When participants finish the annual Ironman triathlon in Kona, they likely plan to leave with plenty of bumps, bruises, and aches. But this year, for Ironman 2018, German athlete Patrick Lange left with another title…and a fiancee!
2018 was Lange’s second year to win the Ironman World Championship, beating his previous year’s winning time of 8:01:40 by eight minutes with a finish time of 7:52:39. Not only was he the champion for the second year in a row, but he also broke the course record that he set in 2017. A memorable finish, indeed.
But the best was yet to come. After winning, after breaking yet another record, he topped it all off by running over to his girlfriend and proposing with an applauding audience surrounding them.
Theirs wasn’t the only feelgood story that came from the 2018 Ironman race.
Hiromu Inada of Japan also set a record, becoming the oldest finisher in Ironman World Championship history at 85-years-old!
And a man who weighed nearly 500 pounds just three years ago, and has lost his way down to 226 pounds, finished the grueling race. Marcus Cook crossed the finish line with a cardboard cutout of his former self and a huge smile across his face.
Finally, inclusivity in sports took a giant leap forward as brothers Kyle and Brent Pease finished the race at 14:29. They made history as the first push-assisted team of brothers to cross the finish line.
The Ironman 2018 World Championship race had lots of great stories. We can’t wait to see what happens next year!
Featured photo by Flickr user Chris McCormack, Creative Commons licensed
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