Gordon Haller

0 Gordon Haller
Gordon Haller (2011)
Personal information
Date of birth	24th August 1950 (age 70)
place of birth	Oregon, United States
societies
successes
1978	Ironman Hawaii winner
status
resigned

Gordon Wayne Haller (born August 24, 1950 in Oregon ) is a former triathlete and winner of the first Ironman Hawaii in 1978.

Career

Haller grew up in Forest Grove in the US state of Oregon and earned a degree in physics at the private Pacific University near Portland . He ran his first marathon in the senior year of the university . While he was employed by the United States Navy as a communications specialist from 1972 to 1974 , he trained extensively in cycling , swimming and running . In the 1990s, Gordon Haller graduated from Regis University in Denver , Colorado with a degree in computer science . He lives in the US state of Arkansas as the father of three children and works as a programmer for Walmart .

Shortly after leaving the Navy, Gordon Haller had come to Hawaii in January 1976 to participate in a team at the O'ahu Perimeter Relay, a 135-mile relay race . When the competition was postponed for two weeks due to a storm, Haller saw this as an opportunity rather than an inconvenience, returned his return ticket and stayed in Hawaii. In addition to doing odd jobs, his daily program included extensive training. In 1976 Gordon Haller finished tenth overall at the Honolulu Marathon , and at the second Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC in November 1977, he crossed the finish line in 2:27 hours, eight minutes behind the winner.

Winner Ironman Hawaii 1978

On the island of Oahu, Hawaii, he took part in the first edition of the Ironman competition in 1978. Gordon Haller had previously been informed by acquaintances at the 1977 Honolulu Marathon, where he quit with adductor problems - a few weeks after the Washington marathon - that a few Navy soldiers were planning this competition, in which the distances of the Waikiki Roughwater Swim (2nd , 4 miles / 3.86 km), the Around-Oahu Bike Race "Ride around the Island" (115 miles, originally a two-day race) and the Honolulu Marathon should be completed in one day. Later he also saw calls in the newspaper to register for the race, the headline of a preliminary report a week earlier in Honolulu's largest daily newspaper at the time read "Three (huff) Races in one (puff) day" (gasp three races in one go ) . Haller, who made a living of four to five thousand dollars a year from night-time driving as a taxi driver, spent a substantial part of his time at the fitness center chain Nautilus , where he got free exercise for a few hours a week. This belonged to Hank Grundman and Valerie Silk, who from 1979 initially provided organizational support and helpers for the subsequent events. When the initiator of the race, John Collins, left Hawaii in 1980 because of his transfer, Valerie Silk took over the organization of the triathlon and built up the Ironman brand .

After they had agreed on the route, 15 participants started, of which 12 successfully completed the race. While he was swimming, Haller was accompanied paddling on a surfboard by an eleven-year-old boy next door. After swimming, he first used a shower at a nearby hotel before switching to the bike course. He used a racing bike that a supporter had rented for him. Since the translation turned out to be unsuitable for the route profile, he switched to his touring bike on the way, which he usually rode to work. Haller was accompanied by two cars on the bike course - a rule that the participants agreed on beforehand. One of the 15 starters, Ralph Yawata, had to get out of the car because his support vehicle broke down. There were neither start numbers nor road closures and all participants had to adhere to the right of way and other traffic rules. It was the responsibility of the individual to organize the meals provided by companions during the race - participants who had no support in this regard sometimes took a break in fast-food restaurants during the race.
Before switching to the running track, Gordon Haller first jumped into a fountain to cool off, then treated himself to a massage from his team and asked a journalist who was present. At the time, he could not have known that he would have the fastest cycling time of all participants. But he knew that the only participant was former SEALs soldier John Dunbar, a student at Chaminade University of Honolulu and also a passionate marathon runner, just minutes ahead of him. Since Haller's fastest marathon time was faster than the Dunbars, he was sure that victory would be possible. After 17 and again after 20  miles - once during a toilet stop by Dunbar, the other time when Dunbar had a cramp massage - Haller caught up with Dunbar on the route, but had to let him go again. At 34 km he finally overtook him. Since Dunbar's companions had run out of other drinks, they had given him beer. Haller, on the other hand, had two companions who provided him with water and cola.

Haller passed the goal - a normal traffic sign, there was no finish arc, no finish line on the road or anything like that - as the winner in 11:46:58 hours. After the race, Haller told a journalist that cycling had been the worst, and that the traffic had sometimes forced him to dodge into the sand. In a curve towards the end of the track, he almost rolled over. Another of the 15 participants, John King, had actually been pushed off the road into a garbage dump, he was unharmed, but it took hours to get his bike back on the road.

"If ever there was a case of mind over matter, it was tried yesterday."

"If there ever was a question of will, it was dared yesterday."

- Dick Fishback : Author of the first Ironman article, published in the Honolulu Advertiser the day after the race

In 2007, almost thirty years later, Gordon Haller retrospectively commented on his race with the words "It's just an amazing experience ... certainly something I didn't expect to have happen way back in the beginning" ( It was an amazing experience ... certainly something that I would not have expected in this form at the beginning ).

At the follow-up event in January 1979, another duel between Gordon Haller and John Dunbar, who appeared at the start in a Superman costume, was expected. Haller, who was now earning his living as a roofer, had systematically prepared for the competition for a year and especially worked on his swimming performance; this time he expected a swimming time of around 60 minutes. Due to adverse weather conditions, the participants decided to postpone the race by one day, even if Haller Dunbar suggested that the competition be held in pairs on the originally planned date. After Haller - left alone by his companion paddler after 40 minutes, who were frightened in the troubled sea - only finished the first discipline after 112 minutes due to his disoriented zigzag course and John Dunbar in the gusts of wind on the bike course again for over 30 minutes on the then 35-year-old Tom Warren , the owner of the "Tugs Tavern" in San Diego, lost it in 11:15:56 hours.

Up to and including 1989, Gordon Haller was the only athlete to have participated in all of the Ironman Hawaii events since its premiere. When he learned in 1989 that Valerie Silk intended to sell her rights to Ironman Hawaii, Haller went to court and tried to assert his own rights to the event. He relied on the fact that John Collins had all participants in the 1978 first edition sign a membership in the "Hawaii Iron Man Triathlon Coordinating Committee" for legal protection. Silk then banned Haller, who had previously successfully taken part in all the events at the event. It was not until 1998 that he returned to the Ironman Hawaii, which was now organized by the WTC.

Gordon Haller took part in twenty-three Ironman races (until 2013) . He crossed the finish line in a total of seventeen - including all of the first thirteen - events of the Ironman Hawaii, most recently in 2013. Before that, he took part in the Ironman Lanzarote in May 2013 , which he finished after 5:09 pm.

Sporting successes

Web links

• Race report Ironman Lanzarote with Gordon Haller on YouTube
• ACTIVE.COM Ironman's first champ, Gordon Haller, looks back 25 years

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ironman: The Gordon Haller Story (August 2016)
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Iron-Man Triathlon: Haller leads 15 . In: The Honolulu Advertiser . 19th February 1978.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Gordon Haller: The goal was a disappointment . In: Der Tagesspiegel . October 12, 2013.
4. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/gordon.haller
5. ↑ Karin Miller: Back to the Beginning ( English ) In: Daily Herald, Provo ( Utah ) . October 12, 2003.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Ironman ( English ) In: Sports Illustrated . May 14, 1979. Archived from the original on June 3, 2011.
7. ↑ If Valerie Silk Had Gotten Her Way, There May Never Have BeenAn Ironman . In: ironman.com . February 21, 2003.
8. ^ Bill Scheppler: The Ironman Triathlon . The Rosen Publishing Group, 2002, ISBN 978-0-8239-3556-7 , p. 15.
9. ↑ USA TODAY - Original Ironman still racing hard
10. ↑ Gerald Haigh and Jane AC West: Primary Sports Assemblies: 40 Sport-themed Assemblies to Inspire and Engage . Optimus Education, 2011, ISBN 978-1-905538-94-2 , pp. 89 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
11. ↑ Gordon W. Haller, et al. v. Hawaiian Triathlon Corp., et al., Civil No. 89-3623 (Haw. Circuit Court 1993)
12. ^ Sanction permit, entry form and athlete guide first annual Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon 1979 .
13. ↑ Michael Seabright: World Triathlon Corp v. Dunbar, et al; Order granting in part and denying in part Plaintiff's 58 Motion for Partial Summary Judgment . US Government Publishing Office. April 5, 2006.
14. ↑ http://www.triathlon.de/gordon-haller-triathlonlegende-auf-lanzarote-61770.html
15. ↑ Kevin Mackinnon: 35 Years Ago Today . February 18, 2013.
16. ^ Result list Ironman Hawaii 1987
17. ^ Result list Ironman Hawaii 1986
18. ^ Result list Ironman Hawaii 1985
19. ^ Result list Ironman Hawaii 1984
20. ^ Result list Ironman Hawaii 1983
21. ↑ Result list Ironman Hawaii 1982 (Oct)
22. ↑ Result list Ironman Hawaii 1982 (Feb)
23. ^ Result list Ironman Hawaii 1981
24. ^ Result list Ironman Hawaii 1980
25. ^ Result list Ironman Hawaii 1979
26. ^ Result list Ironman Hawaii 1978