Ironman and me

Side boob - The classic 1989 race

In 1977 what we now know as 'Ironman Triathlon' was dreamt up by a group of - quite possibly pissed-up - athletes at an award ceremony in Hawaii. Members of the various sporting clubs were debating which athletes were the fittest; swimmers, runners or cyclists. One suggested that this could be settled by combining the three existing long distance races on the island under the fairly new concept of a triathlon. The first to finish would be called the Iron Man.

On February 18th 1978, 15 men took to the line to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 and run a full marathon distance of 26.2. 12 finished and the world (or at least a small part of it) had witnessed its first Ironman event.

Picton, NZ

I was far from creation when this happened, and it would take until 2003 for me to first hear of such a thing. Whilst travelling I found myself in Picton, New Zealand hiking along the coast when this guy (let's call him Jack) zoomed past in a sweat sporting the most impressive running clobber. Upon his return much later he came to a halt where I nabbed him for some 'yes-I'm-from-England-and-I'm-here-in-New Zealand' small talk. When congratulated on his athletic prowess Jack explained that he was in training for 'Ironman' and just what exactly that entailed. Blown away by the sheer distance and so far removed from my travelling lifestyle, I thought little of it other than "wow, what a lunatic".

Maybe it was having some marathons under my belt or maybe it was the years I'd spent chained to my desk as an accountant, that when I next came across the sport I would be inspired to become an Ironman myself. Flicking through a sports magazine aimlessly one lunchtime I came across an interview with a certain Chrissie Wellington, I was transfixed. This woman not only raced Ironman, but was in fact the world champion and world record holder, and British too. Her training programme, discipline and drive was incredible. It appealed immensely. 

There were a couple of problems though. I couldn't actually swim 'proper' and I hadn't ridden a bike since my childhood. I set to it to rectify these omissions and trained like a trooper to get up to speed physically, and to overcome the great procrastination of gear purchase and event entry. In September 2013, 10 years after meeting 'Jack' I entered Ironman Wales for 2014.




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