500 Cats

Grit grows on trees at IRONMAN. Apparently.

From the pool deck in Kona, we sit down with Ben O’Donnell, who went from 28 days in the ICU with COVID to racing IRONMAN again — and is now taking on the World Championship. Then our old friend Mike Reilly joins us to talk finish lines, inspiration, retirement, and what he misses about being the Voice of IRONMAN.  

Somewhere in there, Mike also attempts to explain what BCC does. Apparently, we make banners.

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500 Cats is back! This time, from Kona.

We catch up on a summer of event chaos and ask a surprisingly difficult question: What does BCC actually do? So we enlist Ryan Lobato, Kenny Withrow, and Bob Babbitt to help figure it out. Bob responds by taking us on an unexpected and excellent trip through the history of triathlon.

Turns out, nobody really knows what we do. But apparently we’re pretty good at it.

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If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on social for more behind-the-scenes content and updates on future episodes!

After a six-month hiatus, the 500 Cats crew is back in the studio! It turns out all it took to get us rolling again was a handful of people at IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder demanding to know where we went. 

In this episode, we look back at a wild, jam-packed production season. We break down the logistical chaos of live broadcasting Sea Otter, racing between two major events separated by only 48 hours, and debuting the brand-new LiveU LU900 backpacks at the IRONMAN North American Championship in Texas. 

We also recount the absolute epic that was Life Time Grand Prix Unbound in Emporia, Kansas—where a peloton exploded into "peanut butter mud," the heli captured pure athletic sacrifice, and a massive storm forced us to rely entirely on battery power to keep streaming the age-group finish line.

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In this episode of 500 Cats, the team takes a breather during the rare "event off-season" to reflect on a massive year of production. While they usually spend this time skiing, the unusually warm weather has them in the office focused on inventory, redesigning travel applications, and catching up on much-needed sleep.

The crew reveals the results of a company-wide vote on their Top 5 Favorite Events from the past year. From the sheer technical complexity of a massive ranch-based production to the high-altitude challenges of Colorado's most iconic bike race, they break down what made these shows successful—and what they learned when things didn't go perfectly.

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If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on social for more behind-the-scenes content and updates on future episodes!

In Episode 32, we kick things off with a recap of the Louisville Turkey Trot, where the team volunteered and filmed to support the Community Food Share. But the warm fuzzy feelings end there as we dive into the absolute disaster that was our trip to Qatar.

What was supposed to be a standard broadcast installation turned into a travel nightmare. We recount the journey from hell, featuring a passenger vaping in the bathroom, a "cattle car" flight experience, and a vomiting incident in the aisle.

Things didn't improve upon landing. After navigating abandoned cables from the World Cup, we were promptly fired by the TV station before we even plugged in at the studio.

In this episode:

• The Flight from Hell: Dealing with entitled passengers, the "assistant to the assistant," and taking a blind man to the lavatory.
• The Job That Wasn't: How we flew halfway across the world only to be told "we won't need your graphics" less than an hour after arriving.
• Airport Security Drama: Marcus gets flagged for hours over a pair of snips and a tool bag.
• Duty-Free Dreams: Window shopping for McLarens and Sony cameras at the Doha airport.
• Lessons Learned: Why you should always have a production doc and a deposit before flying 7,000 miles.

Join us as we explain how we accidentally circumnavigated the globe in three days  just to come home with nothing but a story.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Community Food Share - https://communityfoodshare.org/
• The Compton Museum - https://www.comptonmuseum.org/

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If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on social for more behind-the-scenes content and updates on future episodes!

When live event professionals try to leave the country and the airlines say, “Absolutely not.”

In this episode of 500 Cats, Dave and Marcus attempt to fly to Qatar for the Samla 200, only to have their flight canceled on the train to the gate and rebooked into a 42-hour, five-airport hostage situation. Meanwhile, we still have bags that are emotionally recovering from a previous trip to Spain, where $2,000 in luggage fees bought them a 10-day delay and some very unintentionally “just-in-time” broadcast gear.

Along the way they roast out-of-office auto-responders (again), relive the chaos and glory of IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Marbella and the final IRONMAN Arizona, survive sprinklers and sand at two Miami events, nerd out over GPS-in-3D maps and fancy Sennheiser mics, and debut their new hit: “Auto Responder Blues.” It’s travel disaster, tech gossip, endurance sports, and petty email rage–all cruising at 30,000 feet of mild turbulence.

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The BCC Live crew recaps nine wild events—from Ironman Kona to the LT Games in Minneapolis and Ironman Florida. Hear behind-the-scenes chaos, broadcast hacks, and heartfelt moments with the One Percent Better team. Tape, travel, tech, and teamwork—this is life on the road doing what we love.

Thanks for tuning in to 500 Cats!

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on social for more behind-the-scenes content and updates on future episodes!

The 500 Cats crew takes the show to Chattanooga, Tennessee, during IRONMAN Chattanooga. Joined by race director Brian Myrick, volunteer director Alex High, regional director Ryan Richards, and athlete-turned-staffer Daniel Allemond, this episode dives into the heart of what makes the event business special: community, dedication, and the people behind the scenes. From stories of leadership and high expectations to inspiring tales of perseverance through cancer, the conversations capture the passion, grit, and friendships that fuel endurance events.

Thanks for tuning in to 500 Cats!

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on social for more behind-the-scenes content and updates on future episodes!

Welcome to Episode 28! The Backwards Episode. We're giving you a rundown of all the events we've done since our last episode, but in reverse order. Why? Literally no reason! Come along the journey with us as we explore the ups and downs of the last few weeks and go yet again into our old standby of complaining about negative comments. But seriously, why do people have to be so negative? It's great to have you all on this journey with us, we hope you enjoy! But if you don't, you don't have to leave a comment. ;)

Also featuring an interview with Louie Cortese of Nitro Circus! Find Louie on Instagram @louie.cortese (https://www.instagram.com/louie.cortese?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MWoyeHExZ2E0Mm5udQ==)

Thanks for tuning in to 500 Cats!

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on social for more behind-the-scenes content and updates on future episodes!

Welcome to Episode 27! We start by airing our grievances about "the least successful project" we've ever been a part of. It involves broken hardware, gross incompetence from Dell, and a $5,000 TV that we had to "eat".

Then, we get into the main event: a recap of Gravel Worlds. We cover how a last-minute rainstorm turned a bike race into a "peanut butter mud" mess and the best footage we’ve ever seen of cyclists getting stuck. We also discuss what makes the Gravel Worlds broadcast different from other events, the importance of the "regular" athlete, and why we don't get as many negative comments at that race. Join us for stories of our team's travels, our newly rewired studio, and the legendary tale of how we got into a full IRONMAN race after a single text message.

Thanks for tuning in to 500 Cats!

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on social for more behind-the-scenes content and updates on future episodes!