It's hard to tell if it is just your own attitude, or if everyone back in the day was so upbeat and excited about the novelty of the challenge.//

IT really was the wild west out there, and everyone was having a blast. There were so many bad asses doing ironman back then, I told the story of Tom Boughy and he was representative of those early guys. For me it was just fun trying to figure out each week how to go faster. I'm pretty sure 1/2 the rule book was written is response to the things i would do out there. Riding in transition with my helmet in my teeth, later on wearing my wetsuit on the bike to win the one mile bike prime, then doing my transition out on the bike course, racking my bike at the nearest tree to the exits, and on and on. If i could see a second somewhere, i grabbed it.


And shortly after that 1st ironman, many of us that raced full time began to become good friends. Like dan said, up until then you knew no one really. You showed up to the few races there were, raced your race, then went home. There were no big names yet, Tom Warren was the only guy that anyone knew that had been racing for a few years. Dave Scott was just the guy from Northern CA that won the 80 race, but we never saw him in san diego where all the races were at the time. I got to know Scott Tinley because i was the 1st guy to beat him in 79, but mostly because his wife and my girlfriend at the time went to United flight attendant school together. I lived in LA but did not really know any triathletes other than the lifeguard buddies that went over with me that year. So every weekend i would drive to san diego to train with many of the guys, until i finally just moved down there. I can still remember how happy i was to be able to just get up every day, make a few calls, and then go out training with that original group of folks. And for little to no money for awhile too, didn't matter, it was in all our blood. The money came later and was nice, but every single one of us did the sport for love for many years, and probably would have kept doing it no matter what.


Really glad it did go professional though, helped push the sport and athletes to new levels, and now a big time olympic sport. It is probably the hardest way to make a living, and continues to be. I think we sometimes look at guys like Crowie, Macca,Gomez,Brownlee's, Chrissy, etc., and all the successful pros, and forget how hard and long they train. They make it look so easy on race day, that it just seems like they mail it in sometimes. We don't get to see the struggles with injuries, fatigue, mental stress, family stress, etc. that surely comes with that lifestyle. We know it in our own lives, but sometimes have a hard time imagining those on top of the podium suffering like we do times 10. But as i did, these guys are racing into their late 30's because there is just nothing else they would rather be doing..

Julie did IMNZ 3 years ago.....or was it 5? (maybe it was 2004 :-)

Sooo, she has been dabbling in the sport on and off at least, for a while.

Also, I remember a few years ago, chastizing another woman racer (Desiree Ficker?)at IMNZ (2004 or 2009...I'm getting old too) who had bandaged knees and was crawling. I'd specifically read the rule book and noted that year, that the "Julie Moss" rule was still in effect. Lots of people on ST gave me crap, because the Julie Moss rule had been dropped in many IM races around the globe, but NOT in NZ. They did NOT know the rule and were falsely giving me grief. So like the rule where it's the athletes responsibility to know the course (so you can't blame officials for sending you the wrong way) you also need to know if the Julie Moss rule is in effect or not.

Regardless, Julie is a great athlete, really opened up the world to IM thanks to her dedication to crawl, and has had an impact on the rules of our sport. I will be great to see her in Kona and see how she does. I bet she doesn't crawl this time :-)

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

I too will be watching around that 12 hour mark for those two women. They were both very talented and hard working in their day, don't think anything has changed except for 30 years passing from that fateful day. And i looked back at Kathleen's swim split in 82, and it was 1;30+. She just did a 1;26 for a long swim in a wetsuit, so i bet she will break that 30 year old swim time of hers next week. I just hope ironman had the foresight to put a camera near them, as a lot of folks will be interested in that battle, but not holding my breath. At least we will get some chip times, and perhaps we can do our own commentary here on a forum thread..

That's an amazing story. Thanks for sharing it!

Yeah, great stuff, I remember reading this 5 years ago (or was it 3 years ago?, can't tell, but then again I had my first legal drink when I was 14).

Thanks for posting this.

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Ironman Certified Coach

Currently accepting limited number of new athletes

I keep hearing about the athlete weigh in during race check in, but I've started and finished 2 WTC IMs (both Louisville) and have yet to be weighed at all. And keep in mind, in those 2 races, I've been to the med tent 3 times (yes, that is correct, 3 med tent visits in 2 races).

Does WTC still weigh athletes these days?

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

After i gamed the system that very first year and they heard about how i did it, they realized it was pointless to have a weigh in process. There were also those that still thought that we gained all this weight during the race, so thought it unnecessary, since no one was losing weight anyway.. So by 1982 the weigh in procedure was kicked to trash bin..

Great stuff. How many active STers have done one of the first few original IMs in Hawaii?

Great stuff. How many active STers have done one of the first few original IMs in Hawaii?


I would guess that at least 15 or 20 of that original group from 81 and before have been to this site. I can think of several off the top of my head, and remember threads in the past where those pioneers pitched in. But like WWII veterans, we are a dying breed and will become fewer and fewer as time marches on..

Monty, are there good books to read about these years?

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Ironman Certified Coach

Currently accepting limited number of new athletes

Monty, just keep doing the sport. It is a serious honour from all of us to follow down the path that you guys beat down. You probably had no clue that your actions when the race first moved from Oahu to Kona would blossom into what it is today.

Now make sure you free yourself up for the ride next Thursday. 10000 feet of vertical fun!

3Aims; I sent in my entry form for Feb, '81, never having done a tri, never having met a triathlete and had never seen the ocean. I didn't know how to swim and I don't mean for speed, I mean at all. I had run an ultra (50 miles) but never biked over 45 miles, once. There was a fur handmade seat cover on my bike seat because my bum got sore that once. There was a pre-race meal, sitting in a restaurant and eating with a half dozen other guys. One of them (and it may have been Monty!) suggested that proportionally, the swim was too short and ought to be doubled. My retort..." no problem as long as they double the marathon." Those were interesting and fearless years :) Like Monty, I do think that the herd is thinning...

I'm thinking that someone was in the restaurant listening to you , Monty and probably John Howard....along the lines of, "Screw it, these guys are insane and complaining that this gong show is not long enough????....fine, we'll just double the gong show in each event and make them loop around the entire bloody island".

You know, you and Monty can still settle the score by going to Ultraman Hawaii in November.

Dev

You know, you and Monty can still settle the score by going to Ultraman Hawaii in November.//

The only score i could settle at ultraman would be who could eat and drink the most!! The only triathlon scores that i settle now have to take less than 2 1/2 hours, preferably closer to an hour. (-; And still thinking how much if any of that ride i can do with you. I mentioned it to dan too, he loves climbing and may be in for some or all of it too..

Monty,

Here is the plan for next Thu. I'm planning to do it self supported if it works out....

• Swim 1k in Kailua bay 6:30 am
  
• On the bike at 7 am
  
• Bike around 2 hours from Queen K to Waikaloa Road to Waikaloa village with 2 bottle and an empty camelback with a pair of running shoes taped onto the camel back. Refuel 2 bottles at Waikaloa village, fill up camelback. Now I will have 5L to get me around 5 hours to the Mauna Kea visitor centre
  
• Bike 3 hours to base of access road. By now it should be around noon. Could be a lot later if wind is bad
  
• Ride 2 hours to Mauna Kea Visitor Centre.
  
• Ditch bike, put on running shoes. Should be at 9700 feet
  
• Run/Scamble, walk until my GPS says I am at 10,0000 feet. At 8% grade this works out to around 1.1K so it should not take a lot longer than 20 minutes up, 15 minutes back down to the visitor centre
  

I was also looking for a ride back to Kona, but I think Marc Roy from Sportstats is volunteering to come and get me. Slowman was also threatening to send Tim Carlson out on a wild goose chase to take pictures of random guys trying to ride "off the QueenK" in hawaii (god forbid that triathletes would actually ride off a formal Mdot race course) . But the ride back to Waikaloa alone is 50 miles (granted 10000 feet downhill), but in an ideal world if you can get someone to get you at the base of the mountain (saves them driving up), that would save your legs, but you get to do the main part of it.


Dev

Monty - thanks for the articles ... very interesting. As a grad student at UW-Madison back in 1980, I read about the Ironman and was intrigued enough to sign up for two triathlons that summer (I don't think there were any others in the state). The first, in Madison, was a near olympic and I remember them weighing us after the bike leg and enforcing something like a 2 min rest period before letting us run. The second, was the Tinman Triathlon (1mi-55mi-20K) in Menomonie. It cost $15 to enter which I considered extremely pricey at the time. For lack of any other options, we all wore speedo's in cold water (upper 60s) and because I was a terrible swimmer, I remember coming out with blue lips. On the bike, I wore my Campy cap and running shoes (I did not even own cycling shoes) and we drafted because that's what they did in the Tour de France. After that I was a single sport athlete until 2006 when I came back to triathlon. Wow, have things changed.

Great stories.

Now we need John Howard to come into this thread and talk about the time he biked 4:30 with all the retro gear :-)

Monty was a bit of rock star back in those days. When he showed up to race in my hometown of Montreal in 1987 him, Ken Glah and Tony Richardson were the US import rockstars giving our home town race some credibility!

Edit....and after I posted this, I just thought about something. Back then, the pros were bigger than the sport. Or at least the pros were as important as the key events. In fact, if a marquis pro showed up at your event, it put your event on the map. Sadly, the pros today don't have the same rockstar status. We seriously wanted to be at the races where the top pros showed up....Chicago Sun Times Triathlon, Hilton Head, Nice and of course Hawaii. Now the sport seems to sell itself thanks to the path that the pros of that era beat down and the sport needs the pros less than the pros need the sport.

In the early 80's the sport was nothing. It was the exploits of the pros of that day that put the sport on the map. Without the tall tales of super human performances for all we know, this sport could have just died off while it was ripening on the vine.

Back then the sport was like a startup company with a few key "founders" that include race directors and pros. No one knew where it would go and if the startup would get anywhere, or die like many others. Today, it's gone IPO and global and can survive without any specific personality or set of personalities driving things. Macca is replaceable, Messick is replaceable, Gerard Vroomen was replaceable. The sport is larger than anyone or any group of people. That's a good thing, but sometimes, winding back to those early days is very interesting.

Dev

I've been weighed at the 5 IMNZ I've done over the past 15 years, and the 2 Challenge Wanaka events.

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

My first Comrades was in 2004. What a great race, nothing else like it. Although I had a little 'cancer-interruptus' for a couple of years, I've gone back twice, and Kona once, since then. I plan on continuing to run with Comrades in mind. Truly a bucket-list race.

Awesome tales from back in the day. I wish more of that fun wild west spirit still existed. Most participants these days take the Ironman way too seriously.

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It does still exist in smaller independant Iron races and in most of the Ultra's..

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Did you really just write that?

I guess that statement was more of an inside joke. My neighbor in the mountains is a WWII vet that is about 87 now, and evey time i go over there he informs me how many are left, and how many they lose every day. It certainly was not meant to be disrespectful in any, hope you did not take it that way. Between he and i we joke about him eventually being in the last 1000, so probably a couple more decades for him..

Just busting your ba##s on that one. I enjoyed the articles very much.