After swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112 miles and running 26.2 miles, Carri Bennet crossed the finish line at the 2004 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, to discover she had missed the cutoff for the marathon by six minutes.
She didn't receive an official Ironman medal. But she did have a fan club -- a group of middle-aged women who had spotted Bennet, a telecommunications lawyer with District-based Bennet and Bennet. "I guess I was kind of an oddity, is the best way to explain it," she said. "I'm short and chubby."
Carri Bennet did not win an official medal at the 2004 Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, but she did win over some fans -- a group of middle-aged women who had watched her compete.
(Courtesy Of Carri Bennet)
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When the women came across Bennet's relatives, who were wearing T-shirts with her name on them, the women stopped to talk. "They said, 'We're just so fascinated. She's out there running and doing all this. She's one of us. Not a little-skinny-no-meat-on-her-bones triathlete.' So they followed me," said Bennet, who lives in Bethesda.
Bennet, 43, ran cross-country in high school and ran a marathon just before she turned 30. After she had her two children, she put on 40 pounds. When she resumed a fitness regimen, one of her trainers suggested she try a triathlon. She worked her way up to an Olympic triathlon -- 1.5-kilometer swim, a 40-kilometer bike and a 10-kilometer run.
Last year, she attempted her first Ironman in Wisconsin, but she was pulled from the competition after missing the cutoff for the bike race by five minutes.
"I was so devastated," she said. Her failure spurred her on to try again. She participated in a few other Ironman competitions until she qualified for the World Championship. At the end of the Kona race, one of the competitors who finished offered her his medal.
At first, she refused. "He said, 'No man. I've watched you. You were out there struggling. You finished. You deserve it,' " Bennet recalled. She promised if she ever finishes the championship, she would return it.
Bennet already has her sights on the next Ironman, in April in Arizona. She said training helps her sleep better at night, takes the edge off of work and gives her time to herself that she doesn't have at home or at the law firm she founded nine years ago. She said she uses the three hours she spends running each day to "noodle through problems" facing her clients or her employees.
Bennet has tried golf, but it's not for her. "I fall asleep in the golf cart. . . . It's a good way to network, but it's the most boring game. When I played, I'd say, 'Why don't we run to the ball and pick it up?' " she said. "I needed something more challenging physically."
-- Annys Shin
