Rich Dirmantas
Rich is from Seattle, WA, but grew up and currently resides in Phoenix, AZ, where he also graduated from Arizona State University. He decided to get into endurance sports to get in shape. He also loves tennis and golf, which he grew up playing, as wel as baseball. Rich feels like his specialty is sprint distance triathlons. He has no particular favorite race, because he loves racing and feels honored to race in any event he enters. However, he does love competing in the mud run series races, because they are dirty and just plain old fun!
Rich's worst race experience happened at Nathan's Triathlon in Tempe, AZ, where he had not one, but two flat tires on the bike course. He ran out of spare tubes and had to call it a day! Rich races for Tribe Multisport in Scottsdale, AZ. His best piece of advice to new racers is to drink plenty of water. Rich races for the love of the sport. His pre-race ritual is to have an egg mcmuffin with his wife Karleen. I'm not sure how they do that. I think I would get sick within the first 10 minutes of a race if I had that for breakfast! Rich prefers to train alone, rather than in a group and describes his typical weekly mileage as, "too much!".
Rich is a great guy and a good friend. He is always laughing and in great spirits. He's also the best chearleader I've ever seen. If you've been to Ironman Arizona and seen him cheering on his wife Karleen, you'd know exactly what I mean. I look forward to racing with Rich every season. Cheers!
