Peter Reid has a mission in his life, to win Hawaii Ironman.  That is his focus from January to October each year.  Sure he races throughout the season and he races to win, but his races are always part of his plan to land up in the top spot at Kona.  He is now in the lofty company of Dave Scott and Mark Allen as the only three men to win more than three titles in Kona and I am certain that he would like to add a couple more titles to his resume before he retires.

Jon Duke 2003:

I have worked with Peter Reid since he was an up and coming pro and have watched him develop into an icon in the sport of Triathlon.  When he first arrived on my radar screen as a sports marketing consultant for Reebok he had a Canadian Reebok sponsorship (small dollars), a lot of talent and enthusiasm and little else.  He was young, good looking and quiet--a hard read.  But he had an easy calmness about him that was refreshing and uncanny.  Meanwhile Reebok was getting more involved in triathlon and had signed a sponsorship agreement with Ironman Hawaii.  During the first couple years of Reebok’s sponsorship, they had a great presence at Ironman but every year another shoe company’s athlete would finish in front of the Reebok Banner.

In 1997 a Reebok vice president told me that she would like to see a Reebok athlete win the Ironman, both men and women.  She told me I could hire two athletes only.  This was a tall order.  Going into Ironman I had two men in the race and Peter was one of them.  Before the race, I told both that one of them would get a Global contract following Ironman (by the way, the only women I had in the race was Natascha Badmann who went on to finish second that year and get a Reebok Global contract).   Peter had experienced difficulty finishing Hawaii in the past but was confident he had solved his problems.  The 1997 race found him in difficulty around Hawi on the bike, but he worked out his problems and in the hunt by the run.  When he crossed the line fourth I told him we would do his deal the next day and we did.  He went on to win the race two times and numerous other Ironman events around the world, joining the very elite sub 8 hour club.

What is even more impressive about Peter Reid is not his God-given talent to win a race like Hawaii Ironman; it is his courage under fire.  Two years ago Peter struggled with some health issues and was forced to retire from three separate Ironman races.  The third in the series was in Australia.  When he dropped out he thought his career was over; he could just not figure out what was wrong with him.  Unfortunately for him, he had a commitment to come to the Boston Marathon and do an appearance for Reebok (just a few days after this most disappointing event).  Many athletes would have found an excuse to bail out on this responsibility but Peter arrived as planned and made his appearances.  As I watched him stand before several hundred triathletes, I waited in fearful expectation of the question about what was wrong with him.  Well, the surprising thing is that is exactly what Peter started talking about at the beginning of his presentation.  His unmitigated humility was overwhelming and I can tell you today he has several hundred more fans than before that day.

His recovery and subsequent comeback has been phenomenal and his spirit is admirable.  I was with him last week and his preparation for this year’s Ironman is right on track.  He is my favorite to win this year’s race, but win lose or draw, I will always remain his number one fan.

Cam Elford 2005:

Triathlon, specifically long-course triathlon, can be a dangerous game. The incredible toll that the distance takes on an athlete’s body strictly limits the number of times in a season a contender can go to the Ironman well before he or she comes up dry. While some pro triathletes race three, four, five or more Ironmans in a season, the top guys -- Peter Reid, Colorado’s Tim DeBoom, Germany’s Normann Stadler – tend to focus their seasons around Hawaii, with few other A-priority events. A necessary strategy if you hope to find success on the suffocating lava fields of the Kohala Coast, but a nonetheless risky venture, particularly if any one of a thousand potential race-day mini-disasters derails your campaign: a flat, a missed bottle, a poor night’s sleep.

For this reason, the Hawaii pressure cooker chews up those not fully committed, both mentally and physically, to the task. And while there’s no one formula for success (champs Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Paula Newby Fraser and Natascha Badmann have all varied greatly in how they come to terms with Kona) there may be an equally unlimited number of ways to burn out or flake out on race Saturday or in the days before.

Reid, a three-time Ironman world champion, is not the most talented athlete with an IM Hawaii ring. That distinction could go to Aussie Greg Welch, Allen, two-time winner Luc Van Lierde, Newby Fraser or any number of Kona powerhouses. Instead, Reid’s resilience, his work ethic, his focus and his dogged, determined inability to know when to say when lie at the heart of his success. True, Reid, like a top performer in any field, has, at times, faced self-doubt and flirted with disaster, but few athletes have matched his ability to push forward and recapture or rekindle his inexorable drive.

Looking ahead, Reid will make his penultimate Kona appearance on Oct. 15. After spending a couple of weeks training on the Big Island last month, putting the finishing touches on his pre-race prep, Reid seems ready for a rematch with Stadler, who in 2004 rode away from the field as the main pack seemed unwilling or unable to chase him down, even as his advantage grew to a dangerous, and ultimately insurmountable, margin.

This year, however, Reid & Co. at the head of the field simply do not have the luxury of allowing the German to go on his own. Even with one of the fastest marathons in the field (last year Reid had the fastest run split in 2:46:10), Reid may nonetheless have to shoulder the majority of the peloton’s heavy lifting, or even risk a solo break, if Stadler seeks a repeat performance. Stadler is just too talented for anyone to permit an attack in the magnitude of his 2004 effort to stick.

That said, any potential race-day spoilers will have to earn their way onto the podium in a field likely to be dominated by those with plenty of Kona experience. In fact, the high-stakes Hawaii race has seldom been kind to those who haven’t paid their dues there. Still, the men’s race is far from a foregone conclusion, and Reid, DeBoom, Stadler and Germany’s Faris Al-Sultan this year face a growing threat from Ironman’s emerging stars such as Rutger Beke and Torbjorn Sindballe. But whatever the outcome, the first man down Alii Dr. will earn triathlon’s most venerated title, a distinction that comes with lifetime bragging rights and a year’s worth of pain.

Mark Allen 2003:

Kona is coming up, and just about everyone who is watching the upcoming 25th running of this grand event is making their predictions on who will take home the crown. The stakes are huge. Winning the anniversary edition will be remembered for a long time. And the champion will go home with a paycheck that, while not on the scale of golf or tennis, certainly will put some ease the pain of stiff legs after the race is done.

Mark Allen 2004:

If you are reading this, you certainly know who Peter Reid is. And I can guarantee you that every top male athlete competing in this year's Ironman knows him also. Three times he has been the World Champion in what I and just about every other triathlete would consider to be the greatest event in our sport. Last year's victory was a showcase for his classic patience with a punch style.

But interestingly, the attention this year's race has been getting in the media lead up reporting has been monopolized by first time Hawaiian Ironman competitor Simon Lessing, and another previous champion of the event, Tim DeBoom. Don't get me wrong, I have the greatest respect for both men in the field of play. But it is my personal opinion that neither has done the depth of work and preparation that Peter has done on all the levels it takes to garner the champion's lei at the finish on Alii Drive.

Pete has looked deep inside and once again found the vision it takes to be the Ironman champion. He has done the training this great race asks one to do to win it. And he has deepened his approach to winning by addressing the subtle but equally important energetic or spiritual level of what a great performance at the Ironman in Hawaii requires. This is what it takes to become a complete athlete ready to take care of any and all challenges that come on race day.

No one really knows for sure what will transpire on Ironman day. And I don't want to sound too confident on Pete's behalf. But I will say that his approach to preparing for Ironman this year has left no stone unturned. With that, the personal victory of Ironman has already been won. Now it's just a matter of assembling all the parts into one grand whole on October 16th.

Well, Ironman is closing in. Actually it has seemed to be closing in since the day after last year's race. Peter had a great race in 2004 coming up only one spot shy of the biggest goal he had on that day. And certainly the race dynamics last year have been inspiration since that day for his training for Ironman 2005.

No one with any chance of winning the Ironman would take the ride of last year's champ Norman Stadler lightly. Peter certainly has not. He just completed his monk-like preparation on the Big Island, something that I certainly feel gives him a strong edge over everyone else. He has also dialed in the help of those who can get his bike where it needs to be so that no one, I mean NO ONE, will be able to ride away from him like last year.

Not that his season has been perfect. A lingering illness cut short just about every race he had planned. And on the surface this might look like the death blow to being ready on October 15th. But Ironman is made by the training you do in January/February/March/ and April. It is also made by what you do in the final 8 or so weeks prior to the race. He did everything perfectly with his swim/bike/run during those key periods. The rest of the year is just filler.

Will it be enough to pull of a comeback? Only the Great Spirit knows for sure. But it is certainly well within the realm of reality. And we'll all know for sure by about 3:00pm on Saturday, October 15th.