CHATTANOOGA, TEN. — Perry Elementary Assistant Principal Ryan Marzen also serves as the head coach for both the Bluejay and Jayette cross country teams.
The Perry harriers hosted their lone home meet of the season September 27, but Marzen was absent. Why?
He was in Chattanooga, Tennessee for Sunday’s Ironman competition, where he hoped to finish in the top two in his age group (25-29), thereby earning a coveted qualifying slot for the October 2019 Kona (Hawaii) Ironman. The Kona competition is considered one the best Ironman races worldwide.
Often referred to as a triathlon, an Ironman competition begins with a 2.4 swim, followed immediately by a 112-mile bike ride, with a 26.2 mile marathon run capping the grueling test of physical, and mental, challenge.
Sunday’s event was to have begun with a 2.4 swim in the Tennessee River and ending in Chickamauga Creek. The bike ride had already been announced as having an additional four miles added, making the second leg of the triathlon 116 miles, which would pass near, and around, the old Civil War Battle of Chickamauga battlefield site.
Recent rains had raised the bacterial level in the river as well as increasing the current, and for safety factors the swim was scratched.
Marzen achieved his deeply-desired goal by placing second overall among his age group after finishing in an adjusted 8 hours, 33 minutes and 28 seconds.
“I am beyond excited, beyond satisfied,” he said. “This was going to be it for me — either I qualify here for Kona or not, this would be it.
“The swim is my worst leg, no doubt, so it didn’t bother me at all when they cut it,” Marzen said. “I knew my marathon would be OK so long as something didn’t go wrong on the bike, which was going to a chasing kind of situation for me.”
Marzen averaged 22 miles per hour on the bike, covering 116 miles (similar to biking from Perry to Carroll, then returning past Perry to Woodward) in 5 hours, 15 minutes and 12 seconds. His time was eighth best among 25-29 men, was 101st among all men and 102 overall.
Having already burned thousands of calories (an athlete will burn 7-10,000 calories in a triathlon) Marzen then faced a 26.2 mile marathon in the 82 degree temperature.
“I knew I was in good shape for a (Kona) slot when I stepped up my pace a bit from mile 13-17 and averaged around 6 minutes, 30 seconds per mile pace,” he related. “I finished with a 7:22 pace (per mile) for the run, and was satisfied with that.”
Marzen said he was, understandably, entirely spent when crossing the finish line.
“Those last eight or nine miles were like a death march,” he chuckled. “I just had to rely on all my training to get me home. It is one thing I have always believed and something I tell the cross country kids — you can’t trick the training. If you haven’t trained to reach a certain performance level you are not going to go out in competition and suddenly perform at a higher level. There is no ‘turning it on’ so to speak — either you have trained for it and put in the time or you haven’t.”
Marzen’s 3 hour, 14 minute, 26 second marathon was tops among men 25-29, 13th among all men and 13th overall. His final clocking of 8:33.28 was second among the 88 men running in his 25-29 age group, was 28th among 1,331 men from all age groups and was 28th among all 1,966 entries.
Family and friends were on hand to support Marzen, a factor he repeated referred to as critical to his success. A Labor Day visit, with his father in tow, to scout the routes for the Ironman was also a key to his high finish.
Marzen said he had tried for more than eight months for the event. Having the hard work pay off nearly left him speechless.
“It is very hard to put into words the satisfaction that comes from having reached this goal,” he said. “It will help motivate me for Kona, which will be my last competition.”
