Thursday, October 23, 2008

"Enormous Aerobic Optimism"

That's what the very first Ironman competitors had (according to Timothy Carlson), along with enough lack of sanity to do this new, crazy, and fully unsupported event back in 1978. They knew nothing about optimal hydration and nutrition, but still managed to survive. These guys (and in 1979, girls) were amazingly tough, in addition to being crazy. A great example of that was the 1979 winner, Tom Warren.

"... Warren, a former USC Trojan swimmer, was better known for his addiction to self-imposed amazing endurance feats. He had already swum a 15-mile ocean race, run 75 miles through the mountains, and completed a 1,600 mile bicycle trip in two weeks. He was fond of winning bar bets by doing 400 sit-ups in a sauna after a rigorous series of workouts which might include running to Tijuana and back with some swims thrown in for good measure. Warren had a crazy off-kilter running stride caused by a broken leg when he was two years old--but he was quietly fierce."

There was a 14-year-old boy who finished the race in '79. He will always be the youngest competitor, since they set a lower age limit at 18 soon after that. Race officials weighed competitors twice during the 1981 race because they were afraid they might start dying off. At some point, Bud Light started sponsoring this thing, and Julie Moss helped get everyone's attention by using a form of locomotion other than walking or running during the last leg. I think that's when they changed the rulebook to include crawling as an option.

I can tell this is from Dig Me Beach, so it's after they moved the race to Kona in 1981.
There is an amazing book of Ironman history called Iron Will. But here's an excellent recounting of The Twelve Greatest Moments of the Ironman by Timothy Carlson. Read it. It may be motivating.
I was excited to get to meet three of the original Ironman finishers last year. Two sat at my table at the awards banquet in Kona, John Knoll and Dave Orlowski, and one I met at Ironman Florida, Henry Forrest, who is battling cancer. He had THE original Ironman trophy that he let me hold. It was just like this one:
Others who keep me inspired include Rick and Dick Hoyt, Sister Madonna Buder, and our very own Memphian, GaryIronmanHolmes. Damie has posted some photos from his early years of Ironman. I was marveling the other day about Gary's vast knowledge of exercise physiology. He knows more of the subject than any non-exercise physiologist I've ever met. I'm excited to be racing (in front of) him next weekend (right Gary?).
Because of these people and because of that VCR tape that I still have (and watch) of the 1997 Ironman World Championship, I have "enormous aerobic optimism" about my race in a few days.

5 comments:

  1. good luck next weekend in Florida! you guys will do great and I wish I could come down and watch.

    The "B***" was good. It was sometime last year when I tried it, and I bought it for the same reason...the name. haha.

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  2. Good for you! You are going to have a great time and you're already my hero, whether you run, skip, waddle or slither across the finish line.

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  3. This totally puts my first IM swim into perspective: (from the article)

    "Haller barely survived with a 1:51 swim"

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  4. Could be worse laura... few years later before race was moved to kona the water was thought too rough so they moved the swim over to ala moana
    park.. It's protected area with breaks keeping waves out I've swam there few times prior to going to kona when visiting friends in honolulu. you can pretty much swim lap style parralel to shore 100 meters plus.
    Well that year John Howard(who won the race one year and is an awesome cyclist) the water was fairly shallow and he was seen walking most of the swim......

    I got out swam by a one armed man one year in kona...

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  5. Hope you have a great race! I'll be thinking about you... and please stop by and see me if you can! Love you!

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