Barnegat Athlete Beats Out Hundreds in Ironman Championship

Barnegat resident Kate Bruck , a 140-mile triathlon on the Big Island of Hawaii that draws about 2,000 of the world’s best endurance athletes.

But you could say the road to Kona started a long time ago for Bruck.

The 36-year-old is a lifelong athlete who remembers staring open-mouthed at a broadcast of the Championship as a kid, in awe of the people swimming, biking and running their way through one of most grueling races on the planet.

“It’s always been in the back of my mind that I’m going to do it someday,” she said.

She worked for it, quitting her desk job and becoming a personal trainer so she could focus on triathlons. She overcame an injury last year, trained for more than 30 hours a week and ultimately qualified for the Championship this year.

And not only did Bruck complete the race on Saturday, she ran – and swam, and biked – the race of her life. She finished 62nd out of more than 500 female competitors with a time of 10 hours and 25 minutes, placing 10th in her age division and beating several professional athletes.

Bruck said it was a tough fight through each leg of the race.

First came the 2.4-mile open-ocean swim, which started well and had some exhilarating moments, like when a pod of squeaking dolphins swam beneath her

But the swim soon turned into a melee as powerful currents caused athletes to start to struggle in the water.

“Everyone got really aggressive and angry,” she said. “It turned into a bar fight in the ocean, with people thrashing and punching.”

Next came the 112-mile bike ride up and down the rugged Kona coast, where she was buffeted by powerful winds. It was an exhausting ride, but one Bruck pushed through in record time, shaving 15 minutes off her personal best.

“I had to hunker down and fight throughout the entire 5 hours and 40 minutes,” she said.

And finally, after hours of exertion, came the marathon – 26.2 desert miles, including a stretch dubbed the “energy lab” for the relentless, blazing heat that beats down on the runners for three straight miles.

“It’s this heat that just sticks to you,” said Bruck. “It envelops you, and you want to run away, and you can’t.”

But Bruck has been a runner since the fourth grade. She turned up the energy and started passing competitors, keeping a count of the number of women in her division who were still ahead of her.

Around mile 22, she said, an Australian man went by on a bike.

“I said, ‘Hey, I just passed a girl in my age group. Can you tell me if she’s gaining on me?’” Bruck recalled. “He said, ‘Honey, no one’s gaining on you. You’re running away from all of them.’”

And then, in the last half mile of the race, she spotted the woman she knew was in 10th for their division.

“I just threw it all in and went as hard as I could and flung it to the finish line,” she said. Ultimately, she took the 10th-place spot for herself. “It was a great feeling.”

Bruck said credit for her performance Kona has to go to her coach, Cliff Scherb, who helped her learn to pace herself through the intense physical feat that is the Ironman.

“This race is all about who can slow down the least,” she said. “It really does a lot for your mental well-being when you know you have it.”

The race was a goal for a long time, but Bruck’s great finish has opened new doors for her as an athlete.

“This race will give me a lot of opportunities,” she said.

For now, though, she’s enjoying a Hawaiian vacation, relaxing with her husband, Rick, and friends who flew out to see her race. Their belief in her got her to where she was, Bruck said.

“I have the most supportive, wonderful, caring and generous friends anyone could eveer ask for,” she said. “There’s absolutely no way I could have done this without them.”