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Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
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5 Easy Steps To The Site
1
In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
2
Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
3
Have some fun in the travel section.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
4
My Photography Gear: The Cameras/Drones/Action Cams I Use Daily
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
5
The Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
My first following of Kona was when my dad ran it in ’92
Incredible memories of all these legends with their speedo’s with fluo colors!
Rooting for the swedes in kona 2013.
watching it on TV and wondering how every swimmer didn’t get kicked in the head
This was quite recently in 2012. I was on vacation in Orlando and tried to watch the race in the big living room. My kids wanted to watch Bill Cosby show. I lost the fight and I had to evacuate myself to bedroom to continue. The race was exciting to follow and I am great fan now!
Watching Chrissie Wellington win the 2011 woman’s event.
Watched highlights on OZ tv over 20 years ago.. Australians seemed to do well!!
When I was 9 or 10, on the french television, and asked me during several days how human being were able to do this.
watching it Last year with my cousin participating.
I was very amazed when everyone started to jump in the water for the swim. Also, I thought to myself why the number of contestants were much fewer than our local ironman.
1987. Word.
Eneko Llanos kicking ass in Kona :-)
Saw some pictures in a magazine when I was younger, outside was foggy and very cold. The pictures were amazing and the water blue… I said to myself I want to be there! Still waiting to be ready, but I’m progressing
In 2013 I was preparing my first marathon and I was shocked by how fast they run after six hour of efforts
I am still moved by the 2011 race when the woman from Virginia crossed the finish line at .004 seconds past 17 hours and was NOT an Ironman. It is a cruel sport and I couldn’t help be almost brought to tears by that reality as she was cheered through the massively-populated finish chute and Mike Reilly running alongside.
Crushing.
Watching the TV reportage on Arte “Mark Allen vs Dave Scott” ;-)
Actually got inspired by your blog to watch it for the first time last year, and got tempted to try triathlon – but still having too much fun doing ultras in the mountains.
Love it when Lori Bowden beat Natascha Badmann in 2003! It was way amazing!
Watching clips on youtube for my first 1/4 triathlon last year, great motivation
cant remember when it exactly was, caused me to start runing in 2010.
Motivation to participate in an Ironman event
Last year, start to watch the snippets from twitter. Was so impressed about that, the speed distance and material. So i ended up with a evening full of watching tri movies.
Julie Moss on ABC’s Wide World of Sports
in 2012 when Pete Jacobs and Leanda Cave wins. Spend all night watching IM Kona with my newborn son in my hands… priceless
Kona is for real iron mans, definitely not for me! ;-)
Julie Moss crawling to the finish line
Awesome!
Chrissy Wellington getting a flat and then blazing past everyone.. Wow.. Inspirational.
Watching a long time ago and thinking what the heck is an ironman? And does this have something to do with those timex watches?
It was reading an article about last year’s run wherein a japanese man (well into his 70s I think) finishing his run past midnight and a race official running behind him and few people cheering him in the dark. Moved me.
I saw few pictures a long time ago in some sport magazine, which accidentaly made it through the Iron courtain.
Thanks for giveaways!
Chris McCormack rocks
Watching the runners and wondering how they keep going and do they get any time to enjoy life or is it all training training and more training.
Seeing my countryman Torbjørn Sinballe finish 3rd in 2007
some amazing swim starts
Last year for the first time most of it seen on the internet. This year again.
Just YouTube clips so far. But several books have described event so well that I have very realistic view in my head :)
It’s only quite recently that I have started to take an interest in Kona, when you start realising how many sacrifces are made to get there, and how difficult it is to qualify – Having seen Craig Alexander win for the third time was a wonderful memory….
Best two: watching Normann Stadler’s biking incidents in 2005; watching Macca vs Andreas Raelert in 2010
Hi Ray,
1st memory: fellow Belgian Mario Vanhoenacker exploding during the marathon in 2012
best memory: Fred Van Lierde winning last year
all the best
Seeing Craig Alexander winning again and again and again!
I had no idea what on earth it was, and a friend who was training for her first Ironman sent me a picture of the athletes all gathered together at Kona. I just remember thinking, “Holy crap, they’re going to do WHAT?!?!?” But then, a little while later, “Hey, there’s no reason I can’t be just like those guys someday!” :-D
Watching the last age-groupers stumble in with only minutes to spare, the relief and joy on their faces, who cares about the pros, these are the people who really inspire.
Wooh, prizes! I haven’t ever watched Kona… the nearest is probably watching that famous clip of some 90s Ironman final where two women can barely stand and have to crawl across the line… does that count?
Or! Seeing Chrissie Wellington at Ashton Court parkrun in Bristol (UK)… does that count?
Watching on you tube how competitive but also sportsmanlike
Chrissie Wellington got an Flat and a competitor gave her her C02 canisters.
Watching the swimming starts and realising I was never going to comfortable enough in the water to do something like that. Amazing.
I always liked to see these great athletes in this absolutely great environment.
My personal Hawaii-Highlight was Normann Stadlers 2nd Victory in 2006.
My first memory was watching the battle between Dave Allen and Mark Scott
Last year was the first time: awesome! Definitely will watch this year.
I watched my first Kona on a trainer session. It made me forget the non-inspiring environment in our storage room and at least to some extent think that I’m actually at Kona :)
I watched the complete ironman broadcast 1997 when my german countryman Thomas Hellriegel won the championship after two seconde places the years before. It caught me completely and started my interest for triathlon. I was 14 years old. still one of the great sportsmoments i experienced!
2012 when my friend Alex participated :-)
Watching people lined up waiting to start the swimming segment. I can feel pressure on my stomach for them and my heart starts to beat faster and stronger.
I will be there, I whisper to myself.
Mark Allen and Paula Newby-Fraser era… Especially the 1995 edition finish…
First time I heard about it was by reading an article in “L’équipe magazine”, french sports magazine, about the first ever Ironman. Ironman seems to have evolved a bit since then.
I only became interesting in tris this year, so my first memory is of checking when this year’s live coverage is in my timezone. Hopefully my best memory will be of the watch I won in the related giveaway. :-)
First IM memories are from ages ago when Luc Van Lierde was the bomb.
Firts time I really followed a race was last year, seeing Frederik take te lead.
Cheering for Freddie, Marino and Axel this year :-)
Amazing moment will always be the iron war between the two legends Dave Scott and Marc Allen. One of the greatest moments of the sport
Our public tv bradcaster here in the state of Hesse has been transmitting from Kona since the 90ies. I actually can´t remember, when I first tuned in – must have been 15 years ago or so…
Watching a friend via the tracker in 2011. He was riding when I went to sleep and was riding when I woke up . . . .
not my first memory but my favourite seeing macca and raelert have their iron war. great spectacle. First memory was seeing a challenged athlete missing the swim cut by seconds…..
Triathlon has always been of interest to me but I remember last year when thinking about running my first half marathon I watched the Kona event live in TV. I was challenging myself that I would like to run the HM under 2h when I realized the times these guys are running (for a full M) after completion of the swim and bike part. Since then it is not only of interest but pure fascination.
Craig Alexander setting that amazing record in 2011
Back in the 80’s, short item on a sports show.
Watching the webcast the first year Chrissie competed thinking.. “who the hell is that woman in the lead?!! I am a Brit but have no clue who she is!”
I was watching KONA last year. The next day I ran marathon.
Well, I’ve never saw this ironman, so I do not really know what to say… Guess it’s more than time to have a look at it now…
The nervous expectation at the start of the run…
Hi Ray,
Thanka for All your work!
In June 1988, the day before buying my first MTB I saw some Kona Ironman minutes in the TV. The thing is I was impressed by that “strange handlebar” used by Scott Tinley.
Don’t know if that were images from 1985 when he used “it” for the first time or a later edition. After that I spent more that ten years thinking in getting something like “that” (an aerobars kit).
Watching Eneko Llanos in Kona 2013… Superb!
Seeing Natascha Badmann winning it for the sixth time (and knowing I’ll stick with mountain running :) )
Watching the early years on TV with a friend who had run the Honolulu Marathon and couldn’t believe folks were going to do a marathon after swimming and biking.
I caught my first Kona years ago on TV, halfway through the running section under the brutal sun. I was in awe when the commentators mentioned for how long they had been competing.
Philip Greaves smashing the swim and bike in 2009, before blowing up in spectacular style. The youngest Ironman champ winning Ironman UK and 70.3 that year at only 20, he inspired me to take on Ironman Wales this year.
Repeatedly hitting refresh button to update the live feed; all this during night time here in Europe, tracking my fellow countrymen working their way through the field (most of the time no good at swimming, but killer bikers and runners).
Last year finally, my efforts were rewarden and one of them won the thing.
It was at the back of a triathlon shop in Bordeaux, France. We were like a dozen to watch the small computer screen streaming the webcast. We were all waiting for Ben Sanson, Da Fish, to get out of the water in front of everybody. I think he did and then the camera never showed him again.
Swim, bike and after that full marathon ………… No way!!!!!
Kona 2012: the incident on the way out of T1 between Marino and Macca.
First time was definitely on Eurosport TV, long time ago.
First time was a couple years ago when I first started browsing the internet for Triathlon, that at the time I didn’t really know outside of the Olympic discipline.
A saw clip after clip on youtube in awe, mesmerized by what the ironman distance was by itself, and the beautiful vistas in Kona and awsome crowds.
But the moment it clicked was seeing the 2010 Kona, and how after 8+ hours of effort it was possible for Chris McCormack to beat Andreas Raelert on a sprint to the finish line!
Few years back i first learned about it, reading a report from one of slovenias athletes who participated, though i never watched the race itself.
I don’t remember exactly the year, around 1992-1994, but after reading an article in a bike magazine I recorded (VHS at that time) a video from Eurosport with the summary of the last race.
I have tried to get a slot during the last three years, but I still need to improve around 15 minutes globally to get it !!
The “F*** flat tire” mental breakdown of Norman Stadler (2005) after his second flat tire!! That was so hard to watch ….
Watching on TV I was really hooked watching the back stories of the Age Groupers that have gone through so much to get to the start and then seeing so many fight so hard to get to the end. Stories of Heart Transplant athletes participating and the heartbreak of them not finishing, fathers and daughters doing it together, all so amazing.
I was behind the Finish Line in 1997 working as a volunteer. I was a big Chris Legh fan and seeing him staggering from side to side down the Finishing Chute left me in tears! I saw him collapse in absolute exhaustion against the fencing and then he made many valiant attempts to crawl to the Finish Line to no avail. He was carried across the line on a stretcher and DNF (Medical DQ). It has become an iconic moment of the race and testament to how far people will push themselves to achieve the ultimate glory. Indelible memory of such a brutal event. Now that I am an Ironman, it helps me to appreciate just how difficult that Ironman Triathlon can be.
A couple of years ago, shortly after I decided to do my first triathlon race, I watched the “Kona crawl” on YouTube.
For me the swim start is one of the most exciting moments of every year!
Watching the 1989 Iron War. Still the best race in Kona ever.
Staying up all night in 2012 to watch it on a wifi connection that kept cutting out – first time I’d seen an ironman and was I blown away by it!
Some four years ago a great friend of mine and I made a gentleman’s agreement. Whomever of us that would qualify first to the World Championships would let the other ‘tag-along’. See that my knee ‘died’ during my first year of training, the odds favored my friends as being the winner of this bet. And so he did! At last year’s Copenhagen Ironman he got his spot at Kona. Which meant that last year’s World Championships was enjoyed on the sidelines at Kona, yelling my longs out. A wild and amazing experience – one of the best weeks of my life!
I remember several videos on youtube of Hawaii.
The best time I remember is a change of pace running Mark Allen before reaching any goal and worst arrival dehydration and muscle failure of some participants.
Just awesome performance by all finishers!
Last Year at Kona… epic!
Talking to a friend that has completed Kona once, amazing stories!
See clips on Wide World of Sports – I think that was the show.
Saw it 5 years ago on TV and it started me on my triathlon/fitness journey which has been awesome!
My best Kona memory is most definitely watching Craig break The record in 2011. He didn’t even look that exhausted.
just today on Youtube !
Watching PJ cruise in the last few km in 2012, such a cool race dynamic.
Last year was Epic. Frederik Van Lierde running like a mad man to finally cross the line first. Very inspiring.
I was a child watching my first Kona back in the 80s – all I can remember is the TV crew in a large van with a huge TV camera sticking out the back filming the lead cyclist drafting! :)
Just 3years ago…but i remember watching the start of the swim when the water suddenly turned white as everyone started swimming! started Tri the following year.
Awesome. :-)