To prepare for last weekend's Ford Ironman Wisconsin Triathlon, MSU students Joshua McCallum and Andris Roze rode their bikes from East Lansing to Petoskey - a nearly 210-mile journey that took the pair 14-and-a-half hours to complete.
It was just one component of a rigorous training schedule - twice daily, six days a week since May - to prepare for Sunday's Ironman race in Madison, Wis.
In an event where 19 percent of the 2,076 competitors dropped out, both McCallum, a microbiology senior, and Roze, a finance senior, finished the event. Roze and McCallum said they finished third as a two-man team in the 101-member, college-age division. In addition, Roze finished second in the 18-24-year-old division. By finishing in the top three in his age group, he said he qualified for the 2006 Ford Ironman World Championship in Hawaii - the triathlon circuit's top event.
"It's the biggest one," McCallum said. "It's like the Super Bowl."
An Ironman race is the longest triathlon and consists of three legs. Competitors swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run 26.2 miles.
People lined the bike route during that portion of the race, which Roze said he appreciated.
"It felt like the Tour de France," he said.
During the race, which was the first Ironman competition for both students, they said temperatures reached 97 degrees and racers dealt with exhaustion.
"I learned a lot about myself and what I am physically capable of," Roze said. "I definitely see myself doing more races in the future."
Roze finished the race in 11 hours and 23 seconds, which placed him 75th overall. McCallum finished with a time of 12 hours, 13 minutes and 35 seconds, which earned him the 298th overall spot and 13th in his age group.
McCallum is president of the MSU Triathlon Team, which currently has 45 members. A group of 15 club members traveled to watch the event and support the team, McCallum said.
Nick Richer, a journalism junior and member of the Triathlon Team, went to Wisconsin to cheer the racers on, and said he watched people crying as they crossed the finish line.
"It was quite an experience," Richer said. "I had no idea it would be so emotional."
Because of the intense training schedule, McCallum said while he hopes to do more Ironman races in the future, they won't be soon.
"I am definitely going to take some time off, to just kind of hang out," McCallum said. "It will be nice not to have to train as much."
