Rebecca McKee has raced in more than 100 triathlons in seemingly in as many places, from Anchorage to Zell am See.
In more than two decades of racing she has finished 17 full Ironmans of 140.6 miles and 43 half Ironmans of 70.3 miles, and she’s an age-group wonder in the shorter distance.
If you’re ever inclined to wager on a triathlon, the safe bet is on McKee placing in the top five of her age group at a half-Ironman — something she’s done 28 times, or in 65.1 percent of her races. Her 12 age-group victories give her a 27.9 winning percentage.
So the odds were in McKee’s favor last week at the Ironman Hawaii 70.3 on the Big Island. And the 52-year-old from Anchorage delivered: she won the 50-54 age group while placing seventh among women and 94th overall in a field of nearly 1,100 finishers.
Yet this was no regular day at the ocean for McKee.
For one, strong winds — sustained speeds of 15 mph with gusts in the lows 20s — triggered a small-craft advisory, disrupted buoys intended to mark the swim course, delayed the start of the race and ultimately led organizers to cut the distance of the swim by about one-half, from 1.2 miles to 750 meters.
For another, McKee was racing for the first time since major surgery in December and wasn’t sure how her body would respond to 750 meters of swimming, 56 miles of biking and 13.1 miles of running.
The wind proved brutal. McKee proved brilliant.
“I always kid around that the fourth discipline in Hawaii is the weather, and the weather showed up like no other race day I have experienced on the island,” said McKee, who has raced in Kona more than two dozen times and often trains there.
The shortened swim marked the first time in McKee’s 24 years of triathlon racing that any portion of a race was shortened or cancelled. And once racers fought through the swim, they were battered on the bike — part of which uses the same course as Kona’s famous Ironman World Championship.
It was the scariest thing she’d ever encountered in a race, said McKee, an owner and coach at Peak Center Alaska.
“I have spent plenty of time in the wind (in Kona),” she said, “but if this race had been a training day, I would have turned around and gone home rather than continue riding in those conditions.”
McKee rode nearly three hours on her bike — 2:52:17 — and then ran a 1:53:05 half marathon. Combined with a swim time of 15:25 and about eight minutes in transition time, she finished in 5:08:38.
Women’s winner Meghan Grant of the United States finished about 20 minutes faster in 4:48:46 and men’s winner Ciro Damiani of Brazil clocked 4:06:59.
Anchorage’s Rebecca McKee (third from right)
Six months before the race, McKee underwent a full hysterectomy; she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2001 and had a relapse in 2017.
The surgery, which removed her uterus and cervix, significantly impacted her training, she said.
“I went into instant menopause and had a lot of hormone imbalance issues for the first couple of months,” she said. A low-level prolapse caused additional distress.
“It’s not just the physical side of this. The emotional struggle has been extremely hard, (and) it’s been hard to find answers and help,” McKee said.
One consequence was the decision to skip April’s Lavaman Triathlon on the Big Island. The Lavaman is popular among Alaskans — Jason Lamoreaux placed fourth overall and Amber Stull was 30th overall and the third-place woman this year — and McKee was devastated to miss it. But husband Brendan McKee and coach Cliff English persuaded her to pass on the Lavaman in favor of being better prepared for last week’s race.
“In hindsight it really set me up to keep easing back into training and to be very smart and careful,” McKee said. “I had a lot of anxiety about hurting myself, and while I believe my fitness was where it needed to be for the race, that little voice about causing some kind of permanent damage was impossible to ignore.”
The gusting winds turned out to be her biggest challenge – and McKee more than prevailed.
