Inside the harmful, deadly world of IronMan…
It took 45 minutes of resuscitation to get Mark Allen’s coronary heart going and save his life.
The then-50-year-old was swimming in the open-water portion of a half-Ironman competitors in Georgia, when he went into cardiac arrest.
“I have no memory of what happened,” the Newark, Delaware, financial supervisor told The Post of the 2014 incident. “I had to hear about it from other people.”
On April 18, Brazilian influencer Mara Flávia Souza Araújo, 38, misplaced her life during the swimming phase of an Ironman race in The Woodlands, Texas. maraflavia/Instagram
And yet, Allen said, he regrets nothing.
“I don’t look back at it like I shouldn’t have done it,” he said. “I would do it all over again.”
It’s that type of excessive mindset that powers opponents in what is widely regarded as the world’s most difficult race, 140.6-mile-long mixture of swimming (2.4 miles), biking (112 miles) and working (26.2 miles) that can lasting 10 to 17 hours.
The Ironman triathlon is also maybe the world’s most deadly race. Since 2001, at least 85 athletes — an average of more than three a yr — have perished while participating. At one single race in Wisconsin race in 2019, two males died during the swimming portion.
Already this yr, there have been two fatalities. On July 12, during an Ironman in Spain, a British man had a deadly coronary heart assault during the swimming leg of the race. On April 18, Brazilian influencer Mara Flávia Souza Araújo, 38, misplaced her life during the same phase in The Woodlands, Texas.
Mark Allen was swimming in the 1.2-mile open-water portion of a half-Ironman competitors in Georgia when he went into cardiac arrest. It took rescuers 45 minutes of resuscitation to save his life. Courtesy of Mark Allen
But that doesn’t stop the weekend warriors addicted to the thrill of the race.
“If you want to do a sport where you’re staying in your limits, you shouldn’t be doing Ironman,” said competitor Jamie Metzl, an creator in New York City. “That’s the essence of what Ironman is. The reason why people compete in Ironman is so they can show to themselves that they’re capable of superhuman feats.”
He possessed the mentality and bodily drive required to be an Ironman participant. “They are often type-A personalities,” Melissa Mantak, who based The Empowered Athlete in Colorado and trains people for Ironman races, told The Post. “They’re people who can take on true challenges and have a stick-with-it attitude. They’re not going to give up.”
So a lot so that, when a June 28 Ironman in France was canceled due to excessive heat, some opponents refused to take no for an reply. One, a 42-year-old man, was killed on the street when he bike crashed with a bike on a portion of the street that would have been restricted to site visitors during an precise race.
According to a research, most fatalities happen during the swimming segement of Ironman. Getty Images for IRONMAN
“We train all year for this. Between the entry fee, transporting our bikes and the hotel, we spent a lot of money,” another rogue competitor on the unofficial course told Triathlon magazine. “We’re here anyway, so we might as well make the most of it.”
The highest quantity of Ironman deaths, though, occur during the swimming portion, according to a research.
“Two-thirds of the [fatal] events happen during the swim,” said Dr. Kevin Harris, a heart specialist with Minneapolis Institute Heart Foundation who carried out the research on triathlete deaths during ultramarathons, including the Ironman.
He told The Post that it’s doubtless due to “water temperature, [which is] going to be a shock, the adverse environment, big waves. Marine life has even been speculated.”
“The reason why people compete in Ironman is so they can show to themselves that they’re capable of superhuman feats,” said New York City creator Jamie Metzl, a competitor. Courtesy of Jamie Metzl
Traditionally, crowds also elevated the dangers.
A criticism filed on behalf of Veronique Tremblay, whose husband died in a 2025 Texas race, alleges that “the sheer number of racers creates a dense vein of participation near the buoys, which causes swimmers to kick and hit each other [unintentionally] to gain an advantage.”
For competitor Metzl, that adrenaline is a bonus.
“I have this strange disposition where the crazier it gets, the more times I get kicked in the head in the swim, the more I think this is really fun,” the creator of “Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity” said. “What an advantage for me, because I’m not a very good swimmer. But I’m good at getting kicked in the head.”
Sam Buchan died while collaborating in the swimming part of a 2025 race in Wales. GoFundMe /Samantha Buchan
Ironman has made efforts to increase swimming security by having opponents start in small teams relatively than all at once and by offering lifeguards in water vessels alongside swimmers. According to Mantuk, there are even divers underwater, watching out for swimmers who may be in bother.
Tremblay, whose husband Jean Francois Alain died while open-water swimming in a Galveston, Texas, race in 2025, is suing the Ironman group, among others, alleging negligence and wrongful death. She seeks in extra of $1 million.
In an amended criticism filed May 22, Tremblay claims that Alain was “having struggles in the water” and that “underage, rookie” lifeguards didn’t do enough to keep him secure — saying that “spotting swimmers in distress in this race structure requires extensive training. Defendants failed to so train.”
The Post has reached out to the Ironman group for remark.
Cardiologist Kevin Harris, who has studied athlete deaths during triathlons, including the Ironman, told The Post that it’s swimming fatalities are doubtless linked to “water temperature, [which is] going to be a shock, the adverse environment, big waves.” Getty Images for IRONMAN
Last July, Sam Buchan also died while collaborating in the swimming part in Wales. During a March 2026 inquest into his death, his widow, Samantha Buchan, said: “I have serious concerns around the length of time taken for Sam to receive first aid. From the various stories I was told over that day, it took anything from between 10 to 30 minutes to get Sam from the water and to start chest compressions. It appears that the first aid was second to none when Sam made it to the medical tent, but the time it took to get him there would have caused his death.”
The very first Ironman race, held in Hawaii in 1978, was the brainchild of by John and Judy Collins, endurance sports activities opponents themselves who merely wished to discover the hardest athlete in their realm (hence, combining the three challenges).
It attracted 15 contributors. Last yr, at races around the world most every weekend, the quantity went up to 250,000 contributors (around 5% don’t end).
Despite his close brush with death during an Ironman, Mark Allen says he would do it again. Courtesy of Mark Allen
Mantuk acknowledged that, for some middle-aged racers — of the 85 deaths, 57 had been 40 or older — there’s the attraction of difficult mortality and proving what they’re still succesful of.
“For whatever reason, people don’t feel as fulfilled in their lives as they might want to,” Mantuk said. “There are the endorphins. People feel good when they train. They are often searching for something in their lives when they do a triathlon.”
And while Allen has no regrets, his girlfriend, he said, is 100% against him competing again: “She’s, like, there’s absolutely no way. You have to be crazy. It takes an insane mentality.”
Metzl admits that “Some people say that those of us who do Ironmans are nuts. And maybe they’re right — but there are a lot of positives that come from it. There is risk in everything. Getting out into the world comes with risk.”
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