My Latest Triathlon Challenge

This is a triathlon challenge because it deals with triathlon - however, it has nothing to do with me racing a triathlon. What does that mean, you ask? I participated in the Hyvee Triathlon, but my main reason for going there was to watch the pros as they tried to qualify for the final Olympic slots for the USA. Particularly since one of the athletes is a local girl from St. Louis - Sarah Haskins.

She got that slot - thank goodness! But the highlight is that the event was to be on national TV! I had set up my DVR to record the event. Spent the entire week waiting to sit down and watch the event. Got home in time to fix my lunch and sit down to watch the event and then when changing the station to NBC at the assigned time, I realized that the EVENT was not on but the Cards baseball game was on instead. OK - I love baseball and the Cards. In fact, I was incredibly lucky to be at the World Series winner in 2006 - BUTTTTTT, I really wanted to watch that triathlon.

I tried calling Dish Network - as it showed up in their guide for a station labelled WXIA - which did not exist on my program guide - but sometimes that happens and they can add it. The girl I got on the phone was pretty much an idiot and insisted that she couldn't find the program. HOWEVER, I'm on the dish network website looking at the Dish Network program guide - I had to argue with this girl for 10 minutes before she indicated that the station was regional and not available in my area - ughhhhh.

So, for the moment I had to give up. But, perhaps I could purchase a DVD of the broadcase from somewhere. Sent an email to our local NBC affiliate - the answer was that there was no plan to broadcase the event at a later date or time and that it was only a backup in case of a rainout for the baseball game. Also, no DVD available from them.

Next shot was looking for something on the Hyvee Triathlon website. Nothing. But, found the race director's email and thought he might know. I got an email back from him that indicated that I should give him a call. Tried to do that a couple of times with no success - got his secretary, left a message - but he never called back.

Today, I thought about contacting the local NBC affiliate in Des Moines - which happens to be WHO-TV (not WXIA which seems to be a station in Atlanta as best as I can tell). So I sent them an email asking about a possibility of getting a recording of that broadcast. So for now, I'm still waiting.

If anybody reads this and knows of a way to get that recording, PLEASE let me know. I really want it. I'm throwing everything I've got into this effort. Will it turn out as a DNF????