The Journey to a Texas Ironman

Hi Everyone!

This Saturday, October 9th, triathletes from around the globe will be competing in the Ford IronMan World Championships. It’s the triathete's superbowl with ingredients of the world series sprinkled with a taste of Wimbledon topped off with a healthy serving of World Cup dashed with NBA finals. I cannot wait to catch the live coverage online. Most importantly, I will be following my coach who will compete in the championship. What an amazing thing to be at the “big one” out in Kona, Hawaii.

So how did IronMan begin? Basically, a group of local athletes talked about an endurance triathlon by combining swim, bike and run. John Collins suggested to combine the three events but with a catch to complete all three disciplines in one day. Later that evening, Collins announced that whoever finishes first will be called the IronMan. From that day forward, IronMan has grown to mulitiple distances with races worldwide. Of course, the World Championships are right where the race began in beautiful Kona.

Reading data from IronMan.com, I found some interesting factoids about this year’s race. Check this out:
*By gender, the break down of competitors are Women with 27.5% and Men with 72.4% participation.
*The highest percentage for an age group is Men 40-44, the least percentage is men age 80 and above.
*The country with the most participants is the U.S. with Germany in second place. There were many countries listed as .1% participation but hey, at least there is representation!
*There are over 5,000 volunteers with many working beyond the 17 hour race cutoff.
*Since you have 17 hours to complete the race, if you are on the course running in the dark, you must wear reflective tape and run in single file. Kona does not have many lighted highways.
*Kona is proud of their graffiti free highway. Competitor friends and family may not mark the highways with anything but colored chalk.
*As with all WTC triathlon events, public nudity is thankfully a big no-no.

As I continued to read more and more about the race, I tripped across one link on the website and I was immediately intrigued. Did you know there is also a lottery for those who are unable to qualify? That sure put a smile on my face. A total of 1800 spots will be granted for the 2011 race. Now think about that. How cool would that to be selected to be a part of the biggest IronMan in the world? Okay, I will fess up, the site is bookmarked with thoughts of attempting for 2012 since I sort of have a race in 2011 already booked. I figured I would spring this on my coach when she gets back from her race. More on that conversation in future blogs. ;)

Have a great weekend everyone, train safe and be sure to take time for yourself.

Talk to ya next week!
Janet