platinum hairdos, were into long distance
> running at the time, but were getting bored. They quizzed me every night
> around the campfire about the sport of triathlon and I hooked them up with
> bike guru Dan Rock to set them up when we returned from the only 100 mile
> run training week of my woefully undertrained life. I remember how enthused
> they were about anything and everything that had to do with this new sport.
> They were from Austria, spoke four languages, had become movie stars and
> fashion models in Mexico and eventually moved to San Diego and fell in love
> with endurance sports. Barbara became a psychologist and earned her PHD in
> 1978. They became the Twin Team and we wrote about them a number of times in
> Competitor over the years.
>
> Before I knew it, they had gone from Olympic distance races to Ironman
> events. They were on the podium wherever they went and they stepped up from
> the Ironman to double and triple Ironman and beyond.
>
> Next up was adventure racing. When Mark Burnett from Survivor fame was
> trying to replace a woman named Susan Hemond-Dent on his Team American
> Pride for the Raid Gauloises, the women who showed up for that tryout in
> Burnett’s Topanga Canyon backyard were the women who went on to dominate
> that sport forever: Cathy Sassin, Robyn Benincasa, Angelika Castaneda and
> Barbara Alvarez. “Bob,” Burnett told me at the time. “I am on the lookout
> for the next Miss Indiana Jones.” The guy was a born promoter. Before long
> the Twin Team had added multi-day adventure races to their menu.
> Barbara and Angelika liked to go long and it didn’t matter if it was on bikes, in kayaks, on horseback or on foot. Their resume’ includes wins at Badwater across Death Valley and the Marathon des Sables, a seven day run across the Sahara Desert.
When Barbara married fellow endurance animal and our buddy Tom Warren, it
was a match made in aerobic heaven. She totally understood when Tommy would wheel his mountain bike out the front door of the amazing home he built overlooking Lake Cuyamaca and tell Barbara that he was riding to Mexico and then to Oceanside and would be home in a few days. Try that one with your significant other and let me know how it turns out.
Yesterday, on Saturday August 23, Barbara Warren was competing in the Santa Barbara Triathlon and was seriously injured during the bike portion of the race. At this point I know little of what happened, but what we are hearing is that she landed on her head and back and that she might be paralyzed.
According to Dr. Mac Larson, Tommy’s closest friend, Barbara had surgery to install a cardiac pacer after her heart rate dropped way too low and another one to stabilize her back. I am hoping that the next phone call I get will be to tell me that they were mistaken, that Barbara will be just fine.
Barbara and Tommy are two of my favorite people on the planet. They live and breathe the endurance sports lifestyle and like nothing better than accomplishing something no one thought they could do. If this is true and Barbara is indeed seriously injured, please take a few moments out of your day to pray for Barbara’s recovery. It will be much appreciated.
Thanks!
Bob
Bob Babbitt
Publisher and Funky Dude
COMPETITOR GROUP LLC
Related posts: