When Marc Blumencranz had an opportunity to compete in the 2013 Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, he spared no expense in his preparations to go the distance.

当马克·布鲁曼克伦兹(Marc Blumencranz)有机会参加2013年夏威夷凯卢阿-科纳的铁人三项世界锦标赛(Ironman Triathlon World Championships)时，他不惜一切代价去做准备，力求完成比赛。

His outlays for the race — known simply as “Kona” among triathletes — went far beyond a wet suit and a new pair of handlebars for his racing bike. To help acclimate to the Hawaiian heat, he rented a house on Kailua-Kona’s fashionable Ali’i Drive, as well as a block of hotel rooms for the 10 days leading up to the race. He also hired a private chef to prepare his meals, then flew to Hawaii and housed not only his wife and daughter, but also his coach, massage therapist and physical therapist.

为了这次比赛（铁人三项运动员们都把这项比赛简称为科纳），他可远不止是购买潜水衣或者给赛车换一对新车把。为了适应夏威夷的炎热，他在凯卢阿-科纳时髦的阿里大道(Ali’i Drive)租了一个房子，还在比赛开始前10天在酒店里订了几间连在一起的客房。他还雇了一个私人大厨给他做饭，然后飞到夏威夷，把妻子、女儿以及教练、按摩师和理疗师安顿到房子里。

Total estimated cost: $100,000.

他总共花了约10万美元。

“My first reaction was, ‘You don’t need to do that,’” says Jose L. Lopez of Long Island Tri Coach, based in Mineola, who guided Mr. Blumencranz through the intensive, 10-week buildup to Kona. “I said, ‘I can still train you; I don’t need to be in Hawaii.’ He said, ‘I want you to be there with me.’”

指导布鲁曼克伦兹进行科纳赛前十周集中训练的是米尼奥拉长岛铁人三项培训公司(Long Island Tri Coach)的何塞·L·洛佩斯(Jose L. Lopez)。他说：“我的第一反应是‘你不需要那样做’。我说：‘我不用去夏威夷，依然可以训练你。’他说，‘我想让你和我一起在那里。’”

Mr. Blumencranz, now 52, is a managing director for BWD, a large, privately held insurance brokerage and wealth-management firm in Plainview, N.Y. But his career success hardly makes him an anomaly in the sport. At events like Kona, it is not hard to find affluent competitors willing and able to put serious dollars behind their long-distance dreams.

52岁的布鲁曼克伦兹是纽约州普莱恩维尤市大型私有保险经纪和财产管理公司BWD的总经理。不过，铁人三项运动中不乏事业成功人士。在科纳这样的赛事上，不难找到富有的参赛者，他们愿意也有能力投入巨资追求这个长久的梦想。

A 2015 survey conducted for the World Triathlon Corporation — the Tampa, Fla.-based organizers of Kona and other Ironman races — found that the average annual household income for Ironman participants is $247,000. USA Triathlon, the largest multisport organization in the world, says the average income for all triathletes, including those at shorter distances, is $126,000.

科纳等铁人三项比赛的主办方是佛罗里达州坦帕市的世界铁人公司(World Triathlon Corporation)。2015年，该公司委托进行的一项调查发现，铁人三项比赛选手的年均家庭收入为24.7万美元。美国铁人(USA Triathlon)是世界上最大的多项户外运动组织者。该组织称，铁人三项比赛选手(包括参加较短距离比赛的选手)的平均收入为12.6万美元。

“I don’t know if it’s a rich person’s sport, but it’s certainly an upscale person’s sport,” says Dr. Steven Jonas, a professor of public health at Stony Brook University, a longtime triathlete and the author of the best-selling book “Triathloning for Ordinary Mortals.” “To run a marathon, you need a pair of shoes, a pair of shorts and maybe a water bottle. To do a triathlon, you need a lot more.”

“我不确定它是富人的运动，但它肯定是高消费阶层的运动，”斯托尼布鲁克大学(Stony Brook University)的公共健康教授史蒂文·乔纳斯博士(Steven Jonas)说。他是一名资深铁人三项运动员，也是畅销书《普通人的铁人三项》(Triathloning for Ordinary Mortals)的作者。“跑马拉松，你需要一双鞋、一条短裤，或许还需要一个水瓶。而进行铁人三项，你需要的多得多。”

Free-spending amateur endurance athletes often pay for more than gear. To gain entry to Kona in 2015, Michael Berland, head of the political polling and analytics firm Edelman-Berland, made a winning bid on a charity slot.

挥金如土的业余耐力运动员往往付出更大代价。为了参加2015年的科纳赛，政治民意调查和分析公司爱德曼-伯兰(Edelman-Berland)的总裁迈克尔·伯兰(Michael Berland)在慈善拍卖会上投标，赢得了一个参赛名额。

The Ironman Foundation, the charitable arm of the World Triathlon Corporation, funds a number of local initiatives, including youth organizations in Hawaii. Each year, the foundation auctions four spots in the race.

世界铁人公司的慈善分支铁人基金会(The Ironman Foundation)资助一些地方活动，包括夏威夷的青年组织。每年，该基金会拍卖这项赛事的四个名额。

“My wife and I decided this would be our philanthropy for 2015,” says Mr. Berland, 47, who lives in Mt. Kisco, N.Y. To make sure he got in, he made what he called “a pre-emptive bid” of $50,200.

47岁的伯兰说：“我和妻子认为这将是我们2015年的慈善事业。”他住在纽约州芒特基斯科。为了确保能参赛，他采取了“先发制人的出价”方式——直接叫出5.02万美元的高价。

“It’s what I wanted to do,” Mr. Berland says of his expenditure. “It helps kids in Hawaii, and it got me into the race.”

谈起这次出价，伯兰说：“这是我想做的事。它能帮助夏威夷的孩子们，也能让我参赛。”

The large portion of successful businesspeople involved in endurance sports isn’t surprising, considering the personality traits they tend to share. These, says Dr. Michael Sachs, a sport psychologist at Temple University, include “high levels of motivation, goal orientation, mental toughness. They also realize that in order to be successful, they need to maintain physical and mental health, and one of the best ways to do that is exercise.”

很多成功的商界人士参加耐力比赛并不令人意外，因为他们的性格有一些相似之处。坦普尔大学(Temple University)的运动心理学家迈克尔·萨克斯博士(Dr. Michael Sachs)说，他们共有的性格包括“非常积极，目标明确，意志坚定。他们也知道，要想成功，必须保持身心健康，而实现这一点的最佳途径之一是锻炼。”

In addition, he says, there’s a “coolness” factor. “If you’re wearing a Boston Marathon T-shirt or an Ironman finisher’s jacket, those are credentials you can’t buy. You have to earn it.”

他说，还有一个因素是“显酷”。“波士顿马拉松的T恤或铁人三项比赛的完赛上衣是你买不来的荣誉。你必须自己去赢得它。”

Ironman distance triathlons are not the only events that attract Type A endurance athletes. In the last five years, Jeff Adams, 56, a retired Morgan Stanley executive living in Elkhorn, Wis., has run in 20 marathons around the world, including New York, Boston, London, Tokyo and even Antarctica.

长距离铁人三项比赛不仅吸引一流耐力运动员。在过去5年里，住在威斯康星州埃尔克霍恩的56岁摩根·斯坦利(Morgan Stanley)退休高管杰夫·亚当斯(Jeff Adams)在世界各地参加了20场马拉松比赛，包括在纽约、波士顿、伦敦、东京，甚至南极。

Mr. Adams estimates that his pursuit of running and fitness — including the cost of travel to his various races, his gym memberships and so forth — has cost him $50,000 a year over the last five years. But he ticks off what he calls his “return on my running investment,” including improved health, weight loss and the opportunity for adventurous travel.

亚当斯估计，在过去5年里，他在跑步和健身方面的花费每年高达5万美元，包括参加各种比赛的旅行费用和健身房会员费等。不过他列举了“跑步投资的回报”，包括健康改善，体重减轻，有机会进行冒险旅行。

Women, even successful women, are less likely to be found jetting around the globe or spending significant amounts of money in pursuit of their training and racing goals. “I don’t know many women who are high powered and wealthy and who are also endurance athletes who would go to these extremes,” says the former professional triathlete Lee DiPietro, 57, of Delray Beach, Fla., and author of “Against the Wind: An Ironwoman’s Race for Her Family’s Survival.” But she said that could change.

女人，甚至包括成功的女人，不大会像男人那样为了训练或比赛在世界各地旅行或花费巨资。佛罗里达州德尔雷比奇市57岁的前职业铁人三项运动员李·迪彼得罗(Lee DiPietro)曾出版《逆风：一位铁人三项女运动员为了家庭生存而比赛的故事》(Against the Wind: An Ironwoman’s Race for Her Family’s Survival)一书。她说，“我没见过很多精力充沛、富有、愿意挑战极限的女性耐力运动员。”

For his costly 2013 effort, Mr. Blumencranz dutifully did all his training leading up to Kona, the pinnacle of swim-run-bike sport — a one-day 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile marathon through the island’s torrid, wind-swept lava fields. Qualifying was difficult: Although he had twice completed the Ironman distance race in Lake Placid, N.Y., Mr. Blumencranz is not an elite athlete.

2013年，布鲁曼克伦兹为准备科纳铁人三项比赛花费不菲，他尽心尽力完成赛前训练。科纳赛是游泳—跑步—骑自行车铁人三项运动的巅峰——一天要游2.4英里，骑112英里，跑26.2英里，穿过该岛酷热、大风肆虐的熔岩区。要达到要求非常困难：虽然布鲁曼克伦兹两次在纽约州普莱西德湖完成长距离铁人三项赛，但他不是顶尖运动员。

“I never saw myself doing Kona,” he admitted. Until, that is, a business associate dropped a word to a high-ranking executive with one of the race sponsors. Mr. Blumencranz, who lives in Old Brookville, N.Y., was then offered a Kona spot. He was thunderstruck. “I told my golf friends that, for me, getting the opportunity to race at Kona was like playing Augusta during the Masters.”

布鲁曼克伦兹住在纽约州老布鲁克维尔。他承认，“我从没想到自己能去参加科纳赛。”直到他的一个生意伙伴给科纳赛一个赞助公司的高管捎了句话，所以他得到了科纳赛的参赛名额，这令他震惊。“我对一位打高尔夫的朋友说，对我来说，有机会参加科纳赛就像有机会参加奥古斯塔的高尔夫大师赛。”

On race day, Oct. 12, with his coach cheering him on, Mr. Blumencranz finished in 13 hours 19 minutes 56 seconds — far from the professional triathlete Frederik Van Lierde’s winning time of 8:12:29, but also comfortably removed from the mandatory cutoff time of 17 hours.

在10月12日的比赛日上，在教练的鼓励下，布鲁曼克伦兹以13小时19分56秒完成比赛，比职业铁人三项运动员弗雷德里克·范·利尔德(Frederik Van Lierde)的8小时12分29秒长很多，但是比规定的最长17小时的完赛时间短很多。

He felt that having his friends and support crew on hand made a difference. “It was like having Team Marc there,” said Mr. Blumencranz.

布鲁曼克伦兹觉得有朋友和支持团队在身边起到了作用。他说：“就像那儿有一个马克团队。”

Dr. Jonas applauds Mr. Blumencranz’s generosity and determination in bringing his support team to Kona in 2013, but isn’t sure of its effect. “If he’d spoken to me, I would have told him, ‘you’ll probably finish in about the same time without all that.’”

乔纳斯博士赞赏布鲁曼克伦兹2013年把支持团队带到科纳的慷慨和决心，但是对这样做的效果不太确定。“如果他问过我，我会对他说，‘没有这些，你的完赛时间可能差不多也是这样。’”

Besides, money can’t buy the satisfaction of true competition. “You cannot buy a finish,” says Dr. Jonas. “It’s what’s inside you.”

另外，钱买不来真实竞赛的满足感。乔纳斯博士说：“你买不来终点线。那要靠你内在的力量。”