The Penn-Trafford graduate and Irwin resident improved his qualifying time from 2007 by nearly 18 minutes at the Ironman qualifier at Lake Placid last month, but it wasn't enough to move on.

"Trying to qualify for Kona was somewhat bittersweet," Holderbaum said. "I bettered my time that I did last year by almost 18 minutes, in terrible conditions -- a torrential down pour all day -- and finished in a time of 9:59:57. But, I still fell short of a Hawaii spot. "This was the first time in the race's 10-year history where 9:59 was not fast enough for a qualifying spot."

Holderbaum, 28, competed in the men's 25-29 bracket. He finished the 2.4-mile swim in 59:44, the 112-mile bike portion in 5:27.11 and the 26.2-mile run in 3:26.36.

"That was the first time I went sub 60 in the Ironman swim. This year, I logged endless miles in the pool, thanks to coach Kevin Paladino, and I was glad to see the hard work pay off."

By the time Holderbaum reached the bike portion of the race, the rain was coming in a downpour.

"When I came into transition (after the bike race) I had been out on the bike for 5:27.12 and averaged 20.54 miles per hour. I really wanted to bike around 5:20, but given the weather, I was happy with my time."

Holderbaum was in 12th place in his age division after the bike ride. During the run, he continued to look for other athletes in his bracket but didn't see any.

"As I hit mile 15, my goal of Kona began to slip away and shifted to a new goal -- finishing this thing in sub 10 hours," he said.

The local Ironman maintained an 8-minute mile pace and sprinted the final 200 yards to finish under 10 hours.

His time of 9:59.57 was good enough for 48th overall out of 2,345 competitors and 11th in his age group out of 127. The top four in each age group qualify for the World Championships.

His wife, Jennifer, also competed in the Lake Placid event. She finished with a time of 12:50.36.

Last year at Lake Placid, Chad finished 58th overall out of 2,200 athletes with a time of 10:17.39. He was sixth in his age bracket but advanced to Hawaii because one of the athletes ahead of him already had qualified and another chose not to participate.

At the Ironman World Championships last October, he finished 846th overall with a time of 11:06.38.

Despite coming up short of his ultimate goal, Chad was pleased with his performance and looks forward to the future.

"It was one of those years that brought the best athletes in the world to Lake Placid, and unfortunately, I fell short of a Kona repeat," he said.

"Regardless, I improved my time from last year and have nothing to hold my head down about."

Chad will finish the season with three half Ironman races, which include a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run. He'll begin serious training for the Ironman Lake Placid 2009 in mid December with the goal of 9:40.00.