Tri-athlete returns from Hawaii after personal race

Idaho Falls man Rod Hutchins has returned home from Kona, Hawaii.

25 years ago he set a goal to run the Iron Man course in his own race at his own pace.

25 years later that goal started to become a reality.

Rod arrived in Hawaii June 19th, 2018 to prepare for his race mentally.

On Friday June 22nd, Rod started his race a little before 8 A.M. he completed the full swimming and biking events in less than 24 hours.

Rod showed resilience through the pain he had on the course, not giving up and continuing on the course.

Unfortunately he had to stop the running because of complications.

Sportsline was in Kona, Hawaii covering Rod’s event, and before he started running, he spoke highly of his team.

“These are all friends number 1, associates number 2 and Iron Dream Team Members that have been with me for a long time and I remember and have reminisced this week with them and talking about it and they said, ‘really your the one doing the race?’ you know?” says Hutchins. “And to be here today and to see everything they’ve done, they’ve sheilded me from all the decisions, they’ve taken care of it, we have coordinators that are handling everything. So it’s been humbling to witness that and protected from all those decisions so that I can focus mentally, physically and emotionally on the race.”

Rod and his team have put the race on hold till he can recover, and will finish the full running portion in Idaho Falls.