Susanne Simon, my late wife's cousin, stopped in Honolulu last weekend for a short visit en route to Saturday's 30th anniversary Ironman Triathlon World Championship on the Big Island. She is one of an eight-member team from Germany's ZDF television network that will be covering the event. The grueling competition starts with a 2.4-mile ocean swim, continues with a 112-mile bicycle ride from Kona to Hawi and back, and finishes with a 26.2-mile marathon.

Susanne Simon

Susanne, much younger than my wife, was always interested in sports. She is doing well with the TV network and was one of 100 from ZDF that covered the Beijing Olympics. She has covered the Tour de France, interviewing Lance Armstrong, as well as other world-class events and athletes. Not bad for a woman who started out as a tap-dance teacher.

She said the Kona Ironman holds great interest in Germany as 229 Germans are entered in the field of some 1,800 and three of them have won it in the past 10 years. They are: Thomas Hellrigel in 1997, Normann Stadler in 2004 and 2006, and Faris Al-Sultan in 2005. Faris is a Bavarian with a German mom and a dad from Iraq. There is also a strong rivalry between Stadler and last year's winner from Australia, Chris McCormick ...

The Star-Bulletin's “;Ironwoman,”; Katherine Nichols, 42, will compete in the Kona Ironman, as she did last year. She was third in her age group with a time of 10 hours, 45 minutes. Katherine, who stands 5-feet-10 and weighs a lean 126, is a reporter and Screen Time columnist. She says there are dozens of Ironman races around the world, but only one World Championship.

“;For many people, the most difficult part of the event is the marathon run, probably because it's at the end of a very long day,”; she said. “;But I love running, and am less fond of sitting on a bike for five or six hours, trudging up hills and fighting Kona's unpredictable winds. So the 112-mile bike ride is definitely the toughest part for me. The swim can be brutal because there's a lot of physical contact, but it only lasts a little over an hour.”;

Rachel Rosss

Katherine does the best she can when it comes to training. She works full time and is the single parent of son Chris, 16, and Alison, 14, both athletic. She is training with uber-triathlete Rachel Ross, who has won her age group, 30-34, in the Ironman women's division the past two years. The national Triathlete Magazine picked her to win again this year, and also predicted Katherine could top her age group this year. They were the only people in Hawaii recognized on the “;athletes to watch”; list.

“;Hawaii has a large contingent of athletes going this year,”; Katherine said, “;so training has been a very supportive, social affair compared with last year, when Rachel and I pretty much did it alone. In the past few months, I've been privileged enough to work out with Rachel, David Stackhouse, Bryan Gonzales, John Flanagan, Aaron Wallen, Maggs Morris, Mariane and Tim Marr, Hina Torres de Sa, Billy Wong, Wendy Miki, Wil Yamamoto and Mike and Sandy Ferreira, to name a few.

“;Many of us also have enjoyed stellar coaching from Ironman veterans Raul Boca Torres de Sa, Stefan Reinke and Ryan Leong. I'm incredibly grateful to be making the trip again”; ...