And if, almost forty years later, a group of athletes decided to pay homage to the first edition of Ironman, which took place on February 18, 1978 in Hawaii. That was what happened last October 7, in the city of Porto.
It all started about a year earlier, when a group of athletes from returned home, by train, just finished the Ironman distance event, Iberman. Probably it would still be endorphins, serotonin and dopamine, speaking, but on this trip the foundations of the race that ended on October 7 were laid.
The initial idea was to provide the experience of a race in the Ironman distance (3.8 km of swimming, 180 km of cycling and 42 km of running), without the high costs that the vast majority of the events in this distance have. The entrepreneurs of the idea also wanted to pay homage to the first athletes that finish the distance, in 1978, in Hawaii.
In order to be able to have the presence of as many athletes as possible and for the race to honour the heroes of 78, the athletes would have to present themselves at the starting line with a 70's look. Moustache or beard would be mandatory, whoever wanted to go further had the option of going in speedo and a top.
In order to be able to control all the variables involved, such as safety, assistance, the competition itself, in addition to preventing costs from escalating, it was decided that registrations in this first edition would be limited to AASM team athletes.
The race took place on a circuit, with 6 laps of 30km for cycling and 6 laps of 7km for the run. With this configuration, only a single point of supply was needed, which avoided dispersing all those who wanted to be there to help. The best area found was the Freixo and the marginal road of the Douro, the center of the event being the entrance to the Press Museum. Swimming ended up having, not the usual 3.8km, but 4.2km, this due to the lack of entry point in the water.
In competitive terms, all athletes had to register their event on a GPS watch, so that in the end their times could be validated, the event director controlled the athletes' starting, passing and arrival times and on the courses either cycling and running, the organization put judges in charge. Judges also played a very important role in security, as the roads were not cut off in traffic. The drafting was not allowed, whether it was between athletes in the race, or with other cyclists who might be training.
Regarding safety, a boat and 6 kayaks were on the water to accompany the athletes. For the race course, the athletes had to have a light frontal in their baskets, to be used as soon as the sun went down, due to the existence of a 300m irregular segment without lights.
Each athlete was responsible for preparing their food and drink, which had to be in an accessible basket whenever the athlete passed. Each athlete had the help of an assistant, who provided him with liquids and food in the cycling and in the running. At this central point of the event, we had people responsible for the animation, so that we encourage not only athletes, but above all, the assistants. We ended up having more than 100 people, including team athletes, family and friends helping.
But the preparation of this event started much earlier, going back a little in time, in late June, when 20 athletes were registered. At that time, a draw was made for the allocation of the dorsal numbers. Each athlete's number was associated with an Ironman athlete, with the first 12 numbers were occupied by the finishers of the first edition of Ironman, for the rest we chose names of Ironman stars.
In the months leading up to the race, anyone who passed the Douro marginal at the weekend would encounter groups of athletes from the team training on the race routes.
Due to some accidents and personal problems, the start list was reduced to 15 athletes, the same number that it lined up in 1978:
2 - John Dumbar - Rui Pinto
3 - Dave Orlowski - Diogo Madeira
5 - Sterling F. Lewis - Pedro Magalhães
6 - Tom Knoll - Daniel Bettencourt
7 - Henrry Forrest - José Silva
11 - Dan Hendrikson - Rui Pena
13 - Jan Frodeno - Valter Nogueira
14 - Craig Alexander - Fernando Ferreira
15 - Mark Allen - Miguel Vieira
16 - Dave Scott - Paulo Costa
18 - Lino Barruncho - Pedro Reis
19 - Sérgio Marques - Miguel Lobão
20 - Faris Al Sultain - Rui Amorim
21 - Emanuel Marques - António Gavina
22 - Ricardo Costa - Nuno Abreu
With the first rays of sun, the swim starts, where some current ended up helping the athletes. The first athlete to come out of the water was Paulo Costa, who led the race until the 2nd lap of cycling, having been passed by Diogo Madeira, an athlete who ended up giving up in the middle of this segment, having the leadership returned to Paulo Costa.
At this time the temperatures were already above 30 degrees, very high for the season and very different from those that were felt in the weeks before the race. Temperature having been the main enemy of athletes.
In the middle of the 5th lap of the cycling, the leadership of the race changed, passing alternately to Pedro Reis and Pedro Magalhães, athletes who were cycling with similar rhythms.
With the change to the running, Nuno Abreu quickly takes the lead and imposes a very strong pace, leaving all the competition behind, until shortly after 21kms where he ends giving up. The leadership passes to Pedro Reis, an athlete who never let it go away, becoming the first Spirit of 78 Triathlon champion. In second place finished Pedro Magalhães, who, seeing himself threatened by Paulo Costa, held the place during the last lap. Paulo had to settle with the third place of the podium. With arrival times separated by 5 minutes between each one, it turned out to be a very disputed race:
1st - Pedro Reis (Lino Barruncho) - 10h 44m 55s
2nd - Pedro Magalhães (Sterling F. Lewis) - 10h 49m 50s
3rd - Paulo Costa (Dave Scott) - 10h 55m 46s
In the end, 10 athletes cut the finish line, with the last one finishing the race with the stopwatch approaching 14 hours.
It turned out to be much more than a triathlon race, it was a great party among all athletes, family, friends and people who ended up being attracted to the place. It was a busy day, from 6:30 until the time they just left the place, already close to 23h.
It should be noted that despite having considered giving medals to the first classified, it was decided to give only one laurel wreath to each one, similar to what happened on February 18, 1978, in Hawaii.
Final classification:
1st - Pedro Reis (Lino Barruncho) - 10h 44m 55s
2nd - Pedro Magalhães (Sterling F. Lewis) - 10h 49m 50s
3rd - Paulo Costa (Dave Scott) - 10h 55m 46s
4th - Miguel Lobão (Sérgio Marques) - 11h 29m 30s
5th - Rui Pena (Dan Hendrikson) - 11h 38m 15s
6th - José Silva (Henrry Forrest) - 12h 52m 40s
7th - António Gavina (Emanuel Marques) - 13h 09m 15s
8th - Rui Pinto (John Dumbar) - 13h 12m 25s
9th - Fernando Ferreira (Craig Alexander) - 13h 14m 14s
10th - Miguel Vieira (Mark Allen) - 13h 45m 25s
