A few facts about "ironman triathlon"

I’ve mentioned that I compete in long distance triathlons, so I thought I’d include a few posts to tell you what this is all about. Firstly, a few interesting facts:

The longest one day triathlon involves a 3.8km swim, followed by a 1km bike ride and a 42.2km run to finish. This distance is referred to as “ironman triathlon” and it has been around for just over 30 years.

The first ironman triathlon was held in Hawaii and had only 13 competitors. Kona, Hawaii is now where the ironman triathlon world championships are held in October each year. The Hawaii race is known for its extreme heat and humidity, with temperatures often reaching 40 degrees.

Ironman triathlons are now held all over the world, with two taking place in Australia. One in Busselton, WA and one at Port Macquarie, NSW.

Four Australian triathletes have won the ironman world championship – Michele Jones, Greg Welch who was the first non American to win the race, Chris McCormack in 2007 and Craig “Crowie” Alexander in both 2008 and 2009 (that’s right – the current mens world champion is an Aussie) – check out Craig Alexander’s website. He’s a fantastic bloke and a great athlete.
All four of these Aussie winners have been members of the one triathlon club, the Cronulla club in Sydney. There must be something in the water there. I’m hoping so, because I’m also a member of that club.

The current women’s world champion is a Pommie, Chrissie Wellington. She’s won the last 3 world championships, holds the womens world record for the distance and the course record at the world championships in Hawaii and she has never been beaten over the ironman distance. She is also a wonderful person. I met her at the ironman Australia triathlon in Port Macquarie in 2008, where she presented me with my finisher’s medal. Having won the women’s event, she came back to the finish line and stayed for several hours to greet as many of the amateur athletes as she could. Chrissie has a great sense of humour and it’s worth checking out her website and blog. She is not your average professional triathlete, having run a water treatment plant in a third world country prior to becoming a professional triathlete. She is a huge supporter of womens triathlon and offers her time to a large number of great causes.

I’ll be posting more blogs about all things triathlon shortly – I’m only a little obsessed!!!!