Intense heat, dehydration, leg cramps and 30-mph wind gusts couldn’t stop Lars Brudvig and John Meyer.

The duo from the ISU Triathlon Club completed the Ironman Wisconsin Triathlon held Sunday in Madison, Wis.

As a result of the 93-degree temperatures and high winds, 19.5 percent of the nearly 2,000 competitors were unable to finish the race. That is about twice the average dropout rate.

“Almost everyone was cramping up,” Brudvig said. “People were dropping out like flies.”

This triathlon consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile marathon run. It was put on by Ironman North America, which hosts six Ironman distance races across the continent each year.

Brudvig, graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology, swam competitively at Carlton College in Northfield, Minn. prior to coming to Iowa State. Meyer, junior in materials engineering, swam for Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School.

Brudvig won the collegiate division, placing 31st overall and was the 11th amateur to finish. His time of 10:30.54 qualified him for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in October 2006.

He is planning to go after missing the qualifying time by 2.5 minutes at last year’s Wisconsin Ironman.

“It’s such a unique opportunity,” he said. “I’d probably regret it for the rest of my life if I turned it down.”

Brudvig has already put down the $475 entry fee for the Hawaii triathlon 13 months in advance.

Last year’s Ironman Wisconsin was his first and gave him an idea of what to expect at this year’s race.

“I think one thing I learned from last year was that I didn’t eat enough,” Brudvig said. “I had to eat on the bike ride because you can’t on the run. I ran out of gas in 2004.”

Throughout the race, there were places to get nourishment. Every 10 to 15 miles during the bike ride and every mile during the run there were power bars, bananas, Gatorade and water.

Brudvig consumed about 2,000 calories during the bike portion.

Another big difference from last year was how he paced himself and approached each event. Brudvig tried staying relaxed during the swim, using as little energy as possible. This year’s biking times were slower because of the high winds. The run was relatively flat, mostly around the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. At the steepest part of the run, Observatory Hill, Brudvig chose to walk.

“The last half of the run I was pretty dehydrated and I had leg cramps,” he said. “I was just trying to survive.”

The amount of training helped him cope with Sunday’s race much better than he did with last year’s.

“I had to make my brain smarter than my legs,” he said.

Last year, he was immobile for a week.

“My legs were all torn up,” Brudvig said. “This year, I’m feeling good. I got my bike out Wednesday.”

Brudvig’s next race is April at the collegiate nationals. The ISU Triathlon Club will send a team to that race, which is an Olympic triathlon, lasting about two hours.

In October, he will face 80 percent to 90 percent humidity, 90-degree temperatures and very strong winds in Hawaii.

“There have been reports of people being blown clear off the road,” Brudvig said. “Plus, there’s just the pressure of being at the world championships.”

Meyer, the ISU Triathlon Club president, finished in the top 400 overall in his first Ironman Wisconsin Triathlon with a time of 12:32.33. He said a competitor shouldn’t focus on his time as much as just finishing the race.

Competing in shorter distance triathlons in high school and doing a 120-mile bike ride through the mountains in Colorado helped prepare him for this race.

“With that experience, you know your body’s limits,” Meyer said.

“You can get away with going all out in the shorter races. If you do that during an Ironman, you’re in for a long day.”

He plans to be at next year’s Ironman Wisconsin.

More than 2,000 spots for next year’s triathlon were filled up seven hours after the opening of registration on Monday.

Meyer said anyone interested in the ISU Triathlon Club should come to the first meeting of the year this Sunday at 8 p.m. in 101 Beyer Hall.