A punishing event - Ironman Malaysia
27 September 2014 | Kuah, Langkawi
Ironman Day. At 7.15am, 1300 competitors from 56 countries took to the water. The oldest male was 77 & the oldest female was 67. We just sat on the deck with our morning cuppa & watched! A bird's eye view as we were about 50 metres from the flags.
The last swimmer was out of the water at about 10.30 am so then we were able to go ashore & watch some of the riders & eventually, the running. We stayed near the finish until 1am which was almost the 17 hour deadline. It would have been heart-breaking to see those few stragglers who would end up with DNF next to their name after a 3.8 Km swim, a 180 km bike ride & a full marathon, all done in extreme heat. The winner was Patrick Nilsson, from Sweden, winning by about 20 minutes. Such were the conditions that several world class ironmen, including Australia's Luke Bell were forced to withdraw. It seems that the only reason for people to do this is that it feels so good when it's finished!