On the theory that only the fittest thrive, 18 top business and financial executives plan to compete next month for the title of “world’s fittest executive.” To claim that glory, they must win the CEO Ironman Challenge, a race within a race at Hawaii’s annual Ironman Triathlon World Championship.
This is strictly physical, not fiscal, fitness: Contestants swim 2.4 miles in the Big Island’s Kailua Kona Bay, bike 112 miles and finish up with a marathon along the coast. In this year’s meet, to be held October 15, they will be among a crowd of 1,800 athletes.
Although not limited to chief executives, the CEO Challenge boasts several of the breed, including Ted Philip, 40, of Boston-based consulting firm Decision Matrix Group (he’s also a co-founder of Lycos) and Peter Lazar, 37, of Bank Austria Creditanstalt Finanzservice. A few potential CEOs are also in the pack, among them Alex May, managing director of fixed-income sales for Citigroup, and Frank Karbe, a former Goldman Sachs banker who is CFO of San Franciscobased biotech company Exelixis.
Started in 2001 by Ironman Motivations president Ted Kennedy (no relation to the senator), the Hawaii CEO event is the final showdown for those who made it through qualifying races around the globe; 45 vied to make the cut.
The reigning champion is Wolfgang Jirout, 44, the CEO of Austrian investment company Life Settlement Holding. He won last year’s final in ten hours and 38 minutes; the 2004 overall winner (who wasn’t running a corporation by day) finished in just over eight hours.
“To combine finishing a race like this while running a major company is almost impossible,” says Kennedy, 48, a former Quaker Oats marketing executive. “But these guys somehow pull it off, and some of them are very fast.”
Training can be almost as grueling as the race. Citi’s May, for example, cycles at 3:00 a.m. “You’ve got no time for anything except working, training and sleeping,” says the 37-year-old. “It’s a sacrifice you’re willing to make.” Exelixis’s Karbe, also 37, swims at lunchtime and bikes after work.
During his June qualifying race in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Karbe posted a record CEO Challenge time of nine hours and 46 minutes, which placed him among the favorites to win this year. “By no means is it a foregone conclusion,” says Karbe, a gymnast who competed on the national level in Germany until he was 20. “But I race to win.”
