Pursuits

The Ironman: Triathlete Executives' Ultimate Status Feat

The Ironman is the world's hardest major endurance race and the ultimate status bauble for high-earning, high-achieving executives

Hawaii’s Ironman includes a 2.4-mile swim, here near the start at the Kailua-Kona pier ...Photograph by Wayne Levin

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By Elizabeth Weil

December 14, 2012 at 3:06 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

BusinessWeek Cover Image (12_51, portrait_2x)

This article is part of the December 17, 2012 issue of businessweek.

On the Thursday before the 2012 Ironman World Championship in Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii, Troy Ford stood in the lobby of the King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel. Around him were several gaunt men with shaved legs, hands steadying their composite bicycles costing upwards of $10,000 each. Ford is the director of the Ironman Executive Challenge program, or XC, as everyone calls it. For $9,000, or about 10 times the regular registration price, XC provides a way to VIP the Ironman, which, for the uninitiated, is a 2.4-mile open-water swim followed by a scorching 112-mile bike ride and a full 26.2-mile marathon run. It’s the hardest major endurance race in the world and the ultimate status bauble for a certain set of high-earning, high-achieving, high-VO2-max CEOs.

The Ironman: Triathlete Executives' Ultimate Status Feat — Finisherpix