Capturing the character....
It is not something acomplished athletes plan on, they don't shoot for a persona, but the common goal makes them find similarity.
Part of my job on this project was to find this commonality and how they will connect. I proposed real pathing for the types of people this site can help. This created a prolonged page visit on the site up 4.5 min.
I spent time interviewing the racers and asking about their experiences with Ironman. What I learned is that many of these users aspire the same but their actions are very different.