It's all about the numbers – local athlete completes Ironman Race

Starting eighteen months ago Karen Francis started preparing for her first Ironman race – the Ironman 70.3 Atlantic City. Having completed in several triathlete races, sprint distances and two Olympic distances (1-mile swim, 26-mile bike and 10k run) this past summer she aimed for more competitiveness, not in her co-racers, but within herself. She swam more, ran more and biked more. She logged everything, including her calorie intake.

On Sunday, September 15, at :30 in the morning and ending in the late afternoon, all of the commitment, hard work and dedication paid off. Surrounded by a team of friends and family Francis started the race with a 1.2-mile swim in the back bays of Atlantic City, she then biked a 56-mile bike course directly into Atlantic City via the Atlantic City Expressway in dedicated lanes. Finally, Francis finished with a 13.1-mile run course with views of the Atlantic Ocean on the Atlantic City Boardwalk.

2,587 triathletes competed in the Atlantic City Ironman race, women alongside men. Francis competed in the Half Ironman division with a finishing time of 6:37:43, placing 31st out of 75 in her division. Overall, she placed 1,038 out of 2,587 racers, including men and women and 308 for women (all ages).

Francis stated, "70.3 = 1.2-mile swim. 56-mile bike. 13.1-mile run. These numbers are more than that. It's the number of hours and miles spent training throughout the last year and a half. It's the counting. The tracking. The logging. The cadence. It's the number of people in my life who support me and believe in me. More than anything that is the icing on the cake - the people in my life who are always there for me."