Alaska News

Despite illness and brutal heat, Wasilla triathlete guts out Ironman finish

In a field of more than 2,300 of the world's best athletes, Wasilla's Carolyn Barry was the only Alaskan across the finish line of the Ironman World Championship triathlon Saturday night in Kona.

The mother of three, who captured the women's division of the Eagle River Triathlon in June, finished in 11 hours, 11 minutes and 22 seconds to place 1,046th overall. She was 20th in the women's 40-44 year old division, despite an illness that slowed her and brutal conditions on the course.

"It wasn't pretty, but I didn't give up," Barry wrote on her Facebook page after the race. "It was much longer than my goal time, but I didn't leave anything out there. Now to get me and our kiddos healthy!"

Barry recorded a 1:12:22 time in the 2.4-mile swim, a 5:55:20 on the 112-mile bike course and a 3:57:08 marathon to wrap up her race. Both of her transitions were completed in less than 3:20.

On a particularly hot and humid day, Germany's Jan Frodeno won in 8:14:40, becoming the first athlete to win both an Ironman World Championship and an Olympic title. Daniela Ryf of Switzerland won the women's race in 8:57:57

According to the Associated Press, temperatures on the course exceeded 120 degrees.

"I had good run form, but it was brutal," Frodeno told the AP. "No shade at all. If you're going uphill, your heart rate goes up and it just doesn't come back down."

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For Barry, the Ironman capped off a strong year. In June, she won the shorter Eagle River Triathlon (500-yard swim, 20-kilometer bike, 5-kilometer run) in 1:06:43, turning the tables on noted Alaska triathlete Amber Stull, who'd topped Barry earlier in the season at the Gold Nugget Triathlon. Barry finished fourth at that race in a time of 1:09:55.

In late June, Barry notched an impressive 18th-place result in the Ironman Idaho, which features the same distances as the Hawaii championship, finishing in 10:37:42.

The other Alaskan in Saturday's field was 62-year-old Robert Smith, a retired operator at the Alyeska Pipeline Terminal in Valdez, who was nursing a hip he fractured while training in late May.

Smith did the swim in 1:29:30 and the bike in 6:05:02 -- but dropped out during the run.

"I'm still not sure if I can get the marathon done," Smith said by phone before the race. "A month ago, the muscles weren't quite firing.

"I was on an anti-gravity machine in Anchorage. It takes weight off, and that did work pretty well. It got me back running again. But really, my training is just ramping up and I can't go as long as before."

And going long is a necessity for the Ironman, especially when the heat and humidity is "the worst it's been over here in 30 years," Smith said.

Contact Mike Campbell at mcampbell@alaskadispatch.com

Mike Campbell

Mike Campbell was a longtime editor for Alaska Dispatch News, and before that, the Anchorage Daily News.

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