KAILUA-KONA — Not even a jellyfish sting could have stopped the Pease brothers from crossing the finish line.
On Saturday, Oct. 26 in the VinFast Ironman World Championship along West Hawai‘i’s golden coast, Kyle and Brent Pease displayed an unparalleled performance of resiliency and determination for the entire world to see — breaking the record for the fastest push-assist duo to ever complete the Ironman World Championship in a time of 14 hours, eight minutes and four seconds.
Brent guided Kyle — who has cerebral palsy — through the incomparable 140.6-mile journey on water, wheels and foot. The brothers returned to Kona for the first time since 2018, when they raced in their first-ever Ironman World Championship. It was their sixth Ironman together.
“When we finished the bike, our coach told us the record was in play, and that we owed it to ourselves to try,” Brent recalled in a recent interview with West Hawaii Today. “And that just sat with me and Kyle for like 15 miles. Every time we felt the urge to quit, walk or make the day easier, we chose the hard path. We chose to commit to getting it done, and it showed.”
“It was amazing to be out there with Brent at the biggest Ironman,” Kyle added. “It was great to accomplish together.”
But considering how the brothers’ race day began, it’s hard to fathom how they broke the world championship record by 18 minutes. At the beginning of the 2.4-mile swim in Kailua Bay, Brent was struck by a jellyfish — hindering some of his ability to tread through the Pacific waters with his brother tethered to him on a kayak.
“For the first 30 minutes after that happened, I was completely negative,” Brent said. “I kept saying all these negative things to myself, like ‘I can’t finish; I can’t do this.’”
It wasn’t until double-amputee racer Billy Monger swam past the brothers that Brent was jolted with a new sense of energy.
“When he swam by us at the turn buoy, I thought to myself, ‘What am I doing? He has two missing legs, just follow him.’ And so I did — for as long as I could. And that got me positive.
“When you see those pictures of me screaming at Kyle and flexing coming out of the water, it was pure excitement of getting through that challenge.”
The improbable swim by the brothers set the tone for the bike and run, even when adverse weather conditions began to strike in the afternoon hours.
“We had to deal with weather conditions on the (bike ride) to Hawi and all of those different elements (rain and wind), but we dealt with them together,” Kyle said. “I think what makes us a great team is that we rely on one another to get through whatever we’re going through.”
Kyle added that while listening to music is not allowed by Ironman during the race, the brothers like to focus on different internal themes to help the time pass by.
“This year’s theme was gratitude,” he explained. “Gratitude for the race course, gratitude for our family and gratitude for one another. That really helped us where we were in a negative frame of mind. We just focused on the gratitude and that we got to do this together. We were able to overcome any obstacle.”
By the time the Pease brothers crossed the finish line in the late-night hours along Ali‘i Drive, all kinds of sensations showered over them.
“It was all different kinds of emotions,” Kyle said. “We felt overjoyed, happy, relieved and proud. We were also very ready to go to bed, to be honest.”
But the pair didn’t come to Kona alone. Brent and Kyle are the founders of the Kyle Pease Foundation — a non-profit organization that aims to assist those with disabilities through sports and beyond. Some of its programs include scholarships opportunities, purchasing of adaptive sports equipment for those in need, contributing to other similar organizations and providing educational crusades that provide awareness of disabilities such as cerebral palsy.
Three other Kyle Pease Foundation board members — Greg Smith, Steve Barth and Jason Linscott — raced alongside the brothers. Heading into race day, the five racers aimed to raise enough money to provide a grant to each of the foundation’s six employees with a disability for their own future endeavors. The money would also go to the foundation’s inclusive employment program for another three years, planning to open up more job opportunities.
How much was raised by the time the five gentlemen got in the water for the first leg of the race? Nearly $1 million and counting.
“While there was this deeply personal motivation for us to go back (to Kona) and experience that race one more time, there was this deeper call with our foundation, and that we wanted it to benefit as many people as possible — not just our day on the island, but so many more beyond that,” Brent said.
“The way we were able to raise that money was by leveraging the entire community,” he continued. “We came in 2018 by ourselves to race. We came in 2024 to race with an army. The fact that we chose to do this for as many people as possible is just a testament to Kyle’s dedication to serving others and making a lasting impact.”
The Kyle Pease Foundation was formed in 2011, sparked by Kyle’s curiosity to join Brent in a triathlon. Once Brent completed his first Ironman in Louisville, Ky., the pair began training together — and then raced in their first Ironman together in 2013 in Madison, Wisc. Since then, the brothers have competed in over 20 triathlons as a duo.
Following the pair’s completion of the 2018 Ironman World Championship, the foundation had over 60 wheelchair athletes compete in half marathons within less than 18 months.
“We started small, but we built our way up to Ironmans,” Kyle said.
“When you’re in your late 20s and 30s, you’re starting your career and many are starting families. So for the two of us to be able to do this journey together and build this business together is pretty special to think about,” Brent added.
Considering everything the brothers have been through together over the last decade, their seven-figure fund and record-breaking finish in Kona was a testament to all of their hard work — on and off the race track.
“When people saw us screaming at the finish line, they must have thought how happy we were to finish,” Brent said. “But it was more than that. It was a culmination of the last 13 years of what we’ve done for the Kyle Pease Foundation. That moment was not just me — it was me and Kyle. It was the board members. It was my family. It was the hundreds of people who gave their money and efforts to see us finish that day. So many people helped us, and so many people to thank.
“The story we love to tell is when we did this in 2018, a kid that we previously helped texted Kyle and I: ‘When you’re in the world championships, we’re all in the world championships.’ And we got this kind of overwhelming feeling of like ‘this is more than what we’re doing.’ With these young kids and adults, they feel this tremendous sense of accomplishment and belief in themselves that anything is truly possible, and the Kyle Pease Foundation is the catalyst for all of that.”
The brothers hope to return to the island to race again one day and plan on continuing to race together, but are now choosing to spend more time continuing to grow their special foundation — internally and externally.
“I would never rule out the possibility of us coming back to the Big Island, but I think right now, what we really want to work on is helping these athletes see beyond the finish and what their possibilities are,” Brent said. “It doesn’t mean we’re done racing — we’ve got the Boston Marathon next year, and we’ve got some other things that we’ll continue to strive and chase for. But at the same time, we know that there’s a broader mission to what we do to help these athletes.”
For anyone with a disability who is unsure or on the fence about partaking in sports or other active extracurricular activities, Kyle’s message was simple.
“Just get after it. Try something new and see what’s possible, you never know what you can do. Have fun and enjoy the moment.”
To learn more about the Kyle Pease Foundation and its mission, visit https://www.kylepeasefoundation.org.
