When Australind resident Tim Facey hit the wall with just eight kilometres to go in the Ironman World Championship, it was a friendly stranger who helped him to the finish line.
Facey was on the last leg of the event, enjoying the atmosphere when he started running alongside a competitor, turned to him and said "how good will a beer taste once we finish".
The fellow runner couldn't agree more and the pair shared the last 10km together.
Facey said he was so thankful for his companion as he would not have gotten over the line without him.
"Then at four kilometres to go, the roles reversed and I had to encourage him to keep going," Facey said.
It took Facey an average of 17 hours per week for 24 weeks to train for his dream event in Hawaii.
After doing a few years of the 70.3 in Busselton and the Sunshine Coast, in 2017 he competed in his first full Ironman in Busselton.
However, the swim leg was cancelled due to a shark warning so while the rest of the race went ahead, Facey didn't feel like he achieved his goal in competing in a full Ironman.
So he went back in 2018 and surprised himself with a time of 9 hours and 42 minutes which earned him a spot in the World Championships in Kona.
From there his training to the October 13, 2019 event began.
"It is a different sort of training because the conditions in Hawaii are hot, humid and hilly," he said.
It was a quick realisation for Facey with his first run with heaps of clothes on he came home drenched in sweat.
"I said to my wife Belinda, 'wow this is going to be hard'," Facey said.
The long hours of training meant Facey was away from home and from his family a lot.
The moment couldn't come quick enough as Facey landed in Kona.
"I swam to the start line and the person next to me said ' do a 360 and look at all those people'," he said.
There were supporters everywhere, with Australians cheering "Aussie Aussie Aussie" throughout the whole race.
The race didn't get off to a good start as Facey realised he was in a big swimming pack and took 1.6km of other people kicking and punching before he was out on his own and able to stick to his race plan.
On the bike leg he felt the circling wind that everyone told him about.
"I was told don't fight the wind, go with it," he said.
It was very hard as the wind was so strong but Facey kept pushing and in just under five and half hours he was off the bike and on his last leg.
As Facey was approaching the finish line, he saw his wife in the crowd and he gave her a kiss.
"I was really sore but it didn't matter because I was on cloud nine," he said.
Facey finished in the top 25 per cent with a time of 10 hours and 17 minutes.
