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Wilmore vs. Hurricane Wilma |
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Written by Jill Theobald
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Sunday, 13 November 2005 |
Bill Wilmore vs. Wilma or How to Train in a Hurricane
 Bill Wilmore stays focused on the NPC Nationals despite Hurricane Wilma. |
Bill was focusing on his diet and training for the NPC Nationals in his hometown of Hollywood, Florida. Then Hurricane Wilma came. As the record-tying 21 st named storm of the 2005 season, Wilma swept across south Florida on Monday, October 24, leaving a trail of destruction and chaos that we are becoming too familiar with as the latest active hurricane season comes down to its final weeks. Not wanting to leave one of its stars to battle the post-hurricane mess, Jay Hammett, Road to the Pros creator, tried to contact Bill for two days before cellular service came back up in the Miami – Fort Lauderdale area. Bill had gone to a friend’s condo to ride out the storm. Though hurricanes are terrifying to experience, it is the chaotic weeks of aftermath that try the very fiber of these already storm weary Floridians. Bill weighed his options both for keeping up with his training for the upcoming Nationals competition and for just simple survival along with millions of other people with storm damage, no power and scarce gasoline. Over the course of those two days since the storm, Bill was able to get into his gym to train and did cardio at night by flashlight. He was considering trying to make it to Daytona to stay with friends if he had enough gas to drive up to north Florida, when Road to the Pros offered to bring him up to Atlanta to stay if and until the situation improved in Florida. After consulting Jim Manion, president of the NPC and his sponsors, Shawn Ray and Vyotech, Bill decided to head north. On Wednesday afternoon, with Bill’s own car suffering blown out tires from the storm, a friend, Danielle Hollenshae, the 2005 NPC Figure Nationals winner, got him up to West Palm Beach, the only functioning airport in south Florida and on one of the few flights getting out of the area. Landing in Atlanta, Road to the Pros staff picked up Bill and put him up in a hotel with kitchenette, a Foreman grill and a supply of chicken. Since then, Bill has been eating, sleeping and training for the Nationals. With the Florida utility services predicting twenty days up to a month to recover power for everyone, the situation in south Florida is slowly improving, getting the debris and damaged cleaned up, but gas remains a problem. Four hour lines to get a tank of gas are affecting people’s patience and ability to get back to normal life. About his situation, Bill noted, “You definitely count your blessings. The storm is bad enough to worry about. It has made life more difficult but for the most part all of my friends are safe and that’s the main thing.” Depending on how the recovery efforts progress in Florida, Bill isn’t sure when he will return or if he will just stay in Atlanta until the Nationals competition on November 18. For now he just wants to stay focused on the show. Road to the Pros (www.roadtothepros.com), a production of Jay Hammett and Hardbody Entertainment, LLC, has been following some of the top amateur athletes during the last weeks of preparation for the 2005 NPC National Bodybuilding and Fitness Championships. Said Mr. Hammett, “Road to the Pros stands behind this sport, and to do that we need to stand behind the individual athletes.”
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