When Peter Reid won an Ironman triathlon in less than eight hours in 1999, he was the lone Canadian among a half-dozen men in the sub-eight club.

A time barrier that has held special significance in triathlon came under siege in 2015. Two Canadians joined several men in piercing the eight-hour barrier.

The race is a 3.86-kilometre swim in open water followed by an 180K bike ride and a 42K marathon in conditions dictated by geography and Mother Nature. Some races require almost 10 hours for men to win, so finishing in under eight hours turns heads in the triathlon community.

Victoria's Brent McMahon and Lionel Sanders of Harrow, Ont., are among the seven men Ironman Triathlon recognizes as 2015's sub-eighters, with Belgium's Marino Vanhoenacker achieving it twice.

The organization doesn't acknowledge three other men who raced the same distance in under eight hours at a rival-circuit Challenge race in Germany.

Eleven sub-eights in a year smashes the previous record of six in both 2011 and 2013, according to editor John Levison of the British-based triathlon website Tri247.com.

"2015 has definitely been an exceptional year for men's iron-distance racing," Levison told The Canadian Press in an e-mail. "Whether it is a Challenge or Ironman race, it is still a record year in terms of fast times."

According to Levison's statistics, 33 men have gone under eight hours 49 times in the 37-year history of the distance.

Sanders won Ironman Arizona on Nov. 15 in seven hours 58 minutes 22 seconds, despite stomach problems that had the 27-year-old stopping at portable toilets.

When McMahon went 7:56:55 in Ironman Brazil in May, he placed third among four men who raced under eight hours that day.

More men are dipping into the seven-hour zone. The feat still requires the right wind, temperature and course layout, plus an athlete nailing the swim, bike and run.

Beating eight hasn't lost elite status, according to Sanders.

"It's the Holy Grail," Sanders told The Canadian Press. "Sub-nine is really the more realistic Holy Grail for an elite athlete. Sub-eight, people don't even really talk about."

McMahon, a two-time Olympian in triathlon's shorter version, is the only Canadian to go under eight hours twice.

In his Ironman debut in 2014, he won at Arizona in a course record 7:55:48. McMahon said within two months of his victory in Tempe, he had two new sponsors.

"The eight-hour mark really gives you that checkmark that you're an exceptional athlete," McMahon said. "It legitimizes you as a top contender in any Ironman."

Beating nine hours was once the equivalent magic number for women, but they've done it more than 100 times in the last decade. Britain's Chrissie Wellington raced under 8:30 in both 2011 and 2010.

Reid won Ironman's most gruelling race — the world championship in Hawaii — in 1999, 2000 and 2003 before retiring in 2006. Now an airline pilot in Victoria, he was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

His time of 7:51:56 in the 1999 Ironman Austria is still among the 10 fastest of all time. Reid says improvements in race-day nutrition, sport science and technology and depth of field have contributed to more triathletes racing to what were once rare times.

"A lot of times during the marathon your stomach shuts down, you get stomach cramps and it just slows you right down," Reid explained.

"At the beginning of Ironman, people were eating sandwiches and chips to get calories and now it's these energy drinks that aren't made for the masses. There are drinks out there made for these long endurance events."

Technology, such as power meters on bikes measuring cyclists' pressure on the pedals, helps athletes make decisions in training and racing based on hard data, rather than feel, which assists pacing and lessens overtraining.

The talent and strength of the field has increased to the point where racing in an Ironman no longer feels solitary.

"The first few years I would go to Hawaii, I'd place in the top four and ride the entire bike where I could kind of see someone up the road and then there was kind of someone behind me, but a lot of the time I felt I was on a training ride because there was no one really around other than the odd cameraman," Reid recalled.

"The last years I was finishing Hawaii, I'd get off the bike and there would be 15 guys (with me). Now it's head-to-head racing from when that gun goes off to the finish line."

Coincidentally, it was McMahon pushing Sanders under eight hours in Arizona last month, as Sanders saw at turnaround points on the marathon that his fellow Canadian was catching up.

"I ran scared for five miles," Sanders said. "As I rounded the corner and could see the clock, most definitely I had a little jolt of energy to get the line a little quicker."

McMahon, 35, finished second and less than a minute from beating the eight-hour mark for the third time in less than a year.

"The course is ultimately the biggest factor," McMahon said. "There's eight-hour courses and there's not."

Where the eight-hour threshold has yet be crossed is in Hawaii at the world championship in Kona. Searing heat and spooky winds from all directions make what was the first Ironman held in 1978 still the ultimate test in the sport.

Australia's Craig Alexander holds the Kona course record of 8:03:56 set in 2011.

Both Sanders and Reid believe a sub-eight can happen in Kona some day with the right conditions. McMahon is even more bullish on the possibility.

"I think you'll see it in the next couple of years and I would like to be that guy," McMahon said.

The man who does it "would go down in history as the greatest of all time in long-distance racing I would say," Sanders said.

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A list of men who raced under eight hours in Ironman and Challenger races in 2015:

Dec. 6, Ironman Western Australia, Luke McKenzie, Australia, 7:55:58

Nov. 15, Ironman Arizona, Lionel Sanders, Canada, 7:58:22

July 12, Challenge Roth, Nils Frommhold, Germany, 7:51:28; Timo Bracht, Germany, 7:56:31; David Dellow, Australia, 7:59:28.

July 5, Ironman European Championship, Jan Fredeno, Germany, 7:49.48

June 28, Ironman Austria, Marino Vanhoenacker, Belgium, 7:48.45

May 31, Ironman Brazil, Marino Vanhoenacker, Belgium, 7:53.44; Timothy O'Donnell, U.S., 7:55.56; Brent McMahon, Canada, 7:56.55; Igor Amorelli, Brazil, 7:59.36.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2015