Whistler local Marla Zucht ran, biked and swam her way to a new record time and fourth-place overall finish in the 2022 Ultraman Canada race in the Okanagan last month.
The three-day race spanning July 22 to 24 consisted of a 10-kilometre swim and 180-km bike ride on the first day, a 280-km bike on the second day, and back-to-back marathons on the third day for a total distance of more than 550 km.
While this was the first-ever attempt at the behemoth Ultraman race for Zucht, she is no stranger to long-distance triathlons, having competed in multiple Ironman races over the years, including the 2021 Ironman World Championships, held in Utah this past May after it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zucht, who finished first in the 50-59 age category, and even beat the previous record in that category by two-and-a-half hours, completed the race with a total time of 26:35:47, which breaks down to times of 3:25:52 in the swim, 5:17:48 in the first day's bike, 9:37:18 in the second day's bike and 8:14:49 in the 84.4-km run on the third day.
With her time, Zucht finished just over an hour behind the third-place finisher and top male competitor Christian Isakson, and second-place finisher Leanda Cave, who had times of 25:49:51 and 25:38:43, respectively. The overall winner from the event was Amy Robitaille in the female 40-49 category who finished with a time of 24:47:16.
Next up for Zucht will be the Ironman Canada event in Penticton in August where she hopes to qualify for the 2022 Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii in October.
