Behind the Scenes: Ultraman

 Aloha reader!

My first college roommate, Aparna, once referred me to as "American as apple pie" and instantly dubbed me a 'classic' when we met, despite my makeup-free face & over-sized winter pea coat. To me, a classic American beauty looked more like my incredibly attractive cousin Beth, who had a cameo in Cosmopolitan Magazine, dabbling in modeling.

Exuding a clear lack of style my Freshman year of undergraduate college, I grew up far from playing baseball (America's sport). In fact, I was rarely on any sports teams growing up. I had a short, awful stint on the cross country team and played basketball a season or two in middle school. I began running freshman year of my undergraduate studies after an economics professor gave me an unfair grade (in my opinion, of course!).

It wasn't until I moved to California (at age 25) and eventually accepted a full-time position at BMO (at age 27) that I truly took an interest in sports, diving headfirst into triathlon in 2011 (at age 29). Learning how to swim much later in life was no easy feat! I couldn’t afford private lessons, so I joined a masters swim team and learned the best I could. As a matter of fact, I still get unsolicited feedback on my stroke to this day, even as a seasoned athlete, who completed a 10k open water swim as part of an Ultraman event in Penticton, BC in 2022. While not perfect, my freestyle swim stroke has done alright, you could say. :-) One of my proudest swim challenges I’ve completed was swimming 100,000 yards in February of 2014, while also practicing consistent yoga, studying nutrition & working at BMO. Oh, and jumping off a ferry from Alcatraz island to swim to Chrissy field a few months later, so yeah, it’s all good to me. :-)

Let’s take a deep dive into the Ultraman event. For those of you unfamiliar with this type of event: it consists of a 10k swim followed by 90-mile bike on Day 1. Day 2 is a 172-mile bike and Day 3 is a double marathon. It is crewed, rugged and adventurous. I first heard of the event while reading a sports autobiography many years prior. Many other companies market this event as a '515k' - as in total distance, approximately 515 kilometers are covered (some events even going non-stop!). Distances of all three sports may vary slightly, due to course layout… but it’s almost universally agreed upon that it’s a bada&$ event.

On the topic of sports biographies & autobiographies, you could say I have been a fan almost my entire life: especially with a non-athletic childhood. Sure, you could argue I have a second degree black belt (earned in high school), but in terms of traditional sports - including both ball sports and running - nope! As part of my regular reading materials over the years, I often soaked up sports biographies and autobiographies, and of course, documentaries! For the record, Netflix scores top-notch in offering documentaries, in my opinion.

Getting back to Ultraman... After I returned to the SF Bay Area after my (mostly) positive experience in 2022, there was a lot of interest in my recent finish. In my true altruistic fashion, I freely gave away my time to clubs and teammates in the Bay Area, who wanted to hear all about my experience. One of my crew members suggested volunteering at the following year’s event and I enthusiastically agreed. However, this person had so many things going on in 2023, that she backed out. She printed me a copy of her family’s Excel spreadsheet, filled with activities for nearly every week in the year, including leisurely travel. This behavior and spending is typical of a Bay Area multi-millionaire or billionaire's lifestyle. I’ve always been a nonjudgmental friend and although I shared my support, inside it made me exhausted to read it - ha! I then switched my plans to go solo, as I could also do some triathlon training, until my ex suggested the whole family go and combine the trip with an East Coast event.

Coordinating my entire family to attend the 2023 Ultraman event was no easy feat, especially after realizing my son's passport had recently expired the evening before our trip departure! This prompted a creative, adaptive border crossing the following day. In addition, the cost to 'volunteer' in terms of time, money and loss of my own training time for Ultraman Worlds, which I was invited to be at the 2023 starting line, later in the year, was immense. However, the race organization was lacking in volunteers and gave us all jobs, including my son as 'fun police' and we were all happy to help at that point. They sure did enjoy that explanation of his job title as we drove through the Canadian border! When the Canada Border Services agent asked if we were getting paid for race volunteering, I laughed! Quite the opposite actually.. it was costing us! I spent time really getting to know everyone involved with the event that summer, and was still under the false impression of 'ohana' sold by the organization, I later realized.

In hindsight, it was probably a clue about the quality of these people, when most didn't even mention "Happy Birthday" to me, which occurred on this trip. Instead, on my birthday, I volunteered as an on-course pacer on Day 3 (check out my Instagram "ultraheidi" for pics.) I wasn't expecting a big celebration (as the primary focus of this day, to me, was about the athlete's participation and finishes), but a verbal happy birthday or cake with our post-race champagne (a new tradition the race organizers declared that year) would have been nice! Right?

A mere 3 weeks later, after experiencing a PTSD flare-up, I still believed I could make it to the Ultraman Worlds start line, but after a tumultuous period and forced hospitalization occurring in September of 2023, I became acutely aware that my priorities would have to greatly shift. I needed to establish an independent residence, take care of my health, divorce my husband and figure out custody, etc.

Despite, what I was going through I still tried to gift transfer my already paid-for Hawaii accommodations to another athlete. I let the race organizers, Sheryl & Dave Cobb, know I wasn't going to make it, to which they said "OK, we'll see you next year." and I mentally filed this information away. Races quickly lose importance during these types of times in one's life.

In September of 2024, I reached out to Sheryl and Dave politely requesting a race refund (you'd think understandable at this point, given I had been living in my car, selling my race bike for food & shelter?), but no - against policy. 

Listen, I understand policies, but I also understand dire exceptions. In my book, they play too dirty for me to ever engage with this organization again. I do think if Jane Bockus (who ran operations for almost two decades prior) were sill in charge, things would be different! This kind woman took off my cycling shoes after Day 2 in Canada and I will never forget it! We became pen pals after, as I initially sent her a email, expressing gratitude for her volunteer time in Canada. During our emails exchanged in the fall of 2023, I learned all about her fun history, including how she met her husband and her years flying, employed with Pan Am, as a stewardess.

It feels funny to publicly share this information on one level, as I used to read the behind the scenes drama in other publications featuring Ultraman, but let me tell you, these people deserve to be called out. They do not live within the Ultraman ethos of 'ohana, kokua & aloha', rather quite the opposite. And they allow blood doping athletes in! While I highly cherish my own Ultraman finish and respect others’ participation and finishes, I’m simply done with BS people and shady business practices. In a world dominated by big business, it was disappointing to see this type of behavior from a small organization I truly believed in for many years.

So, friends, I do ask you - where do you want to spend your dollars? Voting with your dollars & more importantly with life’s most precious asset, your time, and mindful participation, in this capitalistic economy, certainly can make a difference. Let’s make it positive, this time around.

With Aloha,

Heidi