Two EMU female faculty find challenging outlets in triathlon competitions

According to legend, the Ironman Triathlon started about 30 years ago, when a bunch of Navy SEALs got in an argument about who was the fittest athlete. They devised a race that combined the two-mile Waikiki Rough Water Swim, the Around Oahu Bike Race and the Honolulu Marathon. Do it all in a single day, they reasoned, and you can call yourself an Ironman.

Triathlon has taken on a life of its own since then. There are sprint distances, Olympic distances, Half-Ironman races.

MOVING ALONG: Tammy McCullough, an EMU professor of marketing, waves to the crowd during the grueling 112-mile bike portion of the Louisville, Ky. Ironman Triathlon Aug. 29. McCullough is one of two EMU female professors who compete in triathlons.

But the Ironman remains the gold standard of individual endurance races and, this fall, two Eastern Michigan faculty joined the ranks of Ironmen — or, in this case, Ironwomen — who've swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles and run 26.2 miles in a single day. It was the first Ironman for both women, but probably not a last.

"It was actually kind of fun," said Kristi Judd, an assistant professor of biology who raced in the Sept 12 Wisconsin Ironman in Madison, Wisc., and finisthed in 11:24.56, good for 10th in her division. "I thought it would be fun to train for and fun to have finished, but (the race) wasn't nearly as bad as I though it was going to be. There were people cheering the whole way. One thing that stood out to me was how much work goes into one of these. There are so many volunteers. You know, the course is 140 miles, and cones line the entire way."

Marketing professor Tammy McCullough, who raced in the Aug. 29 Louisville, Ky. Ironman had a similar reaction.

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