Copyright Boulder Daily Camera
University of Colorado Boulder doctoral student Izzy Collins won her age group in a half-Ironman race this spring, a performance that landed her a spot in the Ironman 70.3 World Championship, where she will compete on Saturday. During her qualifying race in Galveston, Texas, Collins completed the 70.3 Ironman, which is a half Ironman, in a speedy 4 hours, 22 minutes and five seconds. Not only did she win her age group, but she also had the fastest run split times. A 70.3 Ironman is a long-distance triathlon consisting of a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile half-marathon run. Collins is traveling to Marbella, Spain, for the race on Saturday. This will be Collins’ first world championship. “I always kind of thought when I was younger that I would have to give up being into athletics when I got older, especially if I wanted to have children or something like that,” Collins said. “And through racing this past summer, I’ve been able to meet a lot of women who do have children and do have a successful career and are also very competitive, athletically.” Collins is one of a handful of CU Boulder students and alumni involved in the co-ed club sport CU Triathlon who qualified for this year’s Ironman 70.3 World Championship. In addition to Collins, doctoral student Ben Aoki-Sherwood and undergraduate student Richie Boston will be competing this weekend. Former CU Triathlon team members from the class of 2025, Josephine Callan and Madeline Tapp, will also compete, in addition to Gina LaFrazza, Chancellor Justin Schwartz’s spouse. In the professional field, alumnus Rudy Von Berg, who was a collegiate club national champion in 2014 and 2015, will also compete. The women race on Saturday, and the men race on Sunday in Spain. The professional and amateur athletes race at the same time on the same course, and the professional athletes start a few minutes before the amateur athletes. To qualify for the world championship, athletes must race in any 70.3 Ironman race around the world. Ironman chooses a certain number of allotted world championship slots for each age group. If an athlete finishes at or near the top of their age group, they can earn a qualifying spot. “This is a very exciting and challenging course,” Kj Kroetch, CU Triathlon head coach, said. “I’m personally very excited to get to watch the race at the professional level and at the amateur level. I think you’ll see a lot of position changes on the bike, and our team is known for strong cyclists. I think it’s going to be a really exciting day for our team members out there.” Collins said she’s been a runner her whole life, including in high school and college. “My coaches were always a little upset that they could never get me to settle down,” she said. “I would go rock climbing the day before we had a big track meet or something like that. I would just always want to do something with a lot of variety. And then I discovered the sport triathlon, where being interested in doing a lot of different things was the point of the sport.” Collins started competing in triathlons as an undergraduate student. For the races, she typically trains twice a day, Tuesday through Thursday, with a swim in the morning and running or biking in the evening. On Mondays, Fridays and the weekends, she will usually train just once a day but for a longer period of time. She combines long-distance work and interval training. Since the world championship course will be more difficult than her previous Ironman races, Collins said, she’d be happy if she got a time under six hours in the championship. CU Triathlon is a co-ed club sport at CU Boulder with about 130 members. The club sport has won 18 USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships since its founding in 1993, according to CU Boulder. Although many athletes in the club sport perform at a high level, the club is open to anyone. The team opens up for new members every semester, Kroetch said, and they usually get about a dozen faces each time. “We really welcome every kind of triathlete, every kind of student,” Kroetch said. “We love to see new faces when we open up the team each semester. It’s just a really cool culture that’s very inclusive and brings a lot of people together.”
