If you’re a 180 pound triathlete, a 6 ounce shoe is probably out. But if you’re a 145 pounder with a good footfall, an 8 ounce shoe might be in. Here’s our first round of overviews of 09’s racing flats.

The flip side of our red hot demographic is that “entry level” in triathlon does not start at the entry level. Here’s our $1500-and-up look at tri bikes for 09, starting with Cervelo, Felt and QR.

An exceptional image selection of Ironman Hawaii winners dating back to 1993.

Saul Raisin is juggling quite a few things these days. He is managing his raisinhope foundation, is heavily involved with the Wounded Warrior project, and trains like possessed for an Ironman. He shared some of his thoughts with slowtwitch.

Today we introduce you to triathlon shoes from Scott USA, a trainer from CycleOps, a saddle from John Cobb, a beverage from NUUN and a very interesting concept light system.

Chris McDonald grabbed the lead at the 2009 Challenge Wanaka 30km into the bike and in the end won by 7 minutes. Gina Ferguson broke her previous course record by 5 minutes to take the women’s race.

Oscar Galindez held off a tough challenge from Ronaldo Colucci to win the 2009 Pucon triathlon. Heather Gollnick led a trio of American women as she defended her title.

Raynard Tissink dominated the 2009 Spec-Savers Ironman 70.3 South Africa in a time of 4:02:04. In the women’s race, Lucie Zelenkova was virtually unchallenged as she grabbed her title in 4:46:40.

We all know how involved a triathlon day can be. Imagine now suffering from Type 1 diabetes and thus having to add all kinds of activities to your event. Matt Vogel of Team Type 1 triathlon describes one of his days in detail.

The well-traveled brand, which started in Kona and ended up in Carlsbad, via San Francisco, is now owned by Seattle-based K2, a division of Jarden Corporation

22-year old Jesse Anthony has already more cyclocross titles to his name than most folks twice his age. The Boston native recently shared some of his thoughts with slowtwitch on racing cross and getting ready for the road season.

In 2008, triathlon may or may not have had its best moments in history, but it had two very different epic performances at the Olympics, giants retired and passed from the scene, youth and age shined bright. Plus there were moments of comedy and perfidy as well.

Our coverage of lightweight training footwear offered for Spring 09 continues with a look at models made by Brooks, Newton and K-Swiss.

Starting today you’ll see a new editorial feature on slowtwitch called “What We Have Noticed” and in this new series we’ll cover products and services we have stumbled upon. But we are not reviewing these items, we are merely introducing them.

After a terrible accident in 1986, Scott Rigsby eventually lost both his legs below the knee. The friendly Atlanta, GA resident eventually stumbled upon triathlon and has been a fixture in the sport the last few years.

The 2008 Ironman Hawaii runner-up Yvonne van Vlerken talked to slowtwitch about her recent coaching change from Mario Huys to Mark Allen, the 2009 race calendar, doping and lots more.

Ironman races across America, built and run by Canadian import Graham Fraser, pass to WTC. Fraser keeps ownership of Ironman Canada, the one race of the bunch he did not start.

It’s January. What now? Let’s take stock. You’re fat, out of shape, and your motivation ebbs and flows. Perfect. We have you right where we want you. Time to start training.

Ryan Trebon recently won the US national cyclo cross championships in Kansas City, MO and is currently spending several weeks in Europe to race a lot of high-profile cross races. The 6’5″ Corvallis, OR resident had a few words with slowtwitch.

The final set of Timothy Carlson’s favorite images of 2008.

The second part of Timothy Carlson’s favorite triathlon pictures of 2008.

Judging by recent posts on the Slowtwitch Reader Forum, confusion reigns over bike fit systems, the difference between a system and a tool, and how it all relates to apple pie.

Timothy Carlson picked out his favorite triathlon images of 2008 and divided them into 3 galleries.

Part 2 of “Best of 2008” right here.

Part 3 of “Best of 2008” click here.

All images are © Timothy Carlson

New Zealand’s Gina Ferguson recently won Ironman Western Australia and with it her third title at that distance. She went sub 9 hours twice in 2008 and we can certainly expect to see even more of her in the coming years.