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Part II: Hanna's Ironman Love Story...

Friday, 08 November 2019 23:10

By Bob Williams (DL-Onine.com / photo by Kelly Olson)

This story is the second of a two-part series on the training of former Laker running star Hanna Grinaker and her fiancé Sean Cooley culminating at the Ironman World Championship last month. 

In 2013, Hanna Grinaker and Sean Cooley ran together at the Fargo Marathon. That chance meeting turned into a relationship and over the next six years the duo found love on a path to the Ironman World Championship this October in Hawaii where the week of competition ended in a marriage proposal....

“That was a different experience,” said Cooley. “Zero nerves until you pull the ring out and then, holy crap, this is happening. Wow!”

Cooley had asked permission from Hanna’s parents to propose but had to keep his secret, and the ring, under wraps until after Ironman.

Grinaker had just finished her final training regimen of 25 hours per week split between swim, bike and run with the majority on the bike, five hours at a time.

In the final six weeks of preparation she would finish workouts with a 30-minute sauna session to help her core temperature adapt to Hawaii.

“I had this mentality that I told myself to be a robot,” said Grinaker. “You just have to execute. You can’t overthink this, you have to put your brain in a different space. I also had a lot of gratitude because I know what I’m asking my body to do, most people can’t. To get through the process healthy and still feel motivated to do it was a cumulative gratitude. It just fed into itself.”   READ MORE