KEY POINTS:
Fuelled by junk food, Cameron Brown gave new meaning to the phrase "leaving nothing in the tank" with a gutsy come-from-behind win to overcome a diabolical stomach upset in the 23rd New Zealand Ironman yesterday.
Less than 60 hours after bidding farewell to his "best friend" - the porcelain bowl with which he had acquainted both ends on Wednesday - and after spending Thursday in bed, Brown went to the start of the Bonita Ironman with no idea how he would perform.
A solid swim in the millpond-like lake, followed by an equally impressive 180km cycle leg, had Brown in sight of leader Dane Torbjorn Sindballe - but still eight minutes back - when the hammer went down.
He quickly closed the gap of a minute and a bit to Australian Luke Bell. Running side-by-side but with not one word exchanged in two hours, they strode out together.
The Antipodeans hauled in Sindballe, spat him out on the big hill near the airport and set off in pursuit of the US$8500 winner's cheque.
Brown won both the physical and psychological battles in the run back lakeside to edge clear 4km from the line, where he had a 1m 08s advantage over Bell, with the Dane nearly 14 minutes further back.
Welcomed home by wife Jenny and his two sons, Brown was in no condition for small talk, later admitting: "It was the worst I have felt at the end of an ironman."
After producing one of the most inspiring finishes to an ironman race in years, he collapsed in an exhausted, sweating heap.
Watching her husband being taken away from medical treatment, Jenny Brown shook her head in amazement.
"I honestly don't know how he did it," she said. "After eight hours of diarrhoea and then throwing up nothing but bile, I did not know how he was going to do it.
"He pigged out on McDonalds, eating Big Macs to get something back in his stomach. But once he went down to start today, I knew he would get through. 'Did not finish' is not in his vocabulary."
In the women's race, Jo Lawn underlined her standing as the queen of her sport with a fifth straight triumph on the back of personal best swim and bike legs. She broke Erin Baker's record of four straight titles and, if Brown ran while he was sick, Lawn must have made her rivals ill.
It was a powerhouse performance from Lawn, one that left her two closest rivals, Americans Heather Gollnick and Kim Loeffler, in a battle for the minor placings from the moment the swim leg finished, with Lawn emerging from the water in record time.
Third-fastest on the run but with a 12m 31s buffer off the bike, Lawn was never going to surrender her hard-won advantage. She eventually beat the fast-finishing Americans by eight and 13 minutes respectively.
Lawn surprised everyone, including herself, with her best-ever swim time of 50m 30s before cracking her bike record by 19s. But she still refuses to be considered in the same light as four-time winner Erin Baker.
"Erin is and always will be a legend," said Lawn after battling cramps in the latter stages of her 42.2km run.
"All week, people said I could get the record [of five wins] but I reminded them first I had to win."
She did that and a lot more before handing her rivals a friendly warning that she will be back next year to chase number six.
