HOUSTON, TEXAS — This Saturday, two Diocese of Charlotte priests, Father Matthew Harrison and Father Kevin Martinez, will compete in the grueling 140-mile 2026 Memorial Hermann IRONMAN Texas triathlon in Houston.
“It’s going to be a long day,” admits Father Harrison, who is planning on pushing himself non-stop for 10 to 14 hours.
The “IRON priests” have been training since January for their first-ever competition. They arrived earlier this week to scope out the course.
It’s technically a triathlon, but for the priests it’s more like a pilgrimage that also inspires their flock. Along with their running shoes and bikes, they packed athletic outfits with Roman collars.
As Father Harrison, the campus minister for High Point University, said, “It is my hope when the students see their spiritual father pushing himself that it will inspire them with their own studies and journeys. To push through hard things, both spiritually and physically, and to seek God through it and learn how to love the Cross.”
Saturday will start early at 6:20 am with a 2.4-mile morning swim with 3,100 competitors through the murky waters and tight space of The Woodlands Waterway Canal. From there the priests will bike a swift 112-mile, two-loop stretch of flat terrain of the Hardy Toll Road, notorious for its tough wind and treeless unshaded areas. To finish, they will run 26.2 miles through the heart of The Woodlands in a three-loop course, while they are cheered on by thousands of fans.
Traditionally, when runners reach the finish line, everyone yells, “You are an IRONMAN.” Fathers Harrison and Martinez may instead hear, “You are an IRON PRIEST.”
— Lisa M. Geraci
Watch Father Harrison and Father Martinez live: