Incredible Story of First IM Hawaii Competitor Henry Forrest

This is the story of the late Henry Forrest and how he came to do the first Ironman Hawaii.  A lady I follow on Twitter is friends with his daughter and she shared it with me after finding out I'm a triathlete.  I apologize if this isn't new to some of you, but I just had to share.  It's pretty long, but it is so worth the read.  Here are a couple excerpts:

Commander Collins and some of the other athletes tried to get someone to sponsor our race, but no one wanted to associate their company name or reputation with a bunch of crazies.  I don’t remember who came up with the amount of the entry fee, but it was $5.00.  After the race, Commander Collins had not had to use all the money collected, and he divided it equally, refunding each of us $2.00.  So the entry fee for the first Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon was a whopping $3.00. 

We also decided that we would meet back at his home a day or so after the race with some of our own tee shirts, and we would silk screen our own “finisher” shirts.  That is why there are no uniformed “Original 1978 IRONMAN” tee shirts.  We just took whatever shirts we had and did the silk screening in his garage.

People often ask me what the hardest part of the triathlon was.  I always say that it was sitting on that little tiny bicycle seat for seven or eight hours.  They usually laugh and say “no, really, what was the hardest?”

http://try-a-tri.com/how-i-became-an-ironman---my-1978-recollections-by-henry-forrest.html

Enjoy!