More than 2,200 athletes are registered for Sunday’s Ironman Chattanooga.
Of those, just five – or 0.002% of the field – will compete two weeks later in Kona, Hawaii, for Ironman’s most challenging event: Ironman World Championships.
The five have vastly different stories and individual reasons for competing. For one, it was another stop in his quest to compete in every Ironman worldwide. Another saw it as a harder challenge. And a third – a professional competitor – believes it will better prepare him for a high finish in Hawaii. The remaining two – Chattanooga area residents Steve Ruffin and Scott Sandlin – will be competing in the bike leg as part of a relay in Chattanooga before racing the full event in Hawaii.
“I just enjoy the race and think doing the double is a challenge,” West Virginia doctor and competitor Tim Deer said. “If you can survive Chattanooga and do Kona 12 days later – if you can survive both – it’s just another thing we like to do to show our own self we can overcome obstacles.”
The 55-year-old will be competing in the Chattanooga/Kona double for the third time.