"First, when I started off doing Ironman and triathlon I didn't think a regular Joe like me was fast enough to qualify for the World Championships."

Those are the words of a Steinbach athlete who last Sunday qualified for his first ever Ironman World Championship.

Thirty-five year old Les Friesen began competing in triathlons in 2007 and the next year he completed his first Ironman. But Friesen says it wasn't until 2013 that he felt he was at a level where he might actually have a shot at qualifying for Worlds. And last Sunday that became a reality.

The Ironman consists of swimming 2.4 miles, then cycling 112 miles, before running 26.2 miles, or the equivalent of a full marathon. Friesen stepped out of the water in just over 1 hour, 4 minutes. He says the swim went pretty much according to plan. His goal was not to swim too hard but to stay relaxed and try to complete it in anywhere from 1 hour, 3 minutes to 1 hour, 5 minutes. After the swim, Friesen was in 128th place overall, but 12th in his age group. Friesen says he knew that the top five competitors in his age group that day would qualify for Worlds.

"After the swim, I had no idea where I was and I didn't actually really care," says Friesen. "I knew I'd move up with the bike."

Next came the bike ride. Friesen describes it as very hilly. He had a goal of how much power to put out during this segment and says it took self-control not to go out too hard.

"I just stuck to my power numbers and I did the bike in better than I thought I would, time-wise," admits Friesen. "But sticking to the power numbers left me with gas in the tank to be able to run well after."

Friesen spent nearly five hours on the bike and in that time managed to climb to 22nd place overall and 5th in his age group.

Then came the run and Friesen says as expected, it was hot. Friesen says by the time he reached the last lap, he knew he had climbed to 2nd place in his age group. And when he crossed the finish line, a spot in the World Championship was awaiting him.

The run took him just over 3 hours, 13 minutes. Friesen finished 7th overall in a time of 9 hours, 40 minutes, 34 seconds. His goals were to beat 9 hours, 45 minutes and to qualify for the World Championship. Friesen achieved both of those.

Friesen has made several attempts in recent years at qualifying for Worlds. He says the reason he chose the race in Idaho this year is for two reasons. First of all, it was announced back in spring that this race had opened up an additional 25 World Championship spots. And, with the race scheduled for late August, it gave him all summer to train.

Training for Idaho meant at least three days of swimming, three days of cycling and three days of running every week. And days were long. Friesen says though swimming training would never tie him up for more than ninety minutes a day, there were days he would leave at 10am to go cycling at Birds Hill Park, only returning at 8pm. He notes cycling the hilly Pembina Valley or Birds Hill allowed him to work on climbing in anticipation of what was to come in Idaho.

Friesen is now gearing up for the Worlds in Hawaii, October 8th. Because it is only six weeks away, he says he will keep swimming, biking and running just to maintain his fitness level.

"I don't have to do a lot of crazy hard workouts because the fitness is there already," he says.

Friesen, who says he is probably in the best shape of his life, has already qualified for the Ironman 70.3 Worlds next year in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Each discipline in Ironman 70.3 is half the distance of what Friesen will be completing in Hawaii.