At the 2002 Ironman World Championships at Hawaii, McCormack failed to finish the race on his first attempt. He finished in 2003 in 9:32:11, placing 59th. In 2004, he again failed to finish and abandoned into a race vehicle driven by six-time World Champion Mark Allen, who counseled Macca to race fewer iron-distance races during the year. In 2005, he was able to finish 6th with the fastest run split of the day. The next year, in 2006, McCormack finished Hawaii in second place. After Normann Stadler completed a new course record bike time of 4:18 McCormack started the run some 10 minutes down. After running a 2:46 marathon time he was just 71 seconds behind Normann Stadler at the finish but he had given it absolutely everything he had.