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Is it a true story......
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....about a bunch of guys in a bar in Hawaii back in the 70's getting into an argument about who is the best athlete - cyclists, swimmers or runners and thus the first ever triathlon was born to settle their disagreement. I've heard various versions of this. Anyone know the real scoop?
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Sort of ... [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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It was really at the Primo brewery at the post race party after the Thanksgiving "turkey-trot" (Kapiolani park to Primo Brewery - winner was one closest to predicted time, no watches allowed) of the Honolulu Marathon clinic. I wasn't there (missed it because i was on call) but that is my understanding of the where this "discussion" occurred that started all this.

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Frank,
An original Ironman and the Inventor of PowerCranks
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Re: Is it a true story...... [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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If you ever watch the video "Triathlon through the eyes of the Elite", there is a section where the first couple guys(I forgot their names) talk about how they thought up doing Triathlon and they describe the first one they did. It's interesting to hear.
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Re: Is it a true story...... [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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That's how the Ironman started ... however, triathlons in general had started earlier in San Diego. One of the participants in the famous bar conversation (made even more unbelievable because they were SEALs) had been exposed to some of the SD events.

If I remember correctly, they were arguing which of these events was the hardest: the Waikiki Rough Water open swim (2.4 miles), some century ride that looped around the island (I forget the name) or the Honolulu marathon. (It is intersting to note that many of the original participants were HARD CORE swimmers). I think the swim was a point-to-point swim, hence the weird distances ... point-to-points and loops don't even out that often.

Anyway, being SEALs it couldn't have been more than a few minutes of discussion before they decided to add 'em all together. There was a little trophy built from some scrap metal they presented to the finishers, about a dozen I think. I don't remember if they called it Ironman and then made the trophy or vice-versa. The first two (maybe three) races ran the actual Waikiki swim, loop bike, and Honolulu Marathon courses without any traffic control! Interest in the event skyrocketed after a small Sports Illustrated article and after that the event moved to Kona. Real soon after that, ABC Wide World of Sports showed up ... in 1982 Julie Moss capitalized T and C in The Crawl, and things got REAL serious.

This is all from my poor memory of the best source: Mike Plant's Iron Will. Unfortunately, it is out of print; Powells.com eventually tracked down a copy for me. It's at home, so I may have goofed a bit here and there. This is a really great book if you can get your hands on it.

--stv
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Re: Is it a true story...... [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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The actual story is on ironmanlive.com There is an interview with John Collins (who started the whole Ironman part). It was not in a bar, it was at the awards party a week after a race. You can read it on the website. He made the first trophy with the help of his wife.



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Re: Is it a true story...... [stv] [ In reply to ]
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I too read Mike Plant's Iron Will and found it to be an interesting history if Ironman.

In the book he has an interview with Collins where he tries to separate fact from legend.

One piece I found interesting is that since none of them were cyclists they didn't realize that the 180 KM around Oahu race was actually a 2 day event. That is the reason why the bike is such a large percentage of the Ironman triathlon.
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The Around Oahu bike race was .... [Brent F] [ In reply to ]
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actually a 115 mile race. but, the start of the Honolulu marathon was 3 miles from where one exited the water from the Waikiki Rough Water Swim, hence the 112 miles as all the courses were well known to all the participants. none had to be measured to know the distances. It had all been done for us.

Frank

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Frank,
An original Ironman and the Inventor of PowerCranks
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Re: Is it a true story...... [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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I know not many people care, but actually the first known triathlon was Eppies Great Race in my hometown of Sacramento California. 5.8 mile run, 12.5 mile bike and 6 mile kayak is how its ran now, back then it started with a bike ride and went from one eppies restuarant to another and finished at yet another. It started as a team relay, but a kayakers team didnt show up and he decided to do the whole thing by himself. if you look at http://home.san.rr.com/johnstone/ it says the first swim triathlon was sept 25th 1974---and if you look at http://www.thegreatrace.org/ the first race was july 27th 1974. If you live in Norcal, its a great race to do---i'm looking forward to be doing my 8th Eppies this year. Yeah i know was was a swim and one was a kayak, but if we define "triathlon" as a sport that combines three sports into one event done one after another, than Eppies was the first tri.

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