Cape athlete finishes an Ironman triathlon while battling flu

The week before the Chattanooga Ironman Triathlon, Laura Sheridan came down with the flu.

The last nine months of her life had been reconstructed around swimming, biking and running for a combined total of 144.6 miles, and now she was sick.

"So it wasn't ideal going in," she said.

She altered her expectations, setting her goal at simply finishing the triathlon instead of finishing in 13 hours.

Just finishing, she thought, still would mean she'd pushed herself to achieve -- something she'd done as a sprinter during her time at Southeast Missouri State University. After all, she had started endurance training only three years ago.

"I try to just jump in and go for it," she said.

No kidding.

Her initial plan was to train for and complete a half-marathon.

"That progressed into [training for] a marathon," she said. "[An Ironman] wasn't anything I ever thought I could accomplish."

But with the quintessential running test behind you, what's a girl to do?

She set her sights for the Chattanooga event.

She got a coach from St. Louis, who sent her daily workout routines. She began training three days a week for each leg of the course, doubling her workouts on the two overlap days. It was a strict schedule, but Sheridan said she is used to juggling different aspects of daily life.

"My training's mostly early morning so I can fit it in around my family and work and things," she explained.

Sheridan is a mother of two who works as an exercise physiologist in Southeast Hospital's cardiac and pulmonary-rehab center and blogs about her training journey at riseandtri.com.

Between those responsibilities and nagging injuries that come with high-level training, it was a tough nine months, so the 11th-hour flu was a bummer.

But on race day, she woke up at 2:45 a.m.

"I know," she said. "It's crazy."

She gave her bike a last once-over before being shuttled to the spot where she and the rest of the 2,700 Iron-hopefuls plunged into the Tennessee River at 7:30 a.m. The swimming portion of the race always has given her trouble, she said, but she completed that 2.4-mile leg in an hour and 12 minutes.

The Chattanooga Ironman is the only one whose bike course is 116 miles, rather than the standard 112. The weather that day peaked at 95 degrees. She began to pass other athletes on the side of the course, woozily getting hooked up to IV fluids by health staff.

"I saw a sign on the course that one of the volunteers put out that kind of became my mantra," she said. "It said, 'Relentless forward progression.' Really, that's what the Ironman's about."

Six hours and 40 minutes later, she was off the bike and, being a runner, back in her element.

"Finish off with a full marathon, 26.2 miles, and then you get to hit that awesome finish line." she said. "It was amazing."

The finisher's chute, she said, was a half-mile stretch where you're a winner and everyone's happy for you.

"Nine months of training, sacrifices, the dream," she said. "A flood of emotions and a lot of just pride."

As you cross the actual finish line, Sheridan said, a booming voice welcomes each finisher personally into the company of elite triathletes.

"From Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Laura Sheridan you are an Ironman!"

Sheridan finished 21st in her age group and 471st overall.

"I just had the goal of finishing, so I was very surprised to see the finishers' clock and see that."

And the flu that had caused her to focus only on finishing? It cost her only nine additional minutes.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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