On the long flight back from Chicago on ANA, having watched all the movies (English, Japanese and Mandarin), I chanced upon a documentary video on the Ironman Japan 2008. Held in Nagasaki, the bike and run courses cover the entire island with sleepy villages, winding roads, hilly terrain and enthusiastic supporters.
Being my first viewing of an ironman event, it was interesting to see how the swimming started with a flurry of arms and legs, and how the elites went through their transitions. There were many human interest stories, primarily from the Japanese participants. But since the video is in Japanese, I couldn't really appreciate these stories. What I did appreciate was a 40+ year old cook who made a determined bid, but DNF. The cutoff time is 15 hours, and the last participant who came in seconds before the cutoff was literally in tears.
The crowning moment, of course, was at the finishing line. Many came through with their families, children, supporters and friends. It was touching.
For the record, the winner was Luke MacKenzie (AUS; 26) with a time of 8:29:11 and the fastest female contestant was Naomi Imaizumi (JPN, 25). There were five participants from SIN!
No comments:
Post a Comment