Kim McMullen will take on one of the toughest endurance challenges in sports when she competes in the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii next week.

The punishing course will require the 36-year-old King Edward VII Memorial Hospital physiotherapist to swim 2.4 miles, then cycle 112 miles and finally run the full marathon distance of 26.2 miles.

She qualified by finishing seventh in her age group at an Ironman event in British Columbia, Canada on August 28, when she completed the gruelling course in 11 hours, nine minutes and eight seconds.

?I was really pleased with the way my body dealt with the race,? McMullen said. ?I felt great. I didn?t have an ache or a pain afterwards.

?That?s strange because after I did the New York Marathon, I was very sore. I guess that means I prepared pretty well for the Ironman.

?It?ll be interesting to see how my body responds to doing another Ironman race just a month-and-a-half later.?

McMullen, who originates from Nova Scotia, Canada, moved to Bermuda three years ago. While living in Vancouver, she had been a mountain bike racer and it was only after coming to the island that she took up triathlon.

She was due to fly out to Hawaii today with several Bermuda triathletes who will be competing in the World Age Group Triathlon Championships this Sunday, including her boyfriend, Riaan Naude. Her race is on October 15.

?I?ll cheer him on, then he can cheer me on,? she said.

The physical demands of the race will mean McMullen has to consume at least 3,000 calories ? more than many people eat in a day ? while on the course.

Most of these she will consume in the form of high-carbohydrate energy drinks and energy bars during the bike ride.

Preparing for Ironman has meant going through a gruelling training schedule through the heat of the Bermuda summer.

She gave an example of a typical week: ?On Monday, I?d do a swim of a little over an hour and on Tuesday a two-and-and-a-half hour bike ride in the morning, followed by an 80-minute run in the evening.

?On Wednesday, I?d normally do a swim and a recovery run of 40 to 45 minutes and on Thursday go for a two-and-a-half hour bike ride. At the weekend, I?ve been doing bike rides of between five-and-a-half and seven-and-a-half hours.?

She has an ideal training partner in the form of her sister Deanna McMullen, also a remarkable endurance athlete.

?We?ve done a lot of training together and it?s been fabulous,? McMullen said. ?We got to race against each other at a Half Ironman event in Victoria, Canada, and I?m sorry to say she beat me.

?It was a big race, the Canadian National Championships, and Deanna finished fourth and I was sixth.?

McMullen found in her mountain biking days in Canada that the longer the distance, the better she fared.

She took so well to triathlon that she enjoyed rapid success on the world stage in July last year. At the International Triathlon Union (ITU) Long Course World Championships in Sweden, McMullen won a bronze medal.

?I thought of trying that again and going for a gold medal, but then I decided to set my sights on doing Ironman,? McMullen said.

McMullen was the third woman to finish in the Marathon Derby on May 24 this year and has also competed in some of the short-course triathlon events on the island, as well as the mountain bike series.

She is coached by former professional triathlete Alec Rukasuev.