By John Ryan, San Jose Mercury News

Some people think a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run, all without rest, would be about the most painful experience anyone could endure.

Some people haven’t given birth.

Gina Kehr of Redwood City finished fourth in the women’s division of the Ironman Triathlon national championship Sunday in Hawaii. It was only her second triathlon in three years, after she broke her arm on a training ride in 2004, then had a baby in August 2005.

Which is worse, labor or triathlon?

“You know, the labor, quite frankly,” Kehr said Thursday. “It’s a different workout. It was the highest anaerobic hour and a half I’d ever done in my life. The contractions before the pushing, that’s kind of like the triathlon. But the pushing? That was by far the most pain I have experienced in my life.”

Kehr, 37, was back home and recuperating after her career-best effort, one that followed a third-place finish at the Coeur d’Alene event in June, the one that convinced her she was back into the thing full time.

When she wasn’t being a real-estate agent or mom, that is. Gabriella was born with a port-wine stain (a prominent birthmark) on her face, so Gina took time every month to go to UCSF for laser treatments. Her husband, Chris, picked up overtime shifts as a Redwood City firefighter to help the checkbook, and friendly co-workers took some of the load off Gina at the office in Palo Alto.

But that can add up to some stress. And here we remind you that not every professional athlete is in the Trump stratosphere; for all the trouble, Kehr won $20,000 at the Ironman.

She had reached as high as seventh before 2004. She had some doubts about getting back into it, but the race in Idaho convinced her she was doing the right thing. She made it back to Hawaii — where nature postponed her big day by a week.

“The earthquake was just part of everything I was experiencing as far as overcoming the adversity, trying to reach the goal; it was just another aspect of it,” she said.

“I definitely thought that was it. I thought the house we were staying in was coming down, no doubt, and if it didn’t come down we were going to see lava or water. It was another piece of there’s more to life than this race, even though this race was everything I had been working for. It was like, OK.”