There is no pot of gold at the end of Mark Glusing's rainbow.

When his day is done, his ten hours of pain will perhaps be rewarded by a handshake. He will not wake up to his see his name in the headlines. He will not be rewarded with a champagne-soaked cheque for five figures nor will he be asked to sign somebody's autograph book.

Even in Bermuda, where triathlon is considered the sport du jour, he is mostly known as the guy who always loses to Neil de ste Croix.

But as he gets ready to tackle one of the most gruelling challenges in all of sport, fame is not high on Glusing's list of priorities.

Next week, in Penticton, British Columbia, Glusing will swim 2.4 miles in a cool Canadian lake. He will ride his bicycle 112 miles -- against the wind -- and then run 26.2 miles -- on a hilly course in hot, arid conditions. And he will do it all in about the time many people spend in the office on a given day.

"It's a personal sense of satisifaction,' he says when asked of his motivation. "When I cross the finish it's an incredible feeling, knowing I have pushed myself as far as I can, both mentally and physically.'' Glusing's specialty is Iron Man and next week's BC Iron Man World Series -- the fourth of the five-race series -- will be his sixth such event. A time in the ten-hour range will likely qualify him for the grandaddy of them all, the famous Hawaii Iron Man, in which he competed last year.

Joining him in BC are three other Bermuda residents -- Kim Mason, Bob Morrison and Matthew Trim. None have attempted an Iron Man before and such is the hypnotic spell it cast over him, Glusing envies them.

"Even if I do really well this year, I would never trade it for my first time,'' he says.

"If I could relive those last two miles every day of my life, I'd be a very happy man.'' His advice to the others: Pace yourself and eat enough.

"You could be the best trained athlete in the world but if you don't feed your body properly you will have the worst race.'' Trim knows a thing or two about endurance: Last year, he and three other cyclists rode from the northeast coast of the UK to the southwest -- a total of 950 miles -- in the name of charity.

The longest triathlons staged in Bermuda -- the ones dominated by de ste Croix -- are the Olympic-distance events, roughly a quarter the length of the Iron Man.

Comparing the two is, as Glusing says, like comparing a marathon runner to a miler. The race is different and so too is the amount and type of training.

By triathlete standards Glusing stands out.

At 25, he looks more like a rugby player than a triathlete -- understandable in that he played for five years at the University of British Columbia and helped Bermuda to a bronze medal at the Atlantic Coast Games five years ago.

Even though he's burned off some 30 pounds over the past four years -- down to 165-lbs on a 5-foot-8 frame -- his days in the weight room, when he would regularly bench press 300 pounds and squat 500, still show.

Today he monitors his diet with the precision of a Swiss watchmaker, to the point of how many grams of carbohydrates he will spend in one hour. Under the eye of Duncan Newby, his coach since January, Glusing trains 20 hours a week.

He says his swim has got much stronger and his run, often characterised as his weak spot, faster.

He recently completed a half-Iron Man event in which he ran 13.1 miles in one hour and 28 minutes. "For me that's a pretty awesome time,'' said Glusing.

MARK GLUSING -- `When I cross the finish it's an incredible feeling.'