Father and son Jim and Tyler Butterfield shared their experiences of competing in the Hawaii Ironman during the Bermuda Triathlon Association’s Awards Dinner on Saturday night at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

Jim Butterfield was the first Bermudian to compete in an Ironman when, in 1981, he and Gerry Benson, a British policeman working in Bermuda, went to Hawaii for the Nautilus International Triathlon, which involved a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run.

Butterfield placed a creditable seventh in 10hr 31min almost an hour behind winner Jim Howard who clocked 9:38.

“Gerry Benson and myself read the article [about the Ironman] in Sports Illustrated and Gerry said, ‘I’m going to do it,’ Butterfield recalled. “We both trained for several months prior to going to the event in February 1981.

“In the briefing they said things like, ‘you’re going to die in the lava field’, ‘it’s going to fry your brains’. Gerry and I at this point were saying ‘I don’t know if this is such a good idea’, we were two worried little guys out there.

“There were about 380 people who signed up and one guy’s best swim was seven hours! In the briefing they pointed out that there would be 16 doctors and ten nurses along with the 900 volunteers.

“We went down [to the start] the day before and the surf was pounding against the dock, South Shore on a bad day.

“We said to the race official, ‘If it’s like this tomorrow is the race on?’ He said, ‘It’s your choice whether you get in the water or not, but the race is on’. A lot of us thought seriously about going into that water; it was so bad the day before. But the day of the race it turned out to be terrific. When I was looking for my bike it was easy to find, because I was about 160th out of the water and Debbie [Jim’s wife] was now convinced she was a widow!”

Butterfield finished the bike ride in 34th place before a strong run to secure a top-ten finish. “We were flying back to LA and I was sitting next to a lady and she said, ‘Why were you in Hawaii?’ and I said I was in the Ironman event, saying it loud so everybody could hear me,” Butterfield explained.

“She asked, ‘What’s the fun in that?’ and I told her that you swim just over two miles, bike 112 and run 26 and she said, ‘Wow, all in one day. How did you do?’ and I said I was seventh and she said, ‘Oh, better luck next time’. My head went back down to a normal size.”

Fast forward more than 30 years and there is more money and more sponsorship in the sport.

“We were so disadvantaged, we had five places on that course where we had to get off your bike, get on a medical scale and if you lost ten per cent of your weight they would warn you,’ Jim Butterfield recalls. “If you lost 20 per cent of your weight they had people who would say ‘you’re done’.”

Tyler has competed in six Ironmans in Kona after his first in 2010 when three other locals, Karen Smith, Karen Bordage and Kent Richardson also raced, with Butterfield placing 28th. His best finishes have been seventh in 2013 and fifth in 2015 when he posted a time of 8:23.09.

“It’s amazing how far it has come from the early 1980s to what it is now, with a few thousand competitors,” Tyler Butterfield said. “It’s an amazing event, the locals, even the turtles, come out to watch.

“One thing, their briefings were a lot different than our briefings, we put on all our sponsors hats, sunglasses and tried to look cool and listen to what they tell us at every race,” Tyler said.

“It’s actually a fun time, we see all the people we’re racing against, as pros we race each other all year. We’re all nervous, though.”

Butterfield added: “We’re definitely not racing against ourselves, most of the people in 1981 were racing against the course and racing themselves but in the last couple of years the professionals definitely race each other.

“In the last five years it’s been very much a bike race. One year the male overall winner was outrun by the female overall winner.”

Flora Duffy also turned out briefly at the event to present awards to the juniors before leaving for another commitment. Both she and Butterfield were named the senior professional triathletes of the year, while Karen Smith and Matt Thompson were named senior amateur female and male triathletes of the year.

Smith was also voted the sprint distance national female champion, while Alan Potts took the male award. Potts was also the best new male triathlete and Maddy Durkin the best new female triathlete. Alan Potts while Otis Ingham and Liz Stewart were the most improved triathletes for the year while Ashley Estwanik and Geoff Smith were the Olympic distance national champions.

Patty Petty, a long-time triathlon official, received the Jim Butterfield long service award, while Alec Shepherd was the club person of the year. Tyler Smith received the Peter Grayston special achievement award.