Brandee Craig’s journey to the Iron Man

Brandee Craig before a swim | Blue 70 Racing

Brandee Craig first joined Saddleback College in Aug. of 2001 and was hired as the Women’s Soccer Coach but stepped down in 2011. Craig does not limit herself to soccer she does indoor cycling, cardio kickboxing, conditioning and weight training, core training, cross-training, and yoga.

An Iron Man triathlon consists of a series of long-distance races organized by the World Triathalon Corporation. A 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride, and a marathon 26.22-mile run completed in that order, a total of 140.6 miles. Craig was not new to these types of races and always knew she wanted to be involved with being active in her day-to-day job.

“I never wanted to be behind a desk, I wanted to be outdoors and moving, staying active and coaching,” Craig said.

In the span of about 10 years, Craig has completed 30 half Iron Mans along with other triathlons. Training for these races is long and can take people months even years to be able to prepare for the long race. Craig was on the bike for 7 hours at a time, running for 3 hours and swimming 3 days out of the week in order to prepare.

“Eleven and a half hours, you have 17 hours to finish but just my nutrition was not up,” Craig said when talking about how long the race took her to finish.

Craig’s nutrition went down after eleven and a half hours and that did not allow her to finish the rest of the Iron Man with 16 miles left to run, but she hopes this will impact students regardless. The race took place in Cozumel Mexico and Craig got done with 124.6 miles of running and 2.4 miles of swim. 

“I really wish that there was more knowledge about our kinesiology program and what we have to offer, and the fact that I’m 53 doing Iron Man’s and that anything is possible,” Craig said.

Craig encourages students to stay active and to make sure they know that they have resources that will allow them to focus on just that. Saddleback College has plenty of resources in order to get into these sorts of races such as cycling classes that Craig teaches, along with cardiovascular conditioning and more.

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