This past Sunday, the 'Ville was host to the Iron Man triathlon. This was the first year the event was held here in Louisville, and is a qualifier for the big Iron Man triathlon in Hawaii. At 6:50 Sunday morning, over 2000 participants swam in the murky, smelly Ohio River for 2.4 miles (half of it against the strong current), bicycled 112 miles to LaGrange, KY and bac, and then ran 26.2 miles. Chris McDonald and Heather Gollnick were the mens' and womens' winners. McDonald won his first Ironman title in a come-from-behind effort in a time of 8:38:39, while Gollnick claimed her fifth Ironman title (and second of this year) with an overall time of 9:23:22. I know some strong men and women, but I don't think I even know anyone who could accomplish all of that swimming, bicycling and running in one week, much less 8 to 9 hours.
Everyone that entered this competition should have been given a spot in the big daddy Iron Man Kona competition just for being brave enough to swim in the Ohio River. If it were up to me, I would have given them all a prize for dodging the driftwood and debris. But I digress. All of that swimming, bike riding and running is definitely a way to determine who is made of iron, but if they really want to find out who's an Iron Man, they should have changed the competition a bit. They should have held the event last month when I-64 was shut down for the road work -- they could have dropped them off in southern Indiana and told them to get across the river to Louisville the best way they can without using I-64. All of those brave men and women who made it to work on time during that month are the real Iron Men and Women. Swimming over two miles in the Ohio River? That's nothing compared to travelling the Sherman Minton and Kennedy bridges when almost-daily wrecks forced the bridges to be down to one lane during rush hour traffic.
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