Women of steel setting the boundaries in the Ironman

Ironman: the word by itself does little to relay the true nature of this particular form of triathlon. It doesn't, for instance, convey the sheer difficulty of this sport or that most of those who take part take well over 10 hours of continuous activity to complete. Above all, it doesn't really project the fact that women are now seriously getting into this sport.

Indeed, when the largest ever group of Maltese athletes took part in the Kaernten Ironman in Austria earlier this month, there were for the first time two female athletes.

"The Ironman is always the top challenge race for any triathlete, it is like a dream," Danica Spiteri, one of those two, explains.

"I got interested in the Ironman some 10 years back but at the time I was still too young for my body to undergo that type of race.

"Last year, I learnt that there was a good group of Maltese athletes interested in doing the Austrian Ironman, so I decided that it was time to give a challenge to the famous Ironman!"

For Donatelle Callus, the other half of this duo, the inspiration was slightly different.

"I love the diversity of triathlon: having to do three disciplines it never gets boring which, since I am a person that gets easily bored, is brilliant. I am also always looking for an adventure or something new to look forward to and the Ironman satisfies both needs. Ironman events are the ultimate races in triathlon."

Both Danica and Donatelle are veterans of the local triathlon scene and have, between them, won multiple titles. That they should opt to take part in the Ironman was, therefore, hardly surprising. Yet the jump from an Olympic distance triathlon to an Ironman is a significant one and the physical requirements much more extreme.

"The swim was tough, since I was surrounded by 2,500 swimmers, all swimming in the same direction," Spiteri recalls.

"If I even considered stopping a second, other people would just swim over me! I was constantly pushed and jostled in the swim, especially in the last 900m, where we have to pass through a narrow canal, just a few metres wide.

"The transition is a good 500m run and I had to remember where my bike was racked... among 2,500 bikes!

"The hardest bit of the Ironman was the final 12km of the marathon. I was physically exhausted but my mind kept pushing forward. At times, I had to stop to walk for a minute, but I did this when I passed the aid station to drink, and take energy gels.

"Then, in the final three kilometres, I got a sudden rush of energy and I increased my running speed, kept on going straight for the finish line, amid all the cheering. It was incredible to hear the commentator say 'and here we have Danica. We have Danica Spiteri from Malta'. I crossed the line feeling so exhausted, yet so filled with a sense of achievement."

Donatelle's experience was very much along the same lines. "The start of the swim was 10 times more hectic than I had anticipated: the first 750m where "just try to survive this".

"I was hyper ventilating and being thrashed around by so many bodies that I could hardly breathe, let alone try to swim. At one point, I had a canoe right next to me which I realised was telling me that I was off-course. I quickly re-focused and swam as fast as I could towards the canal. That must have cost me about five minutes.

"The bike segment was a great experience and I managed to even enjoy the scenery and the roads. I felt strong throughout and knew I was pacing myself well.

"The only mishap was that around 60km from the finish, I took a bump and my handle bar fell. I made the mistake of not stopping to fix it but I thought I could hang on.

"I could not go fast on the downhills and was afraid that my front bottle would touch the front wheel and I would crash - so I finished the cycle in 6hrs 45 minutes where my time should at least have been 6hrs 30min. But I think this helped me in my run as I could not push hard in the cycle.

"Throughout the race my main thought was "keep back don't push, the hard part is yet to come: the marathon". Till then the furthest I had run was 26km. So doing double that was always going to be difficult.

"I started the run feeling relatively fresh and strong but I refused to push. In fact, I was stopping to walk the aid stations every 2km and eating and drinking. I was waiting for the wall that everyone had warned me about when I would not have any strength to continue.

"Yet 26km passed and then the 32km mark and I was saying "hey, I am feeling ok" and kept running. The good feeling was that I was overtaking a lot of people who had passed me in the bike and in the first part of the run.

Encouragement

"And they push you on by calling out encouragement "like hey girl you look good - keep going". I finished feeling great and the first thought was "I can go on!" I finished strong and in fact the smile on my face said it all."

Callus clearly enjoyed the experience and is already planning to go back for more.

"I loved every bit of this and I know that what I did was my achievement and to the best of what I could have done and no-one can take that away from you," she said.

"I love this. I love the sport and I will do another Ironman even if when I was training, I often said to myself that never again would I try to do this. I plan to do another Half Ironman next year and a full Ironman in 2011 - probably in Switzerland."

The feeling goes for Spiteri as well. "Prior to the race, I was determined that an Ironman race is just a one-off experience, just to say I have done it, and conquered it. However, the moment I crossed the finish line, I knew that I would do another Ironman.

"The sense of achievement is immense."