PERTH - Perth’s Kristine Plant knows how
to run the gauntlet.
When the 45-year-old mother of
three is not healing the injured as an emergency room nurse at the Perth and Smiths Falls District
Hospital in Smiths Falls,
or teaching her fitness boot camp, she is cycling, swimming and running her way
across the finish lines of Ironman competitions around the world.
“I got bored of running,”
said Plant. “I ran since 1978 and I had done marathons and I was looking for a
new challenge.”
Ironman competitions consist
of a 3.8-kilometre swim, 180-km of cycling and a 42.2-km run.
Plant was inspired to take
part in an Ironman competition after she watched a friend compete in one in Lake Placid, N.Y.
“Its certainly not for
everybody, it’s a lot of training,” she said.
“Every time you go to the
start line you never know if you’re going to finish.”
Her track record certainly
doesn’t show the same levels of difficulty she described during her interview.
She has completed all eight
ironman competitions she has participated in.
Kristine said her most
difficult Ironman to finish was when she ran with a broken heel.
“I figured, run if I can,
and if it’s too painful, quit,” she said. “After swimming 3.8 kilometres, and biking 180 kilometres, everything hurts at that
point.”
Plant has successfully completed
Ironman competitions in Lake Placid, N.Y., Penticton, B.C., Louisville, Ky., Madison, Wis., Panama City Beach, Fla.,
and most recently, Frankfurt,
Germany.
The Frankfurter Sparkasse
Ironman European Championship was held on July 4. She finished sixth in her age
category (45 to 49) with a time of 11 hours and 53 minutes.
Plant said she decided to
compete in Frankfurt because it gave her an
excuse to travel.
“We took our kids,” she
said. “We took a week in Germany
and then went to France
and watched part of the Tour de France.”
Kristine is not the only
Plant in the family that enjoys a healthy dose of iron in their diet.
Her husband Cory, a 45-year-old
coating operator at the 3M plant in Perth, who
grew up in Smiths
Falls, has joined his
wife in several of the Ironman competitions. Cory has participated in six of
the events.
“Both of us do them
together,” he said. “Being the nice guy I am, I usually let her beat me,” he
joked.
They met while Kristine was
working as a summer student at the 3M plant.
They married and became an
official iron couple in 1991.
“We’ve been married 19 years
now,” Cory said.
Their three sons Dakota, 16,
Connor, 13, Kai, 11, have already began following in their mother and father’s
fit footsteps. All three boys are members of the Perth Stingrays Aquatic Club.
The same club Kristine started her athletic career with back in 1976.
“My mom said you can’t do
both,” she said, referring to competing in both running and swimming. “I was a
better runner than swimmer.”
Their oldest son, Dakota,
may prove that statement to be untrue. As well as being a member of the
Stingrays, he has already run in a triathlon.
However, Cory said that the
choice to run in an Ironman one day is entirely up to the children.
“We don’t force anything on
them,” he said. “But if they show an interest, we’re totally behind them.”