71 Hawaii
athletes ready to
‘come through hell’
Ironman triathlon Saturday
By Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinShe has driven out on her motor scooter to find the lonely, zombie-like figures trudging the Queen Kaahumanu Highway in pitch darkness. She has lifted their shades to find their eyes dilated and their skin temperature sizzling.
She has watched some fall right to sleep under the punishing sun in the lava fields as their bodies shut down.
In the almost unbearable heat of midday on the highway or in the eerie blackness of night, she has stayed with them until one of the six medical vans arrived.
As a course marshall at the Hawaii Ironman World Championship in Kona, Autumn Johnson has been Mother Teresa on wheels for the past five years. She has been privy to the agony and ecstasy of the 140-mile swim-bike-run Odyssey in a way that few ever have.
For 20 hours of that one day each year, from the start at 7 a.m. until the course officially closed at midnight, Johnson has sought out the sick, the injured, the bewildered, the lame, the senseless, and the unconscious from Kona to Hawi.
Even after the course closed, her mission of mercy continued.
"They're still coming down the Queen K after midnight and someone has to let them know they're still loved," said Johnson, a 35-year-old nutritionist, coach and athlete from Kailua-Kona.
"They look like something out of a Body Snatchers movie," she said. "You go out to meet them and they're so happy to see you."
Johnson has been an Ironman qualifier for each of the past five years. "But I've just been too busy to compete," she said. "So, I've volunteered.
Johnson is the mother of four children who range in age from 11 to 16. Her husband, Keith, is a general contractor.
On Saturday, for the first time, she will be in the water off Kailua Pier with the rest of the 1,500-athlete field for the cannon-blast start of the world-renowned ordeal.
She earned her berth by qualifying with a sixth-place finish at the Keauhou Half Ironman on the Big Island. She also finished sixth in the Tinman Triathlon on Oahu.
Johnson is a cut above most of the athletes she has attended to on the course, but she knows the strain of a triathlon.
"I know what it's like to have dry eyes, sore metacarpals and a rear end that hurts for days," she said with a laugh.
Heather Matz Jorris, 28, of Honolulu, is Hawaii's top female triathlete and she'll be competing in her fourth Hawaii Ironman. She won this year's Keauhou Half Ironman in 4 hours and 38 minutes. She missed by two seconds the course mark set by another Honolulu entry, Debbie Hornsby.
"It (Hawaii Ironman) can be intimidating at the beginning because it's such a long day, and you know anything can go wrong," said Matz Jorris, the director of personal training at the Honolulu Club.
Matz Jorris topped the 20-24 age group in '93, was the 35th overall female in '94 and 30th overall female in '95.
There are 71 Hawaii athletes entered in the Hawaii Ironman, considered the most prestigious race of its kind in the world. The local entries range in age from 20 to 63.
The 63-year-old is Warren Harlow of Haleiwa, a retired civilian engineering consultant for the U.S. Navy.
Asked how it feels to attempt such a grueling event at his age, Harlow said, "I spoke with Jim Ward a few nights ago and that makes me feel younger."
Ward, of Seminole, Fla., is about to become the first 80-year-old to attempt the course.
Gary Shields, 42, of Kailua-Kona, is a three-time winner of the Big Island's Ultraman competition (6.2 miles of swimming, 261 miles of biking, and a double marathon in three days).
"You haven't really tested yourself, unless you've come through hell," said Shields.
The facts
What Ironman Triathlon
