Some of the Stories of IRONMAN Arizona
IRONMAN Arizona is celebrating its 20th year this year. The long-standing event is the staple closer of the North American full distance racing season. Although the event has ebbed and flowed in popularity, IRONMAN is reporting a race sellout for the weekend. It’s traditionally a Slowtwitch favorite — both for the ease of the event in Tempe, as well as producing typically fast times and an early ticket to the IRONMAN World Championships. This year is solely spotlighting the age group field, as it is one of the few times this race does not feature professionals.
We will be on site late this week for Sunday’s race. Here are a few of the age groupers we’re going to be keeping an eye on.
Could a World Record Be Set?
The current world record for the oldest finisher is Hiromu Inada. The Japanese athlete has finished races through 2022 and attempted another finish this year at IRONMAN Cairns at the age of 91 (he finished the swim and bike). That record is in jeopardy with Steve Gray from Mount Pleasant, Utah. At 98 years young, Gray (assuming he starts) will break Inada’s start record by seven years, and would shatter the finishing record by a decade. As of this writing, conditions look ideal for an IRONMAN finish for all athletes — light winds and temperatures in the upper 60s.
On the women’s side, Gail Hughes from Flagstaff, AZ is the oldest competitor at 72. Hughes is a long-time IRONMAN athlete, having qualified for the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona before. She’s also a former member of the USA Triathlon Board of Directors.
Young Athletes Racing
Looking to the opposite end of the age spectrum and you’ll find two eighteen year olds toeing the line this weekend. Ashley Forrest is the youngest woman in the field. Lane Wheeler is the youngest man. He’ll be racing with his father this weekend. Wheeler has Tourette’s syndrome with Coprolalia; it involves involuntary utterances of obscene words or phrases.
Athletes With Charitable Causes
As is typical with an IRONMAN event, many athletes starting are doing so as part of a fundraising or awareness campaign. One such athlete is Timothy Bolen of Tempe. Bolen founded 2Gether We Live in 2017, an organization which gives sport participation opportunities to individuals who can’t actively compete by themselves. Volunteers for the organization provide the propulsion for these individuals, whether in triathlon, skiing, hiking, or other opportunities. The organization currently has a roster of approximately 30 families they are assisting with participation, and over 70 athlete volunteers. According to the organization’s website, their greatest need are additional Hoyt chairs. Bolen is racing alongside his daughter, Cloe.
There’s also Dan Lee from Boulder. The 31-year old veteran struggled with adjustment into civilian life following his exit from the Army in October, 2021. Like some of his fellow vets, Lee experienced panic attacks and an identity crisis. Counseling was a great assist for Lee. Lee is racing IRONMAN Arizona to raise funds for ROGER, which provides free counseling, crisis intervention, and suicide prevention services to veterans and service members.
usually iam not good with dates but 2005 is one of the few years i can remember what i did and i was at the first ironman arizona 2005 so i guess its the 20th race anniversary and not the 20th year.
i have good memories of this race and the 8 month before .
i did the race after having cycled half way around Australia finishing off with a failed sub 9 attempt at western australia , i was on track till k 39 … , 8 weeks in new zealand and a few weeks califiormia and arizona followed by a 3 weeks stint in flagstaff.
i wanted to go sub 9 that day …, i was never really in the running for sub 9 it but i was top 10 till about 36 k on the run i finished 12th. its kind of crazy to think that back then swimming 55 and riding 4.53 was solid and i think i was 7th or 8th off the bike just ahead of petr vabrouschek.
i am still in contact with my homestay in phoenix and will be for ever grateful to Rob from flagstaff who lent me his top of the range tt bike.
good times
good luck to all racing
In 2008 we had the race twice, April and then November! My first was the April 2007 edition. Timothy Bolen is a local legend for all his efforts with 2Gether We Live, helping handicapped people realize their own Ironman dream.
I’ll be there. First, and (hopefully) only, full distance I plan. This is a bucket list item for me.
This race has meant a lot to me and I have never done it!! In 2009 I got married on the same day as the race and since then it has been my reminder(which I needed) of my anniversary. So every time the threads pop up talking about the race, I know I better be getting my butt in gear. A few times I was watching the actual race online and thought there’s something else I need to do today, DUH!!!
Wow 98 year old Ironman, that would be incredible.
So I thought about it and the answer is
2005 was the first race
2006 the 2nd etc
So the formula is race year - 2005 + 1
2024 -2005 + 1 = 20th race
However if you want to do anniversary this is the 19th anniversary. The first year, 2005 is the 0th anniversary.
Now per the above it seems there was a year the race was held in spring and fall so this is the 21st race…unless covid cancelation brings it back to 20?
The bottle I just bought says 20 years on it, should say 20 races.
Misprint makes it worth more. Someday you’ll fetch 100k for that bottle. Save this post!
Yes 2008
And in 2008 our friend Jozsef Major won in the Spring, starting the run in 13th place and making the final pass (of TJ Tollakson and Jordan Rapp) with 400 meters left to go.
OK, y’all. My report from the back of the pack. It seems like a lot of you are either world class athletes or at least knocking on the door. I, however, am one of those hacks that just wanted to earn the title IRONMAN.
Given this is a one-and-done, bucket list kind of thing for me, I was very selective in which course I chose. For one, it needed to be fairly flat, because I suck on the hills, particularly on the run. The other is it neede to be low humidity, so that ruled out Florida. My decision came down to Tempe and Sacramento. I ultimately chose Tempe because it’s a little easier to get to for me. It’s about a six hour drive away so I don’t have to hassle with packing a bike to fly.
Now there is some backstory that is relevant to me finishing an Ironman. First, about 20 years ago, I very nearly lost my left foot in a car accident. Fortunately, I had a fantastic surgeon who practically worked miracles putting that ankle back together. I was warned at the time that even walking from then on might be “tricky”.
Then in 2010 I was diagnosed with throat cancer. Between the damage from the tumor and the damage from the treatment, I have a very difficult time swallowing just about anything. This is particularly relevant when you consider hydration and nutrition throughout the day.
I’m 54 and only began my triathlon journey four years ago. I do remember watching Kona way back in the 90s on ABC’s Wide World of Sports (who remembers that?) and thought it would be cool to do. But in the 90s, how do you learn more about something that, at the time, was a relatively obscure event? Not like you had a mini super computer in your pocket.
But life went on and I got fat. Then a doctor told me I needed to lose weight because of the damage I was doing to my health. That was about 10 years ago. Now, back when I was young, I was in the Marine Corps. I had the attitude that I wasn’t going to let anyone judge me on my size or gender so I was determined to do anything any of the big guys could do (within reason, of course). I was largely successful but it did take a toll on my body. And that brings us to the story of Ironman Arizona 2024.
Moving on to race day, it was quite chilly at 7am when the first athletes hit the water. The water temp was actually warmer than the ambient temp. This is when my first set back began, although I didn’t know it yet. I’m pretty consistent in swimming about 2:25 minute per 100m. Not particularly fast but that’s been my average in previous events for the last year or so. Based on that, I anticipated a total swim time of right at 1 hour, 45. Just passed the second turn buoy I took time to check my watch. 52 minutes. Ok. That’s pretty much on target.
Now I don’t know what happened on the way back but it took me an additional 20 minutes to make the return swim. It’s a man made lake, so there is no current to speak of, and I didn’t feel like the swim was going to hell. But for some reason, I didn’t get out of the water until right at 2 hours.
In to transition 1. I had already planned to take a couple extra minutes to suck down some hydration and eat a banana so I could keep my energy up for the ride, given the aforementioned difficulty with hydration. Since the swim took so much longer than planned, I cut some of that out. I worried about it but it was a calculated risk that, fortunately, paid off later.
I get out on the bike course and take off. I notice I’m going faster than I had planned. My goal was to keep my average pace below 18mph so I didn’t blow up on the bike and then have nothing left for the run. I didn’t realize it at the time but the reason I was able to hold so much faster pace with little effort is I was already feeling the effects of a gradually increasing wind.
I really dislike wind, particularly a head wind. Now I went to Tempe earlier this year with the sole intent to ride the route and figure out if it was something I could do. Unfortunately, that experience was a bit misleading as that day was nearly ideal. Yesterday was not. By the time I got to the turn around, the wind was already a pretty consistent 10mph and only increasing as the day went on. By the third loop, it was a fairly consistent 15-20 mph head wind on what should have been the fastest section of the ride. Where I was expecting to be able maintain a lazy 20+mph pace became a struggle just to hold a steady 15. By the time I finally finished the bike, I was a good 30 minutes behind where I hoped to be, but more importantly, I was gassed.
That all becomes prescient on the run. I know my run sucks. It’s my weakest event, and it gets steadily worse the longer the course. That’s why I was kind of banking on those times for the swim and the bike, to give myself some cushion for what was inevitably to come.
The run actually didn’t start off too bad. Maintained a comfortable jogging pace around a 14 minute mile. It was actually my plan to start the run slow while I rehydrate and then pick up the pace as I went. That plan went to shit around mile 8 when I felt my left knee blow out. My knees have been kind of a wreck ever since my Marine Corps days, and that has a lot to do with why my runs are always so slow. But this time was significant. I reinjured the ligaments in that knee and I knew as soon as it happened my hopes of an Ironman title were in serious jeopardy.
I could still put weight on the leg, I just couldn’t really bend it without considerable pain. So I changed to “power walk” strategy. Some quick calculations told me that if nothing else went wrong I still had a decent shot at finishing before the cut off. Of course no plan, especially a Plan B, goes off without a hitch, and that hitch was cramping starting around mile 15.
Guys, I have to tell you I was almost in tears. Partially from the pain, partially from the idea of missing the cut off by mere minutes.
But I pushed on. and on. And on. By the time I got to mile 24, according to my watch, I had just under 30 minutes. 30 minutes to go 2.2 miles on a leg that hurt so bad I would have cried if I wasn’t so dehydrated. But fuck it. Pain is temporary. Ironman is forever. I began a run-walk-run strategy that had to be the weirdest looking thing you can imagine.
Another competitor caught up to me about a half mile later and we kind of paced off each other the rest of the way in. Ultimately, he pulled away and finished about 30 seconds ahead of me. But I checked my watch, I could see the finish chute and I had just under 60 seconds (according to my watch). I pushed it. It was the ugliest thing I’ve ever done. But damn it, I made it with literally just seconds to spare. And when I say seconds I really do mean seconds. Can’t even round up to “minutes” (plural). Chip time had me at 16 hours, 38 minutes and 38 seconds. I was 82 seconds away from missing my Ironman.
It was physically the single hardest day of my life. To my surprise, I’m actually not even all that sore. Except my knee. That thing is the size of a cantaloupe today.
@VegasJen big congrats to you on your first Ironman finish!
Well done and an inspiring story! Be very proud!
On to the next one
I raced AZ in 2009. I flew down from Colorado to volunteer for the 2008 race in order to get access to the early entry line to enter for the 2009 race. Got up at 4am the day after the race and got to race site about 5am. 100 people there already. Got my entry. 2009 race sold out the day after the 2008 race.
How times have changed. Would also have been able to do when I lived in AZ rather than waiting until we moved to CO.
Great race report. Again I’m sorry I didn’t make it down to watch you cross the finish line. After sitting down on the couch in the Airbnb it was so hard to get the motivation to get back up. Reading your post makes me wish I did.
My swim mimic’d yours. I didn’t expect to go fast as I haven’t swam much the last few months due to work travel. I was 33 at the turn and was shocked to see it took 1:20 to get out of the water. It did feel a little choppier and looking at the map it seems like maybe I just took a bad line in addition to swimming poorly.
Congrats on pushing through. That last km on the lonely back street was really mentally tough for me. I understand why they did the finish line that way, but it would have been much better if the course ran people through the crowds all the way to the finish.
My kids and I celebrated on the couch with delivered pizza and watching The Legend of Bagger Vance. The quote from the movie about golf resonated with me particularly about finishing and Ironman - “A game that can’t be won only played.”
Congrats on your race! Just from looking at strava for the swim, it looks like the trip back is maybe 400m longer than the trip out, as you have to go past the swim entry and under the bridge, etc. That might account for some of the ‘extra’ time if you just checked your watch at the turn, and not truly at the half distance point?
Yeah and the lake curves so coming back was the longer side.