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Christopher Harris

Ironman Soldier Races through Iraq
Army captain runs, bikes, swims course west of Baghdad while wife competes in Hawaii's Ironman Triathlon.

By Sgt. Andrew Miller
Task Force Baghdad Public Affairs Office

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq, Nov. 7, 2005 - A Task Force Baghdad soldier completed his own version of the renowned Ironman Triathlon Oct 17 in Baghdad's combat zone, shortly after his wife finished in the original event in Hawaii.

Capt. Christopher Harris, of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, ran, cycled and swam his way through a course of his own design. The course, longer than 140 total miles, spanned several bases in the greater Camp Victory area in west Baghdad.

Harris began by swimming more than 100 laps in the Camp Victory pool. After a quick change of clothes, he was on his bike and moving hastily toward Baghdad International Airport. Racing around the airport complex until he had accumulated 112 miles, he then changed into his running shoes.

His course took him back through Camp Victory and into the adjoining Camp Liberty, where he ran around the installation's lake until completing his marathon run. Finishing in front of the Task Force Baghdad headquarters, he had for the first time become an Ironman.

Ironman triathletes refer to any unofficial copycat event as an iron distance triathlon. Harris calls it the ultimate personal test of physical and mental endurance.

"I was spent by the end of it all," he said. "Actually, I was spent somewhere around mile 15 of the run."

In addition to the rigors inherent in any iron distance triathlon, Harris had to cycle his way through heavy winds. Before long, the winds became a dust storm.

"Winds and dust kicked up all around, making the bike very difficult," Harris said. "It was not fun, and the exertion required on the bike just to keep it upright really hurt my legs for the run."

Harris said he was satisfied to have finished just one minute after his goal of 13 hours, although he failed to best his chief competitor, his wife Amanda.

Amanda completed the Ironman Triathlon, held annually in Kona, Hawaii, in 12 hours, 36 minutes. Her triumph crowns a perfect record of triathlon victories over her husband.

Amanda said her husband is the faster runner and swimmer, and that she doesn't expect to beat him forever.

"Now, on the bike, I can beat Chris. However, he wasn't that far behind me in this last race, and his conditions were much worse than mine," she said, adding that with more training, he may surpass her on the bike as well.

"But," she said, "I will make him have to work at it!"

While his wife's reign of dominance is yet unblemished, it hardly deters the infantry officer.

"She is a tremendous athlete and the primary motivation for my performance," Harris said.

Both said their competition is a healthy one, and that it helps them deal with the long separations that come with military service.

"I strongly feel that training together during this deployment has made it go by so much faster," Amanda said. "We have been able to focus on something positive that we can do 'together.'"

Oddly enough, it was their own story that motivated the couple to become Iron people.

"In March of this year, my wife was having difficulty remaining motivated for a half-Ironman she was to race at Walt Disney World in Orlando," Harris explained. "So, to motivate her, I promised to race with her in Baghdad."

He did, and of course, she beat him. But during their training for that event, the couple's latest challenge began to develop.

"During the prep for the race, Triathlete magazine got wind of the story," Harris said. "They wrote an article and posted stories on the website."

A TV producer caught wind of the story and proposed that the Harris couple do the same for the Ironman Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii.

Harris said they were left with eight weeks to prepare.

"The first race was for us to bond," he said. "This race was to see if we could rise to the challenge together."

In line with his goal to cross the finish line before his wife, Harris draws motivation from another challenge. For the last 10 years, he has endured a series of potentially crippling injuries, he said. An injury in airborne school, a car wreck, and a medical evacuation from the combat zone have led to two spinal fusions and a neck injury.

Harris said he has had to fight to keep his place in the Army.

"When I graduated Ranger school, it was the same statement," he said. "A doctor told me on the eve of my first surgery, while sitting at his desk in front of pictures of him completing marathons, that my injury would preclude me from ever running at a competent level - that I could never join the physically-demanding Infantry. Is there ever any more motivation needed than that?"

Whether more motivation is needed or not, the couple is already planning the next race.

Harris said he and his wife have been invited to compete in next year's Ironman Triathlon. "And this time I will do it in lovely Hawaii, and won't have to face a dust storm," he said, with his fingers crossed.