While the Kona Ironman World Championships is considered to be one of the most grueling triathlons on the planet, for some, having a full day of swim-bike-run just doesn’t cut it. For these endurance fanatics, “three” full days becomes the ultimate challenge of choice.
The Ultraman World Championships will begin today in Kailua Bay at 6:30 a.m., covering a total distance of 320-miles (515 kilometers) over three days.
Competitors will complete a 6.2-mile rough water swim from Kaiakeakua Beach to Keauhou Bay, then a 261.4-mile bike ride around the island, and finish off with a pulverizing 52.4-mile ultra-marathon from Hawi to the Old Airport Kona State Beach Park.
The Ultraman World Championships also celebrates a new milestone — 35-years of Aloha (love), Ohana (family), and Kokua (help) since its humble beginnings in 1983.
Curtis Tyler, Alex Smith, and Conrad Will organized the first Ultraman Triathlon held in 1983. Among the group, Tyler served as original race director with the goal of having more than just a competition, but an event that focused on the three guiding principles of Hawaiian culture.
Then in 1992, Tyler turned over Ultraman to Jane Bockus on the condition that there never be prize money. Bockus, often referred to as “UltraMama”, kept the event the same with the exception of a course change in the years 2001 and 2002 when it started and finished each day in Kailua-Kona. In 2017, the race director baton was handed to her long time assistants, Sheryl and David Cobb, who share 50% ownership of the race with Bockus.
I caught up to the Cobb’s, the race directors and husband and wife team of the event, who shared their thoughts on the Ultraman World Championships’s 35th anniversary, the importance of staying true to the event’s core values, and why they have been with the race for more than two decades.
Q: How exciting is it for the Ultraman World Championships to celebrate its 35th anniversary?
Sheryl: It’s pretty amazing because of the fact that it’s been such a small event. The fact that it’s been able to keep going for 35-years as so many other small events have either been bought out or haven’t been able to survive especially with the growth of some of the bigger corporate events. For us to still be around while sticking to our core values of Aloha, Ohana, and Kokua – I think it’s pretty awesome. We haven’t tried to turn it into anything different than it was 35 years ago.
Q: Why are the core values of Aloha, Ohana and Kokua so important to Ultraman?
Sheryl: Aloha (love) is just a great way to live your life: love for each other, love for the land, love for the ability you have been given, and love for the opportunity to push your limits – that’s a great way to live life for everybody, not just triathletes. Ohana (family) truly represents all of the connections one makes through this event because people come to compete as an individual quest but end up making friends for life. And with Kokua (help), everyone out there tries to help each other, every athlete will help other athletes, and every crew will help other crews or athletes. It’s just a real bonding and brings us back to what’s good in life and not just in the realm of sport. These values are a part of our lifestyle – it’s not something we just do the week of the race. We try to live Aloha, Ohana and Kokua everyday and we hope that our athletes take that back to wherever they go home to and share that with the people they come into contact with.
Q: Do you think the original founders imagined it would last for so long?
Sheryl: I think once they were not actively involved with it they realized that it would perpetuate and go on. When Curtis decided to move on, Jane got a phone got from some Germans who were coming. With Curtis’s blessing, Jane put on the race that year and that’s when she got really involved with it in 1992.
Q: How many years have you both been with Ultraman?
David: I started out with Ultraman in 1995 basically as a crewmember for Kevin Cutjar who won that year. I just got called on a whim because one of the people who was suppose to be helping him dropped out. At the time I lived in Honolulu when a friend, Ronona Clark, called me on a Wednesday night and asked what I was doing that weekend. All she said was to make sure I brought my running clothes as there was something happening that I would want to be a part of. She never told me what I was getting into. Basically I threw a bag together, flew over to Kona, never knowing what any of this was about.
I ended up on a crew for Kevin Cutjar and he ended up winning the event. After that, I crewed for 5-years before attempting to do it in both 2000 and 2002. I’ve been with the event ever since.
I was really impressed because I’ve done Ironman four-times, three in Kona and one in Switzerland, but I didn’t really know much about Ultraman. I really liked the personal touch of it and I liked being involved all weekend long. It wasn’t just me out there, it was all of us. In Ironman I was out there with 1200-1300 athletes and no one really knew me or cared what happened to me. But with Ultraman, it’s a race where you are personally vested basically in the success or failure in the athlete you are crewing with. It just struck a cord with me.
Sheryl: So for David, this will be his 25th year being involved and for me, 24 years. It was 1996 and I got roped into it through Jane. I was single at the time and didn’t have plans for Thanksgiving weekend so she figured I could crew. I hung out with Jane for the first day and on the second day, we came across Cory Foulk on the bike and he was struggling with some cramps. Since I did massage I stopped and helped him and it turned out that he only had one crewmember. So I ended up crewing for him for the rest of the weekend. After that I crewed for 6-years, and the rest of the time I was Jane’s assistant until 2017.
Q: How did Ultraman help to turn your relationship into a love story?
Sheryl: I knew David through Ronona Clark and we were acquaintances. I was helping my Special Olympics team get to the World Games in 1997 and I had two athletes on Oahu who were trying to qualify for the half marathon. I contacted David who lived on Oahu at the time, to see if there was anyone who could run with them and help them qualify.
The following year he returned to Kona to crew for Cliff Rigsbee and I crewed for Rick Kent. So we saw each other a lot over that weekend as Cliff and Rick ended up having this epic battle on the bike on Day 2. I ended up crewing on my own on the last day and ran over to David’s van to have a beer. It’s been a match made in heaven ever since. We have been married for 16-years.
Q: Is it difficult to organize an Ultraman event on the Big Island?
Sheryl: It’s definitely a yearlong process. We actually book accommodations for the next year right after checking out of this year’s race. Then we start the sanctioning and permitting process in January, which in itself can be challenging.
Q: How does one qualify for Ultraman Worlds?
Sheryl: The first race they can qualify is at Florida in February, then Canada in July. Then in 2020 it will be Arizona in March. We open registration on February 1st, then invitations to the event go out in March. We will hold spots for those who are first time finishers at Ultraman Canada and Arizona.
We then issue invitations to 50 qualified athletes, but once someone drops, we do not fill their spot. So we typically end up with 40 athletes. This year we are low on athletes numbers as we have 28. But I think it’s due to the change in bike course last year due to the lava flow in which we had to send athletes through Saddle Road. It scared a lot of people. We had a 12% drop rate who didn’t finish. Even when we announced that the bike course would go back to going around the island, athletes had already made other plans. Also in 2018, we only had one qualifying event, Ultraman Florida. Athletes can only get in through a qualifying race and through this, we are able to protect the Ultraman brand.
Someone may also qualify for a spot if they were a previous Ultraman WC finisher, then all they would need to do is compete at an Iron-distance event within the 18-months prior to Worlds for their qualifying race.
Q: Has the race changed since your involvement over the last 24, 25 years?
David: I don’t think the overall spirit has changed. I think that it’s still a very personal challenge for any athlete and the camaraderie of the small group that we have on race day. I think that’s what makes Ultraman so special and I don’t think much as changed since the beginning.
The only weird situation that I feel has changed is the attitude of the athletes. I think in the earlier days this event was pretty special and athletes didn’t come here with any weird expectations of what we, as race directors, are suppose to be doing for them. Now, there are more prevalent attitudes of entitlement. So while this race hasn’t changed, there seems to be a lot of people who think they can just apply for this race because they think they are a great athlete.
Sheryl: We are pretty lucky now to have these qualifying races. And someone from our board is always at the qualifying races to get a chance to meet the athletes. So if there’s an athlete who shows up with that kind of entitlement attitude, our race is an “invitation only” race, and so they can apply but we don’t have to invite them.
Basically, if someone doesn’t demonstrate that they understand our three basic principles (aloha, ohana, kokua), then we send them an email explaining why we felt that they weren’t ready and why they weren’t invited.
Q: What is your favorite memory?
Sheryl: For me, it’s about how I’ve watched this race over the years and seeing how it changes people’s lives. I’ve seen people who have been in a bad place in their life, come and do this event, and have it change their life for the better. My favorite day of the entire race is Monday night at the awards banquet. At the awards banquet each athlete gives a speech. It’s so rewarding to hear how this race affected them, what they learned about themselves, and just how they were touched by other athletes, their crew and other crews, the staff – it turns out to be this crazy little love fest. The friends that we now have from around the world are pretty amazing.
