Competing in the Ironman

For the past eight years, Kris Milobar has dedicated time to becoming as physically fit as possible.

His mother, Betty Milobar, said this all started when her son decided he needed to change his focus in life.

Change he did.

Kris worked for the City of Green River and is now employed for the city of Surprise, Ariz. His wife, Becky, was a Lincoln Middle School teacher.

Kris and his family moved to Surprise, Ariz., and as he continued to get in better shape he decided to compete in Arizona's Ironman competition to see if he could advance to the World Ironman Competition, which takes place in Kona, Hawaii.

In 2008, Kris competed in the Arizona competition. This year, he took sixth, just missing the move-along spot.

"They only take five slots for world," Betty said.

Then, the first-place finisher at Arizona's qualifying competition decided he couldn't go due to a schedule conflict. Kris moved up one position, which put him into a qualifying spot.

The whole family was excited and started making arrangements to attend the World Ironman Competition in Hawaii.

Betty said Ironman qualifying competitions are hosted all over the world, including Germany, Australia, Brazil, South America, Africa and the United States.

Kris competed in the World competition in October. This event consisted of a 2.4-mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bike ride and ended with a 26.2-mile run.

Kris finished 35th in his age group of 50 to 54. He was 753 out of a total of 2,307 competing. Kris completed the swim portion of his event in 1:17:15, the biking portion with 5:18:16 and the run in 3:56:12.

Betty said it was really hot on the day of competition.

"It didn't seem to bother him," Betty said.

She figured it was because he was used to being in a warm climate. She couldn't believe how he kept smiling and giving them the thumbs up sign throughout the competition.

During the competition, Betty, and Kris's other supporters Lisa Maes, Sam and Kim Niko, Joe and Cheri Pesci and Becky Milobar were able to see Kris during his races. Betty said Kris's support crew was not hard to spot. They were the only ones wearing bright, neon blue T-shirts that said "team Milobar" on them.

Betty said Kris commented about what a great idea that was because he could see them from a long ways away.

After he started the swim, Betty and the rest of the crew walked through a shopping center over to where the bike race was going to take place. She said there was only so many miles of highway blocked off for the event so during the bike race Kris rode by once and then back by them again.

Competitors have 12 hours to complete the event. Betty said some of them didn't finish for various reasons.

"One of the professionals quit right in front of us," Betty recalled.

The professionals arrive two weeks early, to acclimate themselves to the climate. Kris arrived two days before the competition. Betty is proud of her son's accomplishments. She said he never had a trainer or nutritionist like a lot of the competitors do; and yet he did very well. To celebrate his finish, Kris enjoyed a double whopper with fries.

"I don't know if he will do it again or not," Betty said. "If he qualifies I would like to go back again."

Following in her father's footsteps

Kris isn't the only physically fit member of his family. His daughter, Lexi, who is a nursing student at the University of Arizona's College of Nursing, has been running, biking and swimming for quite some time.

She competed in her first Ironman Competition in Arizona in November. She took third place in her age division, 18-24. With a time of 11:11:20, she was 377 out of a total of 2,681 who competed. She completed the swim portion in 1:00:17, the bike portion in 5:42:49 and the run in 4:20:49. Her goal is to beat her father's time in the Ironman World Competition.