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WEST VALLEY VIEW NEWS | AUGUST 18, 2021
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Millennium teacher, coach completes Ironman race BY LAUREN SERRATO
West Valley View Staff Writer
A
s if being a math teacher and a football coach at Millennium High School wasn’t enough for 26-year-old Matthew Humphries, he decided to add Ironman to his list of accomplishments. When gyms shuttered during the pandemic, Humphries had to find other means for exercise. His solution was to buy a road bike. The workout encouraged him to compete in his first Ironman triathlon. Aside from the rigorous training Humphries completed prior to race day, it was the mental toughness that pushed him to finish the race. “I definitely learned, and it’s kind of cliche because it’s their motto, but
anything is possible. Your mind is your strongest muscle in your body,” Humphries said. “If you can convince yourself that you can do it, you can do it. It’s like the quote from Henry Ford, ‘Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.’ And that’s one thing that I try to aim to live by, is to always believe in yourself. Us, as humans, are capable of much more than we believe we can do, and I just think that that’s something that’s super important.” Raised in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Humphries decided he wanted to run his first race in his hometown where he spent several years volunteering at Ironman events. “As soon as I volunteered, I was infatuated by the grittiness of the sport
and the willpower and all walks of life being out there and just how motivated they were,” he said. “It was contagious. As soon as I saw the athletes and saw how hard they work and how long of a day it was for them, and the craziest thing was how positive they were throughout all of it, I knew I wanted to try one.” To train, he decided to complete two half Ironman races. Humphries completed the Tempe Half Ironman in October 2020 and the St. George Half Ironman in May. On June 27, after a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run, Humphries could call himself an Ironman. Humphries admitted to having to overcome serious mental and phys-
ical challenges during the race. The weather in Idaho was abnormally hotter, forcing athletes to compete in 105 degrees. “My Garmin bike was registering 114 degrees just because of the heat coming off the asphalt, and then the fire station was using their laser temperature probe, taking the temperature off the asphalt and projecting it; and on my second turnaround, there was 132 degrees coming off the asphalt,” Humphries said. Of the 3,000 athletes signed up for the race, 2,600 of them got into the water and over 600 people did not finish the race. “It ended up being the highest didnot-finish percentage in Ironman history in terms of people who started the
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