Matthew Guenter of Boulder, Colorado stood along the fence near the 50-yard line at Beaver Stadium and savored the moment.
Guenter, a Penn State graduate, had just won the first-ever Ironman Happy Valley 70.3 on Sunday with a time of 4:19.30.
“I think it was great. The course was a very honest and hard course, which brings out competitive athletes that want to go after a good, hard day,” Guenter said. “There was a lot of good competition here, especially for a first-year race. Usually, those don’t attract the strongest of fields, but that was not true today. There were a bunch of former 70.3 champions in the field. It was just a great day.”
The weather was all over the map on July 2. At times, sunshine peeked through the clouds. There was also rain and high humidity.
“It was definitely atypical weather for State College,” Guenter said.
So what was the most challenging part of the day?
“The humidity,” he said matter-of-factly. “It affected me on the bike and the run. I was getting time gaps from a few friends out on the run and I knew that it went from like two-and-a-half minutes up to six minutes over the first half of the run. From that point on … I don’t know if I could have run any faster but I just tried to play it safe. I knew that if I went too deep, it could be really bad especially with the humidity because I’m just not used to that anymore.”
The rain, he said, was not problematic.
“Being from Pennsylvania, (I knew) it rains here and it’s not that big of a deal. It wasn’t anything too heavy. I would say that it wasn’t too bad,” Guenter said.
Guenter, the reigning USA Triathlon Olympic distance and sprint national champion, attended Penn State from 2015 to 2019, making the win even more significant.
“It was very special. As soon as this race got announced, I knew that I wanted to win. I always write a sheet of what I’m going to do in the race the day before. My first priority today was just three letters — win. I just wanted to do it. With the athletic history that Penn State has, it would feel wrong if the first athlete to win it was not a Penn Stater,” Guenter said.
Along the course, Guenter said that he recognized many landmarks from his days in Happy Valley.
“I ran right past Hartranft Hall, that was my freshman year dorm. I ran right past Nittany Apartments where I lived and I ran past the pool where I swam as part of the swim team here. It was just a very special thing,” Guenter said.
Because Guenter is originally from Reading, Pennsylvania, his entire family was able to be on hand. They cheered him on from various points along the course.
“My whole family could be here because I am from Reading and it’s pretty close by,” Guenter said. “I gave my 6-year-old niece a high five at one point. Having everyone here was very, very special.”
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Caroline Moyer, of Malvern, had the top women’s time at 5:00:55.
Vincent Fadale, one of approximately 200 local residents to take part in the Ironman 70.3, was the first State College area resident to cross the finish line. He clocked a time of 4:48:03, good for 28th overall and 11th in the 30-34 age group.
