Dongyoung “Logan” Kim woke at 4:30 a.m. to prepare for a race that would take him six hours and 40 minutes to finish.
During a summer internship in Seoul, South Korea, Kim trained before heading to work at EssenherB, where he helped prepare documents and plan events for the company's strategy team. After working from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., he returned to the gym for another two hours of training.
For two months, he followed that schedule while preparing for IRONMAN 70.3 Saemangeum, a half-Ironman triathlon held in Gunsan, South Korea, in July 2026.
When Kim crossed the finish line, he thought about his family, the people who cheered him on and the early mornings spent preparing. He went from struggling to breathe during his first club swim practices to finishing a 70.3-mile race.
Then he cried.
“But when you try to achieve something, it takes a really long time, ” Kim said. “But the effort that I put in, it goes super fast in my memories.”
For Michigan State Triathlon Club athletes, competing in swimming, cycling, and running requires more than endurance. Between classes, internships and other responsibilities, athletes must develop their weakest disciplines while recognizing when their bodies need rest.
Kim, a junior from South Korea who served in the Korean Marine Corps from August 2023 to March 2025, joined the club with a high school cross-country background but limited swimming experience. Although running came naturally to him, swimming presented a different challenge.
“I'm the one who always drinks the water in the swimming pool,” Kim said, recalling his first year in the club's beginner swimming lane.
He said coaches and teammates encouraged him to improve step by step, helping him develop his technique and confidence in the water.
Doug Cowan, a fifth-year mechanical engineering major from Grosse Pointe Farms scheduled to graduate this semester, faced similar challenges when he joined the club as a sophomore without competitive swimming experience. He initially planned to finish an Ironman and leave the sport behind.
“I wanted to do an Ironman, probably call it a day after that, but I'm kind of hooked on it now,” Cowan said.
At his first practice, a coach watched him swim a few lengths before assigning him to the “guppy lane,” the club's beginner-level group, where swimmers receive additional instruction.
Today, Cowan trains alongside Jil Mueller, one of the club's top swimmers.
Cowan said he has cut 25 minutes from his Olympic-distance triathlon time, dropping from 2 hours, 28 minutes in his first race to 2 hours, 3 minutes in his most recent.
Yet swimming remains his biggest challenge.
For Mueller, the struggle shifts from the water to the bike, where a few lost minutes can determine whether she reaches the finish line first.
Mueller, a third-year data science major from Plymouth, Michigan, competed at Boilerman, a Purdue University-hosted collegiate triathlon, on Oct. 4, 2026.
She said she was the first woman out of the water, but another female competitor overtook her during the cycling portion. By the time Mueller began running, she trailed by approximately three minutes.
Halfway through the run, she caught her opponent and went on to win the women's race.
“I think that was, like, one of the strongest runs I’ve had in the past year or so of racing,” Mueller said.
Mueller said she shaved approximately 12 minutes off her bike split compared with the previous year, bringing her time down to about one hour, 12 minutes.
Club president Wyatt Cliff said developing individual strengths and weaknesses involves balancing time and energy across all three sports.
According to Cliff, Coach John Dean reviews athletes' race splits and transitions, comparing performances to identify areas for improvement. Splits measure how long athletes take to complete each discipline, while transitions record the time spent switching between them.
Kim said swimming requires particular attention because athletes must control their breathing and maintain their technique while navigating open water alongside other competitors.
“I want to say swimming, because, like, bike and run, like, you can do it even though you're tired, but if you can't, like, survive in the open water, you cannot do any other things,” Kim said.
Cowan monitors his heart rate alongside his running pace, looking for signs of inadequate recovery or nutrition. In the pool, smart goggles show his stroke and effort.
Mueller uses TrainingPeaks, a digital platform that tracks workouts, fitness and recovery. But the numbers can also create pressure. Watching her fitness score decline during recovery makes her anxious, even when she knows rest is necessary.
The physical effects are harder to ignore.
Mueller described carrying fatigue from an evening swim into the next day's track workout, only to feel that exhaustion again during her bike session.
Cowan recalled arriving at swim practice after running that morning without eating enough throughout the day. He also described how inadequate fueling during a long ride could lead him to shorten a planned run rather than complete every scheduled minute.
“A lot of us, including myself, just like to work hard and power through, but sometimes it’s more important to actually just take a day off or recover a little bit,” Cowan said.
Finding time to train can be just as challenging as completing the workouts themselves.
Mueller balances 16 credits, an internship and leadership positions in two clubs. Cowan schedules workouts between classes, while Cliff said optional practices let members fit training around school and other commitments.
For Kim, preparing for a half-Ironman meant sacrificing hours outside his internship. Between workouts, travel, showering and recovery, he estimated that training could consume four to five hours of his day.
Despite those demands, each athlete has goals beyond their latest race.
Mueller wants faster race times. Cowan hopes to qualify for the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, after previously earning and declining a championship spot in Nice, France.
Kim is focused on completing a full Ironman, drawing motivation from a lesson he learned in the Korean Marine Corps: “You never give up.”
He said the phrase stays with him during races, reminding him to finish what he started.
For Kim, completing 70.3 miles once seemed distant from those first difficult laps in the pool.
Now, he wants to go twice as far.