Teaching is an endurance sport: it rewards people who are committed for the long haul. While Charlotte Latin School teachers demonstrate that persistence every day in the classroom, fifth grade teacher Jen Keith went the extra mile (or more precisely, the extra 140.6 miles) on September 21 when she won her division at the Ironman Maryland race.

“I do it to find the best in myself,” she said after the race. “I want to be a good influence and an inspiration for the kids in the classroom, to challenge them to challenge themselves.” Keith has been running in Ironman events for the past decade, but her Maryland victory was the first time she ever won a division. (Her total time: ten hours, 23 minutes, 37 seconds.) That victory qualifies her to compete in the Ironman world championship in October 2025 in Hawaii: she reported that her students were proud of her but disappointed that the championship race in Kona would happen next year, after they had moved on to sixth grade.

An Ironman race is a triathlon event, combining a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run. Keith’s athletic background was as a swimmer, so she found the first leg to be the easiest, although she had to watch out for jellyfish. The bike course in Maryland was unusually flat, which meant that she didn’t have to climb hills but also meant that she didn’t get breaks when she could coast downhill. An unexpected obstacle: because the race was in a coastal flood zone, the bike path had foot-deep water in some places. “You just keep going,” she said. “Something will always not be right, but onward is the only way to go.”

The night after the race, Keith got only three hours of sleep. “You think you’re going to sleep and you don’t,” she explained. “Everything hurts.” It was her fourth race of the year (two full Ironman events and two halves), so she had her routine down: She was back in the classroom on the Monday morning after her race, a little wobbly on staircases but otherwise ready for action.

“I get up in the threes a lot,” Keith said, meaning she often wakes up before 4 a.m. “I go to bed earlier than the kids do.” What fuels her to push herself that hard? Something that she passes on to her students: “It’s the belief in yourself that you can do it.”