Ironman Triathlon

The Ironman Triathlon is a triathlon event performed over the following distances:

3.85 km (2.393 mi) swim
180 km (111.871 mi) bike
42.195 km (26.224 mi) run

The original, and premier version of this competition is held on a Saturday every October on the Kona coast of Hawaii's "Big Island". The original Ironman was held on Oahu in February 1978-1980 until, the then owner and race director, Valerie Silk moved it to the Big Island in 1981. In 1982 she moved the race date from February to October; thus, there were two Ironman races in Kona that year.

In addition to the Hawaiian event, Ironman triathlons are held throughout the world, many of which allow athletes to qualify for "Ironman Triathlon World Championships" in Kailua-Kona. There is also the Half Ironman Triathlon, which has the same events, but exactly half the distances for each.

In 2002 there were sixteen Ironman races throughout the world. These included races such as Ironman Canada (held at Penticton, British Columbia), Ironman Australia (held at Forster-Tuncurry in New South Wales), Ironman New Zealand (held at Lake Taupo), Ironman Lanzarote (held in the Canary Islands in Spain), Ironman Germany (held near Frankfurt), Ironman Austria (held in Klagenfurt) as well as races in Korea, Japan, Malaysia, South Africa, Brazil and three other locations in the United States.

Table of contents

1 History
2 Today
3 External links

History

The Ironman was the first major competition of its kind.

In 1978 three US Marine soldiers stationed in Hawaii participated in a running race. During the awards ceremony they discussed which athlete would be more fit. One of the Marines, Navy Commander John Collins, suggests that it should be settled through a combination race between three existing competitions: the Waikiki Roughwater Swim (3.85 km), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (180 km, originally a two-day event) and the Honolulu Marathon (42.195 km). Collins came up with the title "Ironman" to apply to the one finishing first. Of the fifteen men to start off the in early morning on February 18th, 1978, twelve completed the race and the world's first Ironman, Gordon Haller, completed in 11 hours, 46 minutes, and 58 seconds.

With no further marketing efforts, the race gathered as many as fifty athletes the following year. The race, however, was postponed a day because of bad weather conditions--only fifteen competitors started off the race Sunday morning. San Diego's Tom Warren, age thirty-five, won in 11 hours, 15 minutes, and 56 seconds. Lyn Lemaire, a championship cyclist from Boston, placed sixth overall and became the first "Ironwoman."

Collins planned on changing the race into a relay event to draw more participants, but Sports Illustrated's journalist Barry McDermott, in the area to cover a golf tournament, discovered the race and wrote a ten-page account of it. During the following year hundreds of curious participants contacted Collins.

Today

The Ironman format remains unchanged and the Hawaiian Ironman is still regarded as the most important triathlon event worldwide. For the 25th anniversary on October 18, 2003, nearly 1500 athletes have been enlisted, many of which had to go through qualification competitions (and some through a lottery).

The Ironman Triathlon is a gruelling event that pushes its participants to the limits of endurance. Some, however, find the prescribed distances fall short of these limits. Hence, events such as the double Ironman triathlon have come about. Double is not, however, the most extreme form: there are in fact triple, quadruple, quintuple, deca and "15 x" events that are literally multiples of the original Ironman triathlon distance.