Ironwomen

   A few years ago I wrote about a "Wonder Woman", Camille Herron, who is an ultramarathoner. For example, she has run close to 170 miles in one day (270,km). In "Women Running Around", you learned that in the 1960s women weren't allowed in the Boston Marathon and it was not until the early 1980s that women could run a marathon in the Olympics. If you combine those two posts with this one, you will have a pretty good pile of impressive, athletic female feats.

RUNNING - Very Far
   

    Shandra Hill - Vernon, B.C.
  I remember thinking back in the late 1970s that no one would be able to complete an "Ironman Triathlon", since it included a marathon which was hard enough. I was wrong, now there are "ULTRA"-triathlons and they are being completed by women. Ms. Hill is doing "Decas", and even double and triple ones. Here is the story:
  "B.C. Ultra Triathlete Becomes First in the World to Complete 3 Double-Deca Races," Shaurya Kshatri · CBC News · Posted: Oct 20, 2023.
   "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.
 According to Ms. Hill, "Smart people would have stopped at one. I'm not quite sure how I ended up doing three of those."
   Update: As this was being done, Ms. Hill was competing in Taiwan when a typhoon arrived and she has decided she has had enough - or her body has:
"Vernon Ultra Athlete Announces Retirement from Competition mid-race", Roger Knox, Vernon Morning Star, Nov. 12, 2025.
Sources: 
Her website is here: https://www.shandahillultra.com/
For more details and photos, her FB pages are here and accessible:  https://www.facebook.com/ShandaHillUltraAthlete/
All of this activity is made clearer by looking at the Wikipedia entry for "Ultra-triathon."

The Bonus: A Simple 100 Mile Run
  This story just broke: "Irish athlete Caitriona Jennings Breaks 100-mile World Record: The run of Jennings of 12:37:04 was almost four hours ahead of the next best woman," Ian O'Riodan, The Irish Times, Nov. 9, 2025.
   "Caitriona Jennings has broken the world record for 100 miles after running 12 hours, 37 minutes and four seconds to complete the Tunnel Hill 100 Mile, a US ultra-marathon event staged in Illinois."

ROWING- Across the Pacific

   It is a long and tiring trip in a jet.
   "How Jess Rowe and Miriam Payne Made History Rowing the Pacific Ocean, Caoimhe O'Neill, New York Times, Nov.6, 2025.
    …”the two British women made history by becoming the first female crew to successfully row non-stop and unsupported across the Pacific Ocean. To grasp the magnitude of their feat, more people have walked in space than successfully rowed across the world’s biggest ocean.
Their journey started in Callao, Peru, in May and finished in Cairns, Australia on October 19: a 6907-nautical mile odyssey from east to west in 165 days."

The Bonus: A Tragic One
   In MM you will find this post by clicking on the following link. It is about a woman with no legs (or breasts) who tried to row across the Pacific, but didn't make it:
"Angela Madsen (R.I.P.) 

WALKING - A Very Long Way

   Betty Kellenberger has done many difficult things, and attempted to hike the Appalachian Trail a few times, where she got Lyme disease and a concussion from a fall. Recently she had shoulder surgery and a knee replacement, but she decided to try the Trail again.“We put all kinds of limitations on ourselves,” said Kellenberger, who lives in Carson City, Michigan. “Sometimes the biggest one is we don’t get up and try it.” 
   She thought it was interesting that you can actually walk from Georgia to Maine and she has now done it - the entire 2,197-mile Appalachian Trail (3535, km).
She is 80!

   I learned about her in this article: "She Hiked the Entire Appalachian Trail at 80, Unaware She’d Just Made History," Sydney Page, The Washington Post, Oct. 29, 2025. That article is behind a paywall, but you can read more about her trek and see more photos in The Trek: "Betty Kellenberger Just Became the Oldest Woman To Thru-Hike the AT at Age 80."