Ironman Hawaii News and Notes
October 6, 2001

The Course
Swim times were slower than normal - 2-3 minutes slower for the faster swimmers and 5+ minutes slower for the slower swimmers.....Last year's winds were considered by some to be the strongest in the history of the race, but many people who did this year's race said they were even stronger this year. Crosswinds and headwinds exisited most of the final 80 miles of the bike. Several competitors were blown off their bike, resulting in one broken arm and one concussion..... The new bike course included a two block downhill section on Palani. An unusual rule required competitors to ride cautiously down the hill, and passing was not allowed. Passing somebody on this section would result in a three minute penalty and a possible 1 year ban from all WTC events.....Cloud cover was present for most of the run, however humidity was higher than usual.

Tim DeBoom holds the well
earned first place trophy

The DNF's
Peter Reid started the run in second place but pulled out by about mile 7. As he explained on www.peterreid.com, there was nothing there on the run......Dave Scott also didn't have it. He pulled out at about mile 40 on the bike. He was okay early in the bike but when the winds hit he started losing ground and soon dropped out.....Luc Van Lierde dropped out after the bike or very early on the run.....Jurgen Zack got at least one penalty on the bike and then dropped out.....Spencer Smith also had a penalty on the bike before dropping out early in the run.....Andrea Fisher had bronchitis and dropped out on the bike.....Joanna Zeiger finished the bike and quit before the run.....Bill Bell dropped out on the bike before Hawi (Hawi was at mile 60). Max Burdick, the other competitor in the 75+ age group also dropped out.

And Those That Finished
1471 people started this year's Ironman Hawaii, and 1365 people finished, for a 92.7% success rate. This was the lowest number of finishers since 1997......Despite coughing up blood, Chris Legh walked most of the run but still finished in 11:43:35.....Beth Zinkand walked the last 8 miles of the run and finished in 11:19:05.....Randy Caddell was the only one of the three 3 hand cycle entrants to finish, with a time of 12:25:03.....Ten of the 11 men in the 70-74 age group finished.....The oldest woman, Madonna Buder (71), finished the race in 16:49:09.....Lori Bowden's 3:03:09 run split was the second fastest of all time, second only to her 1999 record of 2:59:16.....Only one age group record was broken - Bob Scott, at age 71, went 12:59:02 to break the 70-74 age group record by 14 minutes.....The largest age group margin of victory was by Marcos Alegre in the 65-69 age group, which he won by 57 minutes....The smallest margin of victory was by Ulrich Nieper over Shinichi Ide in the 35-39 age group. Ide's marathon was 14 minutes faster than Nieper, but Nieper held on to a 29 second win.

Cam Brown's second place finish was the highest ever by a New Zealand man. The previoius best by a male Kiwi was 17^th by Scott Balance.....Tim DeBoom's 15 minute winning margin was the largest since 1985 when Scott Tinley beat Chris Hinshaw by 26 minutes.....Cam Widoff had been one of the most consistent performers over the last seven years. Every year since 1995 Widoff has finished between 6^th and 17^th place and with a time between 8:39 and 8:58.....Fernanda Keller had finished in third place for six of the last seven years. She interrupted that streak with a sixth place finish, the same place she finished in 1996.....

Next year's race takes place on October 19, 2002.

Prize money break down
1^st - $70,000
2^nd - $25,000
3^rd - $20,000
4^th - $15,000
5^th - $12,500
6^th - $7,000
7^th - $4,000
8^th - $3,500
9^th - $3,000
10^th -$2,500

Below is a look at the finishing times over the last for years. The chart analyzes finishing times for first place and then each finisher in increments of 100. This year was the slowest of the last four years. The fastest year of the last four was 1999.