Since 2004, Cannondale has offered one athlete, who shows amazing drive and determination in the Kona Ironman, the Cannondale Deter-mination award. The award includes a new Cannondale bike and other gifts to help the athlete continue to train and race. Meet Chris, Sister Madonna, and Sarah.

Road Bike Action: Chris, we heard you have quite a story to tell about the 2004 Kona Ironman?
Christian: Yeah, it was a really long day.

RBA: Walk us through the event.
Christian: I had gained entrance in a lottery and it had been my dream to race in Kona since the ’90s. After I came home from Switzerland a hurricane hit in Florida and we lost power for six weeks, so my training was not anywhere near what I had hoped. In Switzerland, I was around 148 pounds, in Kona I was 162.

RBA: What was your goal for the race?
Christian: I wanted to beat my Switzerland time, so I wanted to come in under 11 hours.

RBA: How did the race begin?
Christian: It started great. I was in a good mood, my wife was pregnant, so this was our last hurrah before the baby would be born. The swim went all right, but it’s a big fight out there in the water. I got on the bike and the wind was howling. I rode well and seven miles from the finish of the bike leg, there’s a congested area where the bikes cross over where the runners are. There is a traffic light and I noticed police officers and cones so I remember thinking I had to hug the white line tight. I moved six inches off the line left and the next thing I heard was brakes squealing and something hit me in the back.

RBA: What happened?
Christian: I found out a month or so later that it was a volunteer motorcycle driver who was done for the day and decided to put his daughter on the back of the motorcycle, and he was swerving in and out of traffic. He was going 45 or 50 miles an hour when he hit me. When I fell I hit my thumbs and elbow, took a chunk out of my butt and my left calf was displaced. It had spun to the side, my shins all balled up and contorted. My first thought was to look back and make sure I wasn’t going to get hit again and then I slapped my calf back into place quickly because I knew that would have been bad.

RBA: Did people run up to you?
Christian: Yes. There were medics everywhere because it was a busy section of the race. They came up to me and the first thing they do is check your helmet for scratches, and thankfully, my helmet never hit the ground, because if it had, they would have pulled me out of the race. The bike mechanics were there, the NBC cameras were rolling, it was crazy. They tried to put a new wheel on my bike, but the frame was cracked as the motorcycle had run over the back of my bike. So, I took off my cycling shoes, picked up my bike and decided to walk in the seven miles to the run transition. People tried to offer me help, a ride, a bike, but I knew if I did that I would have been disqualified.

RBA: Did you think about quitting?
Christian: No. Not for a second. I thought I had to be in the bike drop-off within ten hours, so I figured I could walk seven miles in two hours. I made it in 9:59. I found out later, it was really a 10:30 cutoff time, so I actually had an extra 30 minutes!

RBA: And you kept going?
Christian: I did—slowly. I hobbled my way through it and the funny thing was, now looking back, both my thumbs were so battered from the crash, I couldn’t hold the water cups without really concentrating, so I spilled most of the water I really needed. I kept going and made it to a point where I could see the finish. But, it is really dark out there and I was hobbling and really hoping I wasn’t going to get hit by another car or motorcycle! That kept me moving forward to the finish. I crossed the line in 16 hours and 39 minutes.

RBA: How did you know you had won the Cannondale Determination Award?
Christian: The next day I went to the race director to see if I was going to get some sort of compensation, a new bike, something, because at that point I had thought an official referee of the race had crashed into me. The race director introduced me to Bill Rudell at Cannondale and he told me about the award and they offered me a brand new bike which I took up to the podium. If you look at the photo of me holding up the bike, what most people don’t realize is that it took everything I had inside not to fall over!

RBA: Was that your last Kona Ironman?
Christian: No. After I won that award, they invited me back for 2005 and that day was much better. I finished in 11:10.

RBA: Are you still racing?
Christian: I am. I just did a 70.3 in Florida and my hope is to get back to Kona in ’09

2006 AWARD WINNER: SISTER MADONNA

As of today, Sister Madonna has entered 37 Ironman events and finished 34 of them. One race she had to be airlifted out from. Another she missed the swim cut-off by minutes. She singlehandedly opened up a new age class (75) for women at Kona and is the oldest woman to finish there. Her goal is to be the oldest person to finish Kona Ironman. She says, “An 80-year-old man has finished Kona, so I would like to at least even that out.” The 2006 Kona Ironman was her 17th in a row, but different in many ways. “It was a truly a miracle that I even finished it.”

RBA: You began the marathon not feeling well?
Sister Madonna:  Yes. I ran for the first three to six miles, and then when it came time to make the turn around, it was pitch dark and torrential rains started pouring down. I’m subject to hypothermia so I said, “Lord, don’t even let me think about it. Keep me moving forward.” I got to one point where the water created a deep river crossing the road. I knew if I fell in it, I wouldn’t be able to get back up, so I tried to get up on the curb, slipped and went banging onto the sidewalk. I looked up and there was a couple standing there and they picked me up and got me back going. By that time, the motorcycle crew came by and told me I was eight minutes down. I had promised myself if I made it to mile 15, I would eat some hot chicken soup, so I made it there, sat down and took the soup. I didn’t work, and everything I had left came up. I didn’t want to move, and then I thought, “You know, there is a race to finish, get up and get going.”

RBA: And this is when things became surreal for you?
Sister Madonna: Yes. When I got up to Energy Lab with six miles to go, I was moving really slowly and four people walked up to me from the opposite side of the road. One guy was barefoot, the other had on sandals and a husband and wife with running shoes on. I could barely speak. They asked me, “Do you mind if we run you in.” I mumbled, “Okay.” They were at my side and they said, “Do you want to tell us a story or should we tell you one?” I mumbled, “You.” They told me about their family, their daughter they were so proud of and then the father said, “Do you see that stop sign ahead and the stoplight after it? Walk to the stop sign and then run to the stop light.” He kept giving me little goals like this and the motorcycle kept coming up and giving me stats, but I couldn’t take them in. I decided not to think about it and let these angels handle it.

RBA: Were people cheering for you?
Sister Madonna: I found out later that the motorcycle was radioing back to the finish line and the announcer was telling the crowd where Sister Madonna was on the course, if she was going to make it or not and to keep praying for me. The whole crowd at the finish line was in on the act. I said to the couple helping me, “Can’t I please walk to Pay and Save hill, I know I can run down that hill.” They said, “Nope, you have to run.” So, I was obedient to what they told me to do. The last words they said to me were, “Doing great. When you get to the bottom of the hill, don’t stop.” How did they know I always stop at the bottom of that hill? The whole thing seemed supernatural to me. I found out later that I was clocked at 25 miles with only 12 minutes left to finish the event.

RBA: What happened next?
Sister Madonna: I said, “Okay, Lord, I’m in motion now and as close as I am to finishing, it’s going to take a miracle for me to finish.” Also, I had been praying about my nephew who died unexpectedly at age 49 a few months before, asking God for some confirmation that he died in peace. I made a deal right there, that if I finished in time, I would know he is okay. After I made that bargain, some presence on my right side, in the dark was saying to me, “What you are doing is unreal.” I was suspended between reality and non-reality. I was no longer conscious of my body, only of my movement. So I kept moving. I got down and heard the crowd and had no idea on time. All I could do was keep charging, and I made it to the finish line and collapsed in a woman’s arms. The microphone was brought over and I’m telling the people there that this is a miracle, and I now know my nephew is okay. It was a long haul. It was not only mind over matter, it had reached a higher realm.

RBA: And then you won the Determination Award?
Sister Madonna:  Yes. It’s funny, I never knew there was such an award and I started seeing things on the big screen about a person who had come back from struggles and accidents, and I started watching and then they put my name on the screen and I realized they were talking about me! I walked up to the stage where my new Cannondale bike was sitting and I thought, “That really takes the cake. Whoever heard of getting an award like this for finishing in last place!”

RBA: Your nephew’s memory came up again as a result of that award and new bike?
Sister Madonna: Yes. It wasn’t until I had a conversation with my niece and her family at Thanksgiving dinner when I told her that her brother had helped me finish the race and about my new bike, and that I knew now her brother was fine. You could have heard a pin drop. My niece said, “Aunt Dorothy, what was the brand name again? I said, “Cannondale” and she said, “That was his brand of bike, and his brother had kept one for you in his garage, so when you visited them in St. Louis, you would have a bike to ride and train on.

2005 AWARD WINNER: SARAH REINERTSEN

Road Bike Action: Sarah, tell us what it was like at age seven for you to go through such a life-changing surgery?
Sarah Reinertsen: I think growing up as a kid, being different from my whole class was hard. Going through an amputation is tough at any age, but as a seven-year-old it was really difficult. I can look back now and say I was resilient, but of course, it was devastating and hard for my parents. It was harder for them than me. One of the things that was toughest for me was not being able to do stuff in the neighborhood with the other kids. My parents bought me my first bike when I was ten, and it was tricky for us then to figure out how to get the artificial leg on the pedals, and then balancing. I just couldn’t do it.  I couldn’t keep up with my brother and the other kids, so I quit and put that bike in the garage and didn’t get on a bike again until I was 28 years old!

RBA: You eventually competed in a track meet with other children with disabilities?
Sarah: It was really an awakening for me. To go to my first competition where I could race kids just like me was amazing. And I won, and realized all the years of always being dead last were over. I found out I had this competitive spirit inside, and it changed my life. It ignited a fire inside of me. I’m still feeding off that fire today.
 
RBA: How did you end up at the starting line of Kona in 2004?
Sarah: I saw the event on television in 1992 and I was struck by that and realized I really wanted to do it and decided then I was going to. Fast forward a few years and I’m living in New York and working on a TV show covering all these Olympic athletes, which was incredibly inspiring, and at some point I just started telling these amazing athletes that I was going to finish Kona. I didn’t even know how to ride a bike at that point, but I knew I could run. At this point I had done six marathons. So, I just carried it in my heart, believing it against all the facts. 

RBA: The 2004 event was disappointing for you?
Sarah. Yes. I picked a year that was really windy and it is a really tough race. It never occurred to me that I wouldn’t finish, but I missed the bike cut-off by 15 minutes and couldn’t continue. It left a really bitter taste in my mouth, and in the following months I drew upon that. I was hungry to push myself to get back in 2005.

RBA: Tell us about 2005?
Sarah: I went to Hawaii several times before the race to train. I even missed my Dad’s wedding in New York to not miss a training day. I was traveling with work at the time, so I had two bikes. One I would ship when I had to travel, and one at home so I didn’t miss a beat.
 
RBA: Cannondale had built you a special bike for 2005, and you won their Determination Award? 
Sarah: Yes, I traveled to the factory and they designed a bike just for me, we called it “The Sassy One.” It was an amazing experience. Having their support and expertise was unbelievable. When they designed my bike, everyone in the factory signed it and a T-shirt, and in 2005 my parents hung the shirt on the race course, and I saw it. It was as if every person that works in that factory came together and I carried a little bit of their spirit and hearts with me on that course. It still hangs in my garage next to my bikes. And then to win the award was icing on the cake. To have that kind of support is unbelievable. It was like being part of a family. I feel a lot of mutual admiration and I feel gratitude.