Marvel at Ironmen

Does anyone remember A.C Green? Dubbed as 'Ironman', Green still holds the NBA record for most conesecutive games played at 1192. That is a very impressive feat, because the 1192 games meant that he played nearly 15 consecutive NBA seasons without missing a game. But for most basketbball fans, that's old and mundane news. Nothing exciting about it.

So why am I writing about it? I'm not. I recently learnt about the other 'Ironman' in the sports world. I had heard about the Ironman Triathalon on various sporting articles, but only recently learnt the details from my German supplier. Now for those of you who might stumble upon this blog, without any knowledge about this event, here's some nerve wrecking details.

The Ironman Triathalon that takes place in Hawaii annually. It involves a 3-part race where the participants go through (argueably) the most gruesome endurance tests ever designed for man. Well, maybe Leonidas and his army of 300 Spartans might beg to differ. It begins with a 3.5 km swim (1 km of swim roughly equates to 5 km of running - in terms of the stamina required), followed by a 180 km (yes - one hundred eighty - not a typo) bicycle race for the second peg, which is topped off by a just-over 42 km marathon. Read it again to grasp the magnitude of the figures.

With all due respect to Green, the participants of this triathalon really have balls of steel. The participants get little to no rest in between and can actually finish off the course in slightly upwards of 8 hours to 9 hours (for most of them). The current record holder is Luc Van Lierde from Belgium who completed the Ironman in 8:04:08.

On a sidenote, there are a fair number of triathalons that take place in various countries around the world. My said supplier who enlightened me with this breathtaking event, takes part in a 'mini-triathalon' in Germany whenever he gets a chance. This little triathalon still is a 1-1.5 km swim, 40 km bicycle and a 12 km marathon. He does all this at the age of 40+ (sorry - don't know his exact age!).

Marvellous stuff isn't it? :)