Friends to take on world's best at Ironman triathlon

Emily Blew, from Ipswich, Daisy Huxtable, from Stowmarket and Emma Hadley from just outside Colchester, are all going to compete in this mammoth challenge at the start of October, after competing in their first Ironman competition in Finland last weekend.

The trio, who all like pushing themselves to the limit, will be competing against 2,500 other people from around the world on October 6.

L to R - Daisy Huxtable, Emily Brew and Emma Hadley (Image: Sportograf)

An Ironman competition is made up of a 2.4-mile swim in open water, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26-mile run, which is a marathon, all in direct succession.

Emily Blew said: "They are very difficult, pretty tough.

"Lots of training goes into it. I have been training since January so a good eight months of solid training went into it.

The girls are always pushing themselves and look for the next big challenge that they can all compete in (Image: Emily Blew)

"Daisy said she was going to do a triathlon and I was very resistant at first as I couldn't swim until last year, but we entered one and I learnt to swim properly for that and quite well."

This is just the latest of a list of challenges these girls set themselves, having previously done marathons and ultra-marathons.

Emily continued: "We are forever increasing the goal size for the next challenge.

"We are doing the Hawaii World Championships in seven weeks time, but we are always looking for something bigger and new challenges so we would like to do a multi-day ultra-marathon race."

The trio will head to Hawaii and compete against 2,500 other competitors (Image: Emily Blew)

The trio, who are all 28, have been friends since their early teens, when they used to ride horses together.

Now they travel the world together in the endurance world and try different events in different places.

Emily continued: "I have never been to Hawaii, never dreamt of going to Hawaii.

"Excitement levels are at a ten, nerve levels are also at a ten.

The trio have previously competed in marathons and ultra-marathons (Image: Emily Blew)

"At the time there, I think it'll be about 30 degrees, but with the humidity, it will feel like 35.

"It is also hurricane season there at that time, which means you can get pretty strong winds, hopefully no actual hurricanes, but could get some proper strong winds along the coast."Emma Hadley completing her Ironman challenge in Finland (Image: Sportograf)

Ahead of their World Championship, the trio are looking for sponsorships from local companies and people.