Jennifer Harris is a busy woman. She is a wife, a mother and an athlete. She runs regularly and has competed in two marathons, several triathlons and two half IronMan competitions. Last fall she added to her ever-growing list of athletic achievements when she competed in the 2005 Ford Ironman Florida Triathlon held on Saturday, Nov. 5 at Panama City Beach, Fla.

Harris joined the ranks of more than 2,000 triathletes from 35 countries around the world who competed at the seventh annual Ford Ironman Florida. The triathlon starts with a swim covering 2.4 miles in the ocean, followed by biking 112 miles and is finished off with a marathon, 26.2 miles.

What made the 39-year-old mother of four want to compete in a race that makes an average person tired just thinking about it? “My husband, Hank, has completed 13 IronMans. It was something I always wanted to do, but with four kids I thought it would be a hard thing to tackle. And it was. The training was difficult.” So, in November of 2004 a friend signed up Jennifer and Hank Harris to compete in the 2005 race, “Spots fill up very quickly, and Hank and I were out of town the day the race sign-up takes place. So, a friend of ours agreed to sign us up.”

Thus began a year of training. Harris began with base training, swimming a couple of times per week, biking three or four times per week and running three times per week. “There were days I would leave the house just as the kids were leaving for school, and I wouldn’t get back until 3 or 4 p.m.,” Harris recalls. Much of her biking was done in South Fayette County and Coweta County, she would swim at the Kedron Aquatic Center and run on the cart paths either from the library or her home. “I would try to get the bulk of my training done during the school week so Hank could train on the weekends,” Harris says.

Friends and family were a huge support to Harris as she trained, “My parents helped out a lot with the kids, and we have a couple of great babysitters.” In fact, their friends, John and Dee Little, went with the Harris family down to Florida to take care of the kids while Hank and Jennifer raced. Her friends also volunteered to keep her company while she trained, taking shifts while she ran and biked. “My girlfriends were so supportive,” exudes Harris. “I had friends who would say, ‘I’ll run with you the first hour,’ another would pick up the second hour and a half and a third would jump in the third hour. It wasn’t the most convenient times for them, but they would say, ‘O.k., what do you have to do?’”

In May, Harris competed in her second half IronMan, set on the same course she would be competing on in November. This gave her the chance to try swimming in the ocean competitively for the first time, and allowed her to familiarize herself with the course.

Up until this point, her husband Hank had been training her, but “he said I didn’t listen to him. So we decided to hire a coach out of Colorado after the May triathlon.” By communicating online and over the phone, Harris’ coach told her exactly what to do, how far to go and where to keep her heart-rate while training, right up until race day. “She had trained many other racers before, and I followed her plan religiously.”

At 4 a.m. on race day, Hank and Jennifer Harris woke up and were down at the race site by 5:15 a.m. “There was this nervous excitement among everyone,” Harris recalls. “The weather was wonderful. I never felt hot or cold. At home I usually feel one way or another during a long workout. It’s hard to dress for the changes during a full day, especially one that starts in the dark, goes through the heat of the day and then is dark again with the sun setting around 5:15.”

She began to see family and friends from home once they made their way down to the beach at about 6:30 a.m., “I cried all morning. I would see somebody from home, we’d hug and I would cry. I didn’t want to waste the energy. I just couldn’t help myself.”

Harris started the swim in the middle of the pack, toward the outside edge of the group. She was surrounded by people during the entire 2.4 miles of the swim. “At the beginning I was swimming as hard as I could, but felt like I was not making any progress. I couldn't see the little buoys, due to rolling waves, just the big orange ones that you must go around. I was worried that if I looked behind me the beach would still be right there. This was the only time during the day that I thought ‘I don't know if I can do this.’ The water was like a washing machine, but I was never afraid, nervous or beaten up by other racers. I hooked on to a guy's feet for almost the entire first lap and drafted off of him.” Harris came out of the water one hour and 18 minutes into the race.

After a smooth transition out of her wet-suit, she was handed her bike and was off to cycle the 112 mile course. “My first couple of hours on the bike were very fast. I felt great. Paula Newby-Frasier had said the day before during an interview to go hard when you feel like it, so I continued with what felt good. I was able to thank the volunteers, police officers, pray for friends and family and speak to other riders for the first 90 miles,” recalls Harris. Five hours into the bike ride the wind began to pick up and Harris was ready to be off the bike, “It took me an hour and a half to go the last 22 miles.” Her bike time ended up being 15 seconds faster than she had predicted.

Her second transition was a little more difficult for her. Harris’ right leg began shaking uncontrollably, “Here I am about to start my favorite and best part of the race, but would my body be able to hold it together? During this third part of the race you are completely dependent on your body to do the work.”

Harris had set a race time goal of 14 hours through her training and what her coach recommended. “The longest stretch of time I had exercised before this race was about seven hours and 15 minutes during a day of training,” Harris says. She ran out of her second transition eight hours into the race, exactly on schedule.

At this point Harris thought to herself, “I have six hours to finish this marathon and make my goal. Surely, I can do that.” With the exception of aid stations, she ran the first ten and a half miles without stopping, and “I continued to run most of the first half. I saw my family at the 13 mile mark and said, ‘Don't expect the second loop to be as fast. I will have to walk more.’” At that point Harris says she began to feel “icky.” “I just wasn’t feeling right. I knew I needed something nutritional, and I could not get down any more food. I had eaten a lot on the bike and I couldn’t handle any more solids,” explains Harris.

A friend suggested that Harris take some GU, liquid food, and some chicken broth to give her a boost. “After that, I perked up and I began to have those thoughts, ‘Hey, Jennifer, you can break 13 hours on this thing. No, Jennifer, stick to your plan. 14 hours it is. You will be disappointed if you change the plan and don't make it. Jennifer, no you really can break 13. Don't change the plan. Do change. Don't. Do.’ I challenge anybody out there to do the math after 11 hours of straight exercise. I kept adding miles and time in my head over and over again. On top of that, I was told, lied to actually, that a guy from Peachtree City was one block behind me,” Harris recollects. That lie kept Harris motivated to keep moving. Every time she started walking, she told herself she needed to run to keep ahead of those behind her.

Harris finally approached the last big corner of the race, “Many people from home were there cheering for all of us. I ran through tons of people high-fiving me on to the finish. Hank asked if I wanted the kids to come in to finish with me. They all hopped in the finisher's chute and off I went. I ran off and left everybody.”

The next ten minutes passed in a blur for Harris as she hobbled off of the course while her muscles immediately began to tighten. Harris did not finish the race in the 14 hours she had predicted. Instead she finished with an official race time of 12 hours, 56 minutes and 24 seconds to become an IronMan.

“Twenty-three people from this area competed in the Florida IronMan that day. I think 14 of us were first timers,” Harris says. Her husband, Hank, set a personal record that day by 55 minutes, even with a four minute penalty for drafting, with a time of 11 hours, 20 minutes and 21 seconds. Hank Harris was the 485th person to cross the finish line that day while Jennifer Harris crossed as number 1161, “I had quite a few people finish ahead of me, but I had quite a few finish behind me too,” Harris smiles, exuding a sense of accomplishment.

Now that she has gone through the IronMan experience, Harris has this to say, “I’m glad I’ve done it, but the training was very difficult. I’ll do more triathlons, more half IronMans, and more marathons, but I do not see anywhere in the near future doing another lronMan. It takes too much away from the family.”

Her family may one day compete in an IronMan event together. Her daughter, Rachel, who is ten has competed in three IronKid races, three Peachtree City Youth Triathlons and a 5K race.

Her eight-year-old son, Henry, has also competed in three triathlons, two IronKid races and one Peachtree City Youth Triathlon. Her two youngest sons, six-year-old David, and four-year-old Mark are still a bit young to compete, but who knows what the future holds?

Even if Harris never competes in another IronMan event, she can say something that very few people in the world have the ability to say, “I am an IronMan!”

login to post comments