I've got the dish set to go to NBC @ 4:30! The wife is very excited.

I might be a little biased as Chris (the bro) got some good coverage, but I thought they did a better job this year on the actual race itself. The little rivalry, interviewing Allen and Scott, covering the men deeper than 2. Well done.

And was that Leonardo DiCaprio on the voice over at the end???

Yeah, the song at the end is from and old dicaprio movie called "the beach." Orbital did the track, and used the clip of his voice from the movie.

Nice coverage of the race, and of Chris. I almost cried when Sister Madonna didnt make the cutoff. My mom did.

-Alan

I made my split second of fame. For a very brief moment while I was running past Macca on the Queen K. I yelled and gave him a high 5. The shot was of my back from a helicopter and I have on a Hammer shirt. Better than my bud Marky V who led the amateurs for 7.5 hrs and got nothing.
Chris rocked. He layed it out there. He did what he had to do to win and that's all that counts.
The voice over was Leo at the end. It was from the movie "The Beach" 1999-2000?

When you get tired of shoveling snow IMWI is on versus today, 3-4 p.m. All of our warmer climate friends can watch too. ;)

I'm sure Andy Baldwin is a lovely man and a fine naval officer. But I've gotta be honest, he got coverage at Kona last year. He got coverage at IMKY this year (just a few weeks ago on Vs), and then that exact same interview on the Kona show this weekend. Seriously, let it go! Otherwise, great coverage. Definitely made my 90min on the trainer go a lot faster!

Maybe it was just me, but I was a little disappointed. They didn't seem to have quite the emotional stories like the Hoyts, Sarah Reinertsen, or John Blaze. I also thought they didn't built up the competative mood as much as they have had in the past. Still, my favorite show of the year.

The slow motion shot of the swim start with the chosen music gave me some serious goosebumps. Taped it and watched the first half last night. Will watch the second half tonight. I thought it was classy that Stadler went to the finish line to congratulate Macca.

Too many human interest stories for my liking. I guess it makes it more real for the non-athlete viewer, but it's a race after all. What I'd really like to see is longer coverage. We're all going to miss out on someone important when they distill a 17-hour race into one hour. Other impressions:

Did NBC really have to show Stadler puking in slow motion?!

Showing the official stopping the folks at T2 when they didn't make the bike cut off was very emotional. I hope they will return more determined than ever. I know Sister Madonna will.

Chrissie Wellington's shear joy at her unexpected win was awesome. I'm sure she will garner many fans.

Was classy of Stadler to congratulate Macca at the finish. Maybe their war of words got some press, but taking the high road (showing sportsmanship) has ultimately got to be better for the sport.

I've got new respect for Rutger Beke. It would have been easy for him to walk off the course.

They have replayed it in August the past 2 years.

I missed the opening 1/2 hour - I also could have done w/o the bachelor segment.
Did like seeing Pros give their all - especially when the day goes bad - like how Natasha fought with her coach about dropping out when in obvious pain. And I think it was Beke continuing on the run when only able to walk. Nice to see that level of commitment. (Not like Norman throwing his bike cause they got a flat in a previous year)

Beke has an amazing amount of class in my mind for sticking it out, and walking it in with us AGer's. He seriously has become one of my favorite pro athletes for that.

On the rest of the coverage thought it went alright, but agree enough is enough on Mr Baldwin. The one lady taking to long to get off the bike which cost her the bike cut off was absolutely heart wrenching! Classy production as always by NBC.

I just watched it on my roommates computer, he recorded it for me. All I gotta say, WOW!

now that i've been a triathlete a couple of years, i've been watching Kona coverage differently from the way I used to, and I do agree with the comments above about human interest stories vs competitor stories. But, I enjoy it nevertheless, especially now that it's in HD (although...did they HAVE to spend as much time with Norman puking?). I've also been watching all the televised IM's this fall just to see the courses/conditions and mass starts.

I listened to an interview with Macca and he pretty much said he couldn't get the helmet strap to clip. He had practiced it and all, but for some reason in T1, he couldn't get it to work.

i've noticed that some of the broadcast times listed here by other posters have been different in my area, so everyone should check the website of their local cable provider for schedules

i've gotten into the habit of hitting the search function once a week to see if any triathlon listings are up and then set them to record...IMWI is tomorrow on my non-HD versus channel

ironman.com says the re-air is July 26.

The Rutgar Beke issue was neat. He basically does it out of respect for the non-pros. Very cool.

I've been watching the NBC coverage for 15 years now and it still annoys me how they spend 90% of the time on 10% of the athletes - the pros and whatever disease is the flavour of the day.

90% of the race is AGers and they get 10% of the coverage.

Apart from the pro coverage - which is fine, I like that - if you watched this show you would think everyone in it - apart from the pros - is dying of a disease or missing a bodypart, or running it in honour of someone who died.

There are twenty-odd age group races going on, men and women, ranging from 20 - 76. They made one reference to Lolly in the W65-69 - because she is a local I suspect. That was it for AG competition.

This may be entertainment but it falls short of being presented as an athletic contest.

With the "Track an Athlete" computer program we could have much better coverage of the AG racing.

PoC