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Kimberly Mouser says she’s “taking a break” from the intense swimming, biking and running she’s been doing for months.
She just returned from the Ironman Triathalon and needs some time to relax.
But Mouser’s hair is wet as she gets out of her car. The truth is, she’s just finished a short swim. A sticker on the back windshield of her Chevy Cavalier reads, in big black letters, “26.2.” The length, in miles, of a marathon.
“Taking a break” for Mouser means not training 18-20 hours for the next two or three weeks. It means running Tuesdays and Thursdays or swimming Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 5:30 a.m. for only an hour instead of staying longer or starting earlier.
Mouser was one of 19 members of the Columbia Multisport Club who competed in the Ironman Triathalon on Sunday in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The race is one of 19 Ironman trademark competitions in the world and five in the United States that serve as qualifiers for the championship in Kona, Hawaii, in October. Athletes are allotted 17 hours to finish the race.
An Ironman-length triathalon consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. There are many triathalons throughout the year in the U.S., but they don’t all carry the Ironman trademark and won’t qualify someone for the championship.
For Mouser, 26, it was her first trip to an Ironman competition, but she has competed in eight other marathons. She also competed in a half Ironman last summer, consisting of a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run. Her time Sunday was 13 hours, 28 minutes, and she will soon have another sticker on her windshield that says “140.6”: the complete distance of an Ironman.
Mouser started a half walk, half jog at the seventh mile of the run, then walked the last 15 miles. Her legs started cramping up, and she wanted to make sure she didn’t pass out and have to leave the race like others did because of the 95-degree heat.
For Mike Tripp, another member of the Columbia Multisport Club, the trip to Idaho was his first time in an Ironman competition. Both he and Mouser said they don’t plan on going again next year but might in the future.
“After you do it once, you always think you can do it faster,” Tripp said.
Mouser said she would rather not go next year because of the pressure she would feel to get better times on her swim, bike and run.
“This year, it was just fun to do,” she said. “Next time I’d do it, I’d probably want to be competitive.”
Both Mouser and Tripp started out as runners and picked up cycling and swimming to spice up their running workouts. Both signed up for the race primarily because of the many athletes from Columbia who also went.
“It was peer pressure, in a way,” Tripp said.
Tripp finished in 13 hours, 6 minutes. He said his goal Sunday morning was to live through the day and finish the race. After the gun went off and almost 2,000 people got in the lake, he waited until almost everyone had jumped in the 60-degree water before beginning.
“Once it starts, you’re not nervous anymore,” Tripp said. “You swim two laps and get out and think, ‘OK, I survived.’”
Tripp took his time during the swim and the bike, and ended up passing around 700 people during the run, placing 855th out of about 1,900 who finished.
“It truly was a fun experience, and I never thought I’d say that,” Tripp said. “It was a challenge, but it was fun, and those circles don’t always overlap.”
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