Labor Day: The Iron Man Competition in Louisville

While at Amy and Kev's home in Louisville, we spent a good bit of time watching and cheering on riders in the Iron Man Competition. Here are some excerpts from today's coverage by Michael Grant in the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Seemingly impervious to the elements, not looking particularly fatigued but very hungry, Maximilian Longree triumphantly burst into Fourth Street Live yesterday after he won the second Ford Ironman Triathlon.

The German finished the endurance race in 8 hours, 33 minutes, 58 seconds -- almost 21 minutes ahead of defending champion Chris McDonald (8:54:52). It was a shocking display of dominance. Longree ignored harsh weather conditions to better last year's winning time by almost six minutes.

For the women, 34-year-old Mariska Kramer-Postma of the Netherlands came from behind late to win in 9:54:17.

The 93-degree high temperature and stiff wind didn't seem to bother Longree. He won by passing McDonald near the midway point of the marathon and finished the 26.2-mile run in 2:48.55 after the 2.4-mile swim and 112-mile bike ride.

Ironmans make Longree hungry. Usually he celebrates with pizza, but after chewing up the competition yesterday, he took a big bite of a bacon double cheeseburger delivered from the Hard Rock Café.

Longree, 27, left nothing to chance. He placed his food order three weeks ago so it would be waiting for him at the finish line. He wanted "a real American burger and not the fast food from Germany."

"Here in Kentucky I heard about the burgers," he said. "I ordered it three weeks ago via e-mail. Three miles before the finish line I let them call the race director to get me the burger. It was great."

Longree can afford all the burgers he wants after earning $10,000 for his first Ironman victory. His previous best finish was third place in Ironman Austria in July 2007. Bothered by a stress fracture in his right foot, he hadn't competed in an Ironman since the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii in October, when he placed 17th.

After the swim, Andrew Johns led, finishing in 51:27. Longree was 14th. Johns was slowed by back spasms, however, and had to quit. McDonald took the lead around the 80-mile mark of the bike ride. The Australian had the lead for most of the first half of the marathon until Longree made a strategic decision to speed up the race.

"After 12 miles he had a good pace," Longree said. "I tried to go with him. But then I felt, 'I have to go my pace.' It was much higher, but if you go another pace you could come out of your rhythm. "It worked. I'm really happy. I'm not so tired. But I will be in a few hours."
McDonald said he simply couldn't keep up with Longree. "I had nothing on the run today," he said. "I had a seven-minute lead on the bike. I just couldn't find a rhythm at all. I struggled every single step."

Last year gave McDonald his first career Ironman victory. Yesterday it was Longree's turn. "It's so unbelievable for me now to really win a race," he said. "You can't sleep the night before because you're so nervous. Then you're tired. You go into the race and it's really tough. I will enjoy this victory with my family."

As we watched the riders fly by, we rallied, hooted, and rooted on a good many women--Iron Women! When the lovely lady in the bottom photograph saw that I was going to take a picture of her, she looked over and said, "Oh, please, don't! I haven't got any lipstick on!" And then she smiled.