Photo by Tuula Rodgers

Almost no one masters the purgatory of Kona’s Ironman course on the first try, unless of course you are Luc Van Lierde or Chrissie Wellington. Even the supremely fast triathlete can take the better part of a decade to learn how to win here—Chris McCormack and Mark Allen are the shining examples of how persistence trumps talent heading down the final stretch on Ali’i drive to the banner.

The same goes for age-groupers, who usually spend years just to get a slot here, and then maybe five or 10 more years to make the podium and go on to win the division. Case in point Patrick Schuster from Arlington, Texas, who had his best year ever here in 2010 with a 9:10 to take fifth in the M35-39 division, ten years after his first Hawaiian romp.

Schuster is a quiet, unassuming guy who has worked very hard.

This year Schuster is laser-focused on going sub-nine to win it all. He’s dominated regional age-group racing in Texas for very long time, usually winning first overall whenever he shows up. Patrick and I train at the same Lifetime Fitness center near our homes in Texas, and rumors of his speedy ramp up to this race were spreading like wildfire. “Did you see how fast his bike split was in the half-iron event? Over 26 miles per hour!” Said one fellow competitor. Another said: “This guy builds his heat tolerance by running in the heat of the afternoon,” which in Texas this summer meant dozens of days consecutively over 105F.

Speaking of wildfires, when Patrick isn’t racing and training, he’s works for the Grand Prairie fire department as a fireman and EMT.

At the inaugural Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas last May, he passed many pros in the closing miles to take 14th overall and win his age group by over 20 minutes in 8:55:33, this on a run course that most agreed was hotter and more difficult than Kona. I asked Schuster what he has changed in his training this year to shave off those extra five or ten minutes it’ll take to win his division on the Big Island on Saturday.

“I worked with running coach Joe Boyle on picking up my feet. Before, I was more of a shuffle runner. When I first started with him, Boyle said I was the faster runnest he ever saw with such poor form.” And I saw the fruits of his labor first-hand on the eight-mile loop at Ironman Texas, where Schuster lapped me with only a few miles to go. I was struggling in the high humidity just to keep going at nine minutes per mile, but his stride appeared as if he was just running 400-meter intervals on the track, or like a Kenyan the last mile of the Boston Marathon.

He’s also worked hard to make it to the pool five times a week, his weakest event. “I can’t keep giving up five or ten minutes to the overall winner out of the water. If I can swim 1:30 per 100 meters in Kona, get out of the water, through transition, and on the bike in a hour or a little more, then I know I can catch them on the bike and still have enough for the run.”

Cycling has never been a problem for Schuster, this despite doing all of his bike training on a CompuTrainer. Yes, that’s right, I do mean all of it, including things like five and a half hour long rides. Like many pros and top age-groupers, he trains completely on power now, eschewing heart rate, and incorporates intervals into every ride, including long 30-minutes on his longest ride. I coach a lot of athletes who are forced into indoor bike training by necessity, but none who prefer it full time, and none I’ve ever heard of a 100 percent indoor-trained age-grouper who can ride a 4:39 Ironman bike split like Schuster did in Texas last May.

Schuster is a quiet, unassuming guy who has worked very hard to get all of his certifications both in firefighting and medical care. Although he could win a lot more awards regionally and nationally, he shuns the spotlight with one exception: the ultimate achievement of being called an Ironman World champion.

If I were a betting man, I would give him good odds to move up four places into first this year. I’ll be looking for him running at me on the Queen K about an hour ahead of my own time, where after eleven years of racing here I’ll be trying to sneak on the podium myself for the first time in the M50-54 division.

That’s what makes this race unique: you are on the course in the same race and on the same day as your heroes and role models, and this year one of mine is an age-grouper from my hometown.

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Tom Rodgers is an elite coach and the author of The Perfect Distance: Triathlete’s Guide to Long-Course Training from Velo Press. Born in Hawaii, this year will mark his eleventh race in Kona since 1999. He coaches world champions, beginners and everyone in between at Endurathon.com. Before becoming a full-time coach, he designed extreme physiology experiments and trained astronauts for the International Space Station at NASA in Houston, Texas.