That Triathlon Life Podcast - Paula's surprise T100 Vancouver race recap, Eric sheds light on what it's like to watch your partner race, Swimrun gear on a budget, and more!

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

Nobody knew Paula was racing, not her inner circle, barely even Paula herself until she was already on the plane to Vancouver. Three weeks out from Kona, she lined up at T100 Vancouver against an elite international field with zero expectations and finished fourth. We get the full race recap: the ocean current swim, the Race Ranger chaos on the bike that had Eric firing off texts from the couch, why riding to the front was the only move that made sense, and what it felt like to run a controlled 3:45/km pace and feel totally fine doing it. Then we debut a new segment, Rate It, get into your questions, and have a conversations about what it's like to be the partner on the sideline.This week we discussed:Paula's surprise T100 Vancouver recap: the decision to race, the ocean current swim, Race Ranger draft zone chaos on the bike, and running to a fourth place finish on fresh-ish Ironman legsThe T100 format from an athlete's perspective: what it does brilliantly, why the fields keep coming back, and an honest conversation about whether the series is sustainable long-termNew segment, Rate It: having multiple bikes, open water swimming vs. pool, training and racing with a smartwatch, and local eventsThe best and hardest thing about watching your partner race — Eric on the joy, the grief, and the slow process of making peace with a changing athletic identityHow big is Paula's team, really? The case for keeping it small, why Eric doing bike mechanics at 10pm beats hiring anyone, and what Carmen Small couldn't believe when she came to 70.3 WorldsSwimrun gear on a budget: buoy size, paddle advice, whether you need trail shoes, and how the transition between swim and run actually works with paddles on your wristsSelf-confidence anxiety when training and racing with others — what it actually means when someone chooses you as their swim run partnerPaula and Eric are tentatively planning an Austin swimrun in November. The road to Qatar goes through Austin, Texas. Eric floats an idea. Everyone pretends it's not happening.A big thank you to our podcast supporters who keep the podcast alive. To submit a question and to become a podcast supporter, head over to ThatTriathlonLife.com/podcast

Hey everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Eric Loggerstrom. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Nick Goldstone. This is going to be a fun one this week. Mostly normal, partially not normal. Paula kind of went and did a thing over the weekend and we should probably address that. But if you're new here, Paul and I are both professional athletes. Nick's amateur triathlete lover of the sport. We all really love the sport. And what we do on the show is we take questions from people who are right in. So if that's you, if you've done that, if you're thinking about doing that, thank you and thank you in advance. But also we just touch on what's going on in our lives and what's going on in the triathlon space if, you know, if exciting things happen. Excellent batch of questions this week, if I do say so myself. Bravo, folks. Bravo. Paula, you're looking mighty chill. Yeah, well, you guys are forcing me to do a midday pod. Oh, never mind. I still have two sessions to do today. I take it back. You know, 7 p.m. you is going to thank, you know,

noon you, so it's all right. Yeah, we're doing this in the middle of the day, which does help with usually, especially you two are kind of in like more upy, upity moods. Upity midday guys. But yeah, we're going to just like rip a little bit of a recap of some sort on that. Do we have any show notes or any things that we need to talk about first? Yeah, babe, what are you wearing? Oh. But say it in a low, sultry voice. I thought you'd never ask. I am currently wearing our Nice shirt. We're currently taking pre-orders for 70.3 World Championship Nice

poster and T-shirt. This is, this graphic goes alongside the Oceanside, the Lake Placid, now Nice. And I think you can kind of guess what the fourth installment in the series is going to be. They're going to look real good on the wall

altogether if you happen to have done all of them. Oh, that's interesting. That was the original intention. So, yeah, we're creating continuity. Got the same script graphic, but a whole new, like, really cool mockup of the niece. What do they call it? Promenade d'Angler. Yes.

Damn. And the coat dessert. Nice. So it's really cool. Stoked on it. We're going to be taking pre-orders all the way through. Sometime on Sunday, we'll have to shut that down. So, yeah, get your orders in there.

And we'll be shipping those out. ASAP, hoping to get them to people who are traveling to the race before they depart. Are we bringing any with us? We, so yeah, we're going to bring some extras with us. Castelli has a storefront. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but they have some sort of store where they have some heavy involvement in right on the Promenade de Angles. And we're going to try to, I'm going to bring as many as I can fit in a reasonably sized

suitcase for retail there. And that'll also be where we host our croissant run from. Oh, very nice. When is the croissant run? Well, that's a great question. we should probably plan that out. Well, it has to be, I think, Thursday. Although Thursday's busy.

It can't be Friday. Thursday sometime. Paula may or may not be there, depending on her schedule, but I'll be there. Sweet Nick will be there. And we're going to get some croissants? I think it should be a quat-a-cla-cla-cans run,

not a-d-a-d-d-a-d-old. Although you guys made a graphic of the croissant run, and it looked like a turd. Yeah, that croissant guy had a packing a few extra LBs. I mean, that was a, That was a one second. Like, let's just make this look like a thing to see if it feels right.

And then we'll do actual artwork for it. Right. So, yeah, croissant, he's going to be looking good. He's going to be looking real French. Although maybe it's like we're trying to, like, help you with, you know, clear out your system before your big race on the weekend. That could be that, too, you know? I mean, I guess we could do a poll. Do you want a heavyset, a big boy croissant or smoking a cigarette, skinny French.

Right. Okay. The first thing we have here, we're going to get, we're going to talk about Paul's race. Paul just raised T100 Vancouver this weekend for people who don't know. Just throwing that in real casual. But before that, we're going to do a new game, a new segment. This was submitted by a podcast listener, one of the kids.

Trevor from Iowa, by the way, Trevor from Iowa. There's a great song from Donovan Woods called Iowa. I recommend if you don't know it already. It's beautiful. This segment, he was saying it should be called underrated, accurately rated, overrated. That's a bit of a mouthful. So I'm just going to call it, rate it. Ooh, there we go.

And I'm going to make a little jingle for it too. So we're making up a new game. This is a new game. We'll see if it's six. The rules are very simple. You just say if it's underrated, properly rated, or overrated. Okay. I like this.

It's very simple. So here are the ones. Having multiple bikes. It's appropriately rated. Yeah. Because people already hype it up a lot and it's worth the hype, you think. Yes. I think we're talking about having a road bike and a TT bike and a gravel bike.

Yeah. Yes. It's a need. Certainly not overrated. No. In any way. Next one. What about open water swims?

I think the context here is compared to just swimming in the pool all the time. I think it's underrated how much it can help your racing to do more. I hate to hear that. I really hate to hear that. Yeah, I would say underrated and underappreciated. Dang. And underutilized. But it's logistically.

challenging. But you know what's funny is when it's logistically actually easier sometimes. Like if you go to a race and the open water option is way better than the pool option, it's fine to swim open water all week. That's what we did in Placid. That's what we did in Topau. We didn't even go to a pool. We just swam in the beautiful open water. So if you live on a lake or close to somewhere that's better for open water, you barely even have to go to the pool. if you're already a decent swimmer, I think. Because if you're developing as a swimmer, I think actually swimming in the pool,

at least for me as someone who's an adult onset swimmer, that was absolutely critical in my improvement as a swimmer. You didn't really try doing it via only swimming in a lake, so we'll never know. When I first got into triathlon, I was like, I'm not even going to swim in a pool. I got the ocean three blocks away. I'm just going to swim in the ocean all the time. Yeah, well, you're not going to get in the ocean every day.

But I'm talking like a lake like Placid. Right. That's already flat. You're not really dealing with the element. You've got to dock out your back door. Yeah. But there is something about stopping every 50 or every 100 sometimes to reset and rest that helps with technique development. So anyway, this is dragging.

Next. A little note about that later on. Next one. Training and racing with smart watches. Interesting. Appropriately rated? You made a smart watch like a GPS? Yeah.

Yeah. Or like an Apple watch that can get text messages. No, no, no, no. I think they mean like a sports watch. Yeah. I'm going to go out on a limb and say overrated. It's definitely not underrated because everyone has them and talks about them all the time. I actually was on the bike at T100 Vancouver and I was like, I felt okay.

And I was like, maybe I'll just not take my watch on the run because I don't really like ITU style, you know, make my transition quick, even though it ended up not being quick at all and run cold turkey. But then I was like, oh, it's kind of fun to see the data after. So I'll just take it with me and not look at it. Yeah. So I think that people get too obsessed with it, although I think the longer the race, like an Ironman, the more valuable it becomes because you use it for pace control. But if you're just running as hard as you can for the race, like an Olympic, a sprint or a T-100, you don't need it. Yeah. This was the basis of me saying overrated.

I think every once in a while try to go without it, you might surprise yourself. Yeah. Yeah. And last one here. Local events. Underrated. Underrated. For sure.

Unanimous. Thanks, Trevor. from Iowa. That's our new little game. Rate it. It feels kind of similar to hot or not. Yeah, but I like the new spin. The new spin, yeah. Okay, so Paula, I think

you surprised a lot of people by doing this race this weekend just because you just race. Well, last Monday we recorded the podcast and we didn't even mention I was going because at that point I was still thinking I wasn't going to go. Right. Yeah, her in time.

entire inner circle was also surprised to some degree. Right. Even when we were traveling to Portland for me to fly out and everything was packed, I was like, maybe I just won't go. I'll just knocking on the airplane. It would be fine. And what everyone would understand. Correct. But I decided to approach it with a attitude of no expectations. And my fear of going was, I am going to be so slow compared to these people. I'm going to get destroyed. And I'm going to to lose my mojo that I currently have from winning Placid and from winning Happy Valley and just being on this high. And I didn't want to like, it's a fragile state. I didn't want to disrupt it by going to a T-100 and having a negative experience and making that downward spiral happen

where I think I suck and I am disappointed and whatever. So that was that I was worried about, but I decided to just, it didn't really matter what people think. I think people generally understand that an Ironman is very different than the T-100. So even if I did come 15th, it doesn't take away the fact that I'd won like Placid. You know, it doesn't mean I suck now. It's just a different kind of racing. So anytime I saw someone leading up to the race,

it was like, we can't wait to watch you. I'm like, don't have any, I'm not going to win, just don't have any expectations, but I am here and I'm doing it. So that's what I approached my buildup as. And I was zero percent nervous. In fact, on race morning, I was like, you need to be a bit more nervous because there is a race.

race. But up until Saturday morning, I was like, you're just doing a super hard session tomorrow on closed roads with water bottles handed to you every kilometer on the run. That's truly how I thought of it. And you're getting paid for it. Don't forget. Yes, that was another factor was the prize money at these T100 events is really good. 50K to win. I think it goes like, I don't want to be wrong, but 50, 40, 30, 25. Like, the prize money is amazing. So even if I'd come 10th, I'd still make $8 or $10,000, which pays for the Kona trip.

Like, if I was just thinking about it in those terms, the prize money is really good. And it is what attracts these amazing fields to come all the way to Vancouver to race because the upside is the dollars for these women. Also, Vancouver's beautiful. I think everybody just wants to go there. For sure, but I'm the only one from North America

that race. literally every other person traveled from Europe. Oh, Lydia. Lydia as well, yes, of course. Wow, that's amazing. Just two of you. Internationally, yeah. Oh, I guess Hannah Berry was already here,

but she was already in North America, whatever, but a lot of international travel to do this race. Yeah, whereas like compared to 70.3 Northern California, where it's a lot of people who are already in North America, for example. Yeah. And what I also noticed was previously at the T-100. everyone would always travel with someone like bringing their husband or bring their support person or they'd always be paired up and same with me I'd usually bring Eric but what I felt like at this race was

almost every girl was there alone. Why do you think? My mission here is to make money and if I pay for my partner to come over then I'm it's like another six whatever. So and on the other side of it we're very well supported at these events. There's a bike mechanic. There's a massage therapist. If anything goes wrong. You have help. So there's no real stress. You land, you get an Uber, your hotel is taking care of. It's what I missed the most about the T-100 was how well they take care of us and the camaraderie of all the women. It's like we're all friends hanging out all week. We're all taking the bus to the swim familiarization. We're like catching up or chatting. It's how I got to know them all over the last couple years was the T-100. You go to an Iron Man and you don't see anyone until

race morning or maybe the press conference. So, that part I really enjoyed. Yeah. Yeah. Do you feel like there was a similar feeling amongst the other women or do you think you especially had this kind of, I don't want to say nonchalant less, but an ease with the whole situation? It always surprises me how chill everyone is before the race. Everyone has their own process and their own nerves and their own pre-race routines. But in general, like even when we're in the waiting room for starting, everyone's kind of like in a good mood chatting. Low stress is the vibe I get for the most part. I feel like this is, it's kind of similar to when they used to do Beijing International

Triathlon. And I think this is a bit of a product of, you know you're not going to lose a bunch of money on this. Like the person who got 20th place cover the cost of the trip. And the same thing with Beijing, they cover the entire cost of the trip. So everyone's there and you don't have this like, oh my God, this is the, you know, I'm going to lose something here. And like everybody's doing their best to try to win as much money as possible.

But it's, yeah, it takes a little bit of that edge off of it. If your concern is financial. Like I guess my biggest nerves before the start were how much it was going to hurt. Like this is going to be so hard. But I was talking to Georgia before and I was like, the reason I didn't get nervous in the Ironman is because there's so much time to sort stuff out if things go wrong. And she's like, that's exactly how I feel about T-100. because I'm coming from doing Olympic distance. In the T-100, something goes wrong.

There's so much time to surround it out. I'm like, okay, so we feel the same, but just in different distances. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, anyway. The swim, you were great. You were a minute and a half down from the very front and a minute down from a group in front of you. And then soon on the bike, you were, you found your way at the front of the race. How much were you like, should I not be doing this?

Should I be like hanging back? No, I had like nothing to lose. my swim actually started really well, and then I kind of got gapped from that lead pack coming back in on the first lap. So I was swimming all by myself, but I could still see them ahead of me. And I was like, as long as I keep this gap to like 90 seconds, then I can close that. And I came out of the water and like Julie and Alanis were right beside me, but I don't think we actually swam together. We took different lines. There was a significant current in the ocean. So even if it felt like you were swimming towards a buoy, it was really easy to get kind of pushed out. So I think I swam alone but also came out with people. It was really weird.

Yeah, the sighting, there was some footage of you guys swimming really far off from the siding buoys. Yeah, because of the current. Because of the current, yeah. It was really crazy. But by the time I got on the bike, I could see everyone who got out of the bike swim ahead of me on this big, long uphill climb. It kind of was like a six-minute uphill as soon as you got on the bike. and that's where I closed the gap to everybody and ended up passing everyone on the second hill.

So I was like riding really hard, but I was not concerned about anything past the current moment I was in. I was like, it doesn't really matter if your only hope to do well here is to get off the bike with some kind of gaps to people. So just ride really hard and then you'll probably run fine. Is this the ideal way to race, do you think? mentally, mentally. Just be better.

Staying in the moment. I was like, wow, I've literally never gotten out of the water and be like, as long as I'm only 90 seconds behind, I can just close that down within 10K. God, that sounds amazing. That does help. It only really works that way on a hilly course for me. I see. If it was a pancake flat draft fest, it would be a lot harder.

It was just a hilly draft fest. I got some angry texts from Eric who was watching, the stream. Dude, I mean, it was so brutal to start. But it was so congested. You got Race Ranger. And what was so effed about it was I passed. I forget where I was on the first like kind of climb of the official laps.

There was one, anyway, it doesn't matter. But Julie comes around me and her light starts flashing right, of course. So I have 45 seconds to drop out of her draft zone. And if you're going uphill trying to drop out of a draft zone, you have to ease up so much. So I was riding 300 watts. I had to drop to like 200 watts, which is a huge difference. It feels like you're spinning during a race if you're riding that that easy. But then as I was dropping back the 45 seconds, another person would come around me. And I'm like, you better be going to the very front because you cannot slot in. Yeah. But I would have to drop 40, I would have to now drop off

their wheel 45 seconds. And now I'm riding 180 watts. And then another person comes around me as I'm doing my dropping back. So I felt like I was the only person actually dropping back. Respecting the rules. As other people were swallowing me up and like, what am I going to now suddenly be eighth in line and have to pass eight people? And it was so messy. So what I decided to do was after I dropped back for a while from one of the people that was passing me, I was like, just gun it, get to the very front and get out of this nightmare of a mess. So I did that. And I was like, it's so hard for me to even know if I'm breaking rules at this point, but I'm going to ride super hard, and that's what happened.

I got to the front and never really saw that pack again. What is supposed to do? Just like, okay, everyone else is slotting in. So I'm just going to rise above and get all the way to the back of the race because I'm following the rules. This is a huge percentage of why I kind of fell out of love with 70.3 racing. This was my experience so many times. Like, I'm not getting dropped,

but people just keep like slotting in front of me because I feel like I'm riding an appropriate distance and the referee is sitting right next to me there's like no recourse here and I'm not Paula I can't now repass 15 people just because I want to and all of a sudden you're from like third wheel to like 17th wheel and it's so

I don't know what the solution is here but like pretty much anybody who came around Paula while her red light to Julie was blinking red unless I'm missing something should not have been able to go front of Paula. Right, exactly. But they were. Yeah, there should have been way more penalties given out on that first lap, but I think the referees were overwhelmed. They're like taking notes trying to decide who's doing what the referee know what the right call is in that situation? Because visually to them,

it might appear as though you're just being passed by everybody and blowing up. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Yeah. But once I got to the front, I was riding kind of with Imogen and Kate and we were kind of gaping the rest of the people and I don't know it was fun I was in the front of the T-100 I was like even if my run is shit this was a success I'm riding really hard I'm getting something out of this it's fun to be in Vancouver with crowds and whatever so I got off the bike in third like with Imogen and kate was a little bit ahead of us but Julie was hot on our heels and then the rest of the pack was like a minute back so the run it was probably kind of an exciting race to watch it was not really spread out as these things sometimes get.

It was exciting. From a spectator's perspective, it was a lot going on. There was a lot of really fast people there, and that made it for a tight race, which I think is more fun to watch, right? Watching this completely tanked my productivity for the whole morning.

Because it was actually, like, didn't want to look away for too long. Yeah, I had the world's slowest transition, but I needed to put socks on. Well, what happened in T1? Somebody said something about you, like, had a slow T1. even true?

It was probably slow, but it wasn't, nothing went wrong. Okay, I didn't, I didn't notice. You have to switch. The thing about 200 is, yeah, it's faster, but everything's faster. There's like urgency and transitions. There's a lot of speed around the U-turns, things like that. I was sluggish at, but in general, my fitness and my power could make up for it a little bit with the three disciplines, but I was rusty for sure in some of the little things

that end up mattering because you're doing so many U-turns. Is it maybe relative just because a lot of these athletes are draft legal athletes and they are experts at exactly that? They've, they raced 12 times a year and so do that many more transitions and it is of the utmost importance. Yeah. But like I said, with the last game that we played with my watch, I didn't look at my watch a single time because I was running well. I felt good. I was like, I'm probably running like 345s right now. That's what it feels like.

which I ended up, that was actually correct. So I could kind of go by feel, but I didn't want to look at my watch and see 330 and have to ease up. And I didn't want to look at my watch and see four minutes and freak out that I felt like I was going faster than I was. So there was no benefit to looking at my pace other than just having the watch to look at data later.

And it was a bit predictable in my head. I always do this when I'm racing. I'm like, okay, worst case here, I'm probably going to come fifth. Best case, I'm going to come third. George is probably going to pass me. I probably do this too much, like play out what's probably going to happen because you can see on every out and back

who's catching you and who you're gaping more. But I was running in third for like pretty much most of the run with no hope of catching second but also likely to be caught by Georgia, which would put me in fourth. So if you look at my splits for the whole run, like I slowly got slower through the whole thing. but I finished the six laps and I, same thing with Happy Valley, I felt like I could keep going.

Yeah, that's great. I feel totally fine. Like it was hard, of course, but I also didn't feel like I could run that much faster, but I didn't feel like it was wearing me down that much. So I was in this weird zone of like, I'm running well. I think that's ideal. I think that's, I was actually, this is how I felt an ocean side. I was like, this is about as fast as I can go, but I don't, I'm not hating my life.

Yes, exactly. That's how I felt. And maybe if I was a bit fresher and not coming off Placid, I could have gone faster. Like maybe that fatigue was maybe the limiter, but I wasn't running slow. Yeah. Did you notice anything? No, I didn't notice. Yeah, that's great. Right.

Yeah, finished fourth. Totally did not expect that, like I said. I thought if I could be 10th, that would be good. Yep, you literally said that to us. But even as I was falling asleep the night before, By the way, I got in bed at 7 p.m. and pretty much fell asleep right away and slept till 7 a.m. I had like a 12-hour sleep the night. That's good.

It was insane. That's good. That's good. But I was looking at the start list and I'm like, she could beat me, she could beat me, she could beat me, she could beat me. There was only a couple people on the start list where I was like, okay, I'm pretty sure I could beat them. Right. But even looking at the start list, I'm like, I could actually come last. Everybody here is pretty good or really good. Isn't that weird that your brain does that though?

Like how many times do you have to prove yourself wrong before you start believing? It's not even that I didn't believe in myself. I didn't believe in myself doing this type of a fast race. And then a lot of these women that were coming over are really fast. And they've been focusing on short course or T100 all year. Totally. But the fact is that you did end up beating them. Yeah.

Yeah, they could have, right? But you could have also won the whole race. too. No. That is also possible. I mean, I guess it's a very small possibility. But I also was trying to think like if I was, if this exact race scenario was playing out, but I was in my last year's fitness on the start line, would I have come forth? I don't necessarily think so. I think this year I am like fitter and in a better headspace and like in a more accepting whatever.

Yeah. So that made that made the whole thing. flow a lot easier. There was never any point in the race where I was like, I hate this, I feel like shit, I want to quit. It's just like, oh, this is hard, but it's fine, and I'm doing good and see how well I could do.

Do you feel like you understand what has led to this? I mean, we've talked about it after Placid as well, but it does, you do seem different, and is it literally just the Iron Man training, or is there something else? I don't know. Take that out.

That's going. That's going to be, we're going to make a real. We're going to make a reel for that. And that's actually not true. The people need to know. Yeah, but you never know. Yeah, manifest about talking about it. Yeah, manifest, exactly.

Yeah, so anyway, we're very proud of you. Eric and I were texting, we're like, what is, what do we do with this information? Like, what does this, what does this mean? It's nothing. Before the race, Eric and I were like, I told Eric, I was like, I can't believe she's going to do this right now. I feel like this is what it, like, this could be a big mistake. It means. Yeah.

She did the race and I'm like, thank God she went into this race. It was so great. Yeah, fucking knew it. And you were back in Bend on Sunday. I told her she should go. Exactly. The race was like two days ago from right the second, we were in the water swimming. It's crazy.

It's so short, such a short time ago, but it feels like a week ago already because I'm already back home. I've already done like a bunch of sessions. Yeah. It's great. It's crazy how it's the. If the race had been any further away from where I'm located, I would not have gone. Yeah, it was a perfect Goldilocks little race. If it was in Montreal or Toronto or anywhere on the East Coast, I probably would not have gone.

But the one hour flight. And same time zone. No time zone change. Knowing we had support there. Kind of going without YouTube made it feel like a work trip. But then I went there and I was like, I get to hang out with Ellie. I get to hang out with all these friends that I like haven't seen forever. It was really fun.

Well, amazing. No big deal. Just showing up to races and crushing. The other thing about the T-100, last thing, is you can't really just pull out the day before. I mean, you can, but they're trying to fill this field of 20 athletes. Oh, right. And if I pull out, they're going to try to find a replacement.

And I felt like it was super unfair on Tuesday of Race Week for them to try to find a replacement, like maybe even impossible. So it was a little bit out of respect for like the entry process and the withdrawal. process. It worked in your favor. There would have been no repercussions, but also I would have felt really guilty. Yeah. So I just did it.

Yeah. Sometimes you just do it even if it sucks. I love it. That's the TTL theme here, isn't it? No, it's really not. To me address the complete lack of any kind of pre-race hype that the T-100, like it's so sad that no one even knows it's going on. I know.

And there's no two guys. followed me on my run two days before the race and I was like, oh, they're making like a pre-race kind of what's going on YouTube video. There was none of that. Yeah. I think that's such a miss. Like, which is the basis. A huge part of why I decided and I think many of the supporter types decide to not go to these things, like Paula said, got mechanics, got media completely taken care of. I kind of feel like I don't have much to do. And now all of a sudden you could have made a YouTube video out of it. Yeah, literally four people. I had to message me like, it's today.

She's racing right now. Turn on the thing. Yeah. Yeah, I personally could have done a better job of promoting it. Well, you were basically invisible. That's where my brain also went is like how many people who are racing this have, you know, like you, Lionel, Sam, Sam Laidlo, etc., Lucy Charles, that have their own YouTube channel and like actually put out a significant effort to say,

I'm going to this race. Like, there weren't a ton of people to have that, like, critical. mass that the race could not do it themselves. And this is kind of the whole crux of this thing in general, which is how, I don't know if we want to talk about this, we do not have to talk about it, but how sustainable is the T-100? Because it started as one thing, and now it has become something that, to me, from the outside, feels like, how is this possibly going to stick around? Maybe we don't want to say that, but I don't know.

Because there's no contracts this year, and I'm less invested in it from, like this is the series I'm doing this year perspective, where in this in the past, it's been all I've really cared about or focused on, aside from 70.3 worlds. So I felt like I was going into this race with a bit of a bird's eye view on it from the outside. Like, yes, I'm racing, but also I'm super interested in like if this is sustainable, the changes you've made, what am I noticing from kind of an outside perspective, even though I am technically on the inside racing? And it's pretty obvious that they've slimmed down what they're bringing to these things. Like, for example, the media stuff, like being able to put a YouTube video out. But there are still people there

putting cameras in our faces, putting phones in our faces, asking us questions, doing pre-raised videos. So it feels like the miss here is there's no one to like edit them and put them out. I'm not sure. Because they were definitely still getting the content. But there needs to be someone sitting down and editing it and putting it out there. and I felt like that was lacking. To me, I mean, if you want to spend this in the most positive way possible, it's like they're trying to get through this year. And they've just cut down as much spending as possible knowing like,

hey, next year or whatever is the year where we like pull it all together and it's going to be amazing for X, Y, and Z. We just need to get there losing as little money as possible. That's kind of how. Yeah, but sadly, with this transition year, whatever they're calling it, they're losing fans. Yeah. Because there's a ton of triathlon fans out there.

And to me, when I talk to people that are involved with this, it feels like they don't care about the trathom fans. They're trying to promote this to the general public of billions of people to watch the race. I get it. Well, you have to start with your core people. And if they're not even tuning in and don't know what's going on, how are you supposed to get any outsider interested in this? It's only the real, real triathlon fans to me that are following the T100 stuff.

Like people who would follow anything, even if there was no marketing for it at all. Otherwise, I don't know. I don't know if it's just how powerful the Ironman brand name is compared to T100 or if there's something else that's just missing there. Historically, it's like the racing is boring to watch, but I don't think it was this time. So maybe you just need more of that, like more close races where Hayden's not winning. by 15 minutes. But how do you create that? I don't know. Is it also more names that are recognizable, though?

I think that's the big part of it. Yeah, if Lucy Charles had been here, Kat, Nib, Laura. Yeah. Then you bring the people that are... If I had to just take over the ship tomorrow, you know, and investors be damned or whatever, I think just get it back to like three events.

Just have three big marquee events where everyone is there. like that's why Kona kicks ass and why people pay attention to 70.3 worlds. It's like hyper-focused, one thing, Super Bowl. If there were 14 Super Bowls throughout the year, like you can only get so emotionally worked up for each one. And it's like maybe that just doesn't fit into the current business model they're shooting for, but I think that's kind of like the move.

Yeah. Well, we can leave that as is. I don't know if we want to put all that in. We do really hope the T100 succeeds. Of course. Oh, my God. I had the, it's such a fun race week with everybody. I missed that about it.

So as I, when I finished, I'm like, maybe I will go to Qatar in December. I feel like the basis of our critiquing usually is just like, come on, let's figure this out because this is a lot of good, it's done a lot of good in the sport. It caused Iron Man to like do the pro series and increase prize money there and like up their media game and like a ton of credit to the TV. 100 and like we all want it to succeed and I don't know that that's when I get all interested and start talking about like what would I do it's like when I'm when I'm interested and excited and before

Paula went that was like one of the two major things she said is like this is in Canada T100's doing this I feel like I should support it yeah from a from a athlete perspective it's flawlessly executed there were no errors in the course yeah it all flowed really easily I mean it's so easy for it from an athlete perspective and there were no errors at all in anything. Okay, well, we do have questions here, as we previously stated. So let's move on to questions. Paula, very proud of you.

You can submit questions to the podcast at that triathlonlife.com slash podcast where you can also pre-order that sick TTL 70.3 World's Neese shirt, and that'll be up until at least Sunday. And then you can also become a podcast supporter there for less than a cost of, uh, oh, I saw this. It's like one of those valve caps that also has a valve core remover tool on it. Those cost more than it costs to be a podcast supporter for month. That is, I mean, come on. That's a great deal. So thank you to all our current podcast supporters and to anyone else who's considering being a podcast supporter. Thank you in advance.

I was actually thinking today because I was listening to some of the other triathlon podcasts. And every time there's an ad, I have to fish my phone out of my pocket, fast forward. forward it and then sometimes I skip some of the next section of the podcast. Like, what a gift to not have to do that for us. Yeah, of course. Also, I had a lot of people reached out with suggestions of mattresses, but no one who works for a mattress company. Okay, so we need someone who works purple.

Rob Sealy to call us. I appreciate the recommendations, but I, I mean, that is helpful to narrow down our search. And I'll pay for one because I, raised T-100 so now I can afford a mattress. Right. Do you guys know that at least where I grew up, there's like a lot of puns on mattress places. Like the one I grew up with and I didn't figure it until later, the jingle was trust sleepies for the rest of your life for the rest of your life, like to rest and recover. Trust sleepies for the rest of your life was one. The other one was like, it's like mattress firm,

like a firm as in like a company, but also mattresses are firm. They've put a lot of money into the marketing for these places. Okay, first question here, sorry, a little tangent. This is from Boss, from Edinburgh, Scotland. Hey, all, love the pod, great banter throughout, especially when Paula's getting annoyed with Eric and Nick for taking too long with answers. See, I told you. Question for Eric, I have so much respect for how you support Paula.

Love seeing how much joy you get from her success. what is the best and hardest thing about watching Paula on race day? Keep smashing it. Love to all three of you. Boss. I guess the best part is that, you know, by virtue of me witnessing her training every day, trying to come along on as much of it as I can,

admittedly a little less right now because of my hip, I feel like I raced as well. I get the same kind of emotional release and excitement when she crosses the finish line because I care about it. I know how much she cares about it and I've seen all the work that goes into it firsthand. So it's incredibly real and exciting.

And I think I know, maybe I don't know, but I've come to terms with, I'm probably not going to go win Iron Man Lake Placid. And this is like a pretty, an honor to be able to feel like I did. you know, in some sort of way. We are one. Which leads me to the worst part, which is thinking about that.

Going to races and seeing her go through the process and remembering what it felt like to be the one going through the process, seeing her do interviews, seeing her have that success and being in the race and remembering what that felt like and not doing it. is also hard. Yeah. Is there an end to that, or do you think that's always going to be there?

Is there a way that you can make peace with it? I think it's just a slow process. And I'm not, you know, when I went and did Black Canyon and when I did the 50Ks that I did last year, and I still have things that I want to accomplish, maybe not in an Iron Man branded event necessarily, but I get to work on those things in my own time, and when I get to go do those things,

I'm incredibly appreciative that I'm still able to. But it's been a long process of, you know, like when Paul and I first started dating, I was having better results. Yeah. And like I would go, I was winning races and everything.

And that just, it's slowly like Daytona was one of the first, you know, things in that zone of like, holy shit, if this is like the true potential here. And when we go to races, we butt heads a little bit because I want to do this type of pre-race vibes and go swim at this time and she wants to do it this way.

Like, is it really worth me, you know, being selfish in the way that you need to be so that I can go from getting ninth place to eighth place or sixth place to fifth place at 70.3 worlds when we're looking at her potentially winning it and the like the life-changing nature of that for our household, for our brand, et cetera. And I, you know, I think I just have been. able to make an appropriate decision there and invest more time into TTL, supporting her, et cetera, for the greater good. Just a little editorial add-on here. I really admire Eric the way that you have traversed that, that transformation,

from being the athlete that was winning more into now being in a very effective, supportive role and not just helping her, but making it feel like we are one, Paul, like you said. And I think a lot of other people who listen, who are either in a relationship with an athlete or are the athlete, admire you as well on that. But completely separately, I'm also still very excited to see you race in either swim run or trail running or triathlon or whatever else you do. I, there's a lot that can still be done here. So I'm excited as a fan and as a friend of yours to see whatever that becomes too. I agree because I actually enjoy the flip side when I can support him at events. But it doesn't come with the knowledge of like, oh, I'm never going to race at this level again. So it's different feeling for Eric in a triathlon. And it's like you don't even really want to race on road triathlon anymore. Like that was a decision you made. You weren't really enjoying it. but you have a lot of stuff

that you could do off-road that you are interested in. There's a lot of layers to this process and decision that I don't, you know, might just be for me and my therapist and not on the... Who's your therapist?

On the entire triathlon world. But yeah, I don't know. It's an educated decision and I still wrestle with it. It's not easy at all. But Paula doing well and TTL doing well makes it makes it pretty cool.

Yeah. Yep. Okay. We'll move on from that. This next one is from Susie. Hey, Team TTRL, I always get the impression that other triathletes have a bigger team to support your training and competing. Coach, logistics, nutritionists, physio, accountant, etc.

You and Eric seem to do all of it yourselves. How big is your immediate team and what is the norm in triathlon? You are 100% my triathlete girl crush. Good luck in Kona. Yeah, this does seem true. It does seem like these other people, like, okay, let's talk about like Lucy or Taylor or whatever. It does seem like they have these big teams.

And you're looking at the team right here. Well, I would say that the immediate team that's super critical is obviously Eric. Nick is more of like emotional support. Like you're not really doing anything logistically, but having you around is really helpful for my mental state. The podcast just straight up wouldn't exist. So, for sure. Media taking care of. We don't have a manager.

We do have an accountant. That doesn't count. I don't see how that really relates here. Massage therapist Scott, who's in Bend here. We see him once a week. And then coach our coach Paulo. That's, that's. And it's a very slim down.

Eric does my bike mechanics. Eric does all my like contract sponsorship stuff. Because a lot of it is the two of us anyway. and we've had the same sponsors forever, so we actually have really good relationships, like texting basis with them. So we haven't, like my dream for the rest of our career is to never have to negotiate a new sponsorship contract.

We don't want any new sponsors and we don't want to switch. That's the dream. And we're in a fortunate position that that's probably going to be the case. But I think it works well that way. Like last year it was kind of interesting when Carmen, my cycling coach, came to 70.3 worlds. And she could not believe that Eric was the one doing my bike mechanic stuff, that I didn't have a massage therapist with me, that I didn't have a person dedicated to nutrition with me. Because they're used to the cycling culture where there is someone dedicated for each individual specialty.

And you have a team of like, you know, three times more staff than there are athletes. But in triathlon, that's not really as common. Like even the best, best people, Lucy and Kat, they're kind of relying on their partners. who were fully dedicated full time to helping them as the main person. But do you actually think if you had, let's say, unlimited funds to spend on this, do you think you'd actually do it any differently? I think what I would do differently is like travel with someone who can do bodywork to races. That would be a luxury.

I don't know. We met someone last year at one of our ski trips who's a chef and I kind of was joking with him about coming to Kona to cook for us. But I don't, that's so expensive to like accommodate him and travel. and all that. God, I wish I was a better cook. The more people that you add in, you just spend more time with managing the team. So, I mean, that's like the same position that like we've been in with TTL.

We're like, okay, we have one employee currently. Every employee that you bring on is like six months of kind of training, getting up to speed, etc. And it's another thing you have to think about another person you're responsible for, etc. So, like keeping it kind of small and lean, if you have, like Paul said, I can do bike mechanics.

Nick can do a couple of different tasks. Her mom comes to a race and can grocery shop, keeping it small and like a family. Yeah. And also, low stress. People you're with who you can ask to do stuff for you that you need without guilt. Oh, yeah, it's not that I don't appreciate it, but it's like, mom, go to the grocery store, get this list and cook this. Please.

Yeah. You know, it's just simple. And she's a person I want to be around anyway, so it's not like we're adding people to the puzzle who are, who we have to worry about taking care of. I don't know, did that answer the question? The simple or the better, I think. And the fact that Eric has the skills to do all these things. I'm super lucky that he knows how to take amazing pictures,

and I completely trust him with my bike, and he knows how to talk to sponsors in a way that's professional, yet you're my buddy. I mean, we've, you guys have gone through versions of this where you have at other people, and it basically has not really worked. Eric just is better at it. And like if I were, if I were your manager or whatever, I would say, no, Eric has to work on the

bike. And Eric has to do the photography and the video. I don't want anyone else in the world to do it because he's better at it. Yes. I mean, he cares more. He has vested interest in the success of the thing. I don't, I'm not, I agree with you in a little bit of a way. But the caveat to that is I like what we would need to invest to get.

someone better than me in each of these categories, it just is not financially feasible with the amount of money that you make as a professional triathlet. To get a better photographer to follow Paula around every other day, okay, that's going to be $200,000 a year. To get a manager that could maybe get us 10% more from our sponsors and really like, you know, ring out the rag. They're going to need a cut and, you know, and I don't know. I don't think it. and then also it's like two days before the race and you want a different cassette on the back

and it's 10 p.m. No, Eric can do it. Exactly. He's right. Unfortunately or fortunately Carmen did increase my bike mechanicking duties significantly by Paula being awoken to the ideas of how much shit

you can change on your bike whenever you want. Right. Well, also I have a dedicated race bike, which is crazy. I'm riding my training bike all the time. And then I get to a race, I get on my race bike, and it is like perfectly silent. Everything is smooth.

It's shifting like a dream. It's like a treat to get on that bike. So I don't regret that decision at all. Of having a dedicated race bike, it's such a luxury. Talking about you. Yeah, nothing has changed for you. The other, just the, the, last thing really quick on this is I also feel like

Paulo, my coach, is also like, I trust him to like give me nutrition advice and bike fit advice. And he's, I mean, he's like, he's a little bit like, not that he's insisting that he take charge of those departments, but I trust him enough to know enough

about them that I also don't need to outsource for those little types of things. I feel comfortable going to him. So, yeah, anyway, that was just another edition. He's not just writing my training program. He's very invested in, like, the whole picture as well on the performance side. Yeah. We have so many more questions, but I think we only really have time for one.

One. No, we could do more than one. Okay, we can do, okay, so this one will be for Eric. Okay. This is from Julia. Hi, tripod. Question for mostly Eric, planning to do my first experience swim run in Colorado. this fall, was wondering what shoes, paddles, pull buoy would you recommend as someone just

trying out the sport and not trying to break the bank on my first race? Is the orca swim run pull buoy worth it? Or is there a more economical entry point that won't drag me down? I feel like that's a funny choice of words there since it floats. What size of paddles would be the best and how much larger should they be from my pool ones without causing excessive discomfort? Do I need trail shoes or can I modify an old pair of running shoes for drainability? Damn, that seems a little crazy to do that. But Eric, what do you think? You've actually done this.

I guess the question here is, for how cheaply can you do a swim run without making it miserable for yourself? I just Googled the Orca Swim Run Bowie because I didn't even know how much it costs. Apparently it's 50 bucks. And it doesn't look like there's a whole bunch of swim run buoys that are 20 bucks.

So I think that's kind of just the going rate of a really large pull buoy. If you can't get one, just find the biggest freaking buoy inside of whatever your price range is that you can. The bigger the buoy is, the better of a time you're going to have, especially if you're using regular running shoes. Like, those things are going to be just like dragging barges behind you. So I would go for the bigger buoy.

I really think that's really going to enhance your experience. I think you could probably get away with, if this is a slightly warm, enough place. You could do this in a swimsuit. I don't think you need a swim run suit for the experience because I think that's only probably an hour and a half or something in total time. They have good aid stations. You just need somewhere that you can stash your reusable cup. So figure that out. Maybe put that on your swim run buoy lanyard or something.

Stuff it inside of your front of your swimsuit. And then for running shoes, I guess you could get away with regular running shoes, I would just kind of go with a lower profile option, something that has the minimum amount of ability to soak up water. Like back in the day, people would run and, you know, they would just drill holes through their shoes just to help them drain. So I guess you could always do that, go old school. Yeah, I think you get pretty cheaply. What about paddles? How big you go? Do you just use the paddles you already have, do you think? I started using the swim run paddles that I use for just like swimming in the pool normally,

I wouldn't go massively huge. Whatever you do go with, you need to make sure you use them in the pool a little bit to make sure that you can actually handle it. Yeah, you don't hurt yourself. Make your stroke count, like go in half and hurt your shoulders, et cetera. I wouldn't, for your first one,

I wouldn't go up massively, if at all. Especially for the experience. Yeah. Yeah, they just need to be able to, they just need to have the, like the retainer strap around your wrist so that you can take them off, but they're still like dangling around your wrist. That's, that's important. Oh, wait.

Can you get into that more? I don't think I even really realize that. You do eventually then take them off when you're running. You don't just let them dangle, right? But is this just like get out of the water? Yeah. You let them flip off of your fingers, basically, but then you need them to be hooked on to your wrist still so you can like pull your buoy out of the position, take your goggles off, et cetera.

And then once you're already running, you take the time to remove the paddles. that's very... Same thing with going into the water. You'd get them onto your wrists, putting your buoy. Yeah, got it. Did we ever decide if there's a swim run that you and I can do after Kona? We did not decide, and I am extremely interested in it.

Okay, do a quick search. I think it's Austin. Yeah, Austin would be fun because... I would 100% do that. And my sister lives in Austin. November 8th. I think I'm not here. I'm in Banff, actually.

You're in Banff. Yeah. I think you're canceling that trip and we're going to do the swim run. What are you going to ban for? My mom is speaking at the film festival. Well, maybe we'll text your mom and see. On the eighth,

maybe by the eighth I cannot do that. I'm then racing a 50K on the 14th. Okay. I mean, you don't have to go as maximum effort. I don't have to go a maximum effort. Well, I was going to say in the 50K, I don't have to go maximum effort. He also don't have to do the full distance one.

He's going to have to go maximum effort on the swim run. on the swim run for sure. So that's the last one. That's her last opportunity. That's, yeah. That's pretty much snow and everywhere else. Okay. Well, your mom does listen to this podcast,

so she'll forgive you to go into Banff. We can do a swim run. Well, I can maybe do both. Ricardo, please. I could do BAM for a bit and then go to the swim run. That is Nick's middle. Nick, maybe I can do both gold stem. Yeah.

That is his middle name. That's true. No, actually, Nick, teleportation doesn't exist yet. You can't be in BAMF. Ann and Austin on the 9th. We got people working around the clock on it. Top men.

Okay. Last question here is from Felicia. Question about self-confidence and training with others. There's some swim run here, by the way. I've recently become obsessed with swim run and have also been a part of local tri-club for many years. I love both of these communities, but I struggle with self-confidence and anxiety when it comes to training and racing with the people involved.

For swim run especially, where it's a partnership, I get so concerned that I'm going to hold my partner back from what they're capable of. And I imagine them regretting choosing me as a partner, girl. I know what you mean. Is this you, Nick? It's not me. Wishing they could go faster and so on. Even with the club, I get that way about group rides or runs. Will they just drop me?

Will they hate that they have to slow down for me? Swims and track workouts are great because while I may get lapped, I'll never get left before. I really enjoy training and racing solo, but I know this will limit what I can do with swim run if I want to have any ambitions of going to worlds. Is this something any of you have experienced? How do you get over at Felicia? I just want to start by saying that before I did triathlon, I did beach volleyball, and beach volleyball is two on two, and I constantly had this feeling. I have a feeling when I do this race with Paula, I will not have this feeling. and I think a part of it for me is like Paul as a professional athlete

there's no realistic expectation that I should be able to go as fast as her on anything. This is exactly how I felt going into the T-100. I was like, I don't really have to be as nervous because there's absolutely no way on earth I'm in a podium. But then I almost did. So maybe Nick, you'll be dropping me. Yeah, in the water. I'll definitely be dropping you in the water for sure. No, it's a good question. And maybe the thing that at least from the outside that I would say is this person is choosing you and they know you. If they train with you, they know you.

And part of being a fast amateur athlete that qualifies for worlds is to be fast. And the other part is that you want to have a good time. And maybe, Felicia, you, compared to many endurance athletes, are a good time. And doing the race with you is worth whatever seconds you lose and the end because you make the whole experience better, which is really the point anywhere. Some people get there through doing it quickly. But maybe doing this thing with you, which is a sport that now requires you, to do it together is because you're a good vibe. That's exactly where my brain went as well. I would 100% rather go on a bike ride with a slow, fun person than a fast, not fun person.

Every single time. Yeah. And that's also what you sign up for. It's like, okay, Nick and I are going to go for a bike ride. He's going to slow me down. It's going to be paining the ass. No, not Nick. Not Nick.

I was completely a joke. Of course I'm slower. but I'm going out to hang out with my buddy. And if he gets a flat or if he is just not feeling good or whatever, like that's okay. That's how I framed this activity up. It's like we're going out and spend time together. And if we get a good workout and awesome, if we don't, not a big deal.

Same thing with swim run. Same thing with a group ride. People are going to the group ride inside of their expectation is that somebody could be slow. Somebody could be fast. Somebody could, et cetera. It could split up. If I go to a swim run with someone,

if you do an adventure race with people it's just that's part of the thing you could let yourself down they could let you down anything could happen and so I think there's just more of a level of chill because that's part of the expectation

that I don't know I just I wouldn't be upset I would be like yeah you know I wanted to but like this is a thing that's out of my control and now this is what we're doing we're getting through this together and the next one will qualify for worlds

whatever Can you imagine Eric and I doing a swim run together and Eric being pissed that I was too slow? That's crazy. It was in no part in my brain was I thinking that you were going to like pull me through, you know. Yeah, of course not. Just accurate expectations and don't like necessarily project that onto the other person that they had some secret plan for you and them. Exactly. That involved you elevating 50% beyond your capacity or something.

Oh, Paul's letting her hair down. Yeah, but like if you guys, you guys are thinking. about doing it with each other. Nick's not even slow. Imagine doing it with someone who's like my, like, who's a person. I'm doing it with Ben Canute. No, not Ben Canute. Imagine doing it with someone like your dad. Yeah. Okay. Who's like going to be definitely frustratingly slow. But here's a thing. Here's the thing. I just wouldn't. Exactly. Eric would not choose his dad. So Felicia, if someone is choosing to do this with you, you've already made the cut. They chose you.

Right. Okay. I see what you're saying. Out of all the fish in the pond. I like to think that, oh, I'd be so cool and go with the flow as someone who's a bit slower than me. But you're for sure going to get frustrated if they're walking and you want to be running. I think good communication here. I'm thinking like if I were to do swim run with Josh Amberger, like we know I am the weak link of the.

swim and I am going to put in extra effort going into the race to like work on my swim and to cover that gap but I'm going to be very upfront with him like dude I'm going to do doing everything I can but like here's the fastest times I was able to hit for 20 by 100 in the pool the last two months

you know just be prepared mentally for you're going to be chilling on the swim a little bit Paul I'm just getting so psyched at the idea of doing this Austin swim run with you I can't get psyched because you have a I know we have to We have to figure it out.

We have to figure it out. I mean, you have to figure it out. By we, I mean me with my mom. Oh, okay. So what day is her talk? I don't know, but I have the schedule in, because the festival is from the fourth to the, well, it's more than that, but we're scheduled to be there from the fourth to the ninth. Okay, so if the swim run is on the eighth, you could duck out on the seventh. Right.

Right. and it's probably not that crazy of a flight. Calgary to Austin. Yeah. You have to go through Dallas or something. Anyway, okay. Well, we don't need to bore people with it, but. With our travel logistics?

Yeah. Yeah, we don't need to bore people. Plus, I need to go do my training. Right. Leave at one, get in at seven, go through Dallas. Okay. If you left on the seventh. And then you would have to be hydrating and prepping yourself on that area.

plane because the next morning we're getting up in racing. Great. This sounds great. By the way, sounds great to me. Yeah. I mean, I don't, this kind of stuff amps me up. So I would love it. Do you think that swim runner would sponsor us?

Oh, yeah, you guys are getting a free entry for sure. For sure. They're not like flying you in or anything. Well, maybe they would. No, swim run does not have much. Well, I don't know. I can always ask, but they didn't cover any of my travel. What about my therapy bills after the race?

Will they cover that? Oh, the experience is only 8K. The sprint is 12K. Oh, the World Series is only 20K of running. I could actually do that. I could get through 20K running by then. Wow. This will be really good prep for my T-100 Qatar.

Right, which now you're doing, apparently. The road to Qatar goes through Austin, Texas. I was like, Dylan, is there any way I could qualify for guitar with out doing Dubai. And he said there's a chance. Really? Yeah, because I got 23 points. Oh, it's just points.

Got it. Which is what some people get doing two or three races. Yeah. And there's a chance. You're telling me there's a chance. No, I can't go to Qatar. Oh, my gosh. Don't even start.

But I was injured going to guitar last year and I still had a fun week. Oh, no. Because the T-100s are fun. the race actually starts. It's happening. That's how this shit starts. Oh, no. Okay, let's end this here before things get any worse.

Talk to you next week.