According to legend, the Ironman Triathlon started about 30 years ago, when a bunch of Navy SEALs got in an argument about who was the fittest athlete. They devised a race that combined the two-mile Waikiki Rough Water Swim, the Around Oahu Bike Race and the Honolulu Marathon. Do it all in a single day, they reasoned, and you can call yourself an Ironman.

Triathlon has taken on a life of its own since then. There are sprint distances, Olympic distances, Half-Ironman races.

But the Ironman remains the gold standard of individual endurance races and, this fall, two Eastern Michigan faculty joined the ranks of Ironmen — or, in this case, Ironwomen — who've swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles and run 26.2 miles in a single day. It was the first Ironman for both women, but probably not a last.

"It was actually kind of fun," said Kristi Judd, an assistant professor of biology who raced in the Sept 12 Wisconsin Ironman in Madison, Wisc., and finished in 11:24.56, good for 10th in her division. "I though it would be fun to train for and fun to have finished, but (the race) wasn't nearly as bad as I though it was going to be. There were people cheering whole way. One thing that stood out to me was how much work goes into one of these. There are so many volunteers. You know the course is 140 miles and cones line the entire way."

Marketing professor Tammy McCullough, who raced in the Aug. 29 Louisville, Ky. Ironman had a similar reaction.

"I loved it," said McCullough, who finished 33rd in her division with a time of 12:33.13. "I had fun the whole time. There was a little struggle on the bike, but overall I really liked it. I've already talked to my kids about whether to do it again, and they're all for it. I haven't talked to my husband about it yet..."

McCullough's sons, Ryan and Reid VanDiepen, made up her "IronMom Support Team," along with her husband, Ron VanDiepen. Seeing family members at different points along the course was an immeasurable lift, she said, but their support also goes back over the six months she spent training for the race. There was no family vacation this past summer, and lots of plans had to be adapted to her 10-to-20-hour-per week training schedule.

For Judd, a former college swimmer, training for the Ironman gave her a good excuse to do a lot of running, biking and swimming throughout the year. She commutes to EMU by bike from her home in Ann Arbor, so some of her training is built into her workday. A mysterious shoulder injury has kept her out of the pool a lot lately. She wasn't even sure she'd be able to complete the swim portion of the race. But her swimming background allowed her to cruise through that part of the race in relative comfort, even after being bopped in the nose by someone's flailing limb at the start.

"The crowdedness is definitely a little scary," she said. "There are so many bodies going around the first buoy. It's like this vortex that pulls you around."

Judd, 36, said she's been competing in triathlons off and on since she was 15. She kind of figured the Ironman was something she'd do once, just to get it out of her system. But the top four to five competitors in her division qualified for the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. In a division with 116 people, a 10th- place finish has left her thinking about Kona.

"I thought this was a one-time deal, but I think I'll do more," she said.

McCullough, 44, competed in her first triathlon in 2004. A former softball player, she'd never entered a race in any of the three disciplines before that first triathlon.

"If I got a really good hit, I'd run to third base, but that was about it," she said. "But, I'd just had two kids. I wanted to get back in shape and I like doing those things. So, I signed up."

The top three in McCullough's division qualified for Kona, and, looking at their times, she said she's just not in that class. But, she can imagine a long future for herself in a sport where athletes wear their age almost literally on their sleeve. Race staff mark triathletes' age on their leg, where it's easy to see whenever they pass someone or get passed themselves.

McCullough said the 60- and 70-something competitors she's seen in races inspire her.

"At the Ironman, a 67-year-old man passed me," she said. "But, I didn't feel too bad about that. He had a Kona jersey on, so I figured he probably knows what he's doing. I paced with him for a while."