Well this morning i woke up really early for a race, the funny thing is, that I wasn’t even taking part. I was going to watch the 2009 version of the race I did because there were a couple of big (triathlon) stars in town for the race. Just as promised, Both Craig “Crowie” Alexander, the reigning 2008 Ironman World Champion and Christ “Macca” McCormack, the 2007 Ironman World Champion were in town.
I got to the start just shortly before the race started (at about 7am). I milled around and then took my place on the jetty that overlooks the swim start. I found it hard to recognize the pros in their swim caps and goggles so pretty much took pictures of everything in the hopes of identifying them later.
While the pros were still in the water i scampered off to the transition where I knew i could get a good look at them getting ready for the bike leg. I was curious whether Crowie and Macca would be close at this stage. Sure enough, they were neck and neck. They were even positioned next to each other in transition.
Another person that I came to watch was Yvonne Van Vlerken because she is actually the world record holder over the iron-distance. Although she started the bike leg, she retired from the race for some reason.
The bike, all 90.1km of it did little to separate Crowie and Macca, but the run was a completely different story. As soon as they were off onto the run, Crowie started putting the hurt on. He moved past Macca and just kept extending his lead throughout the 21.1km segment. Crowie didn’t even look like he was trying that hard and it was amazing that somebody as good as Macca could be dropped like that.
Just before Crowie was about to reach the finish i positioned myself JUST before the finish line and waited. Soon enough i saw him approaching the finishing chute.
As he ran by he high-fived people in the crowd INCLUDING ME!! He stopped short of the line, turned around and bowed. It was quite fitting since it was indeed a great performance. He then went on to win the race in a new record time!
When Macca did come in, he also high-fived me on the way through. 
Actually Simon Thompson and Peter Jacobs also did that! I had a great time watching and the four and a half hours i spent watching really flew by… amazing! A couple more photos are below, but there’s a bigger set at http://picasaweb.google.com/ianhall/AvivaIronman703Singapore2009
This entry was posted on March 22, 2009 at 11:25 pm and is filed under race, singapore, triathlon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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March 31, 2009 at 8:39 am |
2nd career as a sports commentator?
March 31, 2009 at 7:57 pm |
Sure! Sign me up!