What is An Ironman???

The best explanation I can give is the one given by the race's first organizer, "Swim 2.4 Miles! Bike 112 Miles! Run 26.2 Miles! Brag for the rest of your life"

The original Ironman was first run in 1978 after a bit of prideful speculating by some athletes in Hawaii. In Hawaii there were three different races that happened every year; the Waikiki Roughwater Swim(2.4 Mi), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (115 Mi), and the Honolulu Marathon (26.2 Mi).

For years debate had existed on the island as to whether runners or swimmers were the most fit. During the 1977 Oahu Perimeter Relay awards ceremony someone pointed out that a cyclist in England had the highest recorded oxygen uptake in history, and an idea was born.

CDR Collins, one of the men involved in the prior conversation, had participated in a few triathlons over the past few years and came up with an idea. By shaving 3 miles off of the bike he could create a race that started with the Waikiki Roughwater swim, almost the entire Around-Oahu Bike Race, and finish around the course of the Honolulu Marathon. They decided that the winner of that race would be termed "the Iron man".

That first year only 15 people tried this beast of a race, and only 12 finished.

I Can't find any pictures of that first race, but several pictures are available from the second Ironman race in 1979 in which there were about 50 competitors.

Since it's inception the race has moved from the smaller island Oahu to the big island of Hawaii, and 27 other official Ironman races are available all over the world. Also many other races, such as the Vineman, are triathlons that are the exact same distance as the Ironman, just not a part of the official Ironman race series.

Today one does not have to win the Kailua-Kona Ironman to be termed an "Ironman". Anybody who finishes an official Ironman race (any of the 28) in under 17 hours is an Ironman (which Wikipedia so kindly points out is gender neutral, so women can also be Ironmen).

So that is an Ironman, 140.6 miles of endurance, often taking longer than some people are awake during the day. It is a battle of the spirit whose only competitor is the desire to quit.