Leif Baradoy

Yesterday, I spent a good portion of my day watching the 2009 Ironman World Championships, which took place in Kona. Craig Alexander won the race, defending his title. Meanwhile, I got next to no homework done.

Crowie, as he is known, is an inspiring athlete because of his humble attitude, work ethic, commitment to family, and ability to excel in races. In this quote from the press conference following yesterday’s race, he speaks to his motivation to achieve his best in the face of a difficult race.

I’ve highlighted the parts I find particularly inspiring.

There were a lot of bad patches out there today. Last year to win was exciting, but this year was more rewarding. This year I had to work at it. I had to fight for every second.

I felt good for the first 45 minutes of the bike. There were so many good riders in that group at the front of the bike. I struggled, I got dropped off the back two or three times on the way up to Hawi.

The important thing for me was to have a good defence of my title today. I didn’t know I was going to win today. I have so much respect for this race and the guys out here.

Chris (Lieto) – I think he’s the best bike rider in the sport. I think his 2:04 in Boise, I think that was the best bike ride I’ve ever seen. I think I took the momentum away when I passed him, but he tried to take it back when I went by him.

Getting off the bike today, I really wanted to get in a rhythm and make short term goals. Andreas dropped me a few times. Then we ran together out to the energy lab.

Today for my special needs bag – they handed mine to Andreas and he handed it over to me – it was a great show of sportsmanship.

I don’t think I attacked (when I pulled away from Andreas in the Energy Lab). I found a rhythm. The Energy Lab was the best part of my marathon today. I didn’t feel like I had that same rhythm. Today I felt like I had to work for every second. I felt a bit more comfortable – felt my heart rate go down a bit. I remember reading Tim DeBoom’s story about relaxing to the top of the Energy Lab and then turning things on from there.

You have a moment where you think things aren’t going to plan. I always come back to doing your own race. What I was thinking was that if I could bridge back up, we could definitely make some in-roads on the rest of the guys.

My main goal was to give a worthy title defence.

I certainly feel an obligation to the people in my family. You want to race well to give something back. I try to draw on that. I think this race is mental. You draw on what you can. You need to take inspiration from what you can. For me it’s my family, my wife. All the things she does to support us and my career. If they didn’t travel with me, I wouldn’t come.

Worked a little bit with Chris Carmichael, one of the coaches who works with Chris Carmichael. I definitely outsourced – the second you think you know everything is when you get in trouble. I talked a lot with Dave (Scott) and Greg Welch.

Dave’s been awesome – he’s good for a laugh and gives good advice. He called me last year to tell me the things he thought were bad about my race and the one thing he thought was good.

Please note that the Canadian Olympic Champion Simon Whitfield posted this quote on his blog earlier, I wanted to share it here.

I have immense respect for Crowie’s attitude. He exemplifies a mature attitude that is, sadly, not common to all world class athletes. I think part of the thing that helped to get me hooked on the sport of triathlon is the genuine and authentic people I met at races. Sportmanship matters as much as performance. Because I don’t believe that good physical performance makes you (or requires you to become) a better moral person, I want to celebrate humility when I see.

Yes. Navigenics is real. This is really happening (aside: can’t help but mention I’ll see Radiohead in Vancouver in August!).

So. Navigenics is a company that will look at your DNA and then tell you what health risks you uniquely have: 95% chance of colon cancer, 60% chance of Alzheimer’s, 5% chance of erectile dysfunction, etc. The company markets itself as an informational tool that you can use to better protect yourself (and, by extension, your family). With information about your health outlook, you can start taking measures now to counter those predispositions.

Right now, Navigenics works by probabilities, however in the future (perhaps even now) they will be able to indefinitely say “You will suffer from X by this age.” Pretty cool. Pretty scary. Also, they are adding more disease everyday. So you’ll get better visibility into how much you could suffer in the future. Then, you’ll have the pre-suffering opportunity to try to do something about it before it happens! However, I ultimately side with Navigenics. Ignorance is not bliss. It is simply ignorance.

I’m sure the founders of Navigenics are geeks, therefore I believe they have seen Gattaca—a movie which shows a future where people’s DNA is the primary way they are judged for relationships and employment. Although Navigenics works hard to present their product as benign and useful, they are challenged by some valid concerns from a society who hasn’t yet become accustom to what is possible with science. It might be a few years before they really start being thought of as normal.

I would be glad to have private and personal insight into my own DNA. The frightening element of this would be if that same information fell into the hands of my insurance company, my employer, or some sort of tyrannical government. I can just imagine someone losing a potential promotion or health coverage because his or her disease risks are too high.

If you have a chance, visit the Navigenics site and see how they communicate their potentially frightening product in a positive way. Those writers and marketers deserve a hand. Lastly, a reason I like Navigenics is that their service is affordable, about $2500 USD for your initial testing and then $250/year for updates, etc. It isn’t dirt cheap, but it is something most people I know could afford, if they thought it was that important.

So, does Navigenics scare you? Would you do it? Let me know.