Knowing Iron Man Triathlon

“Whoever finishes first will be called the Iron Man”, is the tag line that has revolved around the competition that produced the survivors of the game for the fittest.

Iron Man Triathlon is simply a game for the bold. It takes tons of courage, will power and endurance to start the race and make it to the finish line. In fact, the very first Iron Man triathlon competition held in 1978 was completed within 13 minutes before the day’s half ends.

Over the years, Iron Man triathlon has become a pool of multisport events that cover sports like running, cycling, swimming and sometimes, skiing. These have varying distances of multiple combinations of course sequences. However, the original event is still embodied in the Kona events that actually call the winners as Iron Men.

The Hawaii still holds the World Championship for Iron man Triathlon though the governing body hosts other competitions around the world that also provide the title of Iron Man for the winners. Nevertheless, the title is owned by the World Triathlon Corporation.

Other multi-sports competitions unofficially call the events as Iron Man triathlon, only hidden under the terms such as Half-Iron man, or Iron Distance.

The Iron Man Triathlon held annually in the Kona Bay is an annual amount that is hailed to be the most popular of all triathlons. Following the standard of the triathlon, this event starts with swimmers crossing the bay of the Big Island which takes 2.4 miles of swimming, afterwhich the 112 mile biking and another 26.2 miles of coast marathon.

While the competition is held in Hawaii, qualifying events are held in various countries such as Canada, Australia, Canary Island, Japan, USA, Europe and South Africa.

While many people might be mistaken with calling all similar competitions as Iron Man Triathlon, it is still good to note that this practice is technically incorrect. Iron Man races are supposed to be not used as a generic term for a number of multisport events.

This competition had its debut during the awarding ceremony for the Oahu Perimeter Relay, which then was a running competition that included teams, composed of 5 members. Incidentally, the competitors in the said event were runners and swimmers who for sometime, had been debating on who stand as fittest. In the said ceremony also, Commander John Collins noted that a Belgian cyclist holds the title for the highest oxygen uptake which eventually lead to the conclusion that cyclists probably are the fittest.

Thus, the birth of a competition that involved all the said sports.