Ironman: Hongkonger’s journey from Cathay flight attendant to binge-eating to investing HK$80,000 in triathlon dream
- Ruby Cheng will realise a decade-long dream when she competes in the Ironman World Championship on Saturday
- Having once ‘hated’ sport, she has made it her salvation, overcoming redundancy and physical and mental setbacks
Ruby Cheng Wang was once so consumed by self-doubt she “did not dare reveal” her decade-long goal of competing in Hawaii’s fabled Ironman World Championship.
But three years on from the “darkest period of my life” – being laid off after a dream flight attendant career with Cathay Pacific and Finnair, and struggling to walk because of a back injury – the Hongkonger’s dream will become a reality.
This weekend, Cheng, 32, will navigate the ocean and the lava fields and the arid, baking terrain that comprise the event’s daunting 140.6-mile (226.3km) course.
She qualified with a herculean performance in Australia in June, covering the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run in 10 hours and 47 minutes. But the demands on her did not stop there. Cheng also has to fund her participation, to the tune of HK$80,000 (US$10,000).
Organisers call the race in mystical Kailua-Kona, the town hugging Hawaii’s west coast, “the ultimate test of strength, grit and heart”. Cheng, then, should be right at home.