As a reminder, voting is still ongoing for the women’s ballot.

Ryan: We had a good spirited debate on the women’s nominations for this award. Let’s turn it over to the men. Who’s on your short list?

Kevin: Well, this should be fun. I am sure you will be shocked that I would put Patrick Lange on the list – while his year wasn’t super-consistent, he came through on the biggest stage in record-setting style. While he ended up short on the IRONMAN Pro Series title, he still finished second in that. As I mentioned earlier with the women – being an IRONMAN world champion in Germany is huge (yes, I know he lives in Austria, but that won’t affect anything on the sponsorship or appearance front). Taking a third Kona title puts him in some pretty rare company, and 7:35:53 … well, that just takes it all to another level, too. 

While I feel Magnus Ditlev deserves mention for his Roth performance and general consistency through the year, I really don’t think he can factor into the discussion as he didn’t get a world title or contend for the top of the podium in either the T100 standings of the IRONMAN Pro Series. 

I think you have to put Marten Van Riel in the equation (especially since we’ve decided T100 distance is “long”) – the guy won three T100 races and finished second in the other one he competed in. He also managed a seventh-place finish in Cozumel despite having to wait to file a police report after his accident. 

And then there is Jelle Geens. He ticks off the box of having won a world championship (Taupo) and was the only person to beat Van Riel in a T100 race this year (Lake Las Vegas). He was consistent in his other 70.3 appearances – second in Zell am See, third in Tallinn and fourth in Oceanside – and also managed another Olympic appearance (his third) before truly turning his sights to the long-distance stuff. 

Is there anyone you think I’m missing, Ryan?

Ryan: I think you have to put Gregory Barnaby in the discussion given the reasoning you have for eliminating Ditlev; winning the IM Pro Series has to count for something. Again, dueling top 10s at the two IRONMAN World Championships, plus three podiums on the year, counts for something.

But I also would put more weight on Ditlev’s season than you did, Kevin. Although he didn’t wind up contending in the season standings, it’s not like his results at T100 were lackluster. In four races he took a win, two fourths, and then an eighth at the finale – which came just a few weeks after his second place in Kona. 

This is probably controversial, but I think we might have to look at eliminating Lange from this. Yes, he’s the reigning IRONMAN World Champion. Yes, he also won IRONMAN Texas this year. But his 70.3 performances were abysmal by comparison. And I think we have to wind up giving more credit to athletes who are able to excel across the spectrum of what we’re calling long course. (No matter how important winning a world title is in Germany.) That logic also tends toward us eliminating Geens, despite the 70.3 world title.

So for me, this becomes a discussion of Van Riel, Ditlev, and Barnaby. Obviously Ditlev and Barnaby were both more successful at the full distance this year than Van Riel was. Van Riel’s got the world title in his pocket. Barnaby’s consistency got him a $200,000 bonus. And Ditlev was really strong at the two biggest full distance events in the world and had a solid run of T100 races.

I feel like now we have to get very nitpicky, Kevin.

Kevin: I hear you. And I agree that Gregory should be added to the mix, for sure. While I believe that we need to acknowledge his season, it seems crazy to me that we’d give him the Athlete of the Year award over guys who beat him at all the major races. The IRONMAN Pro Series rewards consistency, but are we ready to give the award to someone who was sixth at the IRONMAN World Championship and ninth at the 70.3 worlds? 

I would be happy to leave Magnus in the discussion, too, but remain reluctant to leave Patrick out of the equation. Maybe it’s the era I come from. Back when I was racing, Dave Scott won Kona more times than he didn’t, and often didn’t perform super-well at other races through the season. There was a reason his nickname was “The Man,” though – that ability to come through on the one day that really counted amounted to a lot. Patrick did that in style this year – his win didn’t just net him a world title, it put him in some very special company as one of the all-time Kona greats. The list of three-time Kona champs? Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Peter Reid, Craig Alexander, Jan Frodeno and now Patrick Lange. That, to me, is worth acknowledging.

Ryan: Here’s the thing I struggle with on Lange: yes, he won Kona. And he wound up earning the win in Texas, albeit a few months after the fact due to Tomas Rodriguez-Hernandez’s anti-doping sanction. But his record at 70.3 this year was atrocious – his best showing of the year was 16th place at Oceanside, more than 15 minutes behind winner Lionel Sanders. (Yes, forum readers, we’ve officially hit our Lionel quota for an article on men’s racing.)

And yes, to me, “of the year” by definition means we are looking at the entirety of the season, not just one race or performance. Just like a win in Kona or Nice or Roth carries a heavy weight, not being in the mix at another distance (or for a bunch of the year) should also carry a lot of weight. To me, Lange was so far behind in 70.3 events this year that it pulls the value of his two IM wins down.

Perhaps this all puts Ditlev’s season into further perspective – he was competitive every time he started, won the largest full distance race not named IRONMAN World Championships, and took second at IM Worlds (in the fifth fastest time ever in Kona). For as much as I like Barnaby, and that IM Pro Series consistency paid off in a healthy paycheck, I think Ditlev’s year probably outweighs it.

So to me it’s a Ditlev vs. Van Riel conversation. Ditlev was more successful at long course, and competitive at T100. Van Riel was near untouchable at T100 with a well deserved world title, and was on track for an excellent finish in Cozumel until that unfortunate collision. Results are results, though…

But I think we should put it to our readers at this point.

The post 2024 Slowtwitch Awards: Men’s Long Course Athlete of the Year first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Note that there is no double-dipping at this. With Taylor Knibb winning the voting for Triathlete of the Year, she is ineligible for this award.

Ryan: First, Kevin, I think we probably need to set some parameters as to how we define Long Course, because I’m sure that will ruffle a few feathers.

Kevin: You think? While I don’t necessarily agree with this, I think the PTO has pushed us into a world where T100 and up is now considered long distance. (Which, I note, is hilarious for an organization that was started to help full-distance IRONMAN athletes make more of a living – but that’s fodder for a completely different story or even a podcast!)

Ryan: Yeah. It comes down to thinking that there’s no need to divide up and have a 70.3/T100 distance award – and with World Triathlon dubbing T100 “long course,” we’ll follow along.

Going into the potential nominees, I still think the same case can be made for Kat Matthews that I made for her Triathlete of the Year nomination. Nobody raced more, and across more distances, than she did, and made an absolute killing in bonuses from the IRONMAN Pro Series victory and finishing 4th in the T100 standings. But I think there’s strong arguments for the two women who beat her on some of the larger stages: Ashleigh Gentle and Laura Philipp.

Gentle’s year was similar to that of Matthews; she raced 7 times and was on the podium for 5 of them. Head-to-head, Gentle and Matthews raced 5 times together, with Gentle coming out ahead 3 out of 5 times, including at the T100 Grand Final in Dubai. And although it doesn’t count for the purposes of this award, Gentle also extended her unbelievable win streak in Noosa.

As for Philipp: obviously, she emerged over Matthews in that duel at the IRONMAN World Championships in Nice to take her first world title. She also had her strong second place in Roth. When you race nine times in a year, and your worst finishing position is 7th, that’s an awfully strong campaign. 

For me this comes down to Matthews and Philipp, and it’s not too dissimilar from the point I was trying to make for Triathlete of the Year: I think it’s important that you show the versatility of being able to race both T100/70.3 distance and 140.6. And that’s something that Gentle just has not done.

Kevin: For sure Kat needs to be considered the front-runner on this one. Some notes, though. There was one athlete who actually raced more than Kat last year – I did a profile on Els Visser yesterday. (I did note right off the bat in that piece that she wasn’t likely to be in the running for any Triathlete of the Year awards, but did enjoy a pretty spectacular season.) There’s another name I would add to the discussion – Anne Haug. If you asked me in July who was going to be the Triathlete of the Year, I would have been willing to bet it would be her. I was in Lanzarote when she broke Paula Newby Fraser’s long-standing course record, and wished I had made it to Roth to watch that otherworldly 8:02:38 performance. I truly couldn’t see any way she wasn’t going to win Nice at that point – I hope my beliefs didn’t jinx her.

Unfortunately, as amazing as those two performances were, the rest of the season wasn’t Triathlete of the Year worthy. (Yes, I am also asking myself why I even went down that road, but it just seemed weird not to have any mention of Haug in this mix!)

I agree on your Ashleigh Gentle points, Ryan. I don’t think she ends up ahead of either Kat or Laura based on her mostly T100, with a touch of 70.3 and a dash of Olympic-distance (Noosa) race season.  

Which leaves us with the Kat / Laura debate for this one. I do believe there is an argument for giving Laura Philipp the award here. As you pointed out, her two “worst” performances were the pair of seventh-place finishes at T100 Lake Las Vegas and T100 Dubai, both of which came after her incredible day in Nice. It’s impressive to me she even made it to those races. People in North America have no idea how big a deal it is to be an IRONMAN world champion over in Germany. The sponsor and media requirements for her after winning Nice must have been nuts. 

Philipp’s year was truly focussed on Nice, too. After the race she told me that she’d had it in her head that the race in Nice was her best shot at a world title from the day IRONMAN announced they would be heading there. So, I guess it comes down to what people think is most important when it comes to picking a Triathlete of the Year. Consistency? Being able to take the world title? A combination of the two?

Happy to hear any arguments, or simply send this to a vote!

Ryan: I think this one is awfully close. In my opinion, you have to give some additional weight to performing at both IRONMAN world championship races (and, for that matter, Dubai as well). But I suppose we can send it to a vote.

The post 2024 Slowtwitch Awards: Women’s Long Course Athlete of the Year first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

First up is the big prize: Triathlete of the Year.

Kevin: Well this one is easy. She won the T100 Triathlon World Tour. She took her third straight 70.3 world championship. She also put together an incredible sprint to get the Americans the silver medal in the mixed relay at the Olympics. (There were a bunch of other T100 wins, Oceanside 70.3 and the national TT championship, too.) On the “long-distance” triathlon front – I am anticipating we’ll have a good ol’ debate about that, too – she was unbeaten this year. I really can’t imagine how this can go to anyone other than Taylor Knibb.  

Ryan: I can go different than Taylor Knibb!

When I think of Triathlete of the Year, I think of remarkable consistency across the entirety of the year, regardless of what they were racing. Don’t get me wrong: Knibb’s run of success is remarkable. She’s unbeatable at 70.3/T100. But her individual results at Olympic distance events was lacking, outside of a single second place early in the year: 19th in Paris, 11th in Caligari, her last two races at that distance. I also don’t put too much stock in Mixed Team Relay results, especially when you had the early race collision between New Zealand and France.

So in my mind there’s another woman that comes to mind: Kat Matthews. Ten long course races in her year. Of her nine finishes, eight of them were fifth or better. Two wins and four seconds mark highlights, including her incredible dual silvers at IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships. She managed to satisfy both T100 and IRONMAN Pro Series requirements, earning $275,000 in year end bonuses (on top of the prize money from her other finishes). 

So I think it really just comes down to how you define your parameters, Kevin.

Kevin: I 100 percent hear you that Kat’s year was incredible. I certainly acknowledged that in the story I did on her IRONMAN Pro Series win last week. I even acknowledged how impressive the year was considering the adversity she faced – torn calf in Miami, DQ in Hamburg. 

In terms of my parameters, normally a season like hers would get my vote. For me, though, the head-to-head competition has to be a factor when you’re handing out the “triathlete of the year.” Yes, Kat got to within 1:15 of Taylor in Taupo, but at no point was Taylor ever threatened in that race – you certainly got the feeling there was another gear there if it was needed. I won’t count the difference in any of the T100 fall races because Kat was still recovering from Nice, but you look back at T100 San Francisco and the gap was pretty close to four minutes. 

The other factor, for me, comes from Kat herself. At the post-race press conference in Taupo, she (and the rest of the women in attendance) acknowledged that Taylor was in a different league this year. Yes, I know they’re likely being professional and respectful (Kat Matthews, Ashleigh Gentle, Imogen Simmonds and Julie Derron are all class acts), but they all made it pretty clear that Taylor was a step above them over the half distance this year.

And I might be a bit biased since I was there watching the Paris Games, but it is really hard to discount Taylor’s performance there. Bouncing back from a brutal time in the Time Trial, and a tough day in the individual, she found another level to get the US up a spot on the podium. I get that France should have dominated that day, but that’s racing. You can only compete with the people who are there.

Back when I used to do this for Triathlon Magazine, one of our criteria for Triathlete of the Year was that the athlete had to have won a world championship or major event (Olympics) to be considered. Part of the logic for that idea was we wanted to celebrate an athlete who “rose to the occasion” – was able to come through on the big day. I feel like Kat even got that – in Taupo there was no thought of “playing it safe” to ensure she took the IRONMAN Pro Series – she was going for the win, plain and simple.

Ryan: I hate the logic that you must have won a world title for consideration for this. You don’t vote for the year-end most valuable player in other sports based on their performance in the playoffs or a series (there’s usually one specifically for those events). It’s off of what they did in the entirety of the year.

Knibb would be my immediate pick for another award that we have coming. Her dominance is undeniable at 70.3 right now. But by that logic of having won a world title, I think we’d then throw Cassandre Beaugrand into the mix for Triathlete of the Year. To take Olympic and WTCS gold in the same year, IMO, is a bigger deal than Knibb’s display at 70.3/T100. She swept WTCS events. She finished second at eSports worlds. And that dominating display on home soil for gold is something else.

Ultimately, though, that’s why I think Matthews winds up the pick; she didn’t just do it at one distance. She does it at 70.3/T100 and at full iron-distance events. From the hilliest of course in Nice to pancake flat ones in Texas, she’s at the front of the field.

This might need to come down to some run-off voting.

Kevin: I totally see where you are coming from, and we argued long and hard over that criteria. In the end, though, we were looking to acknowledge the people who came up big at the major events. It’s funny that you mentioned Cassandre Beaugrand – I was going to suggest that if there was anyone who could arguably win the award not named Taylor Knibb, it would be her. To have won the Olympics in front of a home crowd was an incredible performance – I can’t imagine the pressure she was dealing with. She followed that up with her first world title, showing the consistency required of a world champion by winning the Grand Final to go along with WTCS wins in Cagliari and Hamburg. 

I do feel that there needs to be a level of consistency throughout the year to win the award. Taylor won middle-distance races from April to December – remember, she was unbeaten on that front all year. Cassandre’s only two “losses” in the World Triathlon realm this year came in March, a second at the Europe Triathlon Cup Quarteira, and April, a second at the E World Triathlon Championships in London. That’s why I would happily argue that either Taylor or Cassandre take the award over, say, Patrick Lange. While I would happily give Patrick the “performance of the year” for his incredible race in Kona, he wasn’t nearly as strong through the rest of 2024. I don’t think Patrick will be too worried about that, though – my guess is that even though he wasn’t as consistent, he’ll happily take his Kona win over Gregory Barnaby’s IRONMAN Pro Series title.

While I am not crazy about the coin flip idea, I am more than happy to let this be decided by votes – maybe through the forum?

Since I am the newbie editor here, I will leave that up to you, Ryan!

Ryan: I think that’s a very fair way of doing this.

Alright, Slowtwitchers: it’s now your choice. You can vote now in the forum thread for this article between our final three nominees.

The post 2024 Slowtwitch Awards: Triathlete of the Year first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

There’s no-doubt that the T100 Triathlon World Tour has added a lot of money to pro triathletes’ coffers (or, at least, the lucky 20 or so who have been able to compete). It is interesting, though, that even the top athletes from the series are still looking to keep the door open to be able to compete at IRONMAN races. Certainly the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO), the folks behind the series, have been open to athletes competing at other races. It still has to smart for the PTO, though, that just a week after being crowned world champion at the T100 finale in Dubai, Belgium’s Marten Van Riel is on his way to race in Cozumel.

Van Riel will be competing in his first full-distance race. It would be silly to count him out. He’s only “lost” one long-distance race in his career – his runner-up finish to Jelle Geens at T100 Lake Las Vegas. In addition to his other T100 wins (San Francisco, Ibiza and Dubai), Van Riel won IRONMAN 70.3 Xiamen in 2019, Ironman Dubai in 2022 and 2023, and also won Ironman 70.3 Fortaleza last year.

Van Riel is looking to earn himself a slot for the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice next year. By nailing the spot this weekend, he’ll be able to grab that T100 contract and race that series without having to try and fit in an IRONMAN race along the way.

Of course we all know that there’s no guarantees with any IRONMAN race, let alone a first, but Van Riel won’t exactly have to rip things apart to get himself to Nice next September. As the Latin American Championship, the race offers five pro men’s and women’s spots for the 2025 world champs. And, while he’ll be taking on some seasoned IRONMAN types, including defending champion Leon Chevalier (FRA), who took fourth in Kona last month, American Chris Leiferman and Australian cyclist/ pro triathlete Cam Wurf, as long as Van Riel can remain patient and not push too hard too soon, one would think a top-five finish is quite realistic.

Kona for Knibb?

Women’s T100 world champ Taylor Knibb will be going after her third straight IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Taupo next month. The American has long had a “do it all” approach to her racing – she followed her Olympic-qualifying race at the Paris Test Event in 2023 with her second 70.3 world title and then her first IRONMAN in Kona, where she finished fourth. In Kona last year she made it abundantly clear that the goal was to get experience on the course in order to come back in 2025 and go after the win.

There’s no arguing that the T100 racing this year has offered some big names, lots of prize money and very expensive live coverage. The organization has been outspending its incoming revenue at an alarming rate. Which is why one would imagine, at some point, we’ll see the PTO try to put some pressure on athletes to race exclusively at their events. Especially if the first thing its world champions are doing after they win the titles is to get ready for an IRONMAN World Championship.

The post T100 Champ Marten Van Riel Sets His Sights on IRONMAN first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Today roughly 2,000 athletes will be competing in one of the longest-running events on the North American IRONMAN circuit – IRONMAN Arizona. The first race took place on April 9, 2005, hosted by the City of Tempe and the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community. Renowned as a fast course, the race consists of a one-loop swim in the cool waters of Tempe Town Lake, followed by a three-loop bike course that follows the Beeline Highway and is traditionally extremely fast. The day wraps up with a three-loop bike course that mostly follows Tempe Town Lake and is, like the bike course, relatively flat and fast.

The extreme heat of the April event led to a calendar switch in 2008 which moved the race to the November date that we’re now accustomed to. (There were actually two races held that year, not unlike 1982 when the Ironman World Championship changed its date. As the managing editor of ironman.com at the time, I lived the headaches of trying to figure out how to have two sets of results for the same race in the same year up on the site.) Rather than diminish the race’s stature as a pro event, the move raised the profile as athletes looked to either kick off the next season with an early world-championship qualifying spot, or round out an otherwise lackluster season with a big day.

Pro Racing

It wasn’t as if the race didn’t attract some big names over the first few years. The inaugural event was won by Germany’s Faris Al-Sultan, who would go on to win in Kona later that year, while Australian Kate Major, a three-time Kona bronze medalist during her career, took the women’s race. In 2006 it was Michellie Jones’ turn to use the Arizona race as a build up to a Kona title, while in 2007 Rutger Beke, the 2003 Kona runner-up, would take the title.

In 2009 Andreas Raelert made his Ironman debut in Arizona, following on his runner-up finish at the 70.3 worlds just a few weeks before and serving as a precursor to his five Ironman World Championship podium finishes over the next seven years. That same year Canadian Samantha McGlone began the trend of top athletes bouncing back after Kona to compete in Arizona – she took the win after a fifth-place finish on the Big Island. A year later German star Timo Bracht followed up his sixth-place Kona finish with a win in Tempe.

World-best times

It was 2010 that really put Ironman Arizona on the map as the “redemption” race for those who hadn’t performed as they’d hoped on the Big Island. That year Chrissie Wellington (photo above), the three-time defending Kona champ, had pulled out of the race in Hawaii due to illness. Looking to end the season with a big day, the British star blasted to an 8:36:13 finish, enough for eighth overall and shattering the previous IRONMAN best time (Sandra Wallenhorst’s 8:47:26 at IRONMAN Austria in 2008) by over 11 minutes. (And, yes, we know that Wellington had gone 8:19:13 at Challenge Roth earlier that same year – the race in Arizona was an IRONMAN best.)

While no-one has topped Wellington’s time since then (Heather Jackson went 8:39:18 in winning the 2018 race), there have been a raft of speedy men’s times over the years. Spain’s Eneko Llanos was the first man to break the eight-hour barrier at Ironman Arizona in 2011 (7:59:38). In 2014 Canadian Brent McMahon blasted to a 7:55:48 finish, a pre-cursor to his world-best Ironman time set at Ironman Brazil the following spring. In 2016 another Canadian, Lionel Sanders, took the second of his three-straight Ironman Arizona titles in 7:44:29, setting a new IRONMAN record. That performance remains the fastest time recorded in Tempe. (Sanders is another example of athletes bouncing back after tough days on the Big Island with an appearance in Tempe, although his third win came after his runner-up Kona finish in 2017.)

Rudy’s redemption

Pros weren’t the only ones looking to use the Arizona race as a chance to come back after a tough day in Kona. In 2009, double-leg amputee Rudy Garcia-Tolson missed the bike cut off in Kona by eight minutes. He would line up in Arizona for another attempt at the distance, this time reaching the finish line in 16:06:27.

Age-Group only racing

Despite that rich history of professional racing, prize-money events in Tempe have been a bit sporadic over the last few years. In 2019 the race was held as women’s-only pro event, with the 2020 event cancelled due to COVID. The 2021 race was an age-group only race, with around 2,000 athletes racing. In 2022 there were pro men and women on hand as Brit Joe Skipper and American Olympian Sarah True took the wins. Last year, as with this year, sees age-group only racing again.

IRONMAN Arizona remains one of the brand’s mainstay events because of the huge fields it has attracted over the years. The inaugural event in 2005 had 1,682 starters, which ballooned to 2,399 in 2009. (Registrations would have been much higher.) The race would routinely see well over 2,300 athletes start on race morning, including the 2,523 that hit Tempe Town Lake in 2013. Those numbers prove just how popular (and lucrative) the race has been.

The post Celebrating 20 years of racing at IRONMAN Arizona first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

IRONMAN Arizona is celebrating its 20th year this year. The long-standing event is the staple closer of the North American full distance racing season. Although the event has ebbed and flowed in popularity, IRONMAN is reporting a race sellout for the weekend. It’s traditionally a Slowtwitch favorite — both for the ease of the event in Tempe, as well as producing typically fast times and an early ticket to the IRONMAN World Championships. This year is solely spotlighting the age group field, as it is one of the few times this race does not feature professionals.

We will be on site late this week for Sunday’s race. Here are a few of the age groupers we’re going to be keeping an eye on.

Could a World Record Be Set?

The current world record for the oldest finisher is Hiromu Inada. The Japanese athlete has finished races through 2022 and attempted another finish this year at IRONMAN Cairns at the age of 91 (he finished the swim and bike). That record is in jeopardy with Steve Gray from Mount Pleasant, Utah. At 98 years young, Gray (assuming he starts) will break Inada’s start record by seven years, and would shatter the finishing record by a decade. As of this writing, conditions look ideal for an IRONMAN finish for all athletes — light winds and temperatures in the upper 60s.

On the women’s side, Gail Hughes from Flagstaff, AZ is the oldest competitor at 72. Hughes is a long-time IRONMAN athlete, having qualified for the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona before. She’s also a former member of the USA Triathlon Board of Directors.

Young Athletes Racing

Looking to the opposite end of the age spectrum and you’ll find two eighteen year olds toeing the line this weekend. Ashley Forrest is the youngest woman in the field. Lane Wheeler is the youngest man. He’ll be racing with his father this weekend. Wheeler has Tourette’s syndrome with Coprolalia; it involves involuntary utterances of obscene words or phrases.

Athletes With Charitable Causes

As is typical with an IRONMAN event, many athletes starting are doing so as part of a fundraising or awareness campaign. One such athlete is Timothy Bolen of Tempe. Bolen founded 2Gether We Live in 2017, an organization which gives sport participation opportunities to individuals who can’t actively compete by themselves. Volunteers for the organization provide the propulsion for these individuals, whether in triathlon, skiing, hiking, or other opportunities. The organization currently has a roster of approximately 30 families they are assisting with participation, and over 70 athlete volunteers. According to the organization’s website, their greatest need are additional Hoyt chairs. Bolen is racing alongside his daughter, Cloe.

There’s also Dan Lee from Boulder. The 31-year old veteran struggled with adjustment into civilian life following his exit from the Army in October, 2021. Like some of his fellow vets, Lee experienced panic attacks and an identity crisis. Counseling was a great assist for Lee. Lee is racing IRONMAN Arizona to raise funds for ROGER, which provides free counseling, crisis intervention, and suicide prevention services to veterans and service members.

The post Some of the Stories of IRONMAN Arizona first appeared on Slowtwitch News.