This blog is somewhat of a follow-up to my previous post about the portrait session we did with Ironman Pros Patrick Lange & Boris Stein. The difference this time is that Kona has already happened and these two animals went out and crushed it on race day, and what a hell of a race day it really was! To start off, Boris killed the big gear on the Queen K and clocked the fastest bike split of the day at 4:23:04. And, after trying to squeeze my arms and shoulders into the insanely tight and fast aero position he holds I can see why. Off the bike though, Patrick shined with an inhuman performance that brought home a 3rd place at the world championship and broke the marathon course record at a blistering 2:39:45.
But, before all of that happened and these two brought the pain and glory to the lava fields of Kona, they trained together in The Woodlands, TX. I know I mentioned this in my previous post about these two, but this was really the shoot where we sought to try and tell that story more. We shot each athlete individually on the bike and run, but we focused first and foremost on showing these two training together. Ironman is an extremely individualistic sport, and for these two elite athletes to train together is an anomaly in the sport aside from the few coached teams around the world. But, they don’t see it is a determent or something to be avoided. In fact, their success in Kona this year is a testament to them working together and providing each other with a partner out on long rides and runs as well as somebody to push a little harder when the training calls for it. Their camaraderie was undeniable and getting to shoot them together on the bike and during the run was definitely something different and fun to get to be a part of.
So, again, thank you Patrick and Boris for spending some time in front of my camera, but – more importantly – thank you for letting me get to know the two of you and have fun documenting your journey to Kona!
