Jenna Rings, who was the top local female finisher at last Sunday's Ironman Coeur d'Alene in 12 hours, 22 minutes, 49 seconds, relaxed in Maui this week after finishing seventh in the 25-29 year-old female division.

The 28-year-old from Coeur d'Alene rested by doing about a 60-mile bike ride around Maui on Thursday.

Rings said her husband, Chad, motivated her during Ironman and the fact that they were going to Maui on Monday morning provided encouragement for her to finish the race strong.

"My husband was out on the course with me," Rings said. "He wasn't able to do the race this year, which we were planning to do this together for our first time, but he had hip surgery so he was riding his bike alongside me for most of the run. He was kind of pushing me. That, and we booked a trip to Maui before we even decided to do the race to leave the next morning. So I kind of kept thinking, 'You just have to get to the finish line and you get to go on vacation.' A lot of my friends that were doing the race and saw us along the way said, 'You're that much closer to Maui. Keep going.'"

WHILE RINGS, who is a member of the Coeur d'Alene Triathlon Team, has competed in local triathlons in the last three years, this was her first Ironman Coeur d'Alene - which happened to be the hottest one ever.

Rings did what she could to beat the heat.

"I pretty much probably read any and all articles I could find online about beating the heat," Rings said. "I think it was two weeks before the race and everybody started to know it was going to be really hot. So I started to just figure out what I needed to do to prepare myself for it. The week of the race I did all my workouts in the morning when it was nice and cool. I drank lots of fluids, took my salt and electrolyte tabs during the week and then during the race, I pretty much only drank fluids the whole time, which was a big help."

OVERALL, THE race went pretty smoothly for Rings, who is the office manager at Living Stone, Inc. in Post Falls.

"The swim was really nice," she said. "The bike was as good as I could have hoped for. The run was pretty hot, but it was nice to have showers almost every mile."

Rings almost ran into a huge problem when she got off her bike and started the run portion.

"I was kind of worried," Rings said. "When I got off my bike I had a salt tab capsule in my bike bag, and they took my bike and I didn't have any salt going into the run. I kind of freaked out, but then I think at mile 2, there was a salt station, so I kind of lucked out that they were handing out salt on the course. So I doubled up on that and kind of took it easy, a lot easier than I would have because of the heat. I just didn't want to stress my body any further, so I just stayed relaxed."

HEADING INTO Ironman, Rings thought that the most difficult part of the race would be transitioning from the 112-mile bike ride to the 26.2-mile run.

"I think going into it the hardest part I thought was going to happen was the transition from the bike to the run because I knew it was going to be really hot and I heard most people cramp up on the bike when it's that hot," Rings said. "But I felt really good coming off of it. I knew the last half of the run was going to be pretty hard because it was going to be the hottest part of the day for me."

Rings said the Ironman volunteers and supporters along the course helped her greatly.

"There's nothing like doing your first Ironman in your local town," Rings said. "You know so many people ... I ran through my club's tent and I had about 3 miles left and I remember one of my girls (from the club) just running with me to keep me going, because at that point, you just want to walk. When they're there running with you, you forget that you're running."

Now Rings can cherish her Ironman memories in Maui for a while.

Garrett Cabeza is a sports intern for The Press. Contact him at gcabeza@cdapress.com.