It was May of 1979. The San Diego Track Club had been staging low-key swim-bike-run events for five years, but people weren’t exactly breaking down the doors to gain entry. Ironman #2 was in the books – with the same sized field (15) as IM #1. There was a race in Los Alamos called “triathlon”, though it was conducted as three separate time trials and scored as a cross-country meet. The “sport”, if that’s what it could be called, was going nowhere . . . and then everything changed.
“He was taking the gale head-on now, but at least the stinging rain had stopped and his mind was still working. Keep concentrating, Tom Warren told himself. Still 20 miles to go, most of it into that awful wind, the same gale he had been fighting for 120 miles and almost nine hours. The bass drum in his leg was getting louder, and his head flopped sideways.
“Up ahead stood a man and his wife, paunchy, middle-aged Hawaiian tourists, watching a spectacle outside their ken. Past the astonished couple the runner stumbled, shirtless, eyes down, concentrating to avoid delusion and shock. Finally the tourist could be quiet no longer. “Go, Iron Man!” he shouted. “Go, Iron Man” Tom Warren, age 35, shuffled off. Still 20 miles to go. And the others were back there chasing him."
So began Barry McDermott’s transcendent feature in the May 14, 1979 issue of SI - and a sport was born. To understand why, go to www.cooltri.com and read for yourself.
Lew
“He was taking the gale head-on now, but at least the stinging rain had stopped and his mind was still working. Keep concentrating, Tom Warren told himself. Still 20 miles to go, most of it into that awful wind, the same gale he had been fighting for 120 miles and almost nine hours. The bass drum in his leg was getting louder, and his head flopped sideways.
“Up ahead stood a man and his wife, paunchy, middle-aged Hawaiian tourists, watching a spectacle outside their ken. Past the astonished couple the runner stumbled, shirtless, eyes down, concentrating to avoid delusion and shock. Finally the tourist could be quiet no longer. “Go, Iron Man!” he shouted. “Go, Iron Man” Tom Warren, age 35, shuffled off. Still 20 miles to go. And the others were back there chasing him."
So began Barry McDermott’s transcendent feature in the May 14, 1979 issue of SI - and a sport was born. To understand why, go to www.cooltri.com and read for yourself.
Lew