What's the Fuss?

Here’s a look at my first Ironman Florida preview of the season.

By Josh Weinfuss
News Herald Writer
747-5069 / jweinfuss@pcnh.com

Panama City Beach was supposed to be the site of Shawn Harrison’s finest day as a triathlete.

From the time he finished Ironman Lake Placid in July 2006, Harrison told his wife, Christine, that Ironman Florida on Nov. 3 would be the last of his six Ironmans.

He won’t get that chance.

The 17-year Marine veteran was tired of the marathondistance run that completed the swim-bike-run event, but he knew his best chance of setting a new personal record would come on the flat course in Florida’s Panhandle.

Four years ago, Shawn, with Christine less than an hour behind, set a personal best of 12 hours in Panama City Beach. He expected to lower that mark this year.

From the time the couple completed Ironman Lake Placid, his eyes were set on the Gulf Coast.

“Our best race ever,” Christine said of the upstate New York event. “By far the best. We were trained. We didn’t have our fastest times, but we had our best race. We had a great race. That was our last Ironman together.”

Shawn was killed while on a training ride less than five miles from their San Diego home June 10. He was coming down a hill at 9:30 a.m. on a Sunday when a motorist didn’t see him.

Christine, who was registering for a half-Ironman distance race in Mexico when the accident happened, didn’t hear about it until 1:30 p.m. The international boundaries made it difficult for her to be reached, but with the help of the San Diego Police Department, she made it back to her husband’s side in less than two hours.

A witness to the accident, a trauma physician, told Christine that Shawn never woke up from the collision.

Lake Placid was the last time the Harrisons competed in a full Ironman event, but that won’t stop Christine from racing here in two weeks.

Like most of their triathlon-filled years together, the Harrisons spent the winter relaxing and recuperating. They’d go for bike rides in the morning and ski, snowboard or golf in the afternoons.

They spent their nights with friends, eating and laughing, and more than eight years after marrying in Hawaii, Shawn, 37, still took Christine, 12 years his senior, out on dates to the movies.

That’s just part of why Shawn’s death hasn’t yet hit home for her.

“Ironmans are tough alone, but if your spouse is with you, and if you love doing it together, that’s part of your relationship,” she said.

“That was half our year and then the other half you do something else.”

When Ironman Florida begins in the water behind the Boardwalk Beach Resort on Thomas Drive, Christine will be wearing Shawn’s bib number in the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run.

By the time Christine, a respiratory therapist on a transport team, decided to enter the event with Shawn, the field was sold out. A decision by Ironman Florida allowed her to take his place.

“I felt like he would want me to finish the race for him,” she said. “I feel like if I gave up training and Ironman, he would be really upset and disappointed with me. He knew that was a big part of my life, Ironmans and triathlons. I think he would tell me to go do it for him and finish.

“The goal for this race is to finish. The goal for this race isn’t for time, but it’s to finish for him.”

Shawn enlisted in the Marines in 1990 and became an officer in 2003. At the time of his death, he was a Chief Warrant Officer II and posthumously was promoted a grade in August. As a CWO, Shawn was a personnel officer, Christine said.

Shawn and Christine met in 1995 in Saudi Arabia when he was working in the United States Embassy and she was working in a hospital. A couple of years later, Shawn was transferred to Hawaii, where they were married in 1999 and started their lives as triathletes.

“We had the perfect relationship, if there was such a thing,” Christine said. “So easy to get along with. He was just a very strong, good person, nonjudgmental. Everybody loved to be around him. He was a lot of fun.”

Staying fit came natural for Shawn, who continued morning runs with the Marines four or five days a week during the past few years. He started competing in sprint and mini triathlons in 1997 and three years later, Christine joined him for Ironman California.

“We suffered a lot,” Christine said. “We vowed we both would do it the next year and we did better. We took off an hour the next year.”

From 2002-2003, Shawn was assigned as a Marine recruiter in New York and didn’t have time to train. Christine finished Ironman Lake Placid in 2003, and after Shawn was transferred back to Camp Pendleton in San Diego, both did Ironman Florida later that year.

At Ironman Coeur d’Alene in Idaho in 2004, Shawn cramped on the run, allowing Christine to catch him, and both walked side by side to the finish line.

Then Shawn was deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, from September 2004 to April 2005. While he was away, Christine trained for Ironman Arizona, which was scheduled for the time he was to return. A week after Shawn came back from Iraq, he was waiting for Christine at the finish line.

They completed another event in Arizona in 2006, and a few months later raced at Lake Placid. It wasn’t long afterward that Shawn told Christine that Ironman Florida would be his final event involving long-distance running.

Running is Christine’s strong segment of triathlons. She always counted on Shawn having a 15-minute lead out the water and a 45-minute lead after the bike.

“We knew we couldn’t stay together,” she said. “I always tried to catch him on the run and I didn’t catch him on the run until Idaho. My run was always that much faster than his. I knew he was looking for me.”

Recently, Christine went on her longest ride of the year, a 110-mile trek to work out any final problems before Ironman Florida. Christine tries to avoid the same routes they used to take and now she won’t ride them alone. Since Shawn’s death, she has found solace in running.

“That’s been my therapy,” she said. “I’ve been running a lot to help me get through that.

“I try to avoid the exact same roads that Shawn and I ran together,” she said. “But many times when I have been running I have felt him there with me, telling me to keep going.”

Christine will compete in Ironman Florida with a handful of Shawn’s friends. Their company and the flat course are the main reasons she thinks she can finish this race.

“I’m a little worried about the emotional part of being there,” she said. “I hope it’s going to feel good to race for him. I think the whole Ironman experience was a part of him and I doing it together, training together. I don’t think it will be the same experience. I won’t know until Ironman Florida.”

“He was my partner, he was my husband and my training partner and my best friend. He was always at the finish lines.”

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