Second Edition of the 25th Ironman Triathlon World Championship book handsigned by author and Hall of Fame member Bob Babbit. 200 pages of the World’s greatest Endurance Event Hundreds of classic photos from greatest sports photographers updated stats, editiorials and photography through the 2003 Race. New Cover photography featuring 3 time Champion Peter Reid.
You coud talk about the qualifying procedure, lottery, # of people hoping to do the race vs. how many actually do it. Also there have been some very compelling age-groupers over the years: Sister Madonna Buder, Jim Ward, Walt Stack etc. And don’t forget the Julie Moss story.
Triathlete magazine reprinted a Sports Illustrated article from 1979 last year. This article was several pages long, profiled a couple of the athletes and included some pictures. It gets a lot of credit for popularizing IM triathlon.
Watching NBC’s coverage of the father pushing his son ended my trainer ride early one day. I was filled with emotion that was a little mentally draining. My wife found it a little odd that I would be crying while riding my bike, but oh well. After reflecting on what he did for his son and the courage he had to train and finish made me realize that any excuse I come up with for not training and competing is bogus. As long as it doesn’t come between my wife and I, or my health and I there is nothing that can keep me from doing it.
The first time I saw something on Dick and Rick Hoyt, I had just gotten into this stupid (affectionate) sport.
My wife and I were watching Ironman on TV (the one where DeBoom’s kidney stones got in the way of his 3rd straight title) and the piece on the Hoyt’s came on, and my wife and I were both in tears. It’s an amazing story.
To the OP … got to wikipedia. I just c & p’d (for later reading) the sections on Triathlon and Ironman … lots of stuff on there and useful links.