Ironmen become Supermen

An IM is tough enough - imagine doing it with 1 leg...

This ou was blind- did the swim attached to his guide

Eish, the weather really threw a curveball at these ou's. Howling wind, and some serious rain showers created challenging conditions for Sunday's Ironman. But when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

It pissed with rain in the morning - which meant I decided the most appropriate attire to go watch the start in was my wetsuit! There was some heavy chop and a moer of a current running. I saw some ou's bail even before the swim, just collected their bags and went home. Then one ou swam out for about 50m, decided he was over it, turned round and swam right back! The jetski's and rubberducks were working constantly pulling exhausted swimmers out and back to shore.

Got goosebumps a few times when I saw peeps that really epitomised the Ironman motto of "Anthing is Possible". I saw a guy struggling to get out the shallows, he kept on falling over - well, turned out he only had one leg. They were allowed to give him his crutches when he dragged himself onto the beach, then he had to get himself up off the sand and hop up the beach to the transition. Next a guy came in attached with a rope to another guy. He was blind and he had swam an entire 4km being roped to a guide. Pretty damn scary to be out in the middle of a mean and nasty ocean and not be able to see a flipping thing.

The bike was a challenge in the wind. Some poor bugger got blown off his bike as he came past us where 3rd avenue intersects with Marine Drive - he hadn't expected the gust of wind that pumped down the street as he passed the road - and next thing he was blown off his bike and over the hedge onto the grass. Just another fun day in the saddle.

The run suffered from more gale force winds, and some driving rain showers just to really round off an already kak weather day. But hey, the ou's still plodded along. Big up's to everyone who competed and managed to finish. Local surfers Wes Weihahn, James Medcalf and Garth Wright were amongst the finishers - respect. Although it does mean they miss out on the surf today cos they probably can't walk!

Til this time next year......get training peeps. If Ollie le Roux can finish, so can you!

PS The Ironman 4 the Kidz charity raised R1.5 million for under-privileged kids, great stuff guys.