Countdown To Kona: Temptation Island (2001)
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With the Ironman World Championship set to take place eight days from today, we take a look at back at each race from the past three decades. Today, we go back to 2001 and the year Tim DeBoom finally got his victory. All of the following photos and text are taken from the book, “30 Years of The Ironman Triathlon World Championship” by Bob Babbitt.
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The date was October 14, 2000. They embraced at the finish line. What could be better? Two training partners, two buddies taking first and second place at the most important triathlon on earth. But as they dripped sweat on each other, their thoughts were oh, so different.
“I was thinking, ‘I lost the Ironman by two lousy minutes,’” remembers Tim DeBoom. “I knew that every time I went out for a ride or a run or a swim for the next 12 months, that two minutes would both haunt me and push me. Two minutes? You’ve got to be kidding.”
Peter Reid, on the other hand, saw the same two minutes, but it told him an entirely different story.
“Winning that race was so hard knowing that Tim was coming back on me,” remembers Reid. “Every step was agony. It was so much tougher than my first win in Hawaii. I decided that 2001 would not be close. I would train hard that I wouldn’t just win the Ironman, I’d dominate.”
Tim Deboom turned into a man on a mission. A little over two minutes – 129 ticks of the clock to be exact. That was the motivation, that was the impetus.
“There wasn’t a day that went by where I didn’t think about it,” says DeBoom.
Tim Deboom came back in 2001 to win by more than 15 minutes with a time of 8:31:18.