There’s no parallel in the world of sports to the final few hours at the finish line of the Ironman World Championship on Alii Drive.
Champions Sebastian Kienle and Mirinda Carfrae danced, a raucous crowd of well over 1,000 cheered, and the familiar voice of Mike Reilly — the voice of Ironman — rang across Kailua Bay as he welcomed the final athletes to the finish line with his patented, “You are an Ironman” slogan.
Kona is the Super Bowl of triathlon and covering those final 100 yards — for almost any finisher — feels like scoring the game-winning touchdown. As the clock ticked toward midnight, the crowd welcomed the 60-plus finishers who came in within the final hour with a roar that equaled even the greeting the champions got while making their trip down Alii.
Just before the midnight cutoff, the crowd got a special treat. Billy Kenoi, the Mayor of Hawaii Island, came cross the finish line with minutes to spare, on wobbly legs and fists pumping.
Kenoi finished in 16 hours 54 minutes 13 seconds and became the first Big Island mayor to start and finish the island’s most iconic athletic event.
After a brief and emotional gathering with his family and slapping hands with Kienle and Carfrae, the mayor headed to the medical tent to rehydrate and recover.
The mayor’s overall rank was 1,982 and he was 227th out of 247 in the men’s 45-49 age group.
Despite nearly racing into Sunday, Kenoi was not the final Big Island finisher. Robert Erickson, 66, of Pahoa, followed just over a minute later as the final Hawaii Island athlete and second to last overall.
The crowd counted down to midnight, and unlike in the past, no finishers were close enough to make the final sprint to cross the line. But as the Ironfans began to disperse, a familiar roar traveled down Alii.
With the fire dancers on stage for the closing ceremonies, New Zealand’s Ramsay Ranui crossed as an “unofficial finisher” and he was followed by Roy Kanemitsu of Mililani, Oahu. They may not get medals or T-shirts, but the duo will have lifetime memories.
As late as 12:30 a.m. there were finishers finally making their way back to Alii. For safety purposes, Ironman officials do their best to ensure everyone is off the course after the race officially ends.
Breaking down Big Island
The Big Island had 29 finishers, according to the official results.
Professional Bree Wee was out front, with her personal-best finish of 9:34:37 and 16th among the women’s pro field.
Kailua-Kona’s Keish Doi came in just over the 10-hour mark at 10:13:49, followed by the Big Island’s top female age-grouper Andrea Bess at 11:38:30.
Big Island boys Ryan Lopossa (12:02:47) , Paul Blaber (12:03:01) and Grant Miller (12:04:31) finished just minutes apart, and just seconds separated Anita Leao (12:20:02) and Kristin Drost (12:20:55).
Winona Chen (12:46:20) and Peter Bresciani (15:09:57) had the best age group finishes of the day — Chen 19th in her 18-24 age group and Brescianai 21st in males 65-69. Coincidentally, Chen was the youngest Big Island competitor at 24 years old and Brescianai tied for the oldest at 66.
Edward Ignacio, a 44-year-old FBI agent from Oahu and graduate of Laupahoehoe High School, came across in 16:37:09. He competed in the race while wearing nearly 40 pounds of tactical gear to bring attention to a proposed law enforcement memorial in Hawaii. Hawaii is the only state that currently does not have such a memorial.
Morning splash
The famous finish line was not the only highlight of the day.
With the male professional athletes approaching the start line, the “Star-Spangled Banner” rang out across the waters, and from the sky, two Red Bull skydivers plunged into Kailua Bay.
Then the first cannon went off, sending the first wave of professionals on the 140.6-mile journey. The female professionals followed five minutes later.
For the first time in Ironman World Championship history, the male and female age groupers had separate starts. The results? Still a spectacular start and a fairer, less crammed bike transition.
Varying strategies
Kienle and Carfrae used vastly different strategies to propel themselves to the front of the pack.
Kienle, who began the bike portion of the race in 38th place, turned in an explosive performance on the road to Hawi by clocking the third-best bike time in Ironman World Championship history in 4:20:46.
After the race, an emotional Kienle talked about battling back from adversity. The German champion talked about how less than a month ago he was dealing with a nagging Achille’s injury that had caused various mental hurdles.
Kienle adds the Ironman World Championship to a trophy case that includes two Ironman 70.3 World titles (2012, ’13).
He kept it simple on social media the day after the win.
“Stay hydrated my friends — over and out,” Kienle said via Twitter.
The United States had two top-five finishers in Ben Hoffman (2nd) and Andy Potts (4th). Kienle’s countryman Jan Frodeno — an Olympic gold medalist in 2008 — finished third, and Cyril Viennot of France rounded out the top-five pro men.
The race was also the first time Australia didn’t have a podium finisher in the men’s race since 2004. Tim Van Berkel was the top Aussie, in seventh.
Carfrae was the only woman to make the podium who biked over 5 hours. Her 5:05:48 to Hawi and back put her in eighth place heading into the run and 14:32 down.
At 5 foot 3 inches, Carfrae doesn’t have the longest stride in the sport, but her spirit is strong. One by one she passed her opponents, until she had Kona rookie Daniela Ryf in sight on mile 22 of the marathon.
Ryf, an accomplished International Triathlon Union racer and the 2014 Ironman 70.3 champion, said she had just started doing full-Ironman distance races within the last few months.
She didn’t go down without a fight though, staying within striking distance for a short while before Carfrae put on the boosters heading into town.
Carfrae joined Craig Alexander as the only Australians to win the race three times and has never been lower than third in six Kona starts.
Alexander, a triathlon legend with three Kona titles and the course record, announced his retirement from the sport in March but caught the bug to come back.
“Crowie” had a disappointing 23rd-place finish last year, but bounced back with a 13th-place finish Saturday, coming in at 8:36:25.
“13th for me today. Absolute best I had. Very happy I got to do a race I love,” Alexander said on Twitter after the race.