Imagine running, swimming and biking more than 4,500 kilometres for 26 days with three-hour naps and 15-minute breaks in between.
Now imagine doing that twice in a row.
Shanda Hill of Vernon, B.C., just did.
After completing an ultra triathlon in Switzerland, the 41-year-old took a week of downtime before doing the same race in San Felipe, in Mexico’s Guanajuato state, where she clinched the top spot in the DecaUltraTri Continuous Double Deca on Thursday, besting five other athletes.
With her latest victory, Hill has become the only person in history to compete in and finish three double-Decas.
The Deca exists within an extreme niche of the triathlon world, where participants go through a 38-kilometre swim, 1,800-kilometre bike ride, and a 422-kilometre run. A double-Deca, as the name suggests, is twice that distance.
According to the International Ultra Triathlon Association (IUTA), the official governing body of the sport, the double-Deca requires athletes to complete 76 kilometres of swimming, followed by 3,600 kilometres of cycling, and finally 844 kilometres of running.
That’s the equivalent of 20 Ironman races.
“Smart people would have stopped at one. I’m not quite sure how I ended up doing three of those,” Hill said during an interview with CBC’s Radio West host Sarah Penton.
Featured VideoShandra Hill of Vernon, B.C. clinched the top spot in Mexico’s Double Deca ultra triathlon. Not only did she swim, bike and run more than 4,500 km in 26 days, the win comes just one week after completing another 4,500 km ultra triathlon in Switzerland. That feat makes HIll the only person in the world to complete three Double Deca events.
Hill completed her first double-Deca in 2019 in Leon, Mexico — the first Canadian to do so.
Her second one took place Sept. 15 at the Swiss Ultra in Buchs, Switzerland, where she placed seventh out of 13 other competitors.
A week after that, Hill flew to Mexico for her latest double-Deca.
‘A real roller-coaster’
That one was significantly more challenging than the previous two, she said, due to the sharp bends, U-turns and blistering Mexican heat.
She said she found herself constantly oscillating between optimism and despair.
“It was a real roller-coaster where you go from wanting to throw in the towel in one instance to continue going,” she said.
Near-crashes with wildlife didn’t help. Once, while biking, Hill almost crashed into a couple of donkeys.
“Can you imagine how stupid I would feel if I crashed again and had to go home and and tell everybody that I ran into a donkey?”
But Hill is no stranger to wildlife while exercising — she’s made headlines for training with male Nigerian dwarf goats, who have accompanied her while running, hiking and rafting.
Homecoming
Despite having recently swum 152 kilometres, biked 7,200 more and run 1,688, Hill says she still has enough fuel to brave one more double-Deca.
“I think my body would do it. If there was another one right now, I would go and do it,” Hill said.
Hill also said, however, that she misses her partner and son — and Vernon’s Danish pastries.
“When I was racing, I dreamed about the Danish pastries from the hot bread shop in Vernon. It’s my favourite,” she said.
Hill is flying back to Kelowna on Oct. 28.
Back home, her partner Jacs Spence has been keeping busy, running Hill’s Instagram and Facebook pages and updating people on her journey.
“The support shown by so many has been incredible,” Spence said in an interview with CBC.
“Every single day people are checking on her, sometimes there are over 200 comments.
“She gets up at one in the morning, she runs all the way through, takes a half-hour nap once during the day and every 10 kilometres takes quick 15 minutes to eat and nap, and every night takes a three-hour sleep,” he added.
“Many said she couldn’t but she did it.”
Spence is now planning her homecoming.
“Shanda wants everybody to be at the airport, so I have got a week to figure out all the logistics of it,” he said, adding he might have to rent a big truck to take everyone who wants to be at the airport to welcome Hill home.