Ironman, Pt. 3: Is He Alive or Dead? Has He Thoughts Within His Head?

If you missed them, here are Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 of the series. Now for Pt. 3...

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It's one thing to complete the race once, and bask in the glory, but it seems true Ironmen are driven to keep going again and again and again as long as their bodies permit.

"There's nothing better than winning" says Scott. "Any athlete would like to reap the benefits of that." (And he's talking about psychological, emotional and spiritual benefits not bling-bling.)

Even when prize money was introduced in '86, the winners take was a mere $8,000.

"My first sponsorship from Nike came at the end of '81, start of '82. They gave me $500 a month and I thought I was rich," says Scott; nowadays, winners of the Ironman Championship in Kona, Hawaii pocket a cool $110,000.

Well after his heyday, Scott continued to compete in Ironman. At 40, he finished second, and then two years later at 42 he placed fifth. Scott entered the race one last time in 2001, at age 47, but did not finish.

"I had the swim of my career. I was in the top 10, which was very unusual for me [on the swim]. Out of the water, I was about a minute thirty off the lead and I kept getting this sharp pain in my glutes. After about 50 miles, I stopped."

Mark Allen called it a career after winning his last Ironman in '95 at the age of 37 with a dramatic race that ended with him making up 13 huge minutes on the marathon stretch. Both Scott and Allen now work as motivational speakers. As for Deboom, age 35, the best he's fared since his 2001 and 2002 titles is 12th, but he's still going strong and may just have another win left in him.

It's been 28 years since John Collins and Co. created the Ironman, and though imitations abound, the crazy race remains man's purest endurance test. Ironman races are currently held all over the world where entrants compete to qualify for the annual Hawaiian championships. And the distances have stuck. It's still a 2.4-mile swim followed by a 112-mile bike ride and capped off with a 26.2-mile marathon.

Back in 1978, a completion time of just under 12 hours could win an "Iron" guy the top spot, where today it takes just eight hours and change. All of which makes Ozzy's lyrics all the more portentous: "Running as Fast as They Can—Iron Man Lives Again!"

Ironman epilogue: Mark Allen recounting the iron war