There's no doubt Assistant Research Scientist Stani Bohac loves a challenge. And not only the academic kind. On September 12, 2004, Bohac completed the an Ironman Triathlon in Madison, Wisconsin, an extreme endurance event that had him swimming in open water for 2.4 miles, biking for 112 and, oh, running a marathon (26.2 miles). The canon signaling the start of the race went off at 7 a.m., and Bohac finished 12 hours and 23 minutes later, 616th of 2,188 participants.
Bohac says he's always been "captivated by certain challenges; they make me feel very much alive." He ran track and cross-country in high school, ran a marathon as an undergraduate and biked across Iceland and through the Himalayas. Two years ago, he was biking and running recreationally and to keep in shape when he heard about a local off-road triathlon. He says he wasn't much of a swimmer and never tried to do three sports in one race. Time to rise to the challenge. After training for two months, "especially learning to swim more than one lap in a pool, the race went much better than I thought it would. I was hooked."
He began participating in longer triathlons. "The idea of doing a full-distance Ironman intrigued me," he says, "but also seemed crazy." Still, he trained for nine months, first working to become a stronger swimmer and doing some long but slow trail runs of up to about 15 miles. He gradually progressed from four to 20 hours of cardiovascular exercise per week. His training regimen evolved from information he found online, talking with friends who'd completed Ironman races and "basically doing what felt right."
He kept track of his hours spent training, how much he ate and drank and how many calories he burned but tried to keep his workouts spontaneous and fun. "I'd mix things up as much as possible."
On race day, he cut a wide swath around the buoys marking the swim course to avoid the tangle of bodies. He finished in an hour and 23 minutes. After scrambling out of the water and changing into biking gear, he began the next 112-mile stretch, eating and drinking as he pedaled, in preparation for the marathon. Six hours and ten minutes later, Bohac was off his bike, running through downtown Madison and the University of Wisconsin campus. By this time, the temperature was 85 degrees.
The hardest part of the race was the second half of the run. " I'd been going for 10 hours and you just run out of strength. It's hard for your body to keep your water, salt and energy levels up for so long. I got through it by thinking about everything I did in training and how much I hurt in some of my workouts. The hurt during the race was not really any worse and it was for the big race, something I'd remember forever if I could finish it."
He did. The marathon took him four hours and 33 minutes. Of his total time, Bohac says it was "far better than my most optimistic hopes."
During the race, he drank 23 pounds of fluids, lost 32 pounds of water, consumed 4,400 calories and burned 9,000, at a thermal efficiency of about 28 percent, "better than many of today's internal combustion engines, the subject of my research at Michigan."
But finishing the race took a lot more than calories and water. Between 25,000 and 50,000 spectators--including his family and friends--cheered him, and the other participants, on. An additional 4,000 volunteers provided food, water, sunscreen and encouragement along the course. When Bohac was done, he says, his biggest treat was to cheer others to the finish. "Some sprinted, some limped, some walked. The winner completed the race in 8:52:33; one finisher was 75 years old. I was truly inspired by everyone, fast and slow."