Lance at 15!

A week or so later, as I delivered the shoes, Lance, his Dad Terry, Linda and I hit it off pretty well. At that stage in his life, everything was very black or white to Lance. He either loved you or he hated you. I guess he loved me. Linda, Lance's mom was always what I would call "distant friendly" to me, but always very professional and stayed true to her word to me. (Shortly, during this time, Lance's 10th grade year, within about 6 months the infamous Terry was moving out and later divorced Linda).

Soon, within 2 or 3 weeks, I had not only suited-up Lance's feet with some new running duds, but somehow we connected and I had worked my way into the good graces of Mom. Due to my contacts with Avia, and the fact that Lance expressed interest in doing some adult triathlon races, I was soon becoming a full service sports agent, PR director, limo driver, and bodyguard. We did not realize it but we had just started a business. We all sat down to strategize on potential sponsors, races, monies to be won and all that kind of stuff. Soon, we even had a official race schedule and sponsor budget. Immediately, Lance and I were eating lunch or dinner 2 to 3 times a week, driving to the pool together, meeting at the house for weekly meetings, and spending many weekend driving to races in Dallas-Ft worth area, and eventually Tulsa, East Texas and a few other obscure places in and about the Metro-plex. One of our first of the "big" events was the Hillcrest Tulsa Triathlon. Lance was still 15 when he raced and won at Tulsa!(see videos: Tulsa 1, Tulsa 2, Tulsa 3, Tulsa 4 )

It was not until the following year 1987, after Lance's breakout performance at President's Triathlon against one of the best fields ever assembled, that I began helping Lance with bigger deals and bigger trips. Included in those "bigger trips" were exotic locales such as Bermuda, St Croix,V.I. and Caracas ,Venezuela. Those eventually included a free Kestrel bicycle, free wetsuit, free airfare, and even some appearance fees guaranteed against prize winnings. As the publicity spread Dallas Channel 4 sports did a nice story (see videos: Video 1, Video 2 ) and a few months later ESPN's Chris Fowler , now famous from ESPN's College Football Game Day came out and did a story on Lance, D magazine, Ironkids race series honored the former champ, Texas SportsPulse magazine did a cover shot (with me too in the zebra tights), and Triathlon Magazine hotshot.

Over the high school years, Lance and I traveled together to more than 25 out of town/sleep-over triathlon races (St. Croix twice, Tulsa twice, LA, Houston, Miami twice, and nearly 8-10 others in Texas and Oklahoma). More often than not, never paying a single cent for travel, hotels, rental cars or entry fees.

Once Lance started winning top cash prizes, he started getting magazine covers, ESPN reports and a lot of interest from local, regional, and national media. I panicked, became somewhat overwhelmed and soon recommend that Lance and his mom sign up with a "real" sports marketing agency. Again, from my work with Avia, I knew some NBA players that we sponsored. In turn I knew their agents. We ran this by one group in particular, Advantage Marketing Group, and their Chairman Werner Scott. Mr. Scott, who represented Rolando Blackman, Everson Walls, Tony Dorsett and many other sports celebrities. Mr. Scott was so impressed by Lance (or maybe he was looking for an excuse for a vacation) that in 1987 he flew out and meets us in St. Croix, Virgin Islands to first hand watch a real big-time triathlon. He later signed Lance to a 1-yr contract to exclusively marketing his name for sponsors. I remained on as the day-to-day "manager" as I am referred to in ESPN clip (see videos: ESPN 1, ESPN 2 ) . I became more of a traveling secretary, event negotiator and road manager/security guard. Until Lance's senior year's successful triathlon conclusion in Boca Raton with the 1988 World Triathlon Sprint Championships, I was very much apart of the day-to-day routine. After that event, Lance and I took some time off, He had outgrown my representation, and he focused on trying to get graduated and started looking towards cycling as career after high school.

We stayed in close contact for his first couple of years as a pro cyclist. He was based mostly in California and Austin racing for the Subaru/Montgomery Team and only raced abroad on a few occasions. In 1990 we were to have one very odd final triathlon experience together. Lance had just traveled to Holland for the some big Dutch pro race. He called me from Holland and said he thought he would be in the Plano the following weekend, which happened to be the time of my TRI-GUY's Stonebridge Triathlon in McKinney. He said he wanted to do my race! As I recall, Lance returned to Plano on a Thursday, came out and road the McKinney bike course with some of my friends, including local dentist Mike Abernathy, David Hartwig and others that same day (see doc) . Then on Sunday, he raced and won the triathlon. Lance bested some of the top triathletes from a 7 state region. The odd thing about it was not that he won, but that he won having not trained for running or swimming in the prior 18 months! By the way he rode the hilly 22 miles with 4 u-turns in 45 minutes and change or about 29 MPH. Lance was 19 then. Weeks later, I remembering Lance telling me that the day after day he had suffered through the five mile run and his legs were "the most sore" they had ever been. So much so that he had to cancel his pro bike race the following weekend.

Some other tidbits about Lance …

• When Lance was still 15, his parents bought him a used Fiat Spider (see videos: Video 1 ) . That car needed about $ 1,200 work to make it drivable. It finally did get fixed thru his winning from triathlon prizes in Tulsa and Boca Raton the summer prior to his 16th birthday. The car did not last too long and was soon replaced by a speedy white Chevy Camero Z-28 (thanks to The Richardson Bike Mart's Jim Hoyt).
• With my urging, Lances parents petitioned the UIL ( UIL 1, UIL 2, UIL 3, UIL 4 ) for a rules eligibility clarification. Lance was winning money in triathlons, but still wanted to run track at Plano East. Could he still do that, and still be an amateur? I helped the family write a note to the University Interscholastic League. They now have a Lance Armstrong rule that states something to the effect that if you race pro and accept money in "longer than and certain distance" ..so a high school kid/pro triathlete can STILL remain an amateur in swimming, track and cross country.
• One of the first 10 Kestrel Bikes. Lance was fortunate to get one of the first ever Kestrel carbon fiber super-lightweight racing bikes. He rode it in a few races but lost his deal when the ESPN cameras caught him slinging his bike across 4 lanes of traffic into a ditch after a getting flat tire in the Miami triathlon. After seeing his temper, the sponsor did not feel Lance respected the gift nor was any longer worthy of the sponsorship.
• Sponsored by the Princess Hotel to race in Bermuda at age 16. I am not sure how he did it? But, Lance (not me) did talk his way into getting the owner of the Bermuda's Princess Hotel to fly him in and put him up for 4 days for the big Bermuda triathlon.
• The summer between 11th and 12 grades Lance stayed most of the summer in the San Diego suburbs of Encinitas and Cardiff living with a Medical School student we knew from Dallas. He cycled daily with the top pro riders and triathletes and swam with the famed UCSD in Del Mar, the masters swim group featuring Scott Tinley, Mark Allen, Scott Molina and most all of the triathlon notables.

Hope you enjoyed reliving the journey with me!