These ultra-rich endurance athletes are trying to buy their way to the finish line.
One percenters are shelling out beaucoup bucks to train for and compete in Ironman XC, a grueling test where participants subject themselves to 2.4 miles of swimming; a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. To prepare for the ultimate challenge, a privileged few are indulging themselves with luxury hotel suites at the starting line, pre-race spa services and bikes that cost more than a car.
“There is no way around it — we are pampered,” said Jerome Le Jamtel, a Wall Streeter from Westchester, who spends six figures a year on his Ironman hobby.
In an interview with the New York Times, Le Jamtel, a chief risk officer for an investment firm who took up running after the 2008 financial meltdown, said he trained for the triathlon at a mini indoor Ironman facility with a $1,900 dry-land swimming simulator — all while watching his favorite movies. He also invested in a $10,300 Diamond Marquise race bike that snaps into a $1,300 indoor cycling bike trainer.
According to the Times story, Le Jamtel’s extravagant-seeming expenditure was almost frugal — some race bikes can cost up to $30,000.
A traditional Ironman race costs between $475 and $675 to enter and features up to 2,000 people, the paper reported. The elite, however, prefer the Ironman XC — XC as in, executive challenge — events admitting just 10 to 25 competitors who pony up between $6,200 to $16,200, according to Ironman’s website.
With XC hopefuls traveling thousands of miles to submit to a typically hellish experience, Troy Ford, Ironman XC’s master of ceremonies, told the Times his job is to make the experience as fun — and as comfortable — as possible for their business-class guests.
“We take all the logistics, headaches, hassles and hurdles out of it, and make it really easy on them,” Ford told The Times.
That means, he said, a “whatever it takes” approach to convenience, from arranging luxury accommodations, stocking mini-fridges in a participant’s swank suite with goodies like a six-pack of nonalcoholic craft beer, a box of specialty chocolate and hard-to-find fruit, to having a personal shopper on speed dial should an athlete pack the wrong sized bike crankset.
“I can understand seeing from the outside where it feels unfair, or there is a shortcut. That’s completely understandable … but it’s missing the point,” Le Jamtel told the Gray Lady.
When the rubber meets the road — literally — even the luckiest contestants find themselves on a level playing field. After competing in his 20th Ironman, Le Jamtel confessed to barely finishing, enduring everything from a jellyfish bite to a complete gastrointestinal breakdown, all while suffering from a cold.
“I had to manage on a very narrow line to move forward without collapsing,” he told the paper. “My slowest and hardest [race], but great memories!”