After a 2.4-mile swim in the Pacific Ocean, a 112-mile bike ride on lava rock and a 26.2 mile run in the heat and pitch dark, one local resident can call herself Ironman.
Lisa Altman, of St. Joseph, competed in the 2022 Ironman World Championship on October 6 in Kona, Hawaii. While she didn’t win the competition, it did not lessen the accomplishment she had been training more than a decade for.
Here’s the full story, from Moody on the Market contributor Julee Laurent:
It was the end of a 20-hour day. Lisa Altman had just got back to the hotel after competing in her first Ironman World Championship, and to quote her, she was in rough shape. But she finished.
Her journey to get to the 2022 Ironman started after the birth of her daughter in 2006. She had been working as an engineer, but when she decided to become a stay-at-home mother, she wanted to find ways to show strength and determination to her children Jack and Kate.
“I was a casual runner growing up. After my daughter was born in 2006, I wanted to do something to show women’s strength. At that point the farthest I had ever run was a 5k. I registered for the Chicago Marathon in 2007 and trained for the race while pushing Kate in a jogging stroller. After that marathon, I just kept running. I joined a local running group, qualified for the Boston Marathon and eventually ran that seven times,” says Lisa. “I wanted to show my son and daughter that you can accomplish these things and still balance family life.”
The running eventually had taken a toll on her body and after a series of heel surgeries, she started to seek new ways to compete and stay active, that was where she found a love for biking and began swimming. This led to her first triathlon.
She kept training and competing in triathlons, including multiple times locally in the Maytag Ironman 70.3 Steelhead event. But even this race was only half of what she would have to accomplish at the Ironman World Championship.
To qualify for the Ironman World Championship event in Kona, she had to take one of the top positions in her age group at the 2021 Ironman qualifier in Lake Placid. While anyone can register for the race, only those that finish in the top positions in their age groups get to go to the world championship event. She was beside herself when she found out she qualified.
“It was surreal. I never thought I would qualify for the world championship. I am in my mid 40’s, and after two serious heel surgeries, I got into triathlons simply because I could not run like I used to. That is how I morphed into triathlons,” she says. “I just knew I could do it. You still run a full marathon at Ironman but the emphasis is not only on running speed. You have three disciplines, swimming, biking, and running that make up your time, so it’s not as taxing on your body.”
The event itself was as hard as Lisa expected, if not harder because of all the small things you only find out when you are in the middle of the event.
“I expected swells on my swim, but they were very strong. The bike ride was hard because you go through lava fields. You have black rock on all sides of you. You are seeing these breath-taking views of the ocean but being on black rock in the Hawaiian sun is very hot. Also, the wind coming off the ocean creates a cross wind making it a very tough ride,” explains Lisa. “Once I got to the run, it was pretty much survival mode. Your body is so broken down at this point. Also, the sun goes down at 6pm so the second half of the run was in the pitch black. There is minimal light, you cannot see the aid stations, and it’s so eerie. The athletes are spread out, you can’t see spectators, so it feels like there is no one around. it’s the first time I have ever raced like that. It is also still hot, and you are really just trying to survive. It becomes a testament of your will to cross that finish line. It’s like nothing I ever experienced.”
The Ironman World Championship is a heavily male dominated event. The race is about 75% men with 25% women. But Lisa says that just to be there with other females from around the world was a great experience. Locally, Lisa is an advocate for girls, women and youth in sports. She organized the first Girls on the Run (GOTR) program and 5K at Brookview School, was a GOTR coach for EP Clark and was on the first committee that formed Paws on the Path.
She also coached soccer, was a girl scout leader and volunteers with CASA of Southwest Michigan. Also notable is that during her time as president of the St. Joseph High School Booster Club for Wrestling (where her son wrestled for seven years), she helped advocate for the formation of Berrien County’s first ever girls wrestling invitational. The event is held every year and because of her work helping with the tournament the St. Joe High School wrestling coach surprised Lisa and named the event after her.
Lisa tries to encourage everyone around her to choose healthy habits and find time to be active, she says that starting small is the key.
“There is so much focus on big goals or events, but you have to start where you are comfortable. We have to shift the paradigm in our head that we don’t have to be extreme with everything, but just do what you’re comfortable with. You don’t have to run five miles a day or run a marathon. Start small and allocate the time or multitask. Maybe grab hand weights while watching tv, take the stairs instead of the elevator, take a walk while you listen to a podcast. Build on little successes, then the bigger successes will come. It doesn’t matter how much you are doing, what matters is that you are being active and moving your body, that is something you can build on,” she says.
