ATLANTA — An Atlanta woman made history by becoming the first woman to complete five Ironman competitions in 5 days.
Channel 2’s Craig Lucie interviewed Dani Grabol via Skype hours after she finished something only a handful of people in the world have been able to accomplish.
Grabol finished the Epic 5 Challenge Tuesday morning. It consists of five Ironman distance triathlons on five Hawaiian Islands in five days.
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Grabol has been training for 10 months and was invited to compete in the race that sounds impossible.
“Seven participants originally signed up and four people ended coming to Hawaii and three finished,” said Grabol.
The distance in total is 703 miles, which is the equivalent of swimming, biking and running from Atlanta past Miami, and Grabol did more than that.
“I did an extra two to three miles on the bike today,” said Grabol.
Here’s the route:
“We started in Kauai with a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run and then went to Oahu," said Grabol.
In Oahu she did another 140.3 miles then on to Molokai, Maui and finishing up in Kona, Hawaii completing the 703 mile race, running on six hours of sleep in 5 days.
“How do you mentally prepare yourself go through and push forward to accomplish such a thing?” Lucie asked.
“It’s an interesting question. It’s really physiological in my opinion. The trick is being comfortable being uncomfortable, and that’s just not something a lot of people are interested or willing to do, to be uncomfortable for extended periods of time,” said Grabol.
Grabol did it with a smile, was able to walk afterward and raised money in the process for her coach’s charity – the Kyle Pease Foundation.
Brent and Kyle Pease are the local brothers who have finished multiple ironman’s and marathons. She has raised $12,000 so far.
“So what’s next for you?” Lucie asked.
“A lot of sleep and a ton of recovery,” said Grabol.