Butterfield finishes 7th in Hawaii Ironman

10:16pm: What a beast! A sub-3 hour marathon at the end of a Ironman. Tyler ran a 2:58:22, which beat his father's time of 3:05:08 from 1981. I'm out for the night. Thanks for all who followed along our coverage today.

10pm: It's over  - Tyler Butterfield finished 7th in the Ironman World Championships duplicating the feat by his father Jim in the 1981 Hawaii Ironman. He finished 11 minutes and 40 seconds behind winner Van Lierde. 

9:50pm:  Frederik Van Lierde becomes the second Belgian to win the Ironman World championships with a time of 8:12:29. McKenzie was second in 8:15:19. Kienle will be third barring a disastrous collapse. 

9:42pm: Tyler is on a 3:02:50 pace.

9:37pm: The top 8 through 22.3 miles:
1 7:46:50 6 Frederik Van Lierde BEL 
2 7:48:24 1:34 49 Luke McKenzie AUS 
3 7:52:44 5:55 2 Sebastian Kienle DEU 
4 7:57:07 10:17 44 Tyler Butterfield BMU 
5 7:57:55 11:05 7 Tim O'Donnell USA 
6 7:58:22 11:32 55 James Cunnama ZAF
7 7:59:37 12:48 33 Ivan Rana ESP 
8 8:00:29 13:39 25 Timo Bracht DEU

9:25pm: Could third place be up for grabs? Kienle is struggling as they reach mile 22. 

8:55pm: Tyler's now 5 1/2 minutes behind third at at 17 mile marker. He's on pace to run the marathon portion in approximately 2 hours and 57 minutes, which would break his dad's time of 3:05:08.

8:40pm: Tyler remains in a steady fourth at the halfway mark (13.1 miles) of the marathon portion of the Hawaii Ironman. If he keeps this up, he will set a Bermuda record as the best finish in the event. Oh, and the person who holds that record is his dad Jim who was seventh in 1981. He holds about a two minute lead over fourth and is roughly five minutes behind third.

8:15pm: I'm trying to get his splits, but he's battled back and forth from fifth and fourth. He ran the last three miles (to mile 10) at a 6:13 pace.

7:45pm Tyler's moved up to fourth passing one-time leader Andrew Starykowicz. He's running a 6.41 mile pace. 

7:20pm: Tyler had a good first 3.1 miles in the marathon and passed Dirk Broxel from Luxembourg and Faris Al-Sultan to move into fifth. Aussie Luke McKenzie is out front and looks to be in control to win the race. 

7pm: Tyler has finished the 112 mile bike ride and now 'only' has a marathon to run. He's slipped to seventh and faded quite a bit over the last 20 miles of the bike and is more than 8:30 behind the leaders according to the latest blog report. Let's hope he's got some legs left for the run.

6:30pm: The bike race is in the closing phase. Tyler is 5:20 behind Mckenzie and Starykowicz. He's in sixth.

6pm: Butterfield has slipped to fifth at the 90 mile marker - just 22 more miles before they go out and run a marathon. But really it's all cat and mouse at this stage. It's McKenzie followed by Starykowicz out front. The next group of four are about two minutes and 30 seconds back. The chasing pack, which Butterfield is in all has 'great runners' according to the announcer. However, the best Ironman runners are in the group after them, who are an additionally three minutes and 30 seconds behind the leaders.

5:45pm: Butterfield has moved up to third as former leader Andrew Starykowicz has faded a bit. Luke McKenzie is the new leader and Butterfield is in a group of three chasing cyclists who are about a minute behind. Then there's a four minute gap to the next two riders. A poll on the Ironman website asked which of these 10 athletes was most likely to win the race, but didn't list Butterfield. I felt like that was a slap in the face to how Tyler has done so far. 

5:15pm: Tyler Butterfield has moved up two positions to fourth after 75.3 miles on the bike. He still has another 37 miles to go before transitioning to the run. He is one of five athletes in the group chasing American leader Andrew Starykowicz. There are over 3,000 feet of climbing on the bike course, which should play into Tyler's strengths.

5pm: Tyler Butterfield has moved up to sixth position after 60.5 miles of the 112 mile bike portion of the Hawaii Ironman. Butterfield was just eight second's behind Australia's Luke McKenzie for second. The chasing pack behind leader Andrew Starykowicz has thined out to about 10 triathletes. 

4:30pm: The official website for the race is reporting there is not much wind and it is one of the best days for racing the Hawaiian Ironman has ever seen. At the 45.2 mile marker, Tyler has slipped to 15th but is still within 30 seconds of the second place bike as Andrew Starykowicz of the US continues to maintain a two-minute advantage on the rest of the field.

4PM: Tyler Butterfield is currently in 10^th place in the Ironman World Championships being staged in Hawaii.

The two-time Olympian came out of the water in 27ths place, but after the first lap on the bike moved up to fourth place.

With 30 miles of the 112 mile bike, Butterfield is in 10^th.

Andrew Starykowicz of the US has broken away from the field and leads the race by two minutes but Butterfield is in the chasing group of  20 plus riders who are within a minute of each other.

We will be updating this story periodically.