Ironman World Championship, Kailua Kona, HI, 2015 Saturday, Oct 10, Race Day

Saturday, Race Day!  Be sure to see this cool video compilation of the racers. made by GoPro, one of the sponsors

Here is another one made by a news source with cool video.

Ironman Kona 2015 website

A recap of the event will be broadcast on November 14, 2015, at 1:30PM EST on NBC.

"The inaugural "Hawaiian IRON MAN Triathlon" was conceptualized in 1977 as a way to challenge athletes who had seen success at endurance swim, running and biathlon events. Honolulu-based Navy couple Judy and John Collins proposed combining the three toughest endurance races in Hawai’i—the 2.4-mile Waikiki Roughwater Swim, 112 miles of the Around-O’ahu Bike Race and the 26.2-mile Honolulu Marathon—into one event.

On February 18, 1978, 15 people came to Waikiki to take on the IRONMAN challenge. Prior to racing, each received three sheets of paper with a few rules and a course description. The last page read: "Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life!"

In 1981, the race moved from the tranquil shores of Waikiki to the barren lava fields of Kona on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Along the Kona Coast, black lava rock dominates the panorama, and athletes battle the "ho’omumuku" crosswinds of 45 mph, 95-degree temperatures and a scorching sun.

The IRONMAN World Championship centers on the dedication and courage exhibited by participants who demonstrate the IRONMAN mantra that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.® On October 10th, over 2,000 athletes will embark on a 140.6-mile journey that presents the ultimate test of body, mind and spirit to earn the title of IRONMAN."

Originally from: http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/events/americas/ironman/world-championship.aspx#ixzz3qZApsM3y

The crowd in front of Chillin' ,with moon, at 5:45am

More crowds

Got up at 4:30am to get to the swim start.  Cars are parked way up Henry to Queen K. Guards are directing people out of the Longs drugs parking area at Lanikai shopping area but we somehow got a spot in the shade near Longs.  We walked down to our spot at Chillin's.  We paid $125 each for a seat there,all day, a perfect spot to watch the beginning and ending of the race.  What a crowd of people up this early!  5 people deep on the seawall.  Surprisingly not too many waves that drenched them like yesterday.

More onlookers

guy with drone

The stairs where the swimmers enter the water

First a couple hand gliders soared and tumbled into the King Kam beach for excitement.

Pro men getting into the water

After the Star Spangled Banner song and pu blowing, the race gun went off for the pro men at 6:25am.   They typically take 50 minutes for the 2.4 mile swim.  The women pro were next at 6:30am.  See this video. We could see the mass splash of arms circling out of the water as they made their way out to sea in a swath.

Boats and paddle boards waiting for swimmers to start

The pro men start

After the pros left, they asked the age group men to enter the water even though they don't start until 6:55am.  What a sea of powder blue swim caps.

Paddle boards ran the start line with outrigger canoes, inflatable boats with cameras galore, helicopters, and lots of buoys.  The mass of blue caps and arms flying were a sight to see.  Everyone cheering, taking photos and waving signs.  The water is calm and perfect in spite of predictions of swells and jellyfish.








A man had a drone that could take photos over the swimmers.

The 2.4 mile swim course

A pu and a gun again started off the racers.

Off they go!

The pink capped women age groupers moved quickly down the stairs to enter the water for their start at 7:10am.  There are about 610 out of some 2,300 racers.

As the age group women passed the pier, a group of pro men were seen coming back to the pier.  Sure enough, it was only about 50 minutes before the lowest number racers (the pros have the low numbered bibs) were making their way through the pier transition area.  They take off their caps, take a quick shower with a hose, and change into bike shoes and helmet, grab their gear bag for the bike, grab the bike stored in their assigned spot, and run out the shoot onto the bike course.

Getting out of the water to the bikes

About 9:30 is the cutoff for the swim.   Everyone but one woman made it.  She missed by seconds.  The timing director had to tell her the sad news.

Meanwhile, the frontrunners are out on the course on the bikes.  At 9:45 Kienle is in the lead up in Hawi turnaround, followed by Jan Frodino, both from Germany. Daniella Ryf  in the lead for the women.

Rue, 85 years old, on the bike at 9:07am, a good 20 minutes ahead of the swim cut off.

The 104 mile bike course

Bike course:  First they head left down Kuakini, right onto Makala by Ross, AT&T and Target, up to Queen K, back down Palani, turn left at Kuakini, all the way up to the Queen K junction and back, then up Palani again to Queen K and the long ride North to Hawi.  After the turn around there, the head back via Makala.

We decided to stay downtown and watch after we had a big pancake breakfast at the church across from the palace.  We saw Karen and Roger there who just finished another world cruise with Princess Sydney to Sydney.

With Karen at the Church pancake breakfast

People were still getting out of the water so we just hung around until it was time to work at the aid station.  We just walked up there in the hot sun and got our T shirts.  I fixed mine like the volunteers I saw at the bike check in, with plumeria pony tail ties wrapped around the shoulder as decoration.

Here is the video they made about the Ironman volunteers. Video of all the volunteers.
Peter and Cathy, Lynn from bobbing, Sue, Mike and Mary, of course Bill and Cindy, and lots more from the canoe club were helping.  There must have been about 30 people stretched out from the first sponge station, then water, ice, cola, gu, fruit and pretzels, more ice, more water, and last but not least, our sponge station.  

Handing out sponges

Sponges are a tricky thing to hand out to athletes.  They like them cold and full of water, so we wait to the last minute to take them out of the garbage pail where they sit in water and blocks of ice.  We have to continually replenish the ice and put in new dry sponges.  Then we will run out of water to expand them.  We stole water from the water station.  Athletes will sometimes grab a handful and lean over the pail and drench themselves with water.  We are instructed to only give one sponge per person.  However they are very grabby.  Since we are the first aid station, we are the first place they get sponges.  They will put them under their shirts, on the shoulder or under the arms or in the back or front.  We are warned that sometimes they are stuffed down the pants and later discarded a different color.  Since we are afraid to run out, we carefully pick up the discarded sponges from the pavement and put the clean ones back in the barrel.  They are often just used to squeeze water over their head and then immediately tossed.  So is a cup of water.  You can imagine the amount of paper cups on the ground.  It keeps several of the crew busy raking or picking up the cups.  Plastic bottles of water are recycled.  The cups are recycled.  But the cups used for Endurance drinks and gu, banana peels, etc. are trash.  

David and I handing sponges

I took a movie of Jan Frodeno as he ran by our aid station.  The winner is always preceded by a motorcycle.  You can also tell where he is by a helicopter hovering above.

A runner coming by, the female lead

David at the sponge station

Handing out water cups

 David and I passed out sponges, replenished sponges, hydrated sponges, picked up sponges, recycled sponges, discarded sponges for four hours.  We also ate hot dogs, potato chips, and drank lots of water (but heaven forbid you take it from the water station!)

The 26.2 mile Marathon run course

After 3:00pm we headed back to the Chill'n bar and our seats.  We saw fans all along the way waiting for their runners.  You can check on the website to see where a person is on the course throughout the day.

Fans waiting for their runner

Pain is temporary, finishing is forever

Hopeful encouragements

Sun set and finishers coming past our bar stools 

Runner coming into the final chute

We are just a few yards away from the actual finish line, right in front of the final chute.  Here is a movie of a runner in the chute. The excitement is palatable with rock music and the announcer calling the names and countries and telling them that they are an Ironman.  Sometimes they will announce that they are a war veteran.  There is a blind athlete.  There is one in a wheelchair. at the bar stools, we are sitting next to a family rooting for 1337, Mark.  Behind us are two women, former Ironmen, who are now official referees.  They presided over part of the bike, which is apparently rife with moving violations such as drafting, blocking, position foul, slip streaming, pacing and failure to fall out of the draft zone, blatant littering, and unsportsmanlike conduct.  Drafting is the most common violation.  A penalty might be 5 minutes in a penalty tent.

A view of finish taken from website

For Ironmen athletes, the goal is to come in under 12 hours.  For a marathon, it is under 4 hours.  The athletes who have finished walk by the bar, some barefoot.  They have on a really nice kukui nut necklace.  There is tons of food for them to eat as they exit the race area.  There is also the medical tent where many athletes spend some time after the race getting IV liquids or having cuts repaired.  

Runner finishing just under 12 hours

behind the finish line- "catchers" territory

Where the announcer stands

As we left going up Palani by the back of the finish line

A happy finisher taking his bike home

Even at 7:00pm, just about the 12 hour mark, the crowds cheer and greet each runner, ringing cow bells, cheering, whistling.  I love to hear the announcer boom out the athlete's name and say "Rusty Cook", YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!  Cigarette smoke, body odor, pizza, and the ocean are the odors in the air.  Later we see some Ironman walking with their bikes back to their hotels.  We called it a night about 9:00pm but fans will be there cheering until the cutoff to finish, midnight.

Jan Frodeno won with a time of 8:14:40.  Daniella Ryf from Chekoslovakia, won the women's title in 8:57:57.

A report stated that Jan Frodeno (DEU) waited until he entered the energy lab on the run to make a decisive surge that cracked the hard-charging American Tim O’Donnell and German Andreas Raelert behind him. 

Daniela Ryf (CHE) claimed the lead early on the bike and carried her advantage to the finish line in her first IRONMAN World Championship title.

Originally from: http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/news/articles/2015/10/the-check-in-10.16.aspx#ixzz3qUylRxiC

Winners of this year's Hawaii Ironman will enjoy their first pay rise in many years, but those outside the top ten will still go begging. 

The Hawaii champion's prize purse increases to us$70,000 this year, with an additional sweetener in the form of a us$30,000 Isuzu Rodeo, handed over by the race sponsor to the men's and women's winners. These extras bring the total value of the champion's prize purse to over us$100k. Whilst triathlon still lags behind more high profile sports in the remuneration package it offers, the rewards now meted out in Kona, when added to sponsorships and other outside work, could see the very top elite athletes earning close to half a million dollars this year. 

In line with the increases for the winners, the total prize purse for the race increases to us$325,000, making Hawaii comfortably the biggest pay day in the multisport. The new total easily eclipses the us$200k that was previously offered at the Zofingen Duathlon. Until recent changes in sponsorship drastically cut the prize purse in Zofingen, the European race was Hawaii's closest challenger in the money stakes. 

On a more surprising note, the prize money for Kona still only runs 10 deep. That means a huge pay day for those who hit the mark in Kona is offset by a 'no-pay-day' for those further back. Making a buck in Kona is a tough job for even the best athletes around. Just ask Melissa Spooner, winner of Ironman New Zealand in 1999, who placed 11th in Hawaii last year, or Lena Wahlqvist, Ironman Lanzarote champion, but only 17th in Hawaii. They both left Kona poorer than when they arrived. 

The elite men's field is just as deep. Andreas Niedrig scored two hard-won third places in New Zealand and Roth, but finished outside the prize money in Hawaii in 14th. Ironman Brazil champion Ken Glah was two places further behind, with Ironman Lanzarote runner-up Anssi Lehtinen just sneaking into the top 20.