This was the moment I thought about a thousand times, the Ironman Wisconsin Swim Start. The thought of being in that water with nearly 3,000 swimmers just blew my mind and it was everything I expected. Here’s a short trailer for the documentary I hope to finish sometime before I die. Special thanks to Roger Jokela and my brother, Chris Tarrolly for shooting this video and saving the film.
More Crushing Iron video can be found here.
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It’s official, we are all signed up for GPS trackers at Ironman Wisconsin, so, if you care, you’ll be able to follow our journey in real time with the My Athlete app. It’s free.
The Fab 5
Daniel Hudgins – Bib #1112
Kevin Gammon – Bib #1284
Mark Scrivner – Bib #2109
Jim Schwan – Bib #2448
Mike Tarrolly – Bib #2705
The app is pretty cool and shows athletes moving along the course. We would love it if you happened to catch some video on your phone and send it to us later to help with our documentary. I’ll have a server address.
Please pass along this link to anyone you know who will be spectating Ironman Wisconsin and have them contact me if they’d like more information on how they can help with the film. I will also be posting an update on what everyone will be wearing so it’s easier to pick us out. Thanks for your help.
My email is: [email protected]
Day 16 Lesson from Neighbor James – Man, you start forgettin’ what day it even is. Could be Thursday or might be Tuesday. Don’t matta. You know what TIME it is. It time to put on that big ole’ watch and run your little white ass down the block a few times.
Some of you may know we’re documenting our road to Ironman Wisconsin on video. We’ve done a bunch of interviews and some training stuff along the way, but, since I do most of the shooting, I’m getting a little anxious about how we’re going to cover Ironman weekend.
This is really like a zero-budget process and I’m looking for ideas to help an organic ground swell of phone videographers on race day. Do you know anyone who will be at the race? Have any thoughts on how we can get the word out to people we may not know yet who’d want to help document this occasion?
I would like to set up a server so that anyone who shoots video at Ironman Wisconsin could upload it for use in the film. It would be amazing if a bunch of people actually capture footage of the Fab 5, but that’s not necessary.
We’re planning to rent GPS chips so that our tracking can be in real time with Athlete Tracker’s free app. This will allow people to know exactly where we are on the course and be ready to shoot. Also, we’ll make sure our numbers and pictures, etc are readily available.
This journey has been amazing and the people involved have been the best part. That goes well beyond the guys I’m training with. People that race triathlon, along with their families and friends are the most generous and supportive humans, so I really think this can literally be an organic film made by hundreds of people. Can you help spread the word?
Feel free to contact me with ideas and any questions. [email protected].
Not only are we riding 2 – 3 hours a day on the weekend and plowing down awful tacos, we’re finding time to do interviews and soul search for the Crushing Iron Documentary. It’s not easy to manage and I just noticed for the first time that my calendar clicked over to 5 months until race time. Here we go.
Here are some more scenes from today’s footage:
Our last spin class, Kevin almost got shanked by a female inmate. Today, was a little more under control.
In a stroke of miracle, I showed up with my video camera at 7:25 am today and Jim was digging hard in his new Crushing Iron shirt which will help us promote the documentary along the way. They turned out great and were designed and produced by my old business partner, Brian, at Creative Pig Minds Design, in Rockford, IL. He also owns a vegan brew pub (for which I made the video). 
The plan was to start at 7, ride an hour, then do the spin class. I started peddling at 7:30.
For the second week in a row we were joined by Allison, who has taken over the official “plus one” role if one of the Fab Five is missing. Today, she filled in for Mark and crushed two hours on the bike before joining us on the 20 minute run.
She really digs Florida and is training for the Gulf Coast Triathlon in May. I am still pondering this race, mainly do to the potentially harrowing swim in the gulf.
Daniel is nearly 100% after a mid-foot injury that sidelined him for a couple weeks. He’s also leading the Country Music Marathon training group for the East Nasties, so homey has a lot on his mind as can be seen in this revealing photo. 
If there were an award for most dedicated early season performer, it would likely go to Kevin. He has been steadfast on his workouts and is clearly determined to develop his bike skills. I spent half the spin class scoping out the instructor while Kevin hammered hard and focused with an intensely spiritual approach to his technique (notice the interlocking fingers). 
After the bike, we trekked out into one of Nashville’s most impressive wild-dog neighborhoods. Every damn house on the first block seemed to have big ass dogs chained by cruise ship docking chains laying around on the porch. But, they all seemed very nice.
The 20 minute run was nice and easy, I think around a 9:15 pace, and it was very clear to me that my leg strength has increased dramatically. Each step was a little heavy, but the typical aches and pains associated with weak knees, quads, and ankles seems to be going away. I guess sleeping in is working!
Daniel, Kevin, and Jim took their sweet time changing while Allison and I sat in the midst of a daycare rally for kids who drink a lot of coffee. The sweat dried on our crusty bodies and we critiqued people’s workouts. Eventually they walked down the hall looking like a GQ ad in motion and I thought to myself, these guys are prematurely celebrating their stardom from the soon-to-be-famous Crushing Iron documentary. The sea of children parted and 3 of the Fab 5 casually grabbed a bottled water and led us down the road to stuff our faces at the Pied Piper.
