Desiree Ficker
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||
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| Born |
December 9, 1976 Potomac, MD |
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| Height | 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) | ||||||||||||
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| Country | United States | ||||||||||||
| Turned pro | 2001 | ||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Desirée Ficker (born December 9, 1976) is an American long-distance runner and former professional triathlete.
Ficker was born in Potomac, Maryland to Annette and Robin Ficker, a perennial political candidate and well-known sports heckler. She has two younger brothers, Robby and Flynn. She currently resides in Austin, Texas with her puppy, Pandora. Outside of training, she likes snowboarding, shopping for vintage clothing, camping, sewing, photography, and reading.
Ficker began running with her father at a very young age. Her parents were big track and field fans. She traveled with her parents to places like France and Italy to go to track and field races. She started competing in the cross country/track and field Junior Olympics when she was nine. She continued running throughout high school and college at the University of Alabama where she graduated in 1998 but became interested in triathlon from watching Ironman Kailua-Kona in Hawaii. She bought her first triathlon bike in March 1999 and qualified for Kailua-Kona that summer.
In 1999 Ficker completed Kona with a time of 11:15, and 2nd in her age group. In 2000 she took home a time of 10:45, and 2nd in her age group again. In 2006, she came in 2nd place overall at Kona, with a time of 9:24, behind Michellie Jones. In 2007, Ficker was diagnosed with strep throat before the race, but was feeling optimistic and started the race. Her swim time was 1:01:02. Her bike time was 5:14:30. Her marathon was 4:19:42. Overall, her time was 10:40:43. Her place was 643.
On 11 October 2008, Ficker finished 39th in the Women's Pro division at the Ford Ironman World Championship in a time of 11:07:48 (1:00:37 swim, 6:02:00 bike, 3:55:03 run).
On January 28, 2007 in the 3M Austin Half Marathon, Ficker finished in a personal best 1:14:07 (5:39/mile pace) to place third behind Kathy Butler (1:11:12) and Caroline Cheptanui (1:13:55).
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