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Sports Oakville Beaver STRENGTH IN NUMBERS: Local triathletes (left to right) Annette MacKinnon, Rikki McCarthy, Kathy Jackson, Denise Short and Joanne Kent take a break from training to relax for a few minutes along the shore of Lake Ontario. MacKinnon, McCarthy, Short and Kent, along with Megan Hanna, have all completed Ironman races, while Jackson will take on her first Ironman challenge tomorrow in Wisconsin. The group says the camaraderie of workout partners has been vital to their training. RON KUZYK / OAKVILLE BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2007 23 Training together helps women attain Ironman status Camaraderie of group key in getting out of bed for early workouts By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF s Kathy Jackson's friends share their experiences of competing in the Subaru Ironman Canada triathlon, she has to wonder what she's got herself into. Being elbowed and kicked so many times while trying to navigate a fourkilometer course that it feels like you're swimming in a washing machine. Surviving on peanut butter sandwiches, power bars and Pringles during a sevenhour, 180km bike ride. Muscles aching as night approaches, running 42 km toward a finish line that feels like it will never appear. Yet, Jackson isn't worried, even on the eve of her first Ironman triathlon. "The fact that they all did really well last week gives me a lot of confidence because we've been through (training) all together," she said. "So I'd say I'm pumped." Jackson hopes to become the final member of her group of triathlon-training women to complete an Ironman A when she tackles the Ford Wisconsin Ironman tomorrow. She'll be joined by Joanne Kent, who last year completed the Ford Florida Ironman. The Wisconsin race will cap a year of intense training by the six friends. Four of them -- Annette MacKinnon, Rikki McCarthy, Denise Short and Megan Hanna -- completed Ironman Canada Aug. 26 in Penticton, B.C., checking in between 14 hours, 23 minutes and 15 hours, 10 minutes. Worked way up to Ironman All over the age of 40, the women said they chose now to start competing in Ironman competitions mainly because their children have reached the age where the mothers can now commit the time to training. They began with marathons and progressed into longer races, gradually working their way up to the Ironman. It was preparing for the race that they found most enjoyable. "The most fun we've had with our training has been the team group -- the group of friends," Short said. "The camaraderie of training together has been wonderful." It has been the support of one another that has helped the group persevere through long training rides in the rain. As the women prepared, they dubbed themselves FAB (the AB stands for high-five your buddies and then it's like, Accountability Buddies, you can let your okay, she's gone, I can walk again." imagination figure out the rest). Jackson said she will definitely need Though there were days they simply did that encouragement, especially during not feel like training, the the run, which she anticcommitment they made "When you're doing this, ipates will be the toughto one another always there are days you know est part of the race. kept them going. "For me, when you someone else is waiting "When you're doing for you at 7 a.m. There come off a seven-hour this, there are days you bike ride and you think, are days you get off the know someone else is `I would now have to run waiting for you at 7 bike and you don't want a marathon,' I kind of go a.m.," MacKinnon said. to run, but then someone `ahhhh'," she said, grasp"There are days you get else is going and so you ing her throat. off the bike and you don't go too." Her FAB teammates want to run, but then were quick to tell her she someone else is going Annette MacKinnon will be fine. and so you go too." "I never thought I'd And in the end, the extra training say it right after you do one, but when paid off. somebody asked me if I would do it "At the point of your longest ride, again, I would do it again," McCarthy your 180km ride, you're pretty exhaust- said. ed," Short said. "I remember some days "Your body is amazing because the just thinking `I'm feeling fried.' And next day it forgets," Kent added. "You're then a day later you're ready to go on a high afterward. You're so exhilaratagain." ed. That was so great, I could do it The support of their FAB teammates again." also provided a boost during the tough And more than likely, the members of stages of last week's race. FAB will. "On the run, (Ironman) Canada is an "The little things gnaw at you," out and back, so you pass each other," MacKinnon said, "like could I have MacKinnon said. "You may be walking swam better, or biked better, or if I had but as soon as you see them coming done that...." toward you, you start running. You "You get sucked back in," Short said.