Wanted to give a little back story to the article that was published in the March/April 2016 issue of Triathlete Magazine. In mid-December I answered a note from Susan Lacke who is a writer for Triathlete Magazine, Competitor and some others about “Everyday Triathletes” with demanding schedules and how they get training in. We exchanged a few emails and the article was written. I mean travelling every other week and more, married with 2 little girls, coaching and still trying to train for a few Ironman races a year should qualify me right?
Shortly after that I received and email from Lisa Williams, the Art Director for the magazine, wanting to set up a photo shoot. I wasn’t expecting that at all because I thought my information would just be some short bullets on a side page or something. It was pretty exciting though. The next day, January 5th I was contact by a local photographer, Julia Robinson about a photo shoot for the magazine. Things moved pretty quickly after that. I was actually in town that week so we decided to shoot for that Friday night after work.
Really the only negative about the process was on my end. I have been an annual member at Pure Austin gym for 9 years along with my wife and I have referred many others to the gym and they became members. Well I approached them immediately wanting to showcase my “Home Gym” and instead of saying Yes we would love to be a part of this and help support/promote a long standing member they looked at it as a way to try and make some more money. Needless to say we didn’t do the shoot there and they have lost way more than a few bucks and free publicity!
Luckily Julia had a great relationship with the Downtown YMCA. I had never been there and I can’t say enough good things about them from the moment I walked in and was greeted until we were done. That really made things easy. And Julia was a real pro. She had an idea of all the shots she wanted to take and we moved from a couple areas outside to inside and it went quick even though I think she took about 1,000 shots and I really don’t want to see all the bad ones! The only request I had was to get a picture of her taking a picture of me – Thought that might be a cool picture, especially since I hadn’t told anyone about it. And I thought it would help me explain to my wife why I was downtown “Running” on a Friday night!!! (Which I actually did afterwards).
I didn’t know what to expect from the magazine but in early February I saw a tweet that showed the cover shot and knew it was coming soon and that they didn’t do a collage and I wasn’t on it – I am sure they wanted to sell a few copies and probably shouldn’t have my mug on the front! Then I was looking around and found a Sneak Preview on their web site and I was floored when I saw 2 pages for my article and a big picture. That is when I realized I didn’t break Julia’s camera! I thought it was pretty cool and was looking forward to seeing the actual magazine. After a couple attempts at Barnes & Noble I finally found (and bought all 3 copies) in Houston last week. And WOW was I surprised with not only the article but I was the picture for page 2 of the magazine.
To close this entry I will say Susan and Lisa were great to work with and I appreciate what they did to help promote the sport I enjoy so much. Follow them on social media and read their magazines!!! Julia is a true pro, especially to make me look presentable!!! Oh and she is also an Austin Runner so if you have the need for a photographer I recommend her. Keep it Local!!! And lastly thanks again to the Austin Downtown YMCA for hosting the shoot. I will be back for some real workouts one day!!!
@SusanLacke @TriathleteMag @RunCompetitor http://triathlon.competitor.com/
@juliarphoto http://www.juliarobinsonphoto.com/
@AustinYMCA @ymca http://www.austinymca.org/branches/townlake-ymca