Meet Emily Berkin – the youngest person to compete in the Ironman race in Tempe, Arizona this year. She’s a freshman journalism major at the Downtown campus who loves competing.
The Ironman consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a marathon. This year, the race was held at Tempe Town Lake where competitors swam in the lake, biked three loops around the city, and ran their marathon in two loops around the lake. Competitors from all over the world come to show their strength and endurance to cross the finish line.
Emily has always been a star athlete. She ran varsity track and cross-country for four years. As if that weren’t impressive enough, she did triathlons for 10 years and was Southwest Regional Champion for an Olympic-distance race. Emily did her first half Ironman when she was just 15 years old.
“I grew up watching my mom do Ironman,” she says, “When I grew up, I wanted to be an Ironman. I wanted to do it over half my life.”
Her mom has done 14 different Ironman races and is a huge inspiration to Emily.
Training for this race took a tremendous amount of time and dedication. She prepared for 6 months of hard training to build up endurance.
“During the week, I’d bike and swim 3 times a week. I was also running 6 days a week preparing for track.”
The youngest age group, 18-24 years old, contained only 10 people. Emily was officially the youngest person for the year since she signed up a year ago when she was 17-years-old making, her the youngest legal participant.
Ironman really catered to its dedicated athletes. Before the race there was a banquet and an expo filled with vendors.
“It felt weird doing it without my mom for first time – but it was exciting!” The pre-race gossip included stories of other competitors (one athlete lost 175 pounds training for Ironman!) and strategies for the race.
Finally, at 7 a.m. sharp, Emily’s life-long dream became a reality as she took her first step over the starting line.
“My goal was to finish. I thought, ‘Don’t push yourself too hard’ because I know this isn’t about how fast I go – it’s about making sure I conserve energy to cross that finish line.”
After 15 hours and 36 minutes, Emily got to hear the words she had been waiting to hear, “Emily Berkin you are now an Ironman!”
At that moment, Emily became the youngest person to finish the 2013 Ironman in Tempe, Arizona. Her friends, mom, and other triathletes were there at the finish line to show their support.
So what’s next for Emily Berkin? After a well-deserved rest, she can’t wait to get back into the swing of things and compete again! Until then, you can catch her hanging out with friends, going to class, or even being a DJ for The Blaze 1330 AM on Tuesdays.