Thirteen hours, six minutes, and thirty-four seconds was the time when Elizabeth Hall, PharmD, crossed the finish line after completing 140.6 miles of swimming, biking, and running in the VinFast Ironman World Championship women’s triathlon in Nice, France.
With a passion for triathlon, Dr. Hall joined thousands of triathletes on Sept. 22 in completing 2.4 miles of swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, 112 miles of biking through the Maritime Alps, and 26.2 miles of running on the Promenade de Anglais.
“You start at seven in the morning, and going for almost 13 hours, you see the sunrise and sunset while you’re out there. The run course was four loops about 10K long each, and I did the first three loops in the daylight and the last loop is when it started getting dark,” Dr. Hall said. “So, the last loop looked completely different with all the lights of the city and seeing the finish line all lit up, I was in disbelief. Seeing and knowing I finally get to run through it, I have actually done this. That was such a great experience.”
Dr. Hall, assistant vice chancellor of Academic, Faculty, and Student Affairs, and associate professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Translational Science, said friends and family members attended the race to cheer her on and track her progress, which helped motivate her.
She also acknowledged her supportive community from UT Health Science Center. Megg Doolin, lead digital projects analyst in Institutional Research, designed her supporters’ T-shirts during their lunch break, and Allen Dupont, PhD, associate vice chancellor for Institutional Effectiveness and Decision Support, joined her support group in France.
“The community we have at UTHSC is amazingly supportive and caring. I certainly could not have achieved this accomplishment without them,” she said. “Co-workers throughout my training cycle would ask how it’s going or remind me during a break from meetings to eat my fifth snack of the day.”
Dr. Hall said she enjoyed competing in a race for women and experiencing the supportive atmosphere among the athletes and spectators. It was also the first year the world championship race for women was held in Nice.
“Everyone was supportive and encouraging even when people were having a tough time with the climbs or making it up the mountains, people would encourage one another,” she said. “Another thing that’s really cool about this race is you have people from all over the world cheering each other on in different languages. By the end of the race, I felt I could say ‘way to go’ in several different languages.”
Dr. Hall compared the biking course to riding the Tour de France. Her bike course started from sea level and progressed to around 4,000 feet above sea level.
“I had so much fun on the bike, it was absolutely beautiful going through the Maritime Alps,” she said. “If you were to watch Stage 20 from the Tour de France this past July, it shows a lot of the course I rode on Sunday.”
What she faced during the swim course, she said, was the most challenging part of the race.
“I swam it a few days leading up to the race and had an idea of what to expect because the water is so clear you can see everything – all the fish and jellyfish swimming below you – so that was an adjustment,” she said. “But on race day, the swells in the water were pretty bad. Anytime you’re swimming along, suddenly you’re on top of the crest of a wave. It made it more challenging to see the buoys on the course to determine where you needed to go.”
For the world championship race, she qualified by completing the Ironman Wisconsin last September and placed third in her age group.
This year marks Dr. Hall’s 15th year as a triathlete. Her journey began while studying for her Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She started as a runner, her favorite sport, and began enjoying triathlon for its inclusion of swimming and biking. Her passion for triathlon increased after moving to Memphis and discovering the large triathlon and running communities in the city.
Now, she is training for her next race, the Boston Marathon in April 2025. Qualifying for the Boston Marathon has been her goal for more than 10 years.
“I am a big goal setter in all areas of life, and my motto is to always be 1% better than yesterday,” she said. “Every day, I try to learn something new, try something different, or improve in some way. This race was a great reminder of how those little things add up over time, and before you know it, it adds up to 140.6 miles of swimming, biking, and running.”