Body & Fitness

Sporty couple tackles 100 half-triathlons in 100 days

The record breaking lovebirds are going the distance - completing 100 Ironman half-triathlons in as many days.
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Endurance athlete Debi Hazelden has never been one to shirk a challenge, so when her fiancé John Mergler suggested they embark on an “Iron Century” – a quest to complete 100 Ironman half-triathlons in 100 days – the Kiwi woman agreed without hesitation.

After months of planning – disrupted only when Debi gave birth to their son Ryder, now one – the pair committed to an extraordinary endurance test that saw Debi swim 1.9km, cycle 90km and run 21.1km every day for 100 days.

Having survived a serious foot injury, Debi, 36, finished the Iron Century challenge in Australia’s Port Macquarie in May.

She tells Woman’s Day, “Looking back, I maybe should have tried to bat it down to 50 Ironmans, but I’m really happy we completed the 100. It was amazing to achieve. It was a feat no-one thought was possible.”

Raised in Hamilton, Debi was a keen triathlete and half-marathoner while working as a web designer in Christchurch. But when she moved to Sydney to start a new life, a friend told her she would be incapable of completing an Ironman, which instantly inspired her to give it a go.

“Don’t tell someone like me that I can’t do something,” she laughs.

Fuelled by the negativity, she completed the gruelling 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km run at the Ironman Melbourne in 2012 and was hooked.

Just eight weeks later, she did her second Ironman and, within a year, she quit her successful corporate job to train a triathlon group full-time.

With her fearless attitude, Debi took on her next challenge on little more than a whim.

“I read that two women were going to cycle the equivalent height of Mt Everest, so just three days later, I thought I’d do it before anyone else did.”

By chance, John, 57, who’s been an endurance athlete for 35 years, heard about her 8848 metre “Everest ride” from a mutual friend.

He recalls, “I read about this Kiwi chick and thought, ‘I’d better check it out. She sounds as crazy as me!’”

After cycling 200km earlier in the day, John supported Debi as she cycled 161 times up a hill in Sydney’s Watsons Bay, running alongside her for 30km. Afterwards, they started going on “running dates”, with British-born John proposing on the very same hill a year later.

The couple, who live in Bondi, have since formed an events company which organises a range of ambitious endurance challenges to make money for charities. Inspired by what she’d seen during the Christchurch quake, Debi suggested they raise funds for the Red Cross with John’s Iron Century idea.

Plans for the mind-boggling feat were put on hold following Ryder’s birth in 2016, although Debi exercised throughout her pregnancy, even completing a half-marathon in just one hour and 43 minutes two weeks before her due date!

She and John began their challenge in January, running and cycling laps of Sydney’s Centennial Park, and having their own dedicated swimming lane at the local pool.

While Debi completed a half-marathon each day, her fiancé did a full one. Debi admits the task was far harder than she anticipated. For the first two weeks, the average daily temperature was a brutal 36 degrees, then Sydney suffered the wettest March in decades.

The indomitable Kiwi’s high point came on day 31, when she broke the record of 30 successive Ironmans. But later she struggled with motivation and on day 50, an injury almost derailed her ambitions.

“I had an inflammation of the foot through wearing my laces too tight,” tells Debi, who pushed baby Ryder in the pram for one or two laps every day.

“I was in so much pain, I cried during the run for the next four days. I considered stopping after 60 days, but after a second session with the acupuncturist, the inflammation went down and the pain subsided. It was a miracle.”

One bonus of her extreme exercise was that Debi was allowed an intake of 2100 kilojoules per day, almost three times the usually recommended daily limit.

“We did have a nutritionist, but people would bring out banana bread, carrot cakes, biscuits and hot cross buns – all very naughty,” says Debi, who maintained her weight of 60kg throughout the Iron Century.

Debi and John raised $40,000 for the Red Cross with their achievement and in the coming months they plan to announce more “crazy” challenges.

Of his plucky Kiwi fiancée, John says, “She’s an amazingly kind, generous and loving person, but under the surface she has this steely determination which allows her to achieve these amazing feats of endurance.”

Words: Steve Landells

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