Finishing eighth in her age group in September’s Ironman Wisconsin Triathlon was satisfying for Des Plaines’ Barb Franzen, 49. But what really surprised her were the six hours and 50 minutes she pedaled on her 15-year-old Schwinn without once getting off to rest.
In the Ironman, that’s not considered normal.
Franzen had never competed in what many call the most grueling physical test ever devised. Participants swim 2.4 miles, then bike 112 miles and finish with a 26.2-mile run–all in a day.
Franzen, who’d done “a couple of marathons about eight years ago,” finished in 11 hours, 37 minutes.
“I certainly didn’t expect to [bike non-stop] the whole route,”she said. “I figured something like my back, my knees, my legs, using the ladies rooms or whatever would force me to stop, but it never happened. It got to be around 90 miles–I’d never done more than 58 before without stopping–and I thought I’d better keep going. If I got off then, I was afraid I’d be too wobbly to get back on. If I made it to the finish, I knew people would be there to help me.”
Franzen said her legs “were like lead” for the start of the run. And her butt, after sitting nearly seven non-stop hours on a bike seat?
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“I bought a nice, big seat for my bike, and I spent a lot of time in it preparing for this. My shorts were pretty disgusting [with sweat], though.”
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