Matt Hanson, who grew up in West Concord and graduated from Triton won the fifth race in the Iron Man Pro Series at the 2024 Qatar Airways triathlon in Chattanooga, Tennessee last month. Hanson, who started competing in the Iron Man won his first pro series triathlon beating the course record by four minutes. The next two closest finishers were a minute behind his time. Hanson slipped back in the bicycle riding event and overcame a four-minute deficit to clinch the victory.
Hanson wrestled in High School and college, but ran all of his life. He commented that he took up running as a kid, to spend time with his father, who also ran. At the age of 16, Matt set a goal to compete in an Iron Man competition and bought a used bike at the age of twenty-five to begin training.
Hanson was a former professor of Exercise Science, but retired to coach other triathletes. At thirty-nine years old he has been competing in the Iron Man races for ten years and has a goal to win a national title.
The Iron Man is a combination of swimming, cycling and running for a total of 140.6 miles. The swim course is 2.4 miles, the cycle course is 112 miles and the running course is 26.2 miles. A good athlete could finish the course in 12 to 14 hours. Hansons final time was three hours and 41 minutes. His time for the swim portion was 24 minutes, the cycling was two hours and 4 minutes and the running time was one hour and 9 minutes.
