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August 20, 2007
The Story Behind IRONMAN
I found this while cruising around the IRONMAN website - it is fascinating how this sport has gone from 15 participants, the year that I graduated high school, to an International Event, with Dozens of Ironman Events across the country, most selling out the day that the race entry is opened to the general public.
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Ironman: The Beginning
From Unlikely Challenge To International Sensation
In 1978, 15 men participated in the very first Ironman Triathlon on the bustling streets of Honolulu, Hawaii. It was an unlikely challenge issued by now-retired Navy Captain John Collins and wife, Judy, to settle an argument. Who would have predicted this exchange of bravado would be the foundation for what is now the world’s most recognized endurance event and the global benchmark for testing one’s personal limits.
While stationed near San Diego in the mid-1970s, John and wife, Judy, participated in track club multi-sport workouts designed to break up the monotony of constant run training. While never a fast runner, Collins developed a reputation for being able to run extremely long distances. After reassignment to Hawaii in 1977, he became involved in both running and masters swimming.
During an awards banquet later that year for an around-the-island running competition, a lively debate broke out as to whether runners or swimmers were more fit. Collins added that he had just read in a magazine that Eddy Merckx, the champion cyclist, was the fittest athlete in the world.
As the good natured debate continued, Collins began playing with the idea of combining the three toughest endurance races on the island into one race. Deciding to seize the moment, he leapt onstage during a band break and half-jokingly made the challenge. He proposed tying the 2.4 mile Waikiki Roughwater Swim with 112 miles of the Around Oahu Bike Race (originally a two-day event and 114 miles), followed by a 26.2 mile run on the same course as the Honolulu Marathon.
“The gun will go off about 7:00 a.m., the clock will keep running and whoever finishes first we’ll call the Ironman,” Collins recalls.
On February 18, 1978, 15 competitors, including Collins, came to the shores of Waikiki to take the Ironman challenge. Prior to racing, each received three sheets of paper listing a few rules and a course description. Handwritten on the last page was this exhortation: “Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life!”
Collins and 11 others finished the entire course. Gordon Haller, a taxi cab driver and fitness enthusiast, crossed the finish line first in 11 hours, 46 minutes and 58 seconds to become the “original” Ironman. Collins finished the race in a little under 17 hours.
Having lost only $25 on that first race, Collins agreed to organize a second event in 1979. Unfortunately, bad weather postponed the race for a day, and more than half the race-field dropped out; this left only 15 to race for the second straight year. Among the remaining 15 athletes was Lyn Lemaire, a cyclist from Boston, Mass. The first female finisher maintained second place for much of the race before finishing fifth overall. The winning time of 11:15:46 posted by Californian Tom Warren, improved upon Haller’s first-year mark, and Warren became a minor celebrity when he and the race received exposure in Sports Illustrated.
This larger-than life depiction of the race in Sports Illustrated generated what Collins remembers as a “shoe box full of hundreds of letters from athletes around the world who wanted to do the race.” ABC Sports called Collins asking his permission to film the 1980 event. Collins agreed as long as ABC brought their own crew and the filming bore him no expense.
Ironically, Collins transferred out of Hawaii just as his baby hit the big time in 1980. He turned the event over to the owners of a local health club. No money changed hands, but Collins did receive assurance that he could race for free any year that he wanted, and that “they would save a few racing spots for the ‘common man,’ because these were the type of individuals who created the race.”
In 1981, the race was moved from Oahu to the harsh, barren and less congested lava fields of Kona on Hawaii’s Big Island.
Along the Kona Coast, black lava rock dominates the panorama. Against this backdrop, athletes would cover 140.6 miles by sea, bike and foot while battling “ho’ o mumuku” crosswinds of 45 mph, 95 degree temperatures and a scorching sun. The new Ironman Triathlon became the benchmark against which all extreme sporting challenges would be measured.
ABC’s broadcasts on Wide World of Sports in 1980 and 1981 continued to generate interest from athletes, but Ironman’s signature moment would come the following year.
With the men’s championship title already claimed, ABC’s cameras zeroed in on women’s leader Julie Moss. A college student from San Diego, Moss’ lifeguarding background helped her stay among the early women’s leaders. After a strong bike, she found herself with a big lead in the run. Her energy levels started to dip in the last five miles and another San Diego competitor, Kathleen McCartney, began to cut into Moss’ lead.
The red-headed Moss managed to hang on, sometimes appearing like a punch-drunk fighter as she moved steadfastly toward the finish line. But with a little more than 20 yards to go, her legs gave out and she fell to the ground. She attempted to get up, but her legs wouldn’t hold her. Rather than give up, she crawled. Race officials and spectators gathered around her, visibly concerned for her well being, as well as amazed by her courage. Although McCartney passed her, Moss won the hearts of those on hand and millions who later saw her determined effort on television. ABC’s Jim McKay, among the most experienced sports broadcasters in history, called it the most inspiring sports moment he had ever witnessed.
Instantly, competing in the Ironman became such a hot ticket that organizers instituted a qualifying system to keep the race field manageable.
By any measure, the Ironman presents the ultimate test of body, mind and spirit for pros and amateur athletes. As the Ironman Triathlon has emerged into the mainstream sports light, the Ironman experience continually transcends pure sport. It centers on the dedication, courage and perseverance exhibited by athletes who prove that “anything is possible™.”
Reprinted from Ironman.com, get all the details herehttp://www.ironman.com/assets/files/mediacenter/Downloads/2006_Kona_Media_Guide.pdf
Posted by Dennis at August 20, 2007 08:15 PM
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Comments
Parts of the story above that mention the Collins Founders are Not Quite Right(NQR). For one example, the first public announcement of the first endurance triathlon which we decided later to call the Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon was made at the Waikiki Swim Club Awards Banquet in the fall of 1977. Our family (John, Judy, Kristin and Michael Collins) had been in the first run-bike-swim to be called a triathlon, on 25 September 1974, in San Diego, CA. In 1977, in Honolulu, we (Judy and John) were co-chairs in charge of the annual run-swim sprint biathlon between the Waikiki Swim Club (WSC) and the Mid-Pacific Roadrunners Club(MPRRC). Many of us did the Waikiki Roughwater Swim and the Honolulu Marathon each year. Because the two of us (John and Judy) were among those who had more endurance than speed and triathlon had not yet arrived in Hawaii we (Judy and John) proposed an endurance triathlon as a new inter-club activity. The proposed triathlon contest between swimmers-who-ran and runners-who-swam would be decided by those who could also manage a long bicycle ride. We swimmers and runners were great talkers. Some of us had an unofficial rule that we couldn't talk about an event for longer than it took to do it. To make our endurance triathlon even more attractive to participants we decided to suspend the "Brag Limit Rule." We stipulated that all Hawaiian Triathlon Finishers were invited to brag for the rest of their lives after the 2.4 mile swim, the 112 mile bike, the 26.2 mile run. People would sign up for that! For more straight scoop(from Ironman Founders Judy and John Collins )ask for How Iron Man Happened...the 30th Anniversary letter.
Posted by: Judy and John Collins at June 7, 2008 12:30 PM