How To Watch The Ironman World Championship

Want to follow the Ironman World Championship for the first time on Oct. 8? Here’s what you need to know.

The exclusive live coverage will be on Ironman.com, and Ironman tends to gather some top former and current professionals to serve as commentators for the race—last year’s race featured Ironman world champion Greg Welch, and pro triathletes Michael Lovato and Matt Lieto. The live coverage—both a live blog and video stream—will begin on Saturday, Oct. 8 at approximately 6:25 a.m. HST (that’s 9:25 a.m. on the West Coast and 12:25 p.m. on the East Coast). That’s right when the male pros will start, and the female pros will start five minutes later (at 6:30 a.m.). The race will have separate age-group starts, with the men beginning at 6:55 a.m. and the age-group women at 7:10 a.m. The coverage will be mainly following the pro race and will be interspersed with interesting stories of age-group athletes. The video stream will be available to watch on demand following the race at Ironmanlive.com. If you’re following a friend, the enhanced Athlete Tracker tool on Ironman.com now includes multiple time splits for the bike and run, so you can know where exactly on the course he or she is at any time.

Leading up to the race, athletes, media and organizers will be using #IMKona on Twitter and Instagram.

The NBC coverage of the race will air on Saturday, Dec. 10, at 2:30 p.m. ET (check local listings for details). The Ironman World Championship special is generally an accelerated schedule of the eight-hour pro race, and also has an emphasis on inspiring stories of age-groupers.

Check Triathlete.com after the race for video interviews with the top finishers and race analysis of the 2016 Ironman World Championship. Follow all of the race-week action at Triathlete.com/Kona2016.