We had a very successful final camp in Tucson, Arizona. I hope everyone had a great experience and made some new friends along the way.
These camps are a ton of work and wouldn't be possible without the efforts of our wonderful support crew.
We hired Wheels on Wheels (Mike and Tom pictured above) to handle bike maintenance and support. I love seeing the look on the campers faces when they find out that they get to hop off their bikes each day and hand it to these guys and that's all she wrote. They come back the next day to a fully cleaned and tuned machine. It also is comforting knowing that you have an actual bike mechanic rolling behind you on your 100 mile ride in case something goes wrong.
Sure JD and I are some suave sag boys, but we are pretty amateur compared to these guys.
We also had 3 wonderful people that prepared all the meals and snacks for the campers. Brooke and Russ did such a wonderful job with the March camp that we were a little worried when they wouldn't be able to attend in April. Gordo kept mentioning Toby and Alex. We had no clue who these two were or if they knew what they were getting themselves in to. Sure there are a lot of people out there that can cook, but we are talking 20+ athletes that eat a lot. Can they handle this? Kelly was the other support person and I knew she would do a great job, but she definitely couldn't pick up the slack if these two turned out to be duds.
Turns out, Toby and Alex definitely knew what they were doing. They do this as a career. Check out http://www.toby-massage.com/ for more information. During the Australian summer, they live with Laura and Greg Bennett where they provide nutrition and massage to triathlons most successful couple.
It felt pretty cool when you sat down after a long ride to one of Greg and Laura's favourite meals. As athletes, you are only as good as your recovery and they made sure that the nutrition end was covered.
I had a few emails from campers asking me what was on the menu each night. I got the sense that they were implying how healthy their diets normally are and were wondering if their needs were to be met. With our camps, you can be assured that you will have the opportunity to have possibly the healthiest week of your life. You of course still need to make good choices, but they are available--You can drink Coke and eat Clif Bars all week if you so desired.
Needless to say, I'm pretty sure the entire camp has hit up Toby and Alex for their secret recipes and I made sure Kelly came home with some new dishes. We look forward to working with them in the future.
Thanks to everyone for their help and to the campers for their hard work and great attitudes
See you next year!
Mat
