Pure class: “One of the race’s traditions is that the pros return late at night to honor the age-groupers. So when Connecticut’s Clinton Tebbetts became the 1,579th and final Ironman 1 minute, 56 seconds before midnight, men’s winner Normann Stadler, who finished more than eight hours earlier, was there to place a lei around his neck.”
Party’s drum beats draw athletes to Ironman finish
By Don Norcross
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 18, 2004
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii – Two miles out of town and less than an hour before Saturday’s midnight finishing deadline, 61-year-old Henry Forrest could barely walk. If it wasn’t the painful shinsplints causing him to limp, it was the blisters covering his feet.
"I was hurting so bad," said Forrest, one of the 15 original 1978 Ironman Hawaii finishers, now back for more.
But off in the distance he could see the spotlights along Alii Drive. He could hear the spectators roaring, the music blaring. And he could hear announcer Mike Reilly of Poway pumping up the volume, pulling another late-nighter across the finish line.
“Gabriele Claus,” yelled Reilly as the German jogged down the finishers’ chute, “you are an Ironman.”
So Forrest limped onward.
About the emotional rock concert atmosphere along Alii Drive during the Ironman Triathlon World Championship’s final hours, Forrest said, “It’s like a homing device. You just can’t stop, no matter how bad you hurt.”
Forrest found his way home, finishing the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and marathon run/walk in 16 hours, 36 minutes, 42 seconds.
The late-night scene is part open-air party, part spiritual revival, part human drama. Thousands of spectators line the street for a quarter mile, ringing cowbells, yelling, screaming as triathletes walk, run, jog and hobble toward their dream. Revelers hang outside the balcony of Cassandra’s restaurant next to the finish line, tipping another brew in honor of the weary athletic warriors. Native Hawaiians perform in grass skirts, hula dancing to the intoxicating beat of pounding drums.
One moment fans are rocking to, “You know you make me want to . . . shout Throw my hands up and . . . shout.” Then they’re lunging for free T-shirts, hats and watches tossed about the crowd. Then they’re wiping away tears as a 57-year-old man with two hip replacements somehow completes his all-day, 140-mile odyssey.
“The celebration at the finish line is a connection between the island, the pros, the age-groupers and the spectators,” said *Competitor Magazine *co-publisher Bob Babbitt, who has witnessed the scene since the early 1980s.
“Everyone’s there to celebrate people coming across the finish line. And it doesn’t matter what (body) angle you’re coming across the finish line. It doesn’t matter if you can’t see anything in front of you. It’s the mecca. And you’ve got the whole world greeting you.”
One of the race’s traditions is that the pros return late at night to honor the age-groupers. So when Connecticut’s Clinton Tebbetts became the 1,579th and final Ironman 1 minute, 56 seconds before midnight, men’s winner Normann Stadler, who finished more than eight hours earlier, was there to place a lei around his neck.
Dr. Ed Wolfgram was one of the nighttime finishers. A 71-year-old psychiatrist from St. Louis, Wolfgram completed his Ironman in 15:32:06.
Wolfgram started working out at 48 when some of his doctor friends began suffering strokes and heart attacks. He has written a book titled: “It’s Never Too Late to be Fit.”
“The problem with most people,” said Wolfgram, vibrant and demonstrative minutes after finishing, “is they just don’t exercise.”
He tells people, “When you’re fit, you look better. You make more money. You live longer. A lot of people aren’t interested in those things. When I tell them they’ll function better sexually, that gets their attention.”
Another late-nighter: Pete Norman, 68, of Great Britain. Norman qualified for Kona for the first time last year but had to quit 15 miles into the run when his body rebelled. He temporarily lost his hearing. He needed an ambulance at the end.
Saturday, he loaded up on salt tablets and refused to look at his watch, afraid he might not beat the midnight deadline.
“You just get too worried,” he said.
A couple miles out of town, the lights in sight, Norman allowed himself a peek at his stopwatch. He had nearly two hours to spare.
“I thought, fantastic,” he said. “I was afraid it was much later.”
Asked what he’ll do with his medal, Norman said, “I’m going to show it off at the (triathlon) club when I get home. No one else’s got one.”
Back at the finish line, Diana Ross was blasting across the P.A. system.
*"I’m comin’ out ****. . . *I want the world to know. I’m going to let it show."
The party rocked on.
“For 140 miles, you might feel miserable,” said Babbitt, a six-time Hawaii finisher. "But for the final six-tenths of a mile, you’re ecstatic. And people don’t want to leave.
“It’s special at that finish line. You never forget it.”
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