Burkert excels in her first Ironman Triathlon Michelle Burkert Saturday, April 9, is a day that Michelle Burkert of Colonia will long remember. The Colonia High School graduate traveled to Tempe, Ariz., the site of the inaugural Arizona Ironman, where she competed along with over 1,900 athletes over a grueling course that would cover 140.6 miles before her day was done. An Ironman Triathlon is a combination of three events. The first event in Tempe started off at 7 a.m. as a 2.4-mile swim in Tempe Town Lake. Next was the 112-mile bike ride through the streets of Tempe and the surrounding desert. Finally, the athletes completed their day with a full marathon of 26.2 miles again through the streets of Tempe, and a return to another area of the desert surrounding the city. All athletes must complete the course in the allotted 17 hours and be off the course by midnight. And many athletes were coming to the finish until the hour of midnight. The weather added another dimension to the first-ever Ironman Arizona. Temperatures at the start of the race hovered around 50 degrees and reached the mid 70s before again dropping into the low 50s after sunset. All day long the racers were buffeted with ever-increasing windy conditions with gusts up to 35 mph. Much preparation went into the Ironman for Burkert, who graduated from Colonia High School in 1999 and Fairleigh Dickinson University in 2003. She competed in several shorter triathlons, and in November, she ran in the Philadelphia Marathon, where she finished with a time of 3:37:57 and placed 1,637th in a field of nearly 10,000 competitors and 42nd in her age group. She was also entered in the Disney Marathon in December but had to pass up the event because of a hairline fracture of her foot that was aggravated during the marathon in Philadelphia. She performed well in the Ironman Triathlon in Tempe. Her swim time was 1:11.54 for the 2.4-mile course. She exited the water as the 597th competitor. The next event was the bike, where all riders travel through the streets of Tempe, out of town and up into the desert. Her time was 7:01:25, and her position dropped to 1,134th. Then the athletes finished their day with a full marathon, her stronger event, and her marathon time was 4:38:35, which gave her a final position of 861. She placed fourth in her age group and 129th against the 450 female competitors that were entered — an excellent result for a first-time Ironman Triathlon athlete.