They call this the "toughest race in the world". Well, after dying a thousand deaths on your way to the finish, I'm sure you'll be inclined to agree. The dedication of these extra-ordinary athletes is astounding.

TheDuh.com's Official Photographer Andrew "Hats" Lee was in town to capture some of the sights from the race:

First, we start off with the 2008 champion, Faris al-Sultan, who finished the course in 8 hours 34 minutes and 42 seconds, a full half an hour ahead of second-placed Petr Vabrousek, who recorded 9:04:54.

In case you wanted to know, the "world" record for Ironman Hawaii was set in 1996 by Luc Van Lierde (Belgium) whose winning time was 8 hrs 4 mins 8 sec.

He wins it!

Here is Belinda Granger, who finished top dog in the ladies' category and eighth overall at 9 hours 29 minutes:

Park Byung-hoon was the first Asian finisher, at sixth overall (9 hours 19 minutes)

Here we have two photos of Patrick Bless, who was ninth at 9 hours 31 minutes:

Mathieu Ohalloran, from Canada, was fourth at 9 hours 10 minutes. Note that he is using a standard road bike handlebar and very shallow wheels; unusual:

Let's not forget former national cyclist Wong Ah Thiam, check out his "normal" bike short tan lines:

Ok, I tried looking up this guy's name all over the Internet but to no avail. Certainly an inspiration to all of us two-legged humans:

Now, a couple of bikes. The first is a Ceepo, which its website calls an "extream (sic) carbon triathlon bike"

Next is a red/white Orbea Ora with some unusual wheels. TWE stands for Two Wheels Enterprises, an Australian company specialising in building wheels. The wheels look like tubulars although I could not see a spare tubular anywhere on the bike:

Lastly, we have perhaps the coolest bike at this year's Ironman:

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