As many of you know I went to the Ironman in Kona this year to support my brother Chris in his final prep, and on race day, meanwhile getting in some good training for Ironman Florida. Well, let me tell you it was quite a day out there full of excitement and plenty of emotion.

For reference- Names, and or Nicknames
Chris- Chris Lieto, big bro
Macca- Chris Mccormack, 2nd last year
Crowie – Craig Alexander 70.3 World Champion, hell of a nice guy
T-bone – Tjorborn Sinballe, One time bike course record holder- big friendly Dane
Jimmy – Luke McKenzie, good buddy, training partner, don’t ask why it's Jimmy!

The day started quite early for me, as my nerves wouldn’t let me sleep past 1:30!!! I swear I get more nervous, or anxious for Chris’s races than I do for my own. I am a nut. Well, when Chris woke another 3 hours later, we got our stuff together, got some breakfast in the bellies, and we where off. With me and Chris was our friend Aaron who was my partner in crime, when it came to being one of Chris’s “helpers”. I put helpers in quotes, cause during the week we referred to ourselves as something else, not deemed appropriate for use on trifuel.com, (you could probably figure it out). We walked Chris over and got him all numbered and he went and got his bike ready to race. After the steed was set, we found a quiet spot to relax, and had some chill out family time before the madness started.

I was able to get some good access to the pier, and I went out to watch the start. I was excited to see the swim as usual, but there where also some cool things in store this year. 1st, the Navy sent 5 Seals out of a plane to parachute into the swim course, quite a site!! Then an all around bad ass Laird Hamilton lead the swim on a stand up paddle board!! Pretty cool if you ask me!

Ok- race time!! Gun off, and there goes the adrenaline, and just a little bit of the anxiety that by this time has taken over. The pros go off then the age groupers. It looks that the pro field had developed into several groups already with a group getting off the front. I get an update that the field is getting spread apart by Linda Gallo, yes, a women leading, and not only that but putting many under pressure. This in no way is a surprise as I have had some training sessions and races with Linda and know her power in the water. The other good news of this update is that Chris is in 5th place, which is a good spot for him to be in at this point. In an Ironman swim sometimes you can get caught in the wrong group or get gapped behind an inexperienced swimmer, so it is good to see he was in a good spot after the selection. After 51 and change the leaders came out, with Fancisco Pantano out 1st with Linda 2nd my boy Jimmy 3rd and Chris in 7th. So all is good. I run to update the family, and then Karis Aaron and I are off to get out on the bike course.

So by the time we catch the lead group Chris has already made a move off the front, he had about 100meters on a group being led by Pantano, but including just about everyone else- Macca, Crowie, Bell, Jimmy, Evans, Marino, Van Lierde, and some others that had good swims, but are already showing an uneasiness keeping pace with the big boys. We get up the road a few miles to get some splits on the chasers. By this point Chris had about 45 seconds, and the group was riding in close proximity, with very few riders riding in a “legal” position. 2 minutes behind the group was Norman, who was riding well, a further minute behind him was T-bone, riding with Lovato, Brown, and Bracht. and a further 3 behind was Beke. This scenario was good for my bro because it meant some of the pedigree runners where not going to make the lead group, and that the other 2 dangerous cyclist where not with the peleton, and would probably not catch the group until it started to break up a bit. We continued to leapfrog several times to get splits on Chris and the group- it went to 1:30, 2:00, 3:15, 4:00, then 4:30 by Hawi, and we heard T-bone was making an effort off the front. We already new Norman was out, so T-bone was the only cyclist of concern left. On the way down to Waikoloa he smashed it and put in about 2:30 minutes on my brother who is about 20 lbs lighter, and just could keep up that speed with the windy conditions. At about mile 80 we saw Chris again, and could tell he was slowing a bit, but knew he was still putting time in on the main group. By now the group had blown apart and included only Crowie, Deboom, Macca, Jimmy, Van Lierde, Pantano, Llanos, and Marino and Evans had about 1:30 on the group. T-bone had caught Chris by the donkey Crossing, and soon after Chris found his second wind and held T-bone at about a minute.

We made our way back to the house and tried for a quick transition onto the bike for the run portion of our day. I have to say I was quick, ran in, grabbed some water, a few slices of pizza for Aaron and I, and was ready to go. Aaron apparently had to do his nails, so he got a few “COME ON DUDE” s from me from downstairs. I have been coming to this race either racing or watching my bro for the past 10 years, so needless to say, I was fired up to see Chris leading the fricken World Champs, and I knew he was running well and would be in the lead again soon. So “COME ON DUDE!!!”.

I caught up to Chris at about mile 1 and gave some encouragement and started the watch to get splits on the guys behind. For those who haven’t been out to one of these races, there is no pacing. Which means I can “leapfrog” every mile or so, and give splits and encouragement by the side of the road. At no time are you allowed to ride or run next to a competitor while giving encouragement or advice. I am very careful about this because I want things to be fair, and also an infraction of this rule is a 4-minute stand down penalty, which would make for an awkward Thanksgiving dinner for me!

By my second stop at about mile 3 I knew things where good for 2 reasons, 1st Chris looked great and was about 5 seconds behind T-bone. 2nd he looked at me and then looked ahead and said “what is the split?” Which is pretty funny when you are less than 20 meters behind a 6’4” Dane dressed in all white. Guess you had to be there. Well, while I was waiting Chris passed the big man for 1st, and was in the lead again. Did I mention this was the fricken Ironman World Championships, proud little brother to say the least.

So Chris was running about 6:15’s or 6:20’s by my calculations, but the bad news was Macca, and Crowie where running about 25 seconds a mile faster, so had already made up 3:30 on my bro and where closing fast!! Watching these two run is always a pleasure, (well, not when I am racing them ;( ), these guys are so smooth and make it look effortless. Chris made it up Palani, and won the run prime, and had about 1:30 by mile 12, but I could tell Macca smelled blood, and was coming quick. At about mile 14 Macca passed Chris, and Chris then made me so damn proud. He looked at Macca and got on his shoulder, and ran with him for about the next mile, as if to say, “If you want it, you gotta take it”. Right before the Energy Lab the elastic broke, and Chris went in with about a 20 second gap. Now the painful wait starts. The Energy Lab is about 20 minutes with no spectator access. Behind Chris was Crowie, 2minutes to T-bone, 10 seconds to Deboom, 2 more to Marino, and 4 Llanos. After Llanos was Van Lierde, Pantano and Lovato. This guy is amazing, Michael rode most of the ride on his own without benefit of a group, and although coming off the bike in about 20th, kept it rolling on the run and was now in about 11th. I yelled that he was my hero and was running great, he responded with “I haven’t started running yet”. Thata boy, always good for some chuckles that guy. Jimmy came by in about 15th and was holding a steady pace. “Go get em Jimmy!!”

Out comes Macca. Ok start the clock. 1 minute, 1:30 Crowie, ok, ok, 2minutes, 3minutes, 3:30 here comes Chris. Looks like he struggled a bit in the lab, which most do, besides being very solitary it is generally hot due to a tailwind on the way out, the Energy lab has one of the longest climbs on the run, and can hurt at about mile 18. 30 seconds later comes T-bone, who still had about 10 seconds on Deboom, then about 1minute to Marino, and a further 2:30 to Llanos. At this point Chris was in the “locker” or what I like to call the “pain cave”. He walked through an aid station to get what he needed, and was passed by T-bone and Deboom. Shortly after Marino followed suit. At about mile 21 Aaron and I waited with a few other supporters, when Chris ran up and stopped. He was in obvious pain, and was clutching his feet. At this point in an IM, your body is telling you to stop, and sometimes your wits aren’t about you due to lack of sugars. Chris looked over for some consoling, and although I wanted to sympathize, tough love was the only thing on the menu, and a surprised Chris got moving again, slowly but surely. He had 2 minutes on Llanos, and needed to just keep moving. After some much needed sugar he
started running good again and was keeping a gap.

Meanwhile Macca was nailing it, man this guy did his work and was just putting it down up front. He now had about 3 minutes on Crowie, and unless something biblical happened it was his. Good on ya mate, great fricken run. Crowie, was still hauling, later he told me he died and struggled the last 5 miles. Well he was still running about 6:45-6:50’s, if only us mere mortals could run that pace while “dying”. One of the more impressive late race performances was T- bone holding off Tim Deboom. Tim was having a great race and would end up running a 2:48, but could not pull in T-bone after having only 10 seconds with 10 miles to go. You go you big man you. (Us big guys gotta stick together!!) No disrespect to Tim though, as I said great race, and he was one of the about 2 or 3 that actually was at the front trying to keep the gap tight to Chris and T-bone on the bike. At this point Marino was on a good stride and could tell Chris was not gonna bring him back, just had to cheer as best I could for him to stay in front of Llanos. It was getting close, but Chris had some energy and we were within 2 miles, so I knew he would have it.

I turned and hauled down Palani, and had some sweet cross style dismounts getting over the hay bails at the corner. I was not gonna miss this. I have missed pretty much all of Chris’s finishes, due to being out on the course too long, and wanted to see him cross that line. I ran and through my bike next to the big banyan tree, asked a local to watch it, and went through the maze of gates to try and find the finish. It was not easy to get into the finish shoot- even with the media credentials, that place was a mad house. I had security grab me twice, but gave them a teary eyed look, and said that my brother was coming, and they let me through. While I was waiting I saw and congratulated Crowie, and asked if he was human. First time in Kona running a 2:45, pretty damn amazing. I grabbed him by the arm, and all he said was “tough day at the office, mate”, and feeling his body waving around, like he was about to fall over at any moment- I
believed him.

So I see Chris come down the shoot, he had it!! 6th place, he looked over his shoulder and saw that Llanos was only 10 seconds back, so plenty of time to walk across the finish- yeah right! Pretty darn close. Karis and Kaiden had made it through by this point and we all where ready for Chris. I gotta tell you, I was a mess, full of tears- so very proud of Chris. He has been working towards the goal of leading this race for the last 9 years, and I know what work and sacrifice he has put in. Very proud little bro.

So final men’s results

Macca, Crowie, T-bone, Deboom, Marino, Chris, Llanos, Van Lierde, Lovato,
Vernay

It was good to be able to support Chris and be a part of Ironman Hawaii again. It is a special experience, and means the world to a lot of people. Hawaii definitely has a great vibe to it, and this race is inspiring to all who witness it. It isn’t the end all be all of triathlon, and yes you are still an Ironman if you don’t do this race specifically, but it is indeed special. Watching this year has made me want to come back and participate, I say participate, cause I am not the best in the heat, and it isn’t the race for me. But, next year is the 10th anniversary of when I was 1st exposed to Ironman as a 240 lb lazy bones just supporting his big bro. A goal I set for myself when I first changed my lifestyle was to come race alongside my bro. Unfortunately the year I raced he was injured, so we haven’t lined up together yet. ’08 I
am planning on making it happen. I’ll see you there!!