Elite pros and qualifying age group athletes converge on our island yearly to celebrate the premier endurance athlete’s dream race-the Ironman World Championship.  This isn’t any Ironman Race…this is the world championship of this grueling distance event at one of the birthplaces of the triathlon sport.

Just making it to Kona from home towns around the world once you qualify can be a challenge financially and otherwise further making participation in this elite event hard to accomplish.  This year World record holder and Olympian Tim Don from England was on a training ride Thursday before the race, near the Kmart in Kona and was hit by a car at a marked intersection.  He suffered a fractured neck vertebrae but is hopeful to continue his career in 6 weeks.

The athletes started this year’s competition with somewhat calm seas as they swam away from the Kona pier toward the first buoy marked by the iconic Royal Kona Resort.  Then out to sea and back returning to the Kona pier area.  There they transitioned to their bike leg where they were met with strong headwinds as they left the Kona area near the Hualalai Resort.  They cycled another 40 miles to Hawi town into the wind where they turned around at the north tip of the island.

The head wind turned into a tale wind as they made their way back to Kona to start the marathon portion of the race-all in 90 degree heat!!  The displayed video is at mile marker 26 on the bike leg going toward Hawi or at the 75 mile marker heading back to Kona in front of the Mauna Lani resort where an aid station is located.  This aid station is sponsored yearly by either the Mauna Lani Bay hotel or The Fairmont Orchid and manned by local residents, Parker School students and employees of the hotel.  Check out 40-50 of the nearly 2000 island volunteers handing out energy snacks and drinks.  The race is successful because of efforts like this that really make this race special for the athletes.

Short History of the Ironman event

Triathlon is a hard sport requiring individuals to train and compete in three different disciplines…..swim, bike..run!!  Different distances have been developed over the years including sprint, olympic, half Ironman and finally the hardest and longest distance…..the extreme ironman distance.  This distance was effectively set by combining the Waikiki Rough Water Swim (2.4 miles), Around-Oahu Bike Race (112 miles) and finally the Honolulu Marathon (26.2 miles) by one of it’s original participants, John Collins, on February 18, 1978.  It’s reported that Collins gave each of the 15 participants a handwritten note with minimal rules, course map and a final bit of encouragement, “Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life”

The IRONMAN brand and rights to use the IRONMAN brand on merchandise and ultimately the worldwide race series was sold by Collins early on in 1979 to the owners of Nautilus Fitness equipment, Hank Grundman and Valerie Silk.  Since 1979 various owners have combined this race and many other triathlon events into a resulting iIRONMAN branded race series making it a very recognized, world wide, tri-race series it has become today.  In 2015 the Dalian Wanda Group from China purchased the World Triathlon Corporation and IRONMAN rights for $650m.  The Wall Street Journal estimated that the WTC is valued at nearly 1 BILLION $$$ currently-now that’s an IRONMAN story!!

Written by Rick Oliver on October 24, 2017
Posted in: Hawaii Life | Tags: athletes, ironman, Kona