Kona, Hawaii.

This is the view of Ironman Village in Kona, where hundreds of participants of the 2005 Ironman World Championship will wait for the starting gun approximately 4 days from now. Ironman Hawaii is regarded as the Holy Grail of Ironman, in which Ironman is regarded by some as the mother of endurance sport.

And hell, they're having a blast out there! The picture above, taken during Ironman Parade recently, shows that you can always have fun before tormenting yourself over 10 hours of endurance activity.


As for me, I want to do my Ironman in Kona someday. Kona, its like the Mecca for Ironman. How bad do I want to go there? As much as I want to go to Mecca itself. I will probably compete in Langkawi Ironman 2 years from now. Hey, you gotta start somewhere, rite? You gotta live your life to the fullest. When you've reach a certain point in your life, you'll be asking, "What's next?". So, what is life after Ironman? I dunno. Ask me later. I'm not there yet. I still have a long way to go.

What is Ironman? It's not just a sport which consist of 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42km run. Its a display of courage, determination and passion of mere mortals. I shed some tears watching last year's Ironman. Young; elderly; mothers; fathers; teachers; doctors; those who aren't so lucky that their bike broke; physically challanged people; those doing it for fundraising, crossing the finish line after giving what they've got. These people arent pro's. They're just like you and me. At the beginning of the race, they are recognised by their numbers. But do they want it to stay that way at the end of the day? No, they want to be known as an Ironman.


ps: Azwar, im going to hold on to your words!