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NORFOLK - When October rolls around, and New England starts to really feel like New England outside, Julie Nievergelt will board a plane and head to Hawaii, just like she's done 14 times before this.

Twenty five years ago Nievergelt made her first trip to the nation's 50th state and loved it, so much so that she's made it an almost yearly occurrence to make the westward trip to the island in October.

But after her plane touches down, there will be no beaches for Nievergelt, no surfing lessons, no vacationing. Instead, Nievergelt will swim 2.4 miles. Then she'll get out of the water and bike 112 miles. And then, just for good measure, she'll top the day off with a 26.2 mile run, otherwise known as a marathon. She hopes to do it all between 9:45 and 10:15.

Not exactly a day on the beach.

Nievergelt, a resident of Norfolk, will compete in her 15th Ironman Hawaii on October 11. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the 48-year old's first foray into the Ironman competitions, when she first competed in Kona as a 23-year old. Nievergelt's love affair with the race started when she first saw the race on television, the famous race where Julie Moss collapsed just a few hundred feet from the finish line and literally had to crawl to the finish to complete the race, perhaps the most memorable image in Ironman's history.

"I remember seeing the women and thinking, 'Wow, these women are in incredible shape,'" Nievergelt said. "In that time you didn't see women that fit. I was just so amazed."

So, with the image of Julie Moss crawling to the finish line in exhaustion dancing in her head, a 23-year old Nievergelt that was just two years removed from "post-sorority chubbiness" decided to try her hand at the ultimate in endurance sports.

And she took right to it. In June of that year Nievergelt took third in a half-Ironman in Idaho. The top two finishers didn't want to go do the real thing in Hawaii, so Nievergelt gladly took the qualifying spot.

"I was one of those kids that did every sport," Nievergelt said. "I figured 'So what, I just have to bike, swim and run. How easy is that?'"

It almost was easy, surprisingly so for Nievergelt. Racing as an amateur, she finished the race in 12:02:33, good for 22nd among the approximately 200 women. Even more remarkable, she came off the bike portion of the race in 8th place, but running, which has always been her weak point and continues to be so, brought her back toward the pack.

"It was really hard," she said. "It was everything the TV show had prepared me for. It was very hot. It was very intimidating and overwhelming."

Nievergelt had found her athletic calling. In 1984, she became a professional triathlete, taking part in not only standard triathlons, in which she once finished in 9th in the Olympic Trials, but in Ironmans across the world, traveling to countries like Russia, Germany and France in addition to running around the United States.

She is neither bulky like a weightlifter nor skinny like a marathon runner. Her body is the epitome of toned, every muscle visible but not overwhelming.

"I think triathalon embodies more of a wholesome, healthy kind of sport," she said. And like a fine wine, Nievergelt only seemed to improve with age. Her performance in the U.S. Olympic Trials came when she was 40 years old. Her best Ironman performance came in 2000 at Lake Placid when she was 40 and just 18 months removed from giving birth to her second daughter. There, in upstate New York, Nievergelt finished in second place, the best she had ever done in an Ironman.

Even more astounding was that at her age, Nievergelt was still competing with the best of the best, not in an age group. Her second-place finish in Lake Placid was amongst all professionals, not just those close to her in age.

"I always wanted to compare myself against the best athletes," she said. "So I didn't race in my age group division, I always thought it was more of a challenge to race against the younger girls who were the best in the sport, and still do OK."

But in 2001 Nievergelt decided to retire from the sport. At age 41 with two daughters she just felt it was time.

"It left sort of a bad taste in my mouth," she said. "First of all there were a lot of women testing positive for drugs. You couldn't make a penny in the sport. That second place finish I got $6,000 for all that work."

The family moved to Norfolk and built a brand new house on the property they bought. But soon the itch to compete returned for Nievergelt, like it does to all great athletes after they step away from their sport.

"I decided I had too much time on my hands," she said.

So in 2006 Nievergelt began training again. This time she would compete in her age group, now the 45-49 range.

Training for an Ironman is an arduous task. Nievergelt keeps a careful log of her training leading up to a competition. Her average week consists of 205 miles biking, 37 miles running 12,500 yards of swimming. She spends less time in the water because it is her best event and because it has evolved to become the least important of the three legs, much to her chagrin.

"I'd rather be best at running," she said. "It used to be the swim mattered a lot. The advances in technology now make it much better for a bad swimmer but it really doesn't help a good swimmer that much. They don't have anything like that for running."

And then there's the finish, and the aftermath. Those who run marathons say you feel it for a few days afterwards. The pain after an Ironman, in which the marathon is only a third of the race, is almost indescribable.

"Its like you were in a boxing match, everything hurts, Nievergelt said. "Your stomach muscles, sitting on the toilet, walking up the stairs. I really vividly remember not being able to sit down, my quads were so sore."

"Last year I felt pretty bad," she continued. "I was nauseous and throwing up almost six hours after the race. That was probably the worst post-race feeling I ever had."

But Nievergelt won her age group last year despite the miserable after effects, a feat she's sure she can accomplish again this year.

"My training has been fantastic this year," she said. "I think I'm more confident in my running than I have been since 2000 when I did that Ironman in New York. It's amazing that 8 years later I can still do that. I think society tends to put a limit on things. And we tend to say 'Oh well I'm 40 I can't do that anymore' because people just say that."

Like every year previous, Nievergelt's family, her two daughters and her husband, will be waiting for her at the finish line, rooting her on. And despite how miserable she'll feel physically, it will be one of the best moments of her life, just like every Iron Man finish is.

"I think that's why you do it again. It's one of those things that makes you cry," she said. "It's one of those things that makes you kind of weepy and proud."

"I think it's like having a baby. You think I"m never doing this again and then a couple of weeks later you think 'Ok, I'm ready, I'm going to start training again.' It's funny how time does heal those types of things."