The 2006 Ironman World Championship in Hawaii marked my best race ever at the Ironman distance. This season, it was the only Ironman race I planned to do, so I focused a lot of my training for this race. It was my 8^th year in a row here in Kona and it seemed like each year becomes more and more special for me.

This year, I arrived on Wednesday during race week, and the night before I left I found myself shoveling snow at our house. Needless to say, I was excited to get on the plane to Hawaii. Although, I was not excited to leave Nikki as she just hit 29 weeks in her pregnancy. I promised I would plan out some flights just incase something happened while I was gone, but so far so good.

I got in at 11:00 AM and Ben Harper picked me up. It was so nice to get a ride! I got to my hotel, the Kona Seaside, which is where we stayed last year. The rate is great and the location is right next to the pier! I went down to the expo and sat in the Timex athlete panel at 2 PM. We had a lot of things to do for Timex this year, including photo and video shoots. I got in a small 30 min run before dinner and met one of my friends for dinner at The Hard Rock.

On Thursday, I got up and swam in the unusually choppy and murky waters in Kailua Bay. Since an earthquake hit that previous Sunday, I was thinking that that Kona would be a little more shaken up than it was. Luckily, it seemed like things were OK and the damage was minimal.

After I got out on my ride, I made sure that everything was working well with the bike. I had Doug do a once over on my Seduza and everything was good to go. It was also later that night that my parents arrived, and it was their 8^th year in a row to come with me race. It means so much to me that they were able to come!

As race day arrived, I was so excited to race. I had put a lot into my training and felt ready to go. Most of the training I did was at altitude, so I was hoping that would help my preparation. I got down to transition at 5 AM and got body marked. As I went to my bike, I said good luck to Sergio and a few other Timex athletes in my rack. I went back up to my room at the Kona Seaside and rested up a bit, and then headed down to see my parents on the sea wall. We chatted for a bit and I said my goodbyes as I headed down to the water.

I immediately swam over to where my parents were sitting and said thank you for having them come watch me race my 8^th Ironman. It’s kind of been tradition for me to swim over to them and see them one last time before I start. I then swam over to the pier and watched the pros start. I looked around and saw so many people along the coast waiting for the start. It was then I truly felt so lucky to be where I was at that moment. Before I knew it the cannon went off and I was on my way!

The swim in Hawaii is always a tough start to the day. You simply get banged around so much that it’s very hard to get a rhythm. Although after about 10 minutes, I found a good group of guys that were at about my pace. It was feeling good so we kept in our pack until the turnaround. I was feeling stronger on the way back, so I started to slowly move closer to the front of the pack until I moved into the front position. I thought for a while I was leading the age groupers, but as I found out later in the day there were a few way out in front that would come in around 51 minutes.

We cranked in to T1 and I was feeling ready to go on the bike. I had a great transition and was feeling good as I got on my bike and headed through town. However, after the first 30 minutes of riding, especially after getting out onto the Queen K, I was not feeling the best. Physically I felt fine, but I did not find much power in my legs.

Nevertheless, I knew I had a job to do, and I was determined to meet my goals for the race, to be in top 3 in my age group. I was riding by myself almost until Waikoloa, but I did get passed by a few other age group cyclists. They did not distract me as I was trying to simply focus on myself.

I hit the turnaround in Hawi in good time, and was excited to get back to Kona and start the run. I motored home and switched back and forth with Desiree Ficker for a while, hit some rain by the scenic point, but before I knew it, I saw the ball field lights and I knew I was close to being off my bike! Before I knew it, I was in T2 and racing to get into my running shoes.

The run is what makes an Ironman so difficult. It is the most taxing on your body, yet it comes at a point where I was so happy to be off my bike. I started out going pretty strong out on Alii drive, and got into a rhythm fairly quickly. I felt strong going out to the turnaround and was so happy to see St. Peters Church. This was the church where I got engaged on my birthday in 2001, so it has special meaning for my wife and I. Also, knowing that she is pregnant, it gave me a little more power in my legs.

I looked up into the sky knowing she was thinking about me at that very moment, and it put a smile on my face. I pushed a little harder going back into town and saw some of my friends along the way and shared a little high fives with them as well. I headed up Palani road and saw the whole Timex crew and they gave me even more motivation to stay strong.

I headed onto the Queen K for a second time during the day and, to be honest, I liked running on the Queen K better than in town. It’s the solitude from my training that I enjoy the most, and being on the run without all the people is a nice thing for me to experience. I was feeling stronger as the run went on, and before I knew it, I was entering the energy lab.

After the turnaround, I saw on the text message board a message from Nikki that read, “Go Daddy! Love, Your Twins.” That was certainly the motivation that I needed and tried to dig even deeper. As I was almost to the ball fields, I looked at my watch and saw that at mile 24, my time was 8:43. After some quick math, I realized if I ran home in under 7 min miles, I could potentially break 9 hours.

It was not an original goal of mine, however I knew it could happen. So I blocked out all of the spectators and other competitors, put my visor down low, and pushed harder than I ever had in the last 2 miles of an Ironman. As I entered into town and raced around the hot corner, I saw that I was going to do it. I finished up the ramp in 8:58.57, and could not believe that I actually did it. I was 43rd overall, 5th American, 8th amateur, and 2nd in the age group. It was a dream, and the best Ironman I had ever raced.

A huge thanks to Timex, PowerBar, John O’Malley at John Burns Construction, Tri-Swim, my family and my wife for all the support!