It's one of those sporting events that truly is much better to watch on TV. It begins just after dawn and it covers 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles biking, and 26.2 miles running. All consecutively, all in one day.So if you wanted to see the 2009 Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, like I did, you only get to see one small glimpse of the torturous exercise that 1800 athletes partook in today.
Since the run, the last leg of the race, included a small stretch near where we are staying, we decided to head to the course shortly before the first runner (#24, Chris Lieto, 37, of Danville, CA) reached the 4 mile mark. The conditions today are brutal. A heat wave has hit the Big Island ... 90 degrees. And on top of that, the humidity today hovered around 70%. Water down the throat, ice on your head, ice on your chest, ice in your crotch ... we saw it all today.
Throughout the week, we've been watching these athletes in training. Totally focused ... fat free. Today, was their day. While Lieto was five minutes ahead of the next closest runner when we saw him, he cramped up later, and gave up the lead to previous champ Craig Alexander, 37, of Australia. Alexander went on to win in 8 hours, 14 minutes, 4 seconds. Lieto was second at 8:16:15. Chrissie Wellington of the UK came in tops in the women's field at 8:54.02.
Here are some cool pictures of hot runners as they approached the end of the race.
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