Ironman World Championships - 1st of a series

This is a bit of a magical time of year in the triathlon community. For a sport that mainly skirts well under the main-stream-news the World Championships in Kona, Hawai'i come very close to breaking that surface. It's a special race not only because it's the 'big race' all triathletes dream of competing in (it's qualification only, much like the Boston Marathon for runners) but also because it's where the 'Triathlon' as we know it was born. 

Over the next few posts I'll be giving a little background, history and 'language' that'll help anyone watch and enjoy the event. So here is the first, the history of Ironman.

In the mid-to-late 1970's endurance sports were booming in popularity, women were finally allowed to run marathons (it was too 'demanding for them' before that) and were even included in the Olympic Marathon. There started to be a lot of trash talk between the worlds top bikers, swimmers, runners, climbers, hikers, etc, on who was the most power athlete in the world, who was the iron-man.  

Enter U.S. Naval Commander John Collins. Stationed in Hawai'i, he competed in the three most demanding endurance racers there in the 70's. A swim across Waikiki, a 2 day bike around the entire island, and the Honolulu Marathon. His challenge to his friends was that the true iron-man could complete all three of these things, back-to-back, in the shortest amount of time. 

On February 18th, 1978 Fifteen men attempted the slightly touched up course (the bike ride was reduced to 112 miles to better align with the marathon course). Twelve men finished and Gordon Haller broke the tape at 11 hours, 46 minutes as well as became the world's first Ironman. 

With no advertising whatsoever word of mouth ballooned the 1979 race to over 50 athletes. The race was then moved to Hawai'i's Big Island and changed into a relay event in hopes of drawing even more competitors but just after the announcement Sport's Illustrated Magazine devoted 10 entire pages to the race and it's unique brand of insanity. Within days, hundreds of athletes were writing and phoning Collins to the point where the relay was called off and the event was born. 

Ironman has since grown to dozens of events around the world (both full length as well as the half Ironman 70.3 mile event) and become a racing corporation. Still, every year the triathlon world's best of the best gather on Big Island in a display of the same endurance, brawn and recklessness that has been endemic for 30 years. 

As the first t-shirts handwritten in sharpie said, "Swim 2.4 miles!!! Bike 112 miles!!! Run 26.2 Miles!!!  ... and brag for the rest of your life..."