His heart on his sleeve

Chris McCormack just won Hawaii! There's a great story behind this win, which Macca recently told on online triathlon forum, transitions.

The story is that winning the Hawaii Ironman has been a life goal since he was a teenager, when he and his best friend Sean Moroney, brother of marathon swimmer Susie Moroney, wrote a list of their triathlon goals. One of them was to win the Hawaii Ironman.

Sean has since passed away, but Macca still has that piece of paper where the dreams of two young boys with stars in their eyes are written. He's ticking off those goals one by one, and he reckons that when he's finished the list and retired as an athlete, he's going to frame the list to show his kids the importance of dreaming big.

I had a tear in my eye when Macca acknowledged Sean, which I presume he did privately when he looked towards the sky on crossing the line, but also publicly in his post win interview. It seemed to me that Macca's win was not only for him but also for Sean.

Now, I don't mean any of this in a saccharine kind of way. For mine, I witnessed a man expressing genuine emotion for his departed friend, and the dreams they shared 20 years ago.

Good on you Macca for wearing your heart on your sleeve.

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