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Will 141 miles of swimming, biking and running prove any easier the second time around?

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Katy Rosane

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Eagle River triathlete Katy Rosane, 45, sure hopes so. On Saturday , Rosane and Dale Haines, 49, will represent Alaska in the world's best-known triathlon, the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.

For Rosane, the Ironman is a return visit to Kona just 12 months after she turned in an 11-hour, 39-minute, 44-second effort in her debut that included a personal-record marathon time of 3:55 -- so fast that her family, expecting a slower pace, missed her at the finish line.

So will familiarity bring a new comfort level for Rosane -- or contempt for a race that can bring the world's fittest athletes to their knees?

"You know, it could be a bad thing," she said of going back to back. "Anything can happen. Anything is possible. I don't like to go in with a perceived time, so people aren't disappointed.

"But now I know how much it hurt."

Her main hope Saturday is that the wind is gentle -- or better yet, flat.

En route to a time of 6:14:24 on the 112-mile bike leg last year, Rosane, a nurse at Alaska Regional Hospital, battled nasty headwinds.

"I nearly got blown off several times," she said. "A gust would come up and I'd think, 'I'm going down.' But you'd hang on and hang on.

"With those headwinds, it was the toughest course I've ever done."

In a way, she's fortunate to return to the most exclusive triathlon in the world.

Rosane earned her invitation this summer at the Lake Placid Ironman, where she finished in 11:26:45 despite heavy rain much of the day. That put her seventh among the 83 triathletes in her age group.

By rule, the top three finishers in her age group earned bids to the world championship in Kona.

The top two accepted the bids, but for various reasons, the third, fourth, fifth and sixth-place finishers did not, creating Rosane's opportunity.

"For it to roll down four spots is pretty amazing," Rosane said.

She qualified for last year's Ironman by finishing third in her age group at the Arizona Ironman in 11:19:05, her second-best time for the full distance.

"(Kona is) always more intense than other Ironman races," said Rosane, who's done seven triathlons of the full Ironman distance. "This is the cream of the crop, and it's really intense. It's just magnified over what other Ironmans are -- not nearly as relaxed.

"It's like you're in another country. It becomes this melting pot of people."

For Haines, the Ironman will culminate a focused year of training after he won one of the 150 lottery spots auctioned off to U.S. triathletes who cannot meet Ironman's rigorous qualification standands.

"I'm doing it all for a T-shirt," he said, laughing. "And who knows how much I've got invested in that by now.

"It's been a lifelong dream of mine to run it before I turned 50."

He'll beat that goal by a month.

These days, Haines, the operations manager for Chevron in Anchorage, is obsessed with goals, and he's put in plenty of long training days to meet them.

On a recent Sunday, he started biking at Indian and didn't get off for 6.5 hours. Then he ran another 90 minutes in the wind, rain and darkness.

Swimming may be Haines' biggest challenge and he's sweating the cutoff time of 2 hours, 20 minutes for the 2.4-mile opening leg in the Pacific Ocean.

"I'll be out there with 1,700 swimmers, and I get anxiety over that," he said. "It's very intimidating. I've been swimming in Little Campbell Lake in my wetsuit, but I never really formally swum before."

On Tuesday, he swam the course at Kona, where he's preparing for the race.

Two days earlier, he did an 80-mile training ride on his bike. But the biggest adaptation may be getting used to being surrounded by top-notch athletes.

"It's pretty intimidating looking at the bodies of these elite athletes," he said by phone. "They've got more muscle on their arms than I do on my whole body."

Whatever happens at Ironman, Haines said training for the race has changed his life for the better.

He's eating better and drinking less. His blood pressure is down and he's shed 20 pounds.

And his family has graciously accommodated the greater demands on his time.

"My overall fitness level is so much better," he said. "Whatever happens in the race, that's a plus I can't ignore."

Find reporter Mike Campbell online at adn.com/contact/mcampbell or call 257-4329.

Recent Alaska Ironman finsihers

2007

• Katy Rosane, 44, Eagle River: 11:39:44 for 21st in her age group, including a PR 3:55:09 marathon.

• Ellyn Brown, 55, Anchorage: 16:08:25 for 20th in her age group, including a 1:28:11 swim of 2.4 miles, eighth in her age group.

• Jim Bursell, 43, Juneau: 10:56:21 for 138th in his age group, including averaging more than 20 mph on the 112-mile bike ride.

• Tracy Rivera, 40, Juneau: 10:49:47 for 118th in his age group, averaging 8:41 per mile in the marathon.

2006

• Lori Staats, 51, Anchorage: 13:15:47 for 20th in her 50-54 age group

• Christina Lee, 35, Anchorage: 15:25:34 for 67th in the 35-39 age group

2005

• Jens Beck, 35, Anchorage: 10:29:24 for 135th in his age group. Included a sterling 57:16 in the 2.4-mile swim for 10th best in his age group.

• Bret Rosane, 44, Eagle River: 10:31:31, or 103rd in the 40-44 age group. Nearly caught Beck with a 3:36:30 marathon, 21 minutes faster than Beck.

• Judy Abrahams, 30, Anchorage, 11:00:39 for 25th in the 30-34 age group. Speedy 3:36:54 marathon nearly got her under the 11-hour barrier.

2004

• Jens Beck, 34, Anchorage: 10:41:52, for 81st in his age group. Included a fast 55:45 swim, that was 16th in his age group.

ON TV: NBC will air a 90-minute special on this year's race on Dec. 13. ONLINE: The Web site www.ironman.com is live during the race, allowing visitors to monitor the progress of individual racers.

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