For a woman whose athletic career only began in 2016 with a 5km Pretty Muddy Race for Life, her place on the starting line in Denmark’s capital city is already a remarkable achievement. Covering 140 miles, an Ironman is the world’s toughest one-day endurance race, starting with a 2.4-mile swim in a lagoon followed by a 112-mile cycle and ending with a full, 26.2-mile marathon. Amateur and professional athletes stand on the start line of the same course and, in the case of the KMD Ironman Copenhagen, they all have cut-off times at each stage and a total of 15 hours 45 minutes to complete the entire course or their efforts will have been in vain.
Tracey revealed how her training is progressing and why she’s embarking on such a gruelling challenge.
‘I’m doing the Ironman for Cancer Research,’ she explained. ‘I’m part of a team of five who are all taking part to raise money for different charities and we’re all very excited to be doing our bit. This is my first Ironman and, although I’ve competed in four sprint triathlons, the training is very demanding – I swim in open water at Fordingbridge at weekends, I’m in the gym, I’m ramping up my bike mileage having cycled 80 miles to Weymouth recently, I’m running for two hours in a good session. All this will continue to intensify before I start to taper, but I’m determined to conquer it and raise as much money as possible for Cancer Research.’
Everyone at Highwood is behind Tracey and her bid to complete her first Ironman and we’ll be following her progress as the big day draws closer – watch this space for news updates. If you’d like to sponsor Tracey and contribute to her fundraising goal, you can donate here.