07.01. Nachmelden für Ironman EM 2009 in Frankfurt?
07.01. Hamburg Triathlon 2009, Startplatzkontingente werden knapp
06.01. World Triathlon Corporation kauft Ironman Rennen in den USA zurück
06.01. Achilles' Verse
05.01. Deutsche Meisterschaft im Wintertriathlon: Gute Bedingungen in Freudenstadt, Streckenpräparierungen in Kniebis sind angelaufen
02.01. Siegerland-Cup und Triathlon Buschhütten ausgebucht
01.01. Diskussion: "Der olympische Triathlon hat aber nicht den Glanz, einen Hero zu produzieren"
01.01. Red Bull Tour of Sweden  mit Jonas Colting vom 17.-31. Mai 2009
30.12. Achilles' Verse

HOT: Neues im Forum

Ironman Hawaii 2004 - das 3athlon.de Special::

Mark Allen talks I

Have you ever seen a Hawaiian sunset? They are unique. Always on the leeward side of the islands, a sunset in Hawaii is bound by the ocean below it and a sky above with just enough passing clouds to become a canvas for the final rays of the day to splash their color onto. We as humans are not the only ones to acknowledge the sun’s slide into the ocean. In Hawaii, it’s always accompanied by the sound of a thousand Hawaiian songbirds who gather in the trees along the coast to close the day with what sounds to be more like friends catching up on the day than anything.

At Ironman, there is one sunset that is universal for all athletes competing. And that is the one that will come on Friday, October 15th. It signals that all the work is finally done. The bags have been checked. The bike will be turned in. The parade, carbo dinner and prerace briefing are all forgotten history. The last sunset before the Ironman is a sigh of relief and a moment of peace before the alarm sounds early the next morning. It is a moment of thanks that the training has finally ended and now there is only one short night separating the past from what everyone have been working toward for many, many months.

That will come in five days time. But between then and now several lifetimes will pass. And we will be here to capture the essence of each day and give you a view and feel of the impressions that make up one of the greatest prerace experiences in our sport. We won’t see everything. We won’t give you what might be the politically correct view of what we do see. But then, neither Luis nor I are running for president. So tune in for what we feel will be an honest perspective on the fanfare, chaos, and tension that defines the Ironman in Kona, Hawaii.

Perhaps the most talked about topic so far has been the change instituted for the swim start. If you haven’t heard about it you’re in good company.
I just learned about it a short two weeks ago. Last weekend I was at a local benefit race on Oahu where I had the opportunity to meet with one of the most conscientious and professional bike marshals who will be working Ironman, a blond guy of Scandinavian descent, Peter Bourn. He hadn’t heard of it either. What it amounts to is a 15-minute head start that the pros will have over the age groupers. They will start at 6:45 in the morning, and the age group race at 7:00 am…the traditional Ironman start time. You know, the one that has been the start time since the race began, the one that signals the start of a day that we all do together as one family with 1500 unique and compelling stories. Well, this year it’s two races held on the same day that just happen to be separated by 15 minutes.

Can you guess my opinion on the change? The justification for this huge break in Ironman tradition is that the women pros have had to deal with more than one zealous male age grouper who wants to beat the women. It indeed has caused a horrendous challenge for the women who compete in this race for their livelihood to do so without sacrificing part of their race to avoid a drafting violation from the ever-present guy who just wants to say he passed last year’s female champion. The mix-up of men age groupers with women pros has also been a point of conflict among the women themselves who point invisible fingers at each other saying their competitors work the leap frog routine to the max, using the cluster of men to shield themselves from the Big Island’s winds as they move themselves up to the front of their race.

This is all true, and it is indeed a problem. I acknowledge that. However, there is a bigger picture here that I feel has not been given appropriate weight in making this decision. And that view is what the Ironman is on the level of human experience. It has been perhaps the only world class sporting competition where everyone from the first pro across the line to the last age group finisher does the same course at the same time. We have all seen the race start on television and some of us have witnessed the impact of this moment in person. I cannot really give you words that describe the feeling when the starting cannon explodes with a compression that physically and symbolically signals the beginning of one of the greatest days in all of sport.

This will no longer be what happens. There will be two starts, two races, two finishes, and two clocks to mark the finishers’ times. The energy of the entire event will be split, no longer a raced done as a unified whole.
Yes, the women will have a more equitable race, at least for the first part of the day. But is that worth the sacrifice of what has been a unique moment at the start and ultimately a riveting day that each athlete and every spectator shares together?

If a truly fare race is the goal, the athletes should be sent off in ascending order based on predicted finish time, one at a time Tour de France time trial style. That would be a fare race for ALL the athletes, not just the women pros but for everyone including the age groupers who have their own battle to have a race devoid of drafting issues.

I hope my concerns are unwarranted. We will all have a better idea if this was indeed a good idea or not by midnight on October 16th. I will hold my final comment until then.

But between now and then there will be many magical moments that we hope to bring closer to you through out reports. Stay tuned for more!

Mark Allen

Mark Allen Online