Kona Giveaway Time! The Garmin FR920XT or Fenix2 Special Edition!

IMG_8528

We find ourselves on the eve of the Ironman World Championships this weekend, which seems like no better reason to get into the swing of things with a good ole giveaway.  Especially now that the hangover has eased off after the Giveaway Extravaganza this past summer.

This time I’ll be giving away a new Garmin FR920XT (or, a Fenix2 Special Edition, if you prefer that instead).  And by ‘I’, I mean, my usual partner in giveaway crime – Clever Training!

The rules are simple here, simply drop a comment below with the following:

To Enter: Your best or first memory of watching Kona (be it in person, or on TV/interwebs) down below.  In the event that you haven’t watched any little snippet of it ever, then…well…I can’t help you there.

Simple enough?  Good.

The giveaway entry period will run through Monday, October 13th, 2014 until 11:59PM Eastern Time.  I’ll be giving you one device (either the FR920XT or Fenix2 Special Edition, with the HRM-RUN strap) from Clever Training.   Winner will be chosen at random and announced on roughly Tuesday, depending on if the interwebs work in Malta for me on Tuesday.  One entry per person.  If you choose the FR920XT your name will be put in the queue to receive a unit from Clever Training (you don’t skip the line though), but if you want a Fenix2 instead, you’ll get that shipped immediately.

This giveaway is sponsored by Clever Training, which I’ve got a great partnership with.  As you probably remember, by picking up sports technology gadgets from Clever Training you support the site.  And on top of that, all DC Rainmaker readers get an exclusive 10% off all products they sell (basically every sports tech company/gadget/device) using coupon code DCR10WHP or now via the VIP program.  And most of all, you support the site in a big way – so I appreciate it!

FOUND THIS POST USEFUL? SUPPORT THE SITE!

Hopefully, you found this post useful. The website is really a labor of love, so please consider becoming a DC RAINMAKER Supporter. This gets you an ad-free experience, and access to our (mostly) bi-monthly behind-the-scenes video series of “Shed Talkin’”.

Support DCRainMaker - Shop on Amazon

Otherwise, perhaps consider using the below link if shopping on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but your purchases help support this website a lot. It could simply be buying toilet paper, or this pizza oven we use and love.

Tags:

4,996 Comments

  1. Laszlo G. A.

    Maybe 5 years ago when Craig Alexander won in the running against Raelert. After that I had to dl the previous races till maybe 1990 and watch them all! So exciting!

  2. Krispy

    Have to be honest and say that I’ve never heard of it, so I looked it up on youTube. First thought: damn that’s tough!

  3. Rain

    I think it was 3 years ago when I found out that one of my friends starting racing triathlons and then I stumpled on the Ironman coverage in the internet.

  4. Tim

    The crazy mob in the water

  5. Flo

    watching kona=every.single.indoortrainerride (unless I’m watching GOT)
    best one I saw live was Macca vs. Raelert in 2011

  6. JH Kwek

    Watching Kona has always been a good reminder of the dream race that I would like to do one fine day!

  7. Harrison

    Watching macca win his 2nd Kona

  8. My first memory of triathlon is only 3,5 years ago. I was at the age of 26, my weight was way to high and I was lying sick in bed for over a week. Out of frustration of my situation I started browsing the web and discovered the Ironman event. I was so amazed that people could do those crazy long distances while I could not even run 5K without stopping every 3 minutes, so I started searching for video’s about the event. That was when I found the full footage of the 2010 Kona event on the universal sports website and I watched the entire race (9 hours). From that day on I’ve lost 20kg (44lb) and in 2015 I’ll do my first HIM.

  9. Alex

    I life in Europe and the TV doenst show this. Since internet coverage I can watch it live! Now I try to sleep and watch as much as I can.
    Great event, I need to practice swimming if I ever want to take part …

  10. Terra72

    First watched it when I was a student when I still had time to spend hours in front of the telly. Would prefer to watch it in person!

  11. Thomas De Smet

    I remember Luc Van Lierde win in 1999, our whole little country of Belgium was all over it.
    We even gave him the prestigious “Best Belgian sportsman of the year” award in 1999!

    Thomas

  12. Pierre

    A couple of years ago when performing some cycling training on the trainer at the same time.

  13. Stingray

    I believe it was Wide World of Sports back in the mid 80s showing snippets of this new 3 part race. I remember thinking an event this grand deserved more than 10 minutes airtime.

  14. Carl Englund

    First memory is a short summary on (at the time) the (only) swedish sports show “Sportspegeln”. It was in the early 90’s, the bikes were very funky and there was lots of speepos and short tops.

  15. Pedro

    For me, it was in 1989 – I was still a kid back then – and I clearly remember seeing the hundreds of triathletes swimming from a helicopter shot and thinking to myself: “Uau, those folks are really brave, they are not afraid of the sharks! Or maybe they can out swim them.” You see, I was terrified of sharks… I still am…

  16. benji

    Mirinda Carfrae’s flawless run form on the marathon in 2013.

  17. baelrati

    My best memory is following Dirk Bockel online with his race to 10th place with a broken hand. Just amazing.

  18. Haitz

    After interesting on triathlon, I saw the 2005 Ironman world championshiop where a man won running on a swimsuit and I get totally hooked to it!

  19. Marcus

    Saw the guys race in the scorched landscape feeling sorry for them in 2001…

  20. David

    Moss and McCartney in 82. Saw it on wide world of sport in Australia and the sheer willpower shown to keep going has always stuck with me.

    And cheers for the competition Ray!

  21. Philip

    Frederik Van Lierde taking the win.

  22. Peter

    I’ll create memories from a next edition!

  23. DJAntero

    MACCA!

  24. Tobias Östlund

    Can´t remember the year or who won or anything like that, but still a fun memory to follow the race on my laptop in the middle of the night here in Sweden.

  25. Adam

    2010 swimming with dolphins…

  26. Andre

    My best memory of watching Kona will be this year, seeing it live in person for the first time!

  27. Not a specific race, but a shot; when they shoot the athletes from below during the swim, so only their silhouettes are visible in. Epic.

  28. Adam

    My favorite moment was watching Kona back in middle school and thinking, “I MUST do that!” Fifteen years later, triathlon has shaped my life, and I’m on the cusp of qualifying.

  29. Baptiste

    I was heading to a lake in the french Alps to raw and everything was closed due to a triathlon. 4 years ago… so we just settled and watch it. Training for a marathon at that time I needed video to wath during training. I saw all the Kona boradcast from early beginning to now… in a few weeks.

  30. James White

    My first memories of Kona were when Chrissie Wellington started winning

  31. Brian Mclellan

    First I watched was 2011 – love the fact that Craig Alexander got spanked on the bike the year before and he came back even stronger to take the title for another year.

  32. daniele

    Seems like ages ago but it was only 2012. I was following Kona online mainly because of an American former professional road racing cyclist I liked back then.

  33. Graeme

    I remember seeing the ridiculously oversized quad muscles on the athletes and doing a double-take.

  34. Andreas

    It was in the 90s and I saw some crazy guys riding on strange bikes in the heat. I thought it unbelievable. Now I’m doing it myself and I could use the FR920XT 🙂

  35. Erica

    Watching Chrissie Wellington surge to the finish, battered, bruised, and all heart, was so inspiring!!

    Thank you (and thanks to Clever Training) for offering this giveaway!

  36. Snowy

    Chrissie W – totally awesome++

  37. Watching a documentary about Laurent Jalabert making an unbelievable ride to pass hundreds of riders 🙂

    Thank you for the give away Ray 🙂

  38. Sion Edwards

    Don’t know what year it was but watching Dick Hoyt and son finish. An inspiring sport.

  39. Graeme Copestake

    Chrissie Wellington has been an inspiration and made kona magical.

  40. Markus

    Kona is a must have says a triathlon friend of me. Greetings from Germany

  41. klu

    I have a friend who did Hawaii back in 1990. Love to look up the pictures from that time.

  42. Henri

    This year will be the Big Kahuna of Konas for me as one of our The Paige Project team mates is racing all the way from South Africa in support of Cerebral Palsy (Claudia Hazelwood) 🙂

  43. Mike

    I think I remember seeing it first on a TV program called Transworld Sports sometime in the late 90s.

  44. chris

    Watched Ironman as a kid when Bud Light was the sponsor.. Asking my dad why someone would do that in one day?
    (I finally answered it last year at IM Arizona)

  45. Alex M

    My first memory is watching wide world of sports on a saturday morning as a kid. They would show little snippets of the race.

  46. Roman

    I dicovered Kona thanks to… Garmin! They just published athletes interviews on their blog 🙂

  47. Yonadav

    Chrissie Wellington’s smile as she crosses the line in first place for the first time!

  48. Tim

    My first memory of Kona was flipping through the channels and seeing footage on NBC. I was amazed by the bluest ocean waters and the amount of athletes in the water once the cannon went off. It was beautiful, and there was even a dolphin swimming with the athletes.

  49. John

    Watching it every year inspires me to get off my butt and keep moving…

  50. Jaakko

    Paula Newby Frazier hits “The Wall” 1995

  51. Iain

    Watching Mark Allen and Dave Scott race on tv…

  52. Anatoly P

    Watched it on YouTube a long time ago. It was awesome!

  53. ganabu

    Think it was 1994… Greg Welch… Doing the Aussies proud!

  54. Iñigo

    My first time i saw Kona, was 3 years ago. My expectations were incredible as the race. I recently knew what the triathlon was, beacause i went to watch one(sprint distance one) and somebody told me about de Ironman distance.I couldn’t bealive that a human can do that. After watching the race i started to train for triathlon.
    Two weeks ago i have finished my first Ironman Race.

  55. Matthias

    The strange underpants run – but this is probably not my best memory 🙂

  56. Josep

    First memories are watching some of the inspirational videos of people finishing the race, some stumbling through the Finish gate, some close to midnight but finishing nevertheless!!

  57. Markus

    Remember Macca 2010 – He was here to win!

  58. Philipp

    Watching the recap of the Carinthian Ironman 7 or 8 years ago, there was a segment where the highlights of the last Kona were shown. It was meant to show the audience what the participants aspired to. It was awe-inspiring. I was severely overweight and never thought to ever even think of competing in any triathlon. Fast forward to today, I am training for my first olympic distance next year and hope to finish the 70.3 in St. Pölten, Austria in 2016. As of today, starting in Kona seems impossibly far away, but then again, so was any triathlon some years ago 🙂

  59. Pat

    I can’t remember if was the old Grandstand on the beeb or World of Sport on ITV; but I remembers seeing something – probably shown about a month after the event as was the want in those days – live coverage was reserved for Rugby Union and Wrestling, oh and Horse racing.
    My thoughts were, probably at the time “Mad Lot, nice scenary though”, and “when’s the Rugby starting?”

    Apart from that I have 2 Kona mountain bikes – which I bought with no thought to the name connection to the race.

  60. Francois

    Kona brunch with my triathlon club. It was a few months after the race, but still a great excuse to get together and relax.

  61. Martin Smith

    I remember seeing the highlights in a sports show early one Sunday morning many years ago. They managed to cram the winner all the way to last place in about 3 minutes of telly which got me hooked.

  62. Mark

    First time I’ve watched Kona was the full race live coverage – I guess 2008 or so. With 12h time difference, I spent the whole night watching the race, sometime battling with the sleep.. Powerade and selfmade powerbar-cookies were the snacks for enhancing the atmosphere 😉

  63. Kevin Dwyer

    Watched a you tube clip just so I could qualify for the competition 😉

  64. Harald

    first time watching snippets of Kona?

    couldn´t really understand why anyone should punish him or herself so much.

    started marathon a few years later.
    can understand now.

  65. Josh

    Watching Julie Moss crawl to the finish in 1982. and the many more who have tried so hard to finish Kona

  66. dieter Neirinck

    First memory: Luc Van Lierde
    Best memory: Frederik Van Lierde
    GO BELGIUM GO !

  67. Eric

    Best memory: Watching Mark Allen win again and again.

  68. Leah

    This year will be first time watching, from home. Inspired by supporting at the local triathlon

  69. Sebastian

    Watched the guys who was on the “biggest loser” or something. Unfortunately he did not finish in time – very short of a couple of minutes. But his effort was impressive nevertheless.

  70. Jeremy Linter

    My first memory of Kona was seeing the news that Chrissy Wellington upset the odds to win in 2007 for GBR. Inspired me to do my first Ironman

  71. Pietro

    The 2011 edition from the link posted on your blog, and in 2013 I did my first ironman 😉

  72. Tom

    Remember seeing tv reports about the race maybe 8 years ago, fascinating landscape, thinking ‘lots of crazy people doing extreme sports’…that was before I started getting into tri sports myself 3 years ago, so hadn’t yet fully appreciated the challenge and beauty of it!

  73. Todd

    Mark Allen, 1995, everybody loves a comeback story.

  74. Jay

    I’m always most amazed by the athletes who arrive just before the cut-off time. In 2013 that being the oldest female tri-athlete in the field who arrived just a few minutes before midnight with the whole crowd going crazy. Gives me goose bumps every time I think about it.

  75. loshko

    I watched an online recap of the 2012 race during a lunch break and it was ehough to seriously consider “upgrading” from a runner to a triathlete.

  76. Andzs

    I am not quite in triathlete boat and follow such events only time from time but they never stop to impress me. I guessthe first time I saw Kona was on youtube – nice NBC coverage compilation form couple of years.

  77. Jürgen

    The best Kona I ever saw was in 1996 when Luc Van Lierde won his first one. Seeing the pain of an athlete totally disappear after crossing the finish line as a winner is unbelievable.

    Don’t want to see the pain he had the days afterwards!

    Go Belgium!!

  78. Simon

    Maybe slightly embarrassingly my earliest memory is whilst watching Magnum PI when he completed but – if my ageing memory doesn’t fail me – he turned round in the middle of the cycle leg to go and rescue TC despite having a large critical bet on finishing the race……

    I quick search in IMDB tells me that this was Series 1 Episode 18 “Beauty Knows No Pain” and was first shown in 1981.

  79. Kdr

    Two years ago I watched it for the first time. I remember at first thinking how nice it would be to swim, cycle and run around Hawaii… until I figured the extreme distance the athletes had to cover – and how “nice” might not be the right word.
    However, now I (previously merely an avid runner) am training for my first tri :).

  80. Carael

    In mid 90; watched together with my uncle and dad on German satellite program like ZDF or SAT1. Back then didn’t understand it at all – both the idea or the race and the language.

  81. matthew

    Rushing home and logging on just in time to see my friend finish under goal time. Wish I could have been there

  82. Dom

    Julie Moss’ finish on YouTube.

  83. Erlend Simonsen

    First time was in 2007, when a childhood friend from school qualified and placed top 500.

  84. Andrea Romani

    Crowie winninh his third title!

  85. Fabian Campo

    Following live the participation of a friend of mine last year

  86. Tim

    Reading “Iron War” by Matt Fitzgerald and imagining what it would of been like to be there watching Dave Scott and Mark Allen battle it out on the marathon. Lead me watching hours of youtube clips of Ironman and being inspired to enter my first and never looking back since.

  87. Javi

    I saw my firts kona last year I was starting to do triathlon and found a world championship was held in Kona, I saw and loved, I hope one day can participate in it.

  88. David S

    Love watching Kona (especially being an Aussie!!) – first remember seeing Macca, full of confidence, fail on so many early attempts…then finally cross that line first.

  89. anp

    My real first memory of Kona was watching it live via web streaming following my coach who was competing there.

  90. Robert vanderbug

    My first ironman was watching Miranda Carfree win. She was amazing. I was in aww of how she ran all the other women down. Simply amazing.

  91. Bachulator

    Crowie is probably one of most inspirational guys in whole IronMan crew. But to get at this level you have to be not only born with the talent but to work really hard. And he worked really hard. That keep me pushing out of my doors every day and keep me going. Sadly he is not racing in Kona anymore.

  92. Dan

    First memories go back to 2004 and 2005, when the German guys Stadler and Al-Sultan won.

  93. Rob

    Late 80’s and the appearance of the aerobar

  94. Michael

    Are these people human?

  95. sumrit

    Watched replay of Pete Jacobs in 2012.

  96. Whineray

    Watching Chrissie Wellington, win her Gold in 2009 and 2011, absolutely classic.

  97. Watched it first time in the 90’s. Smacked down on the road a day before, so I had to watch most of it standing, because of the abrasions on my buttocks :-). Switched through the chanels and get stucked on the kona because they showed in this moment a guy which has fallen from his bike in the same way I did it a day before.

  98. 6co2000

    Saw a glimpse of it on a Magnum PI TV show!

  99. gademz

    I remember watching it about 5 years ago. It was awesome!

  100. Holly S.

    First: Sarah Reinertsen in ’05–really inspiring!
    Best: Chrissie Wellington winning in ’11 with road rash from a bike crash and other untold (until later) injuries–so tough.