Park Hills resident Stuart Morrison, 38, recently returned from competing in the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. He has competed in triathlons for two year, and he took time to answer five questions from Enquirer reporter Ryan Ernst.

1. What exactly is an Ironman competition?

It's a triathlon, which is typically a swim followed by a bike ride, followed by a run - at different distances. But an Ironman event is a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile marathon run. That's the Ironman distance race, but they also have half-Ironman distance races. But the Ironman isthe big daddy of them all. It originated in Hawaii in 1978, and it's an interesting story. There was a Navy commander there and he had a competition among his men to see who was the fittest.

2. How did you get into the sport?

I was a runner. I started running for health about seven and a half years ago. In '98, some of my buddies wanted to do the Flying Pig (Marathon). So I did that. . But I was actually having trouble with my knees, so I looked for something that didn't involve so much running. I did some shorter triathlons and moved on to the longer ones, ultimately defeating the purpose of trying to save my knees.

3. There were more than 1,500 people competing in Hawaii. With that kind of field, what kind of goal did you set for yourself heading into the event?

The difference between Hawaii and others is that you have to qualify for it by posting a very fast time at another Ironman. So everyone there is among the best in their age group or professionally. So going into it, and by talking to others that felt the same way, my goals weren't to finish in this place or that place. It's more a time thing, wanting to have the swim done in this time, the biking done in this time and so on.

4. What's a typical week of training for you?

I train with a training program called multisports.com, a group of coaches who train guys like me to professionals. They break everything down into days. But in a typical week, I probably swim 15 miles, ride probably 200 miles and run about 25 to 35 miles. You start off and build up your mileage. Then it will dip and then come back up. So at the end, the mileage decreases, but the intensity increases

5. What's it like in the middle of the race when pain and fatigue set in?

In longer races, it's usually toward the end. And you just have to "gut it out." In Hawaii, I had some difficulty 3 or 4 miles into the run. I had 20 miles to go and my legs were hurting and I was getting nauseous. And I remember looking along the side of the road and thinking how easy it would be to just lay down and fall asleep and everything would stop hurting. It's not that I was afraid to quit, but I thought about all the people who supported me. I didn't want to disappoint them or let them down, least of all myself.