Re the start-up date for this forum, I looked at the registration dates for the administrators. Even with the turnover at BikeArlington, I figured that some of them were around for the launch of the forum. Some of them, including Tim Kelley, have Join Dates in early Dec. 2009. A search for “2009” turns up a few threads from Dec. 2009 but it also brings up a lot of threads from later years about bikes and events from 2009. Interesting to see that unregistered visitors seem to have been allowed to post on threads back then. I guess this was before the spammers found out about the forum, and the administrators began to require that people register before posting. (Some spammers got around that obstacle, but other anti-spam measures were put in place. Those have been successful, for the most part.).
Soft launch at the end of 2009. Officially launch on January of 2010. Then combined with WABA, DC and Alexandria, in that order over the next couple of years.
The first triathlon movie ever? “Challenge of a Lifetime” from 1985, on ABC, I believe. The TV movie starred Penny Marshall of “Laverne & Shirley” fame as Nora, a divorced woman who is deep in debt. Her teenaged son runs away from computer camp to stay with her. After seeing an old classmate on TV after she won a triathlon, Nora decides to train for the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon.
Ironman was still a young brand at that time. The movie involves some sort of qualifying race in Hawaii shortly before the main Ironman race. They don’t have that now. It might be a fictional creation altogether.
I didn’t find the entire movie, but someone did post a trailer on YouTube. It definitely has the feel of a 1980s TV movie.
I can’t find any listings of other triathlon movies on IMDb before this one. “The Gold and the Glory” is a 1984 Australian movie about a marathon, open water swim and surf ski competition, but not the standard swim/bike/run triathlon.
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