Ironman World Championships

Oh boy. Now I know why I only did one Ironman in my life. That is one darn hard race. especially in hot and humid Kona, Hawaii. No thanks. I'd rather watch this thing than suffer through it. However, this IS the race to attend if you want to get inspired. I come away every year with a lot of motivation for to train with intent through the winter months back in Colorado.

Kona, Hawaii in mid-October is the fittest place on earth. This place has the highest VO2max values and leanest bodies of any city. This is the only place where I feel overweight. Ironman triathletes are a focused bunch and won;t let anything stand in their way. I say go for it as long as you can also manage family life and keep things in perspective.

The Ironman World Championships this year was a great event to be a spectator at. I was amazed when for a few minutes I thought defending champ Chrissie Wellington was a "DNF" after having taken so long to fix a flat tire she gave up. However, a friendly rival handed her a second chance with a spare CO2 cartridge and Chrissie had one more chance to get her butt in gear.

She was about 5 minutes behind the leader when she took off on her chase after a 10-minute repair of her flat tire. Chrissie quickly caughte the leader and went on to come off the bike with a gap of several minutes. She went on to win by more than 10-minutes over second place. Man what a day. I bet Chrissie learns how to change a fla tduring these next 12 months.

Chrissie Wellington lead the whole marathon and blew the competition away.

As for the mens race Craig Alexander ran from behind (I think he was 11th when he started the marathon) and moved one place up on the podium this year to win become world champion.

Craig Alexander is seen here at 100km on the bike.

I need to send a big shout out to Michael Lovato who backed up his 9th place in 2007 with yet another top-10 finish in Kona this year. Great job Lovato!