A belgian triathlete died on the bike leg, heart attack ! Very sad ...

Exactly, but this is (as sad as it is) the reason of over motivated people. An IRONMAN is something more like a 10k memorial run. I know people who are going on IRONMAN races because their neighbor did one, or one of his /her collegues.

Same thing like the one who died in the water of Utah, if you not prepared enough it could end in seriously body problems or death. You sign it before you send your application form back to the organiziers.

The guy who died in Utah was a serious - successful veteran of many IM's

ups, did'nt know that, sorry for this...
but overall my post is true

Um, slowmo, who's to say that he wasn't prepared and ready? You effectively imply that this is caused by athletes not treating the race or the distance seriously and doing it just so they can tick it off the achievement list.

Yes, people do have this attitude, but without knowing the facts it doesn't mean this is the case for this athlete. At least one report notes that he was trying to qualify for Hawaii, maybe he was an experienced Ironman competitor already and it's just one of those things?

I've known people under 30 (and not ex-pro cyclists by the way) to die in their sleep or other seemingly healthy people to have heart-attacks sitting on the couch. It's bound to happen occasionally to athletes in competition, no matter how fit and prepared they are.

Someone mentioned that it was a heart attack, where was this actually reported?

And....the guy in France might have had some kind of heart defect. Better take that one back too.

Hey Stupid SH*T, John Boland (Utah) was extremely experienced having completed Hawaii way back in 96. He finished the western states 100 as well as a host of other IMs, marathons, etc. Get your facts straight Assh*ole.

Temper, temper! Yes Borland was experienced, however by searching his race results I found that his IM swims were 1:55 to 2 Hrs so as a swimmer he was borderline incompetent. Since when does experience equate to competancy? Do you need to get your facts straight?

Unfortunately there have been several athletes who have died of heart attacks, most notably recently was Brian Maxwell founder of Power Bar, who still was an active runner.

I disagree...being a slow swimmer and being competent in open water are 2 different things. I am not the fastest swimmer but have participated 50-60 open water races including several IMs (INCLUDING UTAH) and feel quite capable of handling most open water situations. Unless you were an eye witness to what actually happened to John I would suggest you close your trap and stop insinuating it was because he was incompetent.

Klaatu,



totally unrelated to this thread, but where/how did you come up with your screen name? There used to be a band back in the late 70's named Klaatu. Any link?

---

Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org

I young (22-23) guy I raced against last year in several half IMs did IMNZ earlier this year and qualified for Hawaii. ~2 months later, whilst training for Hawaii he died of a heart attack on the bike whilst training in Auckland, NZ. He had no known heart defects or health problems. It is that easy people! Rest in Peace Daniel Shanahan.



pinkboy

---

In the power never given to me in the name of slowman, king high ruler and Grand Hunky Poo Ba of the blessed land of Slowtwitchia I dub thee "Sir pinkboy the Awsomator" This honor is given to thee for the reason of being not only freakin' awsome but totally sweet. By the use of the color Pink to fly your freak flag and bring smiles to frowny faces. *Mr. Tibbs*

Yep, screen name taken from band of the same name, which itself was taken from the old sci fi movie "The day the earth stood still". I liked their music at the time and still do.

---

_______________________________________________
you know my name, look up my number
_______________________________________________

I respectfully disagree with you. There was at one time a self penned race review of I think Borland's IM Malasia race on a tri club website, I'm sure it is long gone by now but he was a self described not very good swimmer. I was at IM Utah as well so combine my own experience there as a mediocre at best swimmer, with his own words, I think I can make a reasonable opinion. If you give yourself a razor thin margin of error, sometimes that can come back and bite you. That being said, I still believe there was a strong case for negligence at IM Utah.

He lost control of is bike!! not a heart attaque, inform before you type!

I was at the race and the organizers didn't make a clear statements. there were conflicting reports, one saying he crashed (exactly where I went down last year at 50mph...guess I was lucky), the other said he had a heart failure during the race.

Not sure which one is correct but I was still racing when it happened, was riding with chris mcdonald going down straiture defile, and the paramedics were there, and there was someone on the side of the road with paramedics holding a blanket in front of him. I thought it was a crash as I (think I ) saw blood around...

no matter what happened, I think it's inappropriate that this thread turns into name calling.

hey guys, when you talk about it taking someone around 1 hour to swim a half or 2 hours to swim a IM and you call them slow, it hurts me.

Just so you know, you hurt me bad.

---

Olen

I would suspect that if you had a heart attack on a bike, you would crash, so both things could be true, and square up with your seeing blood. Very sad.