It will be nearly a year before three local athletes pursue their quest to be world champions.

But Paula Bennett and Roger and John Brockenbrough won't have much leisure time before then. They are training for the 2009 Ford Ironman World Championships, which will require swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 and running 26.2.

The three will be bona fide title contenders in Kona, Hawaii, on Oct. 10. In the first qualifier for the 2009 world event, held in September in Wisconsin, each of the athletes finished first in his or her age group.

Ms. Bennett, 43, of Fox Chapel, competed against 110 women ages 40-44. She earned a fifth berth in the world championships in Kona, with a time of 10 hours, 43 minutes and 22 seconds. This is the fifth time Bennett has qualified for the annual event held in Hawaii.

John Brockenbrough, 50, of Murrysville, competed against 140 men in the 50-54 age group and clocked in at 10:12:29. His father, Roger Brockenbrough, 74, of Mt. Lebanon, was the oldest competitor in the age 70-74 category and finished in 14:15:13.

Ms. Bennett has some competitions ahead.

She hopes to run in the Boston Marathon for the first time, has scheduled one half-Ironman race for next season and hopes to do three total.

A friend persuaded Ms. Bennett to try her first Ironman event in Florida five or six years ago.

"I always thought it was a really incredible achievement to be able to finish a triathlon," she said.

"Before my first race, I remember saying to my friend not to tell anybody that we were doing this because I was afraid I wasn't going to do well."

In her first event, Ms. Bennett finished third overall. Six months later, in Lake Placid, N.Y., she competed against a field that included professionals as well as amateurs. She improved her time by an hour and finished sixth. In Lake Placid, Ms. Bennett said, she passed other athletes with a "P" on their hats and she didn't know what that meant. Later, she learned they were the professionals.

"I had never trained or competed with pros and I thought they were a team at first," said Ms. Bennett, who competes for Team Goody Stayput.

She does her swimming training at an early morning program at Trees Hall on the campus at Pitt and runs on the Neville Trail while cycling mostly in the South Park area.

After qualifying for the Ironman world event three years in a row, she decided to try to qualify every other year.

The Ironman started in 1978 after some Navy Seals argued about who was the best athlete.

The opening event can be intimidating for many first-time Ironman world competitors. All 1,800 triathletes enter the water at the same time.

Roger Brockenbrough said it is important not to fall to the back of the pack early on and get caught up in the tidal wave created by all the swimmers.

"It definitely takes a mental toughness," he said.

"There are guys that are very good swimmers out there. People are really close to each other and it's not unusual to have your goggles knocked off. After the first five minutes or so, things sort themselves out and you have to be tough out there."

John Brockenbrough started competing in Ironman events before his father. His early experiences were positive, and he eventually persuaded his father to get involved.

"I kind of talked him into it," he said. "He was always thinking about doing it when he was about 65 or 66. I told him, 'You don't want to be starting when you are 70. He got started and has done real well in his age group."

Both Brockenbroughs have a goal of winning the world event in the same year.

Triathletes from around the world descended on the Wisconsin qualifier. John Brockenbrough edged out athletes from Belgium and Canada.

"Hawaii is a fantastic experience, but it is really hard to do well," the younger Brockenbrough said.

"Everybody you are racing against has basically won an Ironman competition. The athletes come from everywhere. Their only goal is to qualify for Hawaii, and they might try for 15 years. That makes it hard. You have to beat the same guys over and over unless they just quit. So you have to keep getting better."

John Brockenbrough does most of his bicycle training on his way to work each day. Making the roughly 12-mile commute from Murrysville to New Kensington, he uses his mountain bike on the back roads.

He and his dad also ride at the Washington Boulevard bike oval often and in the mountains around Seven Springs.

His son's Ironman experiences gave Roger Brockenbrough an idea of what to expect when he started entering the competitions. Still, he was surprised at how long the swimming portion was. There was a sailboat docked 1.2 miles offshore and the swimmers had to go around it and return.

"I can very distinctly remember walking to the pier and seeing the sailboat way out there," Roger Brockenbrough recalled.

"I looked at how small the boat looked from the pier and just thought to myself, 'what have I gotten myself into'?"