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AllFlying |
Hawaiin Ironman: Hell in
Paradise Known
as the Ironman World Championships, the Hawaiian Ironman, held at Kailua-Kona
on the island of Hawaii, is revered by triathletes the world over. Each October,
on the Saturday closest to the full moon, 1500 or so super-fit athletes gather
in the shadow of the Mauna Loa volcano, ready to take-on the island.
The
2005 edition saw two Australian women finish in the top three. Peter Trevaskis
investigated the challenge of the ironman, and the women who undertake it.
 The
blazing sun beats down on her tanned back; her muscles ache, screaming in pain
as she makes a stuttered u-turn around an orange marker cone on Alii Drive. A
blurred thought enters her mind - less than 22kms to go now Michellie.
Racing
at the edge of her body's threshold, she is barely able to recall the crystal
blue waters of Kailua Bay more than seven hours earlier.
Swimming in the
cool water is but a memory.
Only the hell of riding amongst the heat haze
of the lava fields and the feeling of scorching bitumen beneath her feet remains.
Lucky Madame Pele, Kona's volcano goddess is being kind today.
She curses
Navy Commander John Collins for ever dreaming up such torture, yet she manages
a smile, her salty lips cracking under the suns persistence. I am as crazy as
he was she thinks.
Triathletes such as Australia's Michellie Jones are part
of the select few who qualify to take part in this torture every year, where Madame
Pele's hot winds punish athletes for hours on end.
Madame Pele remembers
beating thousands of athletes just like her, and looks forward to the thousands
she will.
Jones is following in the legacy of ironman great Paula Newby-Fraser,
and her modern day equivalent, Switzerland's Natascha Badmann, the two women that
can claim to have continually defeated the gruelling course.
The now retired
Newby-Fraser, the queen of the ironman distance, won here eight times.
Badmann,
the 2005 winner is closing in fast with six Hawaiian wins, having been runner-up
twice, but Newby-Fraser's 1992 course record 8 hours 55 minutes 28 seconds still
stands, a reminder of her dominance.
With a record 24 ironman titles, her
tally is more than the combined total of the best three male triathletes, namely
Mark Allen, Erin Baker and Dave Scott Named the greatest triathlete in history,
Newby-Fraser transcends the sport.
For Jones, the 36 year-old from Queensland,
who now lives in California, with her husband and coach, Peter Coulsen, this year's
ironman was only her second start over the distance making the result even more
amazing.
The two-time International Triathlon World champion, regarded as
the Newby-Fraser of short course racing, had an amazing debut, setting the fastest
time ever for a female rookie.
 She
led coming off the bike leg, only losing the win to the storming Badmann three
miles from home, amazingly just four months after a training crash left her with
a broken hip.
Crossing the line, Jones' response was typically Australian.
"That was so (blanking) hard." She told Triathlete magazine's John Duke. To which
Duke replied, "The bad news is, this is your new career."
While Jones,
Newby-Fraser and new stars like 28 year-old Major are career triathletes, Badmann
was an overweight, smoking, single-mother, who worked as a secretary. Speaking
again to the Tribune on the daunting task of competing at Hawaii, she said. "This
race is more demanding. It wants your heart, your soul, your thoughts, something
you have to be ready to give."
Although Badmann's story is one of
triumph, many at Hawaii come out of tragedy.
The 1996 edition of Hawaii was
emotion charged for Larry Little, racing the event in memory of his wife, Heidi
Hagelstein , a fellow triathlete who was killed when hit by a car on a training
ride a month before the race.
" In the blink of an eye, my best friend, the
mother of our four year-old twins, my hero, my inspiration was gone," he told
Ironman Live.
Little raced that day for his wife, carrying some of her ashes
in a bandana he wore.
He aimed to release them over the duration of the race,
but the majority fell into his eyes on the bike leg, mixing with his sweat, burning
his eyes, filling them with tears. He pressed on, fighting Madame Pele, shuffling
along Alii Drive towards the finish line.
A spectator asked his four year-old
daughter, Emily if she was waiting for her dad to finish. "My mommy and daddy
are both out there," she said. "My mommy died, but they are doing it together."
With the ironman attracting professional athletes, bored secretaries and
courageous everyday people, driven by inspiration and passion, it looks like Madame
Pele is going to be busy for a while.
Images
courtesy of Rohin Adams
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