IronOnline Bash 01

Saturday, July 14, 2001

God was smiling on us on bar-b-que day. Weather-wise, it was possibly the nicest Santa Cruz day in my memory. Mid-70s, bright blue sky with an occasional light breeze. The day before was overcast for a few hours and the day after was overcast and dreary all day. Saturday from the moment I arrived was simply gorgeous under the Redwood canopy and on the grassy field next to our party site.

Things were mellow when I got to the gym a bit before 8. Dr. Ken was there trying to distract himself from an early morning migraine. I unloaded the bbq wood from the back of my truck (and you'll remember I've been practicing my wood hauling all winter) while waiting for the bbq team of Captain Dan from the Garage Gym crew and our pal Ryan from the World Gym staff. John Boley and sons soon grabbed the tape guns and began covering all the tables; Ryan and Dan prepared the fire pits, and we all hung around drinking the gym's fabulous Outland Java Roasting coffee.

The park is about a block from the gym, so it's easy to wander back and forth to check the happenings, which is how I spent the first few hours of Saturday. 'Round about 10-10:15 the place was starting to fill up with IOLers mostly meeting for the first time. 10:30 the photographer from the local paper arrived to take a picture of Dave, Dr. Ken, Henrik and Og... only Dave's not here. What else is new? Dave's a last minute kinda guy, you see. Always has been as far as I can tell, and I'm told you can't teach an old dog new tricks, although I have seen him using a laptop instead of those old #2s, so I'm considering a try at the tardiness thing.

Bill Lovejoy, the photographer (who just happens to be a gym member), understands this about Dave. He's easy-going, but on his way to a sailboat to take photos of a big regatta, so takes a few shots of the trio sans Dave and is off to the races.

At a few minutes to 11:00 Dave arrives, right on his schedule. At 11:05 his whistle pierces the air, he hollers, "Let's shift down this way," and the seminar begins. Dave thanks everyone for coming (no, really! We all chuckle at him) and with a story of 23 squats with 405 at 165ish bodyweight, introduces Ken Leistner. East Coast Kenny immediately kicks in with a couple of his favorite Draper stories -- Ken and his training partner, Jack, and Dave, Leroy Colbert, Bill Pearl and more... perhaps someone can embellish on the storytelling but, alas, I can't.

They talk a few minutes before the first question comes in -- from John O, and as you can imagine knowing John O, it's a complicated one. As I'm heading out the door to check on the food arrangements, I hear Dave say, "And you want us to answer that?" and Ken say, "That's an easy one." I'm laughing as I trot back to bbq-land.

I'm later to discover that after Dave answers, then Ken, Dave sees his pal, Mike Nichols, who's a doctor of the medical type -- one who's active in longevity, fitness and wellness. Mike apparently has something to add to their comments, and, completely unplanned, this begins their three-way seminar. Throughout the morning, each question gets a three-sided answer from Dave's bodybuilding point of view, Dr. Ken's strength training point and Dr. Mike's medical side. I missed this segment entirely, but I'm told that the three agreed on nearly everything and the audience was surprised by this, although the guys, I'm sure, were not.

By this time we've picked up the meat from the butcher (70 pounds of tri-tip roast, 40 pounds of chicken leg and thigh combos and 30 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts), the ice has been delivered and at this very moment, Sam from Marianne's Ice Cream is hooking up a freezer full of his handmade award-winning delight. The wood's burning and it's time to get the food from Erik's Deli's walk-in fridge because we need the meat marinade.

No go. Erik's in the seminar and he ain't budging! I check back in with him a couple of times, but this guy's riveted! We're not getting that food until he's good and ready. Just a few more minutes, he tells me. Luckily we're in no rush this morning.

On my third trip through the gym, I look to where I already know that Erik's sitting and over his shoulder I see a guy I think I recognize. The gym's full of guys and gals I recognize, so big deal, right? This guy's near the sun-filled back door and so is in a silhouette. I look again, but this time I see his wife, Kristen, so I'm sure. It's Ed Corney, and it's a total surprise! We had no idea they were coming, and as it later turned out, that was their plan. I know that Dave can't see him in the silhouette, and since he's not expecting him, wouldn't be looking for him either.

On my next pass through the gym I go in the back door and stand near Ed and Kristen. Dave sees me, then Ken and I point to Ed. Ken's already seen him, I think, or recognizes him instantly and immediately goes into his introduction of "the guy who invented modern-day posing," while Dave comes over and gives Ed a big hug and the crowd goes wild with applause!

Eventually we con Erik into getting our food out of captivity (it's only a block away and he's back soaking up the seminar within ten minutes, for heaven's sake!) and start getting serious about our food prep. The flames are roaring and Kit's trying to clean the grill and getting singed. (We're cool, though. Dan's a fire captain, you'll remember.) The beans are bubbling, the tomatoes have been added to the salads; the meats are marinating and Stella's federal-expressed cookies are still safely under wraps.

The seminar went on for between two and three hours and when I look up and see a flood of people flowing out the gym door, we're nearly ready -- 10-15 minutes to food. Perfect. Accidental, but perfect just the same. With a few extra hands we arrange the food, plates and cutlery, the meat starts coming off the grill and our pal Jamal and our partner John get to cutting. Food's on!

Corey had hauled his fresh-caught salmon from Alaska via American Airlines for the feast and the guys bar-b-qued it to perfection using some leftover-from-bread garlic butter. Whoa... it looked yummy, but someone else will have to report because it was long gone by the time I got to the food line. Dave and Crista from Dave's Albacore Tuna brought another one later in the afternoon, and that one got munched pretty quickly, too.

Hours of eating and conversation pass. I counted 130 people in the seminar and *many* people arrived after that, so our best guess is 200 people ate that afternoon. I heard no complaints and a few people (including Erik, whom you may remember is a deli-chain owner) asked for recipes. Actually, I heard later that the meat wasn't rare enough for Dr. Ken and he doesn't eat chicken or fish, but I really think that was an excuse for him to load up on the ice cream. Marianne's is pretty good, you know.

We chowed our way through nearly all the protein and just a fraction of the carbs. I don't know at this point if that's a comment about the bad estimation of yours truly or a comment on an IronOnline protein frenzy. The ice cream guy got back for his freezer around 6; the containers were still two-thirds full. I really don't think he understood my explanation: No, really. Your ice cream's excellent! We loved it!

Clean up was fast, photo's still snapping. Back at the gym we haul the deck table and chairs back out and hang around talking, the last of us, until Alba wants to lock the doors at 8. They say the last hour's the finest and in the sweet mellowness of our big day, I'd have to agree.

I drop Doc back off at his hotel room and head off 10 miles down the road to a quick good-bye dinner at Carpo's, our favorite burger joint, with Dave, Kenny and a training client of his, Bruce, who's extended his business trip from the east coast to join us. We talk about how thing's went and how happy Dave and Ken were that Mike Nichols was at the seminar and kicked in by thirds. Dave tells me that after 30-plus years of doing seminars, today's was the best he's participated in, and we're a very happy team of three.

Dr. Ken's leaving the next morning, so this will be good-bye. We're exhausted (and both he and Mike Nichols have had hidden migraines all day), but we're stalling. None of us want this to end, and we don't want to say good-bye. It looks like closing time at the restaurant and we're still straggling. Tears are running down my face as I say farewell to Kenny -- we've known each other via email for a couple of years but we've only met a few days ago. Both Dave and I feel like we've know him a lifetime and miss him already.

Brothers Iron, Sisters Steel. That's what it is, and that's what we all are.

Laree

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