ISU triathlete Lars Brudvig swam, biked and ran to a 65th place finish in Saturday’s Wisconsin Ironman Competition, in which 2,188 athletes started and 1,973 finished.

Other ISU Triathlon Club members also competed. Luke Anderson finished 152nd; Robert Jung finished 185th; Andrew Carney was 445th.

Roughly 150 college students competed in the Ironman Championships in Madison, Wis., which is one of only 17 Ironman events in the world.

At 7 a.m., competitors started with a 2.4-mile swim, changed to a 112-mile bike ride and finished with a 26.2-mile marathon run.

The grueling 10- to 12-hour event takes a lot out of the athletes.

“When you finish, they give you a certificate that says you are certifiably insane,” Anderson said. “It takes a different breed of people to do [the Ironman].”

A fatigued Anderson and Carney both said they didn’t want the hard work they put in training to go to waste.

Carney said the desire to finish keeps the competitors going.

“The faster you go, the faster you will finish and the sooner you will be done and can go lie down,” Carney said.

The college athletes ran with all of the other participants. To be eligible for the college competition, participants must be full-time during the fall semester of 2004.

The collegiate athletes were composed of two-man teams, Brudvig and Anderson, and Carney and Jung. Brudvig and Anderson took first place with Carney and Jung taking third. Brudvig finished fourth in his age group (18-27).

Anderson said the four ISU students all performed well.

“It looks like me and Lars are the best team of all the other colleges,” Anderson said. “Andrew Carney had a good race and was really strong. I think that Lars was rolling along very fast.”

The training to compete in an event like the triathlon can be very strenuous. An exuberant Anderson said he is thrilled the training is finally over.

“There is around eight months of training with a whole lot of swimming, biking and running,” Anderson said. “We train at least two hours every single day. It is not uncommon to go three to four hours a day.”

The weather became an obstacle for the athletes.

“It was probably in the low 90s by mid-afternoon. Since it got so hot, it makes it really tough,” Carney said. “There was not much shade on the bike and race course, so you were out in the sun baking for the whole day. I was sweating and it’s hard to stay hydrated.”

Jung had to get creative on the long, hot run.

“I kept putting ice down my jersey,” Jung said.

Since the run is after the swimming and biking, Anderson said the heat was worst during the marathon.

“By the time I got to the run, the heat was really catching up with me,” Anderson said. “I started off strong in the run [but] then I kind of died a little bit. It wasn’t as hot as last year, but when it’s hot, it’s hot.”

Anderson had his own agenda for the Ironman Championship.

“The [Ironman] doesn’t really start ’til you get to the run because it really weeds everyone out,” Anderson said. “If you take the bike out too hard you can have a really good bike split, but you still have to get through 26 miles of running. There were a whole lot of people walking.”

Jung said the bike ride was the toughest event.

“My back started to kill when I was on the bike, since I was bent over,” Jung said. “[My back] felt fine after I got off the bike.”

Since Anderson participated in this event last year as well, he said the experience really paid off to help him improve.

Anderson, who said he dropped 18 minutes from his time from last year, came out of the water in 20th place, just ahead of the eventual winner, a professional triathlete.

“It’s such a rush,” Anderson said.

“It is great just knowing the hard work has finally paid off. It’s hard to explain, but it’s definitely worth it at the end.”