Wenn ich so aufm Bock hinge, gäbs für mich gar keinen zweiten Tag...:Cheese:

Mit dem Slowtwich Pic gerade erst gesehen :)

Eber: Du meinst dann wohl das Bild hier - knapp 4km vor dem Ziel an der roten Ampel :Lachanfall:

Oder einer seiner berühmten JUMPS.

Yep :)

Am Wochenende kommt definitiv der Rest vom Rennen 2015 - bin dann wieder richtig in Germanien angekommen und finde endlich Zeit dafür!

Zur Überbrückung hier noch ein kurzer Report aus dem Jahr 2000. Markus Wiedemann kramte im Dezember dieses Bild aus, was mich dazu veranlasste, meine Erinnerungen niederzuschreiben :Huhu:


ULTRAMAN HAWAII 2000
WHY I'M NOT LAUGHING ON THE PIC ?
VERY LATE SHORT RACE REPORT !
Markus Wiedemann send that picture today (together with the 2000 Champ Velepec Uroš and the 1996 Champ Eric Seedhouse) End of Day 2 at the finish in Hawi!

Brings up very emotional and special memories to me !

SWIM
I was approx. at the 9k mark a bit under 2h30 - a little motorboat came along and told my paddler and me, we had to go around that one buoy maybe 200m ahead! My thoughts were already in the transition to bike and was sure to finish the swim under 2h50. I was already announced to come out of the water. I could see the buoy and the straight way to it was right against the current! I swam for 2 Hours at the same spot, like in an endless pool, always the same house at the shore! I was so focussed to reach that fucking buoy and had no Plan B! My paddler also, never comes up with the Idea to cross like sailors do! Then after 4,5h, without more food and less power, I agreed to jump onto the motor boat! The following 5min were the most desillusionate minutes in my live! I don't know how I found the motivation to start the bike - I guess there is something in the Ultra Endurance people, some special gene or skill! And for sure it was my Crew - Judith, my Southafrican friend Johan and his son Rudolph! Funny thing that it was my best bike on day 1 (under 5h35)! End of day 1 - I can remember a depressive evening at the wonderful Volcano House ! 7 athletes didn't finished the swim and 10 more didn't made the cutoff ! 4 or 5 came in close before 12 Hours. At dinner I was not sure if I will start day 2.

Day 2: I decided to race BUT the 17 'unofficial' athletes has to start 5 min after the remaining 18 'officials'
Again I had a strong Bike, came in a bit under 8h, 2 min behind Markus who claimed Pos 2. Uros was in his own league with 7h20! During the 8 hours biking I was able to get rid of the fact that I'm out of the race! BUT after the finish, as you can see in the pic, I fell into depression again and totally sure I will not run Day 3. No real appetite. Not enough drinking and salt tablets for the coming day - means no preperation for a Double Marathon through the Lava fields, as it was planned. And absolute no motivation to do that monster unofficially !

Day 3: Yes you guessed it already ;-)
I raced again - don't ask me how !?
Ask Judith, I refused Bananas, Gels and other stuff! I ran the damned course with water and some electrolytes in 7h40min and at the Finish had a Heat Stroke ! Collapsed half an hour after the finish under the indoor shower! I only recognized Judith by name, all other people are strangers to me! Judith fed me the whole night with vegetable Juice and Saltchips ! Next morning I was back :-)

I never wrote these memories down BUT they are so alive and strong after 15 years, while I'm sitting here in Kailua Kona again !

Overall my 2000 Performance was one of my Best - mentally maybe my outstanding one 👌
It was no official Finish BUT for me it was ! Believe me I swam more than 6.2 miles on that f.... Day 1. It was a Finish under the rules and the spirit of ULTRAMAN (which is propably the race of my Life)

THX Markus Wiedemann for bringing up these amazing year 2000 memories 😎

Mahalo nui loa
Joe

Sehr klare Gedanken und so kann diese Schlußfolgerung für dich nur richtig sein und das ist ja was zählt.
Ich gratuliere nachträglich zu dieser herausragenden Leistung. Bist halt ein Echter ! :Blumen:

Apropos "echt".
Echte Typen wie UltraJoe
und echte Rennen wie Ultraman
samt seinen aussergewöhnlichen Regeln u. Distanzen
mit Anpassung an die Natur
gefallen mir.

Mit besonderen Distanzen,
speziellem Spirit,
grosser Experimentierfreude,
Abenteuerflair,
und Kameradschaftsgedanken (ohana beim UM)
hat unser Sport mal angefangen.

In den Anfängen gab es in D nur sehr wenige Trias.
Selbst ein paar Jahre später (1987-1990) gab es dadurch bei den seltenen Begegnungen
im Regelfall automatisch ein Kameradschaftgefühl mit sehr viel Hilfestellung und Interesse aneinander.
(Anm.: Da hat sich eine Menge zum Negativen geändert.....)

In diesem Zusammenhang ist auch zu erklären,
dass wir Outdoorsportler nach meinen persönlichen Erfahrungen
unter den Mono-Schwimmern, -Läufern, -Radfahrern
als Exoten und Outlaws angesehen wurden.
Wie einige sich erinnern dürften, hiessen Langstreckenläufer früher deshalb häufig Yetis...., äh Waldläufer
(Sie mieden den harten Asphalt, waren wenige und Wettkämpfe in der Stadt gab es kaum).
Zumal es in D. ja auch fast keine speziellen Vereine u. Medien u.ä. zu unserem Sport gab.

Dan Empfield schreibt folgenden lesenswerten
und auf die Distanzen u. Gegenden bezogenen Beitrag
über "subversive Tris" auf Slowtwitch.

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Opinion/Su..._Tri_5573.html

IMHO der bemerkenswerteste und auch bildende Abschnitt ist dieser:

"As with the original (Greek) marathon, the distances of the Hawaiian Ironman's swim and bike weren't divinely, but geographically, inspired. The 2.4-mile swim leg is the distance from one end of Waikiki Beach to the other; 112 miles is the distance around the island of Oahu (by bike).

Once the race moved from Oahu to the Big Island in 1981 we were in a new multisport reality where, like the modern marathon, the geography a place granted you (Kona) was subordinated to the geography of some other place (Honolulu) when designing a course and a race.

From 1981 forward triathlon has followed one primary track: ever-increasing conformity to distances and disciplines that are not in any way relevant to the geography in which these races take place. I'm not complaining, just noting. I don't mind this, but what I regret is that the spirit of Ironman – the reason it was first conceived and raced – is not always obvious. Ironman was subversive 35 years ago. Is it still?

....

The Hawaiian Ironman appealed to me when I first heard of it. Triathlon wasn't a sport yet, really. There were other 3-event races but not many were called triathlons. In California there was The Sierra Mountain Race; Eppie's Great Race; The Human Race. Attaching the word triathlon to a multisport race or calling a race <i>something</i>-man was atypical between 1974 and 1980.

The lack back then of a coherent, recognizable sport was a gift I have only recently begun to appreciate.

As with the original (Greek) marathon, the distances of the Hawaiian Ironman's swim and bike weren't divinely, but geographically, inspired. The 2.4-mile swim leg is the distance from one end of Waikiki Beach to the other; 112 miles is the distance around the island of Oahu (by bike). Once the race moved from Oahu to the Big Island in 1981 we were in a new multisport reality where, like the modern marathon, the geography a place granted you (Kona) was subordinated to the geography of some other place (Honolulu) when designing a course and a race.

From 1981 forward triathlon has followed one primary track: ever-increasing conformity to distances and disciplines that are not in any way relevant to the geography in which these races take place. I'm not complaining, just noting. I don't mind this, but what I regret is that the spirit of Ironman – the reason it was first conceived and raced – is not always obvious. Ironman was subversive 35 years ago. Is it still?]

What makes a race subversive? The refusal to play by the rules of mainstream sport. Ironman was subversive in 1980 because it was spectacularly outrageous, and neither the governing bodies of swim, bike nor run could exert any governance pressure on it.

What else? Our early races were produced out of passion, not for money. Now that is subversive. The Wildflower Triathlon had 83 participants its first year. Most of the races begun between 1980 and 1983 needed to be produced; obvious courses provided by Nature were turned into social celebrations of pain and achievement because the geography demanded it. The Idea many of us brought home once we competed in early editions of the Hawaiian Ironman wasn't to reproduce the distance, but to convey to those in our hometowns the spirit.

I raced Ironman in February of 1981 and promptly produced my first triathlon in September of 1981. Our races didn't conform to distances. There were no distances to conform to. That which would become the Olympic distance was not yet established.

What are the subversive races today? Those produced out of passion, and that do not obey convention. Savageman, Ötillo, American Triple-T and, chief among them, Norseman and it's highly subversive set of values: True, Basic and Unique. Nothing Norseman does is logical. None of it makes any financial sense. It is simply beautiful. And it's spreading."

Meine Rede, auch wenn ich die "guten alten Zeiten"™ nicht erlebt habe. Ötillö ist überigens, das darf ich aus eigener Erfahrung kundtun, sehr spassig. Geht aber leider nur mit Partner, und das wiederum macht es *sehr* kompliziert...