Bob Babbitt Impersonator!

November 3, 2015

I am so gullible!

A couple days prior to the Clermont race, I had a bike workout on the Clermont course.  As we were driving in, we saw a man slightly older than me wearing a Team USA tri kit.  We stopped the car to chat with him for a minute.  Of course, my first question was, "Are you racing on Saturday?"  He said, "No, I'm racing on Sunday."  Sunday?  I told him I believed the race was Saturday.  He told me, no, the race was on Sunday.  We went back and forth.  When I realized that nothing I could say was going to change his mind, I gave up the argument, but I felt so bad that this older gentleman was going to miss his race.

We chatted some more.  I learned the he grew up in Warren, Michigan, used to do speed skating, and was a private pilot who flew people around the world.  He said he had flown a client to Orlando and while he was waiting to fly him to some other destination, he figured he would race in the USAT Age Group Draft-Legal Duathlon World Qualifier.  Ohhhh!  That's why we were arguing days.  I was doing the triathlon while he was doing the duathlon.

The gentleman gave me advice on the race course and we discussed the wisdom of ITU making the sprint at Worlds into a draft-legal race.  Just two age-groupers chatting.

The name on his jersey said Babbitt and I kept thinking that his name sounded familiar.  I told him that I recognized his name and asked if he had won a bunch of races.  He kind of hesitated, like he was being modest but insisted that he was not really good.  He explained that the best he's ever done at Nationals as third.  But there was just something about how he didn't answer the question directly.  It gave me the impression that he was much more accomplished than he was leading me to believe.

He left to get ready to run and I quickly googled Babbitt and triathlon on my phone.  What came up was "Bob Babbitt, Triathlon's Story Teller" and a photo of the guy with whom we were talking.  He had written several books about triathlon.  A few minutes later as he ran by, I shouted, "You're Bob Babbitt!  You write books!"  He gave me a huge smile.

Later when we were both on our bikes and going opposite ways, he rode close to me and said with a smile, "I'm Bob Babbitt.  I write books."  I got the feeling that he liked the simplicity of that statement.

Once off our bikes, I had the chance to talk with him again.  I told him that I had lost close to 200 pounds and was hoping to make it to Worlds, and was thinking about writing a book and asked him if he thought there would be interest.  He said something like, "Absolutely."  Cool.  Then he said, "You know what you have to do first?"  "Make it to Worlds?" I asked.  He laughed and explained that before writing the book, I needed to write a book proposal and send it to publishers.  

Babbitt suggested Family Christian or Moody Publishing (another Christian publisher) which really surprised me because I had not told him about the spiritual side of my journey.  I shared the spiritual part of my journey and how my coach felt that he was born to coach.  I thanked him profusely and he said that I was an inspiration.  Later, when I was back out on the bike, he stopped in his car while leaving and asked Brian what my name was.

When we got home, I did some more reading.  Writing books may be the least of Bob Babbitt's accomplishments.  He is the co-founder of Competitor Magazine (circulation 500,000) and does a weekly radio show called Competitor.  He has interviewed virtually everyone famous.  I actually listen to his radio show while I'm running.  That's how I knew his name.  He is mega big in the triathlon world.  He has done Kona six times and was the tenth person inducted into the Kona Hall of Fame.  He also started an organization called the Challenged Athletes Foundation which provides grants for athletes who are physically challenged.  People say he has done more for triathlon than any other person.  Wow.

However, when I checked the duathlon roster after the race to see how he did, there was a Babbitt listed but the first name was different.  I'll call him Joe, but that wasn't the actual name on the roster.  I researched "Joe" Babbitt online and found that he lives in Warren, Michigan and is 67 (same age as Bob Babbitt).  That matched what the man with whom I talked had told me.  I also found race results for "Joe" Babbitt on the USAT website.  Using that information, I was able to find a few race photos for "Joe" Babbitt.  It was hard to judge since they were side shots, but "Joe" Babbitt looked just like Bob Babbitt.  

Then I researched Bob Babbitt and learned that he did not live in Michigan, was not a pilot, did not attend Moody Bible College.  But the photo was clear, the man with whom we were talking looked just like Bob Babbitt.  Maybe Bob Babbitt does not want to be Bob Babbitt at races because then everyone would make a fuss over him so invented an alias so he could be just another age-grouper.  I can understand that.  

More likely, it was just someone really named "Joe" Babbitt who looks similar to Bob Babbitt and was having fun with my gullibility.  I think most people would have fessed up at some point.  He didn't.  Oh well, no harm done.

Whoever he was, Bob or "Joe" Babbitt helped me understand that I need to do a book proposal and helped me start thinking about Christian publishers.  Good things to do.

Note:  About a month after writing this blog, I got curious and researched "Joe" Babbitt again online.  This time, I discovered "Joe" Babbitt on Twitter.  "Joe" Babbit is not Bob Babbitt.  He is a private pilot who does triathlons - and obviously likes to impersonate Bob Babbitt.  In all fairness, maybe I misunderstood.  

Maybe Bob Babbitt will read this blog, feel sorry for this gullible old woman, and offer to mentor me as I write a book.  Stranger things have happened!  :-)