Cindy Braden

Yardi

By Leah Etling on Mar 9, 2015 in People

You probably know a few triathletes. Chances are good that you might even know someone who has completed an Ironman. But the probability that you know an Ultraman are rarer – and an Ultrawoman? Well, there are only 131 of them to be found worldwide.

Yardi Accounting Manager Cindy Braden recently earned her spot on this rarefied list of ultra-endurance athletes by completing her first Ultraman race in Clermont, Florida, from Feb. 20-22.

Over the three days, a field of 39 athletes attempted to complete a 6.2 mile swim, 263 mile bike ride, and 52.4 run (that’s right, two marathons back-to-back) with 12 hour time limits each day. Day one was a 6.2 mile swim followed by a 91 mile bike, Day two was a 172 mile bike and day 3 was a 52.2 mile run.

Braden, an Ironman veteran with six of the long distance triathlons under her belt, completed her first Ultraman in 31 hours, 40 minutes, 25 seconds. She was the second woman overall and one of just four women to finish the event.

“This is not necessarily a race for time,” she explained. “You do have only 12 hours each day to get each of the distances done. I wasn’t too worried about day one or two, but I was terrified of day three, which was the run. I enjoy running, but I’m not good at it.”

She focused on a mantra that’s printed out on the wall of her office: “If you lack the courage to start, you’ve already finished.” Determination, and an ironclad focus, helped her through the toughest third day.

On day one, she persevered through cold conditions in the swim to be first woman out of the water – and sixth competitor overall – in just three hours. On day two, she moved back to second woman overall but held that position for the duration of the event.

To prepare, she put in training weeks with up to 22 hours of workout time. While that wasn’t much over her usual Ironman workout schedule – which requires 18-20 hours of training per week – she had key workouts, especially bike rides and runs, that were longer than what’s required for a standard Ironman.

“The journey, in this case, was harder than the destination,” she noted. “The training was all-consuming.” She completed Ironman Florida in November 2014 and then continued to ramp up for the Ultraman four months later.

During the event, she was supported by a crew of three: her daughter, Brittany, her daughter’s boyfriend, Zack Paris, and her friend Jules Lum. They provided emotional support, fuel, and run pacing along the way. Her daughter and son, Brittany and Chris, are both triathletes as well, with Chris working on a career as a professional triathlete. But Cindy didn’t really take up the sport in earnest until her kids had left home for college.

“I always felt like I would rather be at my children’s sporting events rather than out doing my own training, so I waited to do the longer distance stuff until they were gone to college,” Cindy said. Her first triathlon was a local race in Carpinteria in 2007. She quickly moved to the Ironman distance, and has completed her fastest effort at the Ironman’s 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run in 11 hours, 3 minutes. Qualifying for the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, is a future goal on her list.

A lifelong swimmer who trains primarily alone for cycling and running, Braden says that the Ultraman race wasn’t so much an effort to achieve a certain finishing time as it was a challenge of pushing herself to the limit. At 51, she was the “oldest” woman in the event, but her strong performance indicates that age is really just a number – and so is 321.6 miles under your own power.

“I was so happy, crazy happy, when I finished on the third day,” she said. “Never did I think I could do this, none of my family members thought I could do this, and I was very proud that I could give my kids this example of attempting something that seemed impossible and going for it anyway.”