- 2.4-mile swim
- 112-mile bicycle ride
- 26.2-mile run
- Become an Ironman
That is the list now owned by Dr. Adrienne Johnson, associate professor of education, who checked the Ironman goal off her bucket list last fall when she competed in and finished IRONMAN Wisconsin in Madison.
Dr. Johnson said she had been competing in triathlons for about 15 years, and about five years ago she put a plan in place to progress to an Ironman. That meant continuing her swimming and running, and ramping up her biking skills. She also competed in three half-Ironmans over the five years and a 50K trail race in the year before the race.
She said she wasn’t worried about finishing the race, but finishing it in the time allowed – 17 hours.
“I tend to have a combination of stubbornness and endurance, so I knew I could finish,” she said. “I’m like an Energizer bunny.”
That will to finish on time, she said, led to a mantra that she repeated in her head throughout the entire race – “all-day pace, all-day pace” – meaning she kept up a pace that didn’t raise her heartbeat and one that she could keep up all day.
She indeed met her goals, finishing in 16:20:36. While many of the competitors ended up walking most of the marathon, she was able to run for all but about the last six miles when her foot started bothering her.
“I finished knowing I pushed myself within reasonable limits. A better time was not worth a permanent injury,” Dr. Johnson said. “I’m a pretty even-keel person, but right after the finish, I was super excited; it was five minutes of pure elation. It’s a pretty cool feeling to finish. Then I sat down and couldn’t get up again.”
Dr. Johnson said she not only appreciated the support of her husband and the crowd along the route, but the fellow Ironman participants who encouraged each other all along the way.
The bicycle course included a very long hill that they had to climb twice, and a firefighter in full gear ran with her. “He kept encouraging me, yelling, ‘Keep going, don’t give up.’ I kept thinking I could stop when he did, but he never stopped,” she said with a laugh.
Her husband, Dr. Britt Johnson, associate professor of physical education, became an Ironman in 2010, and she says a bit of a competitive spirit may have played a small role in her wanting to become an Ironman, as well. Although his time was better, he was impressed that she ran more of the marathon than he did.
“There’s always a little bit of competition,” she said. “I will almost always lose, but that doesn’t stop me from trying.”
Being a role model for her young daughters was also one of her incentives to become an Ironman.
“I want to set a positive example to them of what it means to be healthy and happy, and have a healthy body image,” she said. “We talk a lot about being strong emotionally and physically, and valuing that over someone else’s ideals. But they said no way would they do an Ironman.”