During the afternoon hours of Sept. 26, Andy Haughton, like most Penn State students, was outside and getting doused by sheets of rain.
But the aerospace engineering major wasn't tailgating for the football team's upcoming contest with Iowa. Nor was he waiting in line for a front-row seat on the bleachers.
Haughton was miles away from Beaver Stadium on a blue-and-white Cannondale bicycle, pushing through a five-hour ride -- a weekly routine for the senior. On Saturday, he'll fulfill a goal he wasn't sure he would ever get the chance to achieve: competing in the Hawaii Ironman triathlon.
Two hours into his Sept. 26 ride, Haughton realized he wouldn't be able to complete his trek outdoors because of the weather, so he turned around. But the day wasn't over.
Having only finished half of his workout, Haughton took his bike inside, mounted it on a trainer and finished the remaining two and a half hours.
"Just about all of the training is done by yourself," Haughton said. "There is no one pushing you except for you. If you don't have the mentality of 'Let's go do this right now,' no one is going to give it to you."
Haughton, who said he has competed in about 15 triathlons, spent 17 weeks training for the Ironman, which begins with a 2.4-mile swim, follows with a 112-mile bike ride and concludes with a marathon -- a 26.2-mile run.
The race, which is still held at the site of the first 1978 event on the northeast corner of the Big Island, is the world championship for all Ironman triathlons. Because of the distance, coupled with the intense heat, winds and waves, it is considered the toughest race a triathlete can take on.
"The Hawaii Ironman is just about the biggest triathlon in the world," said Jeff Boehmer, a Bucknell student who competed in the event last October and has been Haughton's mentor this year. "It's a pretty special thing to qualify and go to that race, but you are about to hurt your body pretty good when you accept the invite to compete there."
The training means Haughton's weekends aren't for rest. Instead, his classes offer him time to relax mentally and let his body recover.
The rain threw a proverbial wrench into Haughton's workout plans on that Saturday, and the senior was able to "ease up" with a five-hour ride.
But on most weekends, there is nothing stopping him from what he called the most grueling days of his weekly schedule.
"Those are the workouts," Haughton said, "that once you do them, you can tell yourself, 'I guess I can do this Ironman.'"
QUALIFYING
Haughton began competing in triathlons on a whim.
Although he had never swam or biked competitively before, Haughton signed up for the Penn State Triathlon Club because he was looking for a replacement for soccer, lacrosse and tennis, which he played at Henderson High School in West Chester.
He said signing up for his first triathlon, a competition with the club in Alabama, took some convincing.
But once he completed the race, he was hooked.
"The challenge and the build-up is definitely different," Haughton said. "You are training up to only one race, and then the atmosphere is incredible."
Haughton never had the Hawaii Ironman on his pre-graduation agenda, however. In fact, qualification for the world's premier triathlon came as somewhat of a surprise to him.
It took Haughton four hours, 47 minutes and seven seconds to complete the Eagleman triathlon -- a "half iron" in Cambridge, Md. The time was good enough for sixth place in his division, and because three finishers ahead of him declined their automatic invitations, Haughton had less than 10 minutes to make a decision.
"He had no idea what he was getting himself into," Boehmer said. "It took him 10 minutes to decide that he wanted to do this. To follow through with it so well is very admirable."
Hawaii, Haughton said, was too much of a "big deal" to pass up. Had he chosen the alternative, the ride home would have been too difficult to bear, he said.
Instead, he accepted the invite, and shortly thereafter sent his girlfriend, Emma Oswald, a text to let her know the plan.
"We're going to Hawaii," it read.
TRAINING
But it wasn't that simple.
Boehmer said the typical Ironman training period lasts 18 to 20 weeks. Once the Eagleman race ended, Haughton had 17 weeks to prepare for the biggest triathlon in the world.
He ordered some plans from magazines and searched for others on the Internet, piecing them together to create his own regimen. It focused on weekend-heavy workouts and weekdays that featured lighter training for two or sometimes all three events in one day.
"You have to convince yourself mentally not to lag," Haughton said. "I'd say for most of the training, your body can do a lot more than you think it can. That's the biggest part of the long training rides and runs -- convincing yourself not to stop."
Oswald called the mentality Haughton has toward the race "insane," noting that his training sessions last up to eight hours. He is constantly washing his hands to remain healthy so he doesn't miss a workout.
"He just doesn't stop -- he can't stop," Oswald (senior-supply chain and information systems) said. "He said he's gonna slow down after this, but I'm not sure if I believe him. I think he might just sleep a little bit more and eat a little bit less."
Haughton, Oswald and Haughton's family left last Saturday.
In Kailua-Kona, where the race begins, the week preceding the race is known as "Iron Week." It consists of seven days of fun runs and various smaller events leading up to Saturday's "Ford Ironman."
The week also gives the competitors a chance to judge the course and its conditions while training alongside other triathletes.
"You start to wonder, 'What am I doing here?'" Boehmer said. "It's pretty overwhelming to realize you are ready mentally and physically for something this challenging."
Haughton, who has never been to Hawaii, said Iron Week is essential because the Hawaii Ironman is known for its strong winds and large waves -- something he hasn't experienced with the Triathlon Club.
But while Haughton said some intimidation might set in, he knew the trip to Hawaii meant the difficult part was over.
"I still work out pretty much every day, but it's just easier," Haughton said, noting also that for a week he doesn't have to balance school and training. "It's sharpening rather than training now. It's really just me trying to absorb what I've done in the last four months."
THE SWIM
Haughton distinctly remembers the first leg of his first triathlon.
After months of training in a pool for the segment he prepared hardest for, he said he felt ready for what the swimming leg had to offer.
But it was nothing like what he expected.
"It was so different in open water," Haughton said. "I got in the water, and people were kicking at me from all sides. Once the first 200 meters were done, I got in a rhythm, but it's totally different than the biking and the running because all your senses are numb."
The Ironman will present Haughton with another challenge. It is one of only a handful of competitions that begin with a mass start.
That means that at 7 a.m. Hawaiian time on Saturday, nearly 2,000 competitors will take to the water at once, rather than in waves of 50 to 100 like most races.
"A lot of the time, I'm used to swimming away from people," Haughton said. "But [Jeff] told me, 'Don't try swimming away, because everyone there can swim like you can.' "
The 2.4-mile swim is broken down into two halves. The swimmers swim out to a boat, 1.2 miles off shore, before turning around and heading back.
Haughton said Boehmer warned him about the four-foot waves, saying swimming through the rough but completely clear Hawaiian waters was unlike anything he had ever done.
When Boehmer reached the midway point, he went off to the side of the pack, threw up, and continued on his way to a 1:00:59 swim leg.
THE BIKE
Haughton called biking the "most efficient" of the three legs, and because of the efficiency, he said it is also his favorite.
Tired of his typical routine during the summer, Haughton decided to work a 200-mile bike trip to and from the Jersey Shore into his training regimen.
"I feel like I really get the speed I put in," Haughton said about biking. "You work hard and you actually get faster and go places. You don't get that with running."
He said his average ride for a "tough workout" at Penn State was a trip to Bucknell and back. When he gets tired, he looks down at his speedometer to push himself to go a little bit faster.
He rides a Cannondale CAAD 9 with Zipp 808 racing wheels, decked out in a custom blue-and-white paint job with a Penn State logo on the top tube.
With the bike leg of the competition typically taking more time than the other two legs combined, Haughton will likely be on his Cannondale for a while. Last October, Boehmer, who finished in the top half of competitors during the bike portion, completed the 112-mile ride in just less than six hours.
As a result of the ride's length, both Boehmer and Haughton said adjusting from the bike to the run was one of the most difficult parts of the race. Haughton said it typically takes him about three miles to get rid of his "bike legs."
Boehmer, however, said biking in the Hawaii Ironman would be different.
He said the wind on the island swirls in such a way that no matter which direction the riders are headed, it is never at their backs.
THE RUN
Kailua-Kona is located near the base of the Hualalai Volcano. The final segment of the Ironman is a 26.2-mile run through that volcano's lava fields during the hottest part of the day.
"The run is what he is most nervous about, because it is so mental," Oswald said. "I keep telling him, 'I know you think that's your weak spot, but you can't think about a weakness when you're out there.'"
For most competitors, by the time the marathon nears its conclusion, dusk is starting to settle in.
"You're plodding away at mile 18 of the run, and it's starting to get dark and lonely," Boehmer said. "But when you get a mile from the finish line, all the pain goes away from the last couple of hours. The second you cross the finish chute, all of it comes back, and you wonder how you just did that."
Haughton said the run portion of triathlons has always been the most difficult for him, and his training for running was the most intense.
"It breaks you down, and it just isn't very efficient, especially after you get off the bike," Haughton said. "Throughout the run, you are in pain, and you start to think too much."
When Haughton nears the end of the 26.2-mile run on Saturday, he will most likely be thinking of the choice he made with virtually no time to think on that June afternoon.
He will be thinking about his first triathlon in Alabama -- the day that his girlfriend said "got him hooked."
He will be thinking about the 17 weeks of training -- all to complete a triathlete's greatest goal.
But during the run, Haughton said above all, he will simply be thinking about finishing.
"It doesn't matter what time you get, as long as you cross that finish line," he said. "You've got to stay hydrated, wear a hat, get iced down, because you can't afford to get overheated. You have to do whatever it takes to get across that finish line."
