Categorized | Volunteering

Ironmanlife: Iron Blazeman … The Song

(Kevin Mackinnon learns about a new music project to raise money for the Blazeman Foundation)

The headliners: Leanda Cave, Chrissie Wellington, Andy Potts, Matt Reid, Jasmine Oeinck (a short course racer from the U.S.), Bryan Rhodes, Scott Tinley, Mike Reilly (yes, that Mike Reilly, the voice of Ironman), Mike Doane (Potts’ coach). Could be a panel set to speak at the expo in Kona in a couple of weeks. Or it could be the makings of a new hard rock group.

Yeah, right, you’re saying. Care to put some money on that? I’m going to bet that by Christmas you’ll be singing along with your favorite pro to the tune of a new song called “Iron Blazeman.” Add hard rockers Rick Allen from Def Leppard and Ampage’s Mark and Pamela Mason and this should be quite the tune.

Chrissie, Andy and Leanda might all be world champions, but they’re also good sports and they’re all helping Mark Mason raise money for the Blazeman foundation through a song that he wrote last year when he competed in Kona. He’s been getting the who’s who of pro triathlete singers all in studio to sing parts of the song, which should be available by Christmas.

It’s such a cool story it almost overshadow’s Mason’s own story, which is every bit as impressive. Inspired by Steve Prefontaine, Mason became one of the best runners for his age in California when he was growing up. That was before he became the lead singer in a hard rock group called Ampage at 16.

The next 25 years of his life were spent, well, pretty much the way you’d anticipate someone involved in a hard rock band touring the world might spend their lives. He smoked, he drank … he certainly didn’t exercise.

“You gotta understand, I spent 25 years of my life living in studios and tour buses,” he says. “The only exercise I ever got was tuning my guitar.”

One day Mason decided he wanted to try and run a mile as fast as he did when he was a kid – 5:27. He could barely get a 12-minute mile done. That jolted him back into a fitness mentality.

First came some runs, then he signed himself up for the lottery for the Escape from Alcatraz race. He got in – which was great except for one small problem – he couldn’t swim and he didn’t have a bike.

Mason isn’t the kind of guy who does anything halfway – fast forward a few years and he’s being coached by Mike Doane (Potts’ coach) and racing with the world’s best in Kona. He’s written a song called “Ironman Sam” to celebrate his Kona appearance and the video features footage of Mason racing on the Big Island mixed in with Ampage performing on stage.

“I wrote “Ironman Sam” to celebrate my racing in the Ironman World Championship,” says Mason. “It was one of the greatest weeks of my life training and competing in Kona. The song got a lot of attention and played a lot by radio in Hawaii that week and I donated ALL the money from CD sales to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s (my dad had the disease). I actually did the race with some of his ashes in a water tight baggie taped to my chest.”

While in Kona Mason met Leanda Cave, an avid supporter of the Blazeman Foundation, which got him thinking. He rewrote the song, convinced Cave that she really wanted to become a rock star, not a potential Kona champion … and the rest was history.

“We decided to put together a little Ironman band of athletes to sing different lines of the verses and everyone joining in on the chorus. Kinda like “we are the world”. After Leanda cave came second at the Vineman Ironman 70.3 (I think I came in 72nd in my division, but probably the fastest rock singer) Leanda drove four hours to my recording studio in Point Arena to sing her vocals on the song, then drove four hours home. It just started snowballing from there.”

All along the way Mason is shooting video of the whole process, which will no-doubt be part of the upcoming music video. All the money raised from the song will go to the Blazeman Foundation.

I’m hoping that all these pros end up on the podium together at the awards ceremony in Kona – hopefully I can score a Karaoke track and get them to sing. I’m guessing, though, that the dance moves might be a bit limited. That said, every time I’ve seen Chrissie win an Ironman, she’s been pretty bouncy at the finish line later that night. It could make for another way to compete – who can sing and dance at the awards on top of performing on the Queen K.

Find out more about Mark Mason on his website at www.markmasontri.com

Find out more about the Blazeman foundation at www.waronals.com

Reach Kevin Mackinnon at kevin@ironman.com

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