She had traveled nearly 5,000 miles from Columbia, Md., to Kona, Hawaii. But that wasn't the hard part. The hard part would be the 140.6 miles to come.

Suzy Serpico spent her Oct. 9 completing the 2010 Ford IronMan World Championships with a personal record of 10 hours and 27 minutes and .06 seconds.

Triathlon is a multi-sport event with three legs: swimming, bicycling and running. The IronMan event is a version of the triathlon that requires an athlete to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and then – to top it all off – run 26.2 miles, which is a full marathon.

The IronMan has its roots in Hawaii, where John and Judy Collins put on the first event in February 1978. It has grown in size and prestige for more than three decades. Today there are IronMan-sanctioned races worldwide, with the championship event held in Kona.

A small number of lottery slots are available for that race—150 from the United States, 50 for international competitors, and 5 "physically challenged" spots, for a total of 205 spots. That's out of thousands of applicants.

The remaining 1595 competitors earn their spots by qualifying at sanctioned events, which range from 70.3 miles total (half the IronMan distance) to the full 140.6.

Serpico, a 30-year-old from Columbia, earned her Kona spot by competing at IronMan Cozumel in November 2009. There, she finished in second place in her age group and 15th overall.

She had been trying to qualify for several years.

She was also on her honeymoon, racing with her husband, Danny Serpico, whom she married on Oct. 30, 2009.

"I had no idea what to expect," she said of the Kona race.  "In my mind I thought it was going to be beautiful, gorgeous.

"It was one of the toughest courses I've ever done."

Her personal record was also unexpected, but Serpico said the best part of the experience was sharing it with the family and friends who traveled with her in support.

While competing in the IronMan World Championships is an ultimate goal for many athletes, she does not see her performance at Kona as the pinnacle of her career.

"Kona was a good high point, but it doesn't define who I am as a triathlete," she said.

Serpico came to triathlons with a background on summer swim teams and a year of cross country running at Centennial High School, where she came in second at the Maryland High School Cross Country Championships. Moving on to triathlons seemed like a natural progression. 

"As I got older, in high school, I would see the Columbia Triathlon. I lived right by Centennial Park. So I went out and tried it," Serpico said.

To help get her started, she passed on going to Senior Week. Instead, her parents bought her a bike.

Serpico never worried, in those early days, as to whether she would like triathlons. She is quick to give credit to those who helped her in the beginning.

"A group of people took me under their wings and helped me be successful for the first one," she said. Among them was Rob Vigorito, founder of the Columbia Triathlon Association.

Serpico, then Suzy McCulloch, took part in that first race in 1998, and has never looked back. She's gone on to complete six IronMan triathlons, and she regularly places in other events. She is nationally ranked by USA Triathlon, the governing body of the sport.

Fitness is very much a part of Serpico's life. Her typical training week includes three swimming workouts, four runs and four indoor cycling classes. She teaches spinning classes for Columbia Association.

And if this doesn't sound intense enough, well, Serpico does not have the sort of job where she can just sit at a desk and relax between her workouts.

Serpico is a physical education teacher at Hammond Elementary School.

Her students might not understand the success she's achieved in her triathlon career, but they do see that she's active.

"When they ask me about where I was or what race I did, I tell them how happy I was to do it," Serpico said. "As long as they see that I'm a teacher that does something physical, that's my goal."

Approachable and modest, Serpico is quick to praise the triathlete community.

"Everyone is so supportive. They don't care how fast or how far. It's just everyone out there trying to achieve a goal," she said.

Serpico is part of this supportive community. She and her husband coached Team Fight, a local training program that raises money for the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults. She has also served as an mentor for many beginning in the sport, and she intends to continue in that role.

This has been a big year for Serpico, beyond Kona.  She's picked up several sponsors: local businesses such as Princeton Sports, Nic Ebright Sports Massage, Elite Chiropractic and Sports and Inside Out Performance, and a national sponsor, Rock Tape. She is the first sponsored athlete for Lock Laces, her biggest sponsor going in to the 2011 season.

Lock Laces, made by Street Smart LLC of Glen Burnie, are an elastic shoelace that can be fastened with a sliding plastic "lock." Lock Laces provides several hundred jobs manufacturing their product to adults with developmental disabilities. 

With all of her achievements, Serpico is looking forward to the future. 

"My goal is to keep doing triathlons as a lifestyle," she says. "To have an IronMan every year would be a goal, especially if I can do them with Danny."

Highlights of the 2010 IronMan World Championships are scheduled to air on NBC on Dec. 18.

When asked what viewers should know about the experience, Serpico was thoughtful. 

"Know the amount of hard work it takes to get there," she said. "I downplay it a lot, but it's the best of the best there and, for a lot of people, it's a dream come true." 

And less than two months after her return from Kona, Serpico has begun training for a new event: the double IronMan distance, or 'ultratriathlon,' in which athletes have 36 hours to complete a 4.8 mile swim, 224 mile bike, and 52.4 mile run.

"I'm definitely scared of the double," she admitted. "The scariest part of the double is that it's unknown.

"But I like that," she said. "That's the motivation right now. It's something new, and I don't want to fail at it."