A barefoot woman ran down a ramp and splashed into a cold lake this month, along with 200 other swimmers clad in seal-black wetsuits.
She crossed from the scorching 81-degree air to the 61-degree waters of Sand Hollow Reservoir, eager to cover the 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run of St. George, Utah, half-Ironman Race, a super triathlon.
Upon reaching the finish line, April Lange, of Evanston, Wyoming, would once again be a mother of nine children, a pastor’s wife, and an English teacher. But for the moment, all she did was move through time and space.
Until five minutes into the race, a man stuck his heel into his rib.
People jostled each other in the open waters of the frozen lake. It’s disconcerting to be touched underwater, Lange told Cowboy State Daily days after the May 4 race, but most runners manage to stay the course.
This man seemed to be struggling. He hit her side and, as he brushed against Lange, he kicked her, breaking her rib, she said.
His breath caught in his throat. She drank water and had to stop swimming; and I stepped against the troubled water.
Then he composed himself and moved on.
Next came the bike race, which consisted of climbing Snow Canyon with a 3,200-foot elevation change. Each breath caused pain in Lange’s chest and back. He took one, then two ibuprofens and they did nothing, but he knew better than to take a third while he was running.
Finishing the race on the bike and beginning his 13.1-mile run was a relief, Lange said. He didn’t stop at any of the eight stations along the half marathon route; she just ran, climbing hills and wandering around them.
April Lange’s husband, Jonathan Lange, watched a virtual race tracker from his phone.
He realized his wife was on track to beat her personal best half-Ironman time by about 10 minutes. She was killing that course, Jonathan recalled to Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
“I had no idea she was fighting all that pain,” he said.
When April crossed the finish line after 5 hours, 47 minutes and 39 seconds of searing pain, she was completely preoccupied with agony: each breath filling her lungs against the broken bone.
She finished sixth out of 36 women in the 50-54 age group and within the top third of all women; and almost in the top third of the 1,580 finalists.
Lange covered the last leg of the race, the half-marathon race, in one hour and 55 minutes, a difficult time for most women to achieve, even if they haven’t biked or swum for three hours with a broken rib. .
“I kept thinking, ‘Well, I’ll go to the medical (tent) as soon as I’m done,’” Lange said. And she did it. “They helped me there, but there’s not much you can do with a rib anyway.”
This wasn’t the first time he’d finished a race with a broken bone. Last fall he finished a full Ironman (140.6 miles) in California by running the final 24 miles on a broken and displaced ankle—the excruciating culmination of months of hard training. A surgeon later installed a plate and four screws in his ankle.
April Lange is a busy mother of nine and marathon runner. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Journal)
What you need for this day
With his torso wrapped, Lange left the medical tent. She then vented to her husband.
He congratulated her on achieving a personal best time.
She told him how frustrated she felt about having to fight her own body once again.
“I mean, it sounds kind of weird, like I broke my ankle and then broke my rib,” he later told Cowboy State Daily.
Jonathan told his wife that her rib was not something she could control and that she did her best to finish the race.
April Lange chuckled as she remembered that conversation.
“That never crosses my mind, like I’m not going to finish,” he said, adding that any athlete could find an excuse not to finish if they looked hard enough for one.
“There will always be something that will bother you,” he said.
Lange returned home the next day and returned to training. He would wrap himself around his sore torso when he went for a run.
He also told anyone who asked about the race that his seventh son, 18-year-old Isaiah, placed fourth in the competitive men’s 18-24 age category in the same race, qualifying for the World Championships in New Zealand.
One of Lange’s proudest racing accomplishments has been seeing six of her nine children join her on various circuits.
Ten days after the race, I was still struggling to suppress feelings of defeat. But as he was able to run greater distances without having his arm around his rib, his frustrations disappeared.
“God gives you just what you need,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “Maybe it’s not always our (plan). Just like we plan things, we have in mind how we want things to go, but then He gives us just what we need for that day.”
April Lange is a mother of nine in Evanston, Wyoming, who loves running marathons. She’s here following a trail with her son Isaiah. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Journal)
The dark year
Lange’s stubbornness might seem eccentric to a non-athlete, he said. But he thought other runners would understand: Putting one foot in front of the other keeps the worries away.
“You just need to run. If something goes wrong or you’re having a bad day, just go for a run,” Lange said.
That was his attitude in 2012, his dark year.
It was the year of her first miscarriage (shortly afterward she would lose another unborn baby). She was finishing her master’s degree. His mother died that year.
Lange said he was also diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that makes it dangerous for him to take antidepressants.
“I was in a hole,” he said.
She had been running since eighth grade and had always been an occasional cyclist, but now she was leaning toward her training. She ran her first Olympic distance triathlon in 2015, a year after the birth of her youngest son, Noah. Her two oldest children moved in 2016, which prompted her to train even harder, she said.
“I was very sad when they (left),” he said. “And I don’t want to live vicariously either. You know, they need to go do their own things. He also had to do something that he was looking forward to.”
Lange said he believes his training has been a gift, one of the many cures that God hides in the midst of the ordinary. She spoke about her battle with depression, the sadness of her autoimmune disease diagnosis, and her free fall from grief when she lost her mother.
She said she wants to reveal, rather than hide, these desperate periods of her life, to show other people who are struggling that they are not alone.
“You always think people have it easier than they really do, you know?” Lange said. “(It helps) if you’re not going through things alone; (if you know) there are other people who fight.”
He has now completed five full Ironman races, seven half Ironmans, 19 marathons and 17 half marathons.
holding the sign
Jonathan Lange doesn’t understand the appeal of this sport.
“I don’t understand it,” he said, laughing, adding that his role in this entire race is to hold the sign that says “Go, Mom!” and to encourage his wife and his children.
But he has seen how his wife’s training pulled her out of the hole and is in awe of her perseverance, he said.
“He has an amazing ability to push himself beyond limits,” Jonathan said. “I’m amazed by her skill and very proud of her.”
April Lange, here running with her son Isaiah near their home in Evanston, Wyoming, last week. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Journal)
You can contact Clair McFarland at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
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