KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii >> Most triathletes have one goal in mind when they think about the Ironman World Triathlon Championship. They simply want to cross the finish line.

Eric Harr has another goal. He wants to raise $1 million in the time it takes him to complete the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run Saturday in Kailua-Kona.

Harr is an ambassador for CARE, a humanitarian organization fighting global poverty by empowering women, and also a former professional triathlete and founder of the San Francisco-based Resonate Social Media agency.

Once ranked No. 6 in the world, Harr retired from racing in 2003, but is making his Kona debut this weekend.

“I would come to races and try to win. Now I’m a father and CARE ambassador, I have a different mindset,” he said. “I want to use my triathlon skills and social media involvement for good. In the nine hours it will take me to finish the race, 7,000 to 8,000 children will perish in Third World countries. I can’t ignore that.”

Harr said he was introduced to CARE around the time his daughter was born, shortly after he retired. 

“I wanted to create a better world for this beautiful little girl,” he said. “I can’t imagine that parents can’t feed their children or have to choose which child to leave behind when they go a refugee camp.”

Working for CARE appealed to Harr because it lined up with his belief that women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty.

“Let’s face it, men haven’t done a great job in this world. Give them a dollar and it doesn’t always go toward feeding their families,” he said. “I see the strength of my daughter and my wife and I know when you empower women, you do good for the entire community.”

Harr, who lives in California, qualified for his first Ironman World Triathlon Championship at this summer’s Honu 70.3 race.

“I’ve never raced in Hawaii. So this is a dream for me,” Harr said. “I knew we had to seize this opportunity. This is my moment. It was all very serendipitous.”

Having founded Resonate, which he describes as a high-end, boutique integrated social media agency, Harr said he had the three pieces in place — triathlon, CARE and social media.

“People have asked me why I would do this. It’s because Ironman is a great platform,” he said. “I was focusing a lot of time on CARE, then I founded my agency and learned the real true power of social media. That’s when I said, ‘OK, how can we harness social media to do social good?”’

It didn’t take long for Harr to formulate his $1 million plan.

“My wife said she’s never seen fire in my eyes like when I was training for this Ironman,” he said. “There has been so much support. That’s been so inspiring for me,”

Fundraising is limited to the time it takes Harr to complete the notoriously tough Big Island race course. He hopes to finish in under nine hours.

“We’ll start the drive when the race starts at 7 a.m. Hawaii time and it stops when I finish racing,” he said. “It’s very realistic to raise $1 million.”

Sports fans can follow Harr’s progress race day and make donations by logging on to two Twitter feeds: (hash)EverySecondCounts and (hash)CareIronman.

While Harr is counting on global support, he is well aware he will be alone on the race course.

“When the NBC theme music stops playing in your head about 10 miles into the run, the romance of the race falls away pretty quick and you better be racing for something,” he said. “This isn’t about me. Every second counts and every dollar helps.”