BATTLING through hypothermia and then cycling 200k may sound like torture for some people but for one woman this was all part of a challenge she was prepared to tackle. Last Saturday Sharon Daw from Sevenstones travelled to Norway to take part in the annual Norseman Xtreme Ironman Triathlon Race. The race involved swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 200k and running a marathon of 26.2 miles. She completed the race in just over 17 hours and became the first ever British woman to have completed the competition. The East Cornwall Harriers runner had received three weeks notice of her involvement in the race, and although this came as a shock, Sharon was more than prepared for tackling adventure. She had previously taken part in the half Ironman in June, then cycled 100 miles in aid of charity and also took part in countless marathons. She arrived in Norway on Thursday, August 2 with the Kingsbridge back up team, and started the race at 5.10am on Saturday. Leaping off a ferry was the starting point of the race and saw Sharon leap into icy cold water. Although the course was moved further upstream, as the original place was too cold for participants to swim through, the new location of 13 degrees was still too cold for most. This proved the case for Sharon who stopped at one of the stop-off points along the route as she had got hypothermia. She said: ?I couldn?t even hold my cup of coffee as I was shaking so much and my skin was blue. I lost time in transition because I was trying to warm up ? it took me a while.? When she felt better Sharon then had to participate in the 200k cycle ride through extreme weather on an uphill cycle course, and an intense marathon through wind and rain. The whole course took Sharon 17 hours to complete ? finishing at 9.10pm on Saturday. Sharon said: ?No other British woman has ever completed this event before. Everything I did was a challenge. ?I had never swam 2.4 miles before and I found that difficult. I didn?t think I was going to finish at one point because the water was so cold. ?The race was a challenge and it was absolutely amazing. Everyone is really pleased with me and at least I can say I am the first ever woman to complete the Ironman.? Sharon came home in the early hours of Tuesday morning and was welcomed back to farming life ? up at 6am milking the cows on her farm in Sevenstones. Sharon expressed thanks to all her local sponsors including, Sleepy Hollow Farm Shop, Dream Lifestyle, Abbey Machinery, Dartmoor Cycles and Steve Parsons, head of Cornwall College, for all their help, as well as all the car booters who supported Sharon every Saturday on her field, even in bad weather.
Sharon shows her steel in tough Ironman test
Wednesday 8th August 2007 10:00 pm
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