From the time he was in middle school, ISU senior Kris Spoth knew he wanted to compete in a triathlon. Now, after completing six of them, he is headed to the Ford Ironman World Championship.

In 2008, Spoth competed in his first competition — the Hy-Vee Triathlon — in Des Moines. Spoth later went on to compete in the Omaha Triathlon and three National Collegiate triathlons before entering his sixth one this past summer in Louisville.

One of Spoth’s friends and a fellow triathlon competitor described a triathlon — which combines swimming, biking and running — as the ultimate combination.

“Triathlon is just an accomplishment because if you swim in a pool you can be a swimmer, if you ride a bike you can be a biker and if you run you can be a runner,” said Chris Mann, senior in dietetics and former ISU Triathlon Club president. “But if you want to do them all, you can do a triathlon.”

Spoth had done a handful triathlons before he competed in Ironman Louisville on Aug. 28, but Ironman competitions are even more demanding, requiring competitors to complete a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and a full 26.2-mile marathon.

The preparation for this ultimate test took weeks for Spoth.

“A typical train week for me would be somewhere between 14 and 20 hours a week,” Spoth said. “That can be somewhere around 150 to 200-plus miles on the bike, 40 to 50 miles running and about 10,000 to 12,000 yards swimming.”

Nearly 2,400 people entered the Ironman Louisville competition and while Spoth hoped to break the 10-hour mark, he entered with just one simple goal: to finish.

“The goal was to finish, and if nothing else, I could have been happy with finishing,” Spoth said. “But that wouldn’t have really satisfied me; I was reaching for something much higher.”

Throughout that Sunday in Louisville, the excitement continued to grow as Spoth went from the water to his bike and finally to his feet with his parents looking on.

“As the race went on, there was this cascading excitement because we were realizing how well he was doing and intermittently we could see him on the course,” said Dick Spoth, Kris’ father. “That progressed through the day and through the marathon where we had the opportunity to be where he was on several occasions.”

And then came the finish.

As Spoth crossed the finish line, he was filled with excitement. He had fulfilled his one primary goal of finishing. It wouldn’t be until later that Spoth would find out just how well he had done.

That moment, when Spoth saw the results, was filled with many emotions.

“I was pretty much in disbelief; I could not believe that I had done that well,” Spoth said. “I completely surpassed all of my goals and it was admittedly an emotional moment.”

For his parents, it was equally emotional.

“The finish was incredible and it was sort of mentally emotional for all of us,” Dick said. “We were incredibly proud and immensely happy to see how well he had done.”

The time on the results sheet read: 9 hours, 26 minutes and 46 seconds.

Spoth finished second in his age group and 11th overall, beating out several professionals along the way to qualify for the Ford Ironman World Championship this Saturday in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

Each year, some 80,000 people attempt to qualify for the ultimate race in Hawaii, and when Spoth enters the water to kickoff the race on Saturday, he will be one of just 1,800 who were able to make the cut.

While Spoth has some goals in mind, he just hopes to enjoy the moment.

“I think I’ve had to take a step back and kind of approach this race differently,” Spoth said. “There is so much hype around this race — it’s one of the biggest races in the triathlon community — and to make it here so early and so young with so little experience, I just want to make sure that I appreciate what this means.”