Most people would never dream of running a marathon, still others aspire to one day achieve such a goal. For some people, the idea of running that far seems impossible or just plain crazy. Marine Corps 1st Lt. Jessica Utter, a student at the Aviation Electronic Warfare School here at NAS Whidbey Island, ran her first full marathon on Saturday, Oct. 15 and that was just icing on the cake.

Crossing the finish line to complete the run stopped the clock on her first Ironman triathlon, the Ironman world championship in Kona, Hawaii. Utter ran participated in the event as one of four members of the Marine Corps Ironman triathlon team.

This is no ordinary race; the course starts with a 2.4-mile ocean swim, followed by a 112-mile bike ride and of course a 26.2-mile run. That adds up to 140.6 miles of sheer determination.

Determination alone won’t get you through this race though; it takes lots of dedicated training.

“I swam probably four or five days a week, about two miles each time,” said Utter. “For bike rides, I did things like the Tour de Whidbey and a few other hundred-mile bike rides around here that were organized so I could do them as a group. It makes them a lot less painful when you’re sharing hem with people.

“The same thing with long runs, there were a few classmates that I would try to do an hour of my run with. Every weekend I’d do a long bike ride and a long run and got in what I could during the week."”

Utter had two goals going into the race, first, just to finish and second to finish in less than 13 hours. She met both with a final time of 12 hours, 26minutes and 15 seconds. She said that the highpoint of the race for her was hearing the cheers of ‘Go Marine!’

“Anytime anyone singled me out that way was a reminder of what I was there for,” said Utter. “I was honored to be there on the Marine Corps team and I recognize that not everyone is in a job where they have the luxury to do that kind of thing.”

She left the event with a great appreciation for her fellow athletes.

“There were a lot of people there not to win, but just to prove they could do it. Although I was happy to finish, there were people there who were amputees and an 80 year-old man and 76-year-old woman who finished.

“You should never put limits on yourself. When you look at the other people who are achieving these things with the obstacles they’ve had to overcome, it really makes me not feel like what I did was so significant.”

Any way you cut it, her accomplishment is impressive and perhaps a bit addictive.

“I think some people leave there thinking ‘I did it once and that was it,’” said Utter. “I left there thinking ‘When can I do my next one?’ and ‘Here’s how I can do better.’ Hopefully I’ll be doing more Ironmans in the future.”