Tired Today=1, Tired Saturday… Thousands!

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Tired Today=1, Tired Saturday… Thousands! was Originally Posted on October 14, 2005 by

Today I was tired, but nothing compared to the rolls on Saturday when thousands of athletes compete in the 2005 Ironman competition here in Kona.

Before I begin, let me say that after moving some furniture and running around town looking for a dishwasher, I found myself in a Jacuzzi with a number of men and women from Japan. Most of them are participating in Saturday’s race and the gentleman next to me appears to be an Olympic athlete from Japan. The race seems to bring out the best of the best :-) Here they will be running, swimming and bicycling around some inhospitable parts of the island, and I’m racing around in my truck (sometimes with the air conditioner running). I feel so bad about that!

From their website at http://vnews.ironmanlive.com/ here is how it started and a bit about the race

1978

DURING THE AWARDS CEREMONY FOR A HAWAII RUNNING RACE, A DEBATE ENSUES AMONG COMPETITORS ABOUT WHO IS MORE FIT — SWIMMERS, RUNNERS OR OTHER ATHLETES. ONE OF THE PARTICIPANTS, NAVY COMMANDER JOHN COLLINS AND HIS WIFE JUDY, DREAM UP A RACE TO SETTLE THE ARGUMENT. THEY PROPOSE COMBINING THREE EXISTING RACES TOGETHER, TO BE COMPLETED IN SUCCESSION: THE WAIKIKI ROUGHWATER SWIM (2.4 MILES), THE AROUND-OAHU BIKE RACE (112 MILES, ORIGINALLY A TWO-DAY EVENT) AND THE HONOLULU MARATHON (26.2 MILES). “WHOEVER FINISHES FIRST WE’LL CALL THE IRONMAN,” SAID COLLINS. FIFTEEN MEN PARTICIPATE IN THE INITIAL EVENT HELD ON FEBRUARY 18; 12 COMPLETE THE RACE, LED BY THE FIRST IRONMAN, GORDON HALLER. HIS WINNING TIME: 11 HOURS, 46 MINUTES AND 58 SECONDS.

Now we fast forward and find that Saturday up to 1800 competitors will be on hand to share a purse of $580,000! What a far cry from its beginning.

The course here in Kona will be A 2.4-mile ocean swim, 112-mile bike race and 26.2-mile run. Competitors have 17 hours to finish. Cutoff times are also applied to the swim (2:20 after start of race) and the bike (10:30 after the start of race.)

The end of the race will have 25,000 people cheering them on. What a great day to be in Kona!

Unfortunately, I’ll be over in the town of Volcano (near the volcano) working on the new Kona Coffee Council website. I had considered actually volunteering at Ironman this year, but things did not work out.

Although I have had a couple of minor personal sucesses in sports, they pale in comparison to people willing to subject themselves to this race. In some cases, the race course might present them with temperatures upwards to 100 degrees. They may literally be placing themselves in personal danger if they do not heed some of the warnings of race officials.

Although I cannot be there in person, I wish all the contestants good speed and safe travels. I hope that each athlete exceeds his/her expectations and takes pride in the fact that they were able to compete with some of the best in the world.