Greg Penner of Steinbach has qualified for the IRONMAN World Championship.

The 39-year-old qualified after finishing 7th in his age category at IRONMAN Canada on Sunday in Whistler. Penner didn't find out until Monday morning that his placing was good enough and says he was elated to hear the news.

(Greg Penner and son Isaiah)Penner swam approximately four kilometres, then biked about 180 kilometres and ran a full marathon in a combined ten hours, fifteen minutes and ten seconds. He says the race went according to plan. With the swim being his weakest of the three disciplines, Penner says when he came out of the water he was probably in the top one-third of all competitors. He was able to then quickly make up ground on the bike and eventually with his run.

According to Penner, the IRONMAN course in Whistler is among the toughest on the planet. Coming from the Prairies, Penner says there were two major climbs on bike. The elevation gain is between 7,000 and 8,000 feet. During the running portion, Penner says there was probably more elevation gain within one kilometre than what he experiences in an entire year of running in Manitoba.

Penner says when he crossed the finish line, he knew he was close, but didn't know if his placement would be good enough to punch a ticket to Hawaii. And in fact, it took until Monday morning before the results were announced. Within his age category, the top four competitors qualified for Hawaii, and because some of the athletes who finished ahead of Penner had either already qualified in a previous event, or opted not to accept the invitation to Hawaii, Penner was given the nod.

"It's been a goal of mine for probably ten or fifteen years," says Penner. "It's such a difficult goal that you need full buy-in with life, even with your work, your family, your friends, just everyone kind of rallies behind this goal, behind you."

(The Penner family is headed to Hawaii)And he says to have his son and wife at his side when his name was called Monday was very special.

"I said to my wife, 'it's going to happen'", recalls Penner. "It all happened very quick and she didn't believe it and then my name was called and then my son is yelling, 'we're going to go see lava'. It was quite exciting to share it with them and a moment I will never forget."

Penner says when he was in his early 20's he had some great achievements while biking. And though he still considers those his finest accomplishments in sports, he says to qualify for Hawaii later in life, when life is busy feels quite amazing. Penner says qualifying for the IRONMAN World Championship is probably ten times harder than qualifying for the Boston Marathon. He can now say he has achieved both.

On October 14th, Penner will compete in Hawaii. He says he will probably use the next week or two to heal up and then continue training. He is not the first Steinbach athlete to qualify for the IRONMAN World Championship. Both Erin Schinkel and Les Friesen accomplished the feat in recent years.