Clapping as he passed through the navy-blue finish gate, racer number 1783 grabbed a water bottle from the nearby table. Without any hesitation, he opened the plastic bottle and poured it over his head, letting his entire face be covered by the cool sensation.

The sudden, sharp sting at the back of his neck suggested his athletic wear had chafed the skin beneath his dark blond hair.

But that did not matter in this moment. After five hours and four minutes of exertion, Henry McLaughlin could finally decompress.

From Boxing to Running

Growing up in Durham, N.C., Henry was all about sports. He played soccer and basketball, then in sixth grade he discovered his love for boxing.

“Starting boxing really was impressive,” Henry’s father, Chris, said. “That was all on his own initiative.”

Before he was even in college, Henry was going to the boxing club meets at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They allowed interested community members to come to practices, so Henry attended as many as he could.

Taking Henry in under their wings, members of the UNC boxing club helped him train, get in shape and find his new community.

Still, it was not until his senior year of high school that running became more than just conditioning.

When the Christmas of Henry’s senior year came around, his family wanted to do a race together. Normally Henry would decline, but this time he thought “maybe that could be fun.”

He was right.

The next summer, in 2025, Henry went to visit his sister, Molly McLaughlin, in Philadelphia, P.A., and she offered Henry to join her on one of her longer runs. Without any hesitation, Henry put on his running shoes.

“That was one of the best, euphoric experiences,” said Henry. “And I thought, ‘Okay what can I do with running?’”

The question lingered.

Sitting in his room on the first day of July, Henry watched YouTuber Average Rob’s video: “The Day I Became an Ironman.”

“I remember watching that, and I was like ‘I want to do it,’” Henry said.

Instantly, he grabbed his laptop and typed ‘Ironman’ into Google. The first link that came up was the official Ironman site with a sign-up for the Ironman 70.3 in Wilmington, N.C. on Oct. 25, 2025. This was not the typical 140.6 mile Ironman, but instead a half, meaning 70.3 miles.

Henry was eager to sign up but had to talk to his parents about it first. Chris told Henry that he was a student first and that should be his priority. He was only allowed to fill his extra time outside of school with training.

Since Henry had never done any triathlon training, both Chris and Lynn Leubuscher, Henry’s mother, tried to convince him to start smaller.

“We were like, ‘Oh there’s all these shorter ones like sprint-distance triathlons, and he said, ‘No I want to do the half Ironman,’” said Leubuscher.

After making the promise to keep school his priority and to put in the effort to train, Henry filled out the form and hit the blue ‘register’ button.

It was official. Henry would be competing in the Ironman 70.3 in Wilmington, N.C. in less than four months.

Now the real work began.

Training

“I didn’t realize the amount of work it takes to do a long endurance event,” Henry said. “And I had never gone on a bike ride that was more than ten minutes.”

He knew preparation for this race was going to be difficult and a lot of work. But what made it even harder was doing all this training while being a first-year at UNC.

He was able to find different running routes and managed to fit a Wahoo bike trainer in his dorm room. Henry was more than confident when it came to running and biking. Swimming was where he had to fight not only a physical but a mental battle too.

“I was most worried about the swim,” Henry recalled. “I had not swum in years, except for lifeguard training where I had to do a 1000 meter swim and that was hell on Earth for me.”

Better yet, had never swum in open water before or put on a wetsuit.

About a month before his race, he saw that the UNC triathlon club was having an open water swim practice at Jordan Lake in Raleigh. Henry thought it would be a good idea to experience an open water swim before the real thing, and he was limited on time.

At Jordan Lake, all the club members were doing the nagging task of putting on their wetsuits, and Henry followed. After close to seven minutes of struggle, Henry finally had his wetsuit on… backwards.

“They were all waiting for me, so I wanted to end it all right then,” Henry laughed.

A few days later, Henry wanted to try the swim again and Chris volunteered to take him back to Jordan Lake.

It was a rainy day, and the normal glass surface of Jordan Lake had turned into a monstrous body of water.

“It was windy. It was crazy. It looked like the ocean,” said Chris.

Standing in the freezing cold wind next to the vicious water, Henry put on his wetsuit, successfully this time, and dove in.

After not even five minutes, he came back out.

“He was getting waterboarded,” said Chris. “Every time he tried to breathe he was getting hit in the face by a wave.”

Finding a small, protected cove, Henry was finally able to swim without feeling like he was going to drown.

“I am so glad we found that calm water because he would have convinced himself that the problem was him,” said Chris.

With a successful swim training session, Henry had his water confidence back.

All that was left was race day.

The Big Day

At 4 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, Henry’s alarm went off, notifying the Wilmington rental house that the day had finally come. Henry was about to embark on his journey.

Eager to start the day, Henry got out of bed and poured himself the biggest bowl he could find of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal at 4:45 a.m.

Following the sugary bowl, Henry and his dad got into the car and headed to the race drop-off location. Offering his last few words of encouragement, Chris left his son to do what he had signed up for only four months before.

At the drop-off location, bikes were set up from the night before, with tires deflated to avoid any bursting overnight. Henry found his bike and pumped up his tires to perfection.

Around 5:30 a.m., a shuttle arrived at the bike location ready to pack in as many racers as possible and transport them to the start of the race. Henry loaded up onto the shuttle and made his way to the intimidating start location.

Standing in the parking lot, Henry noticed all the racers doing their own thing. Some were grouped together with their friends, and some, like Henry, all alone.

“It was just me and my own thoughts,” said Henry.

To pass the time and tame the anxiety, Henry pulled his phone out to scroll on TikTok. The first video on his page was someone giving a recap of their own Ironman experience.

The video noted that during the recent Ironman 70.3 in Louisville, K.Y., someone drowned and died during the swim portion.

“Oh my God. That’s going to be me,” thought Henry.

At 6 a.m. the anxiety began to kick in, and Henry still had over an hour until he would be jumping into the water for his 1.2 miles of nonstop swimming.

Racers were to seed themselves, meaning they had to estimate their pace so they could swim with racers of similar strength. Henry put himself in the group thinking the swim would take him about 42 minutes.

The almost 3,000 racers were released by fours starting at 7:15 a.m.

It was not until 8 a.m. that Henry’s group was getting ready to dive into the sound in front of them. He was ready to escape the cold air and start his four hours of work.

“Honestly when I got into the water my mind just kind of went to a different place and it almost felt like a dream,” said Henry.

While swimming, he realized he had put himself in the wrong seed. Henry was flying through the water. The only way to pass people, though, was to swim around them which, to Henry, was irritating.

When he finally completed the 1.2 miles of swimming in 30 minutes, he got out of the comfortably warm water back into the cool air.

Grabbing the transition bag that he had packed and left with his bike the night before, helpers took off Henry’s wetsuit in record time, leaving him in his bike and run outfit. He wore a black short-sleeve Roka tri suit and looked forward to starting the next 56 miles of biking.

That was where Henry excelled.

Putting on his helmet, he began his hours of pedaling, knowing that he had to pace himself thinking ahead to the half marathon directly after.

“As soon as I started biking, I knew I was going to be passing people,” said Henry.

He had overtrained and the two and a half hours of biking at around 25 mph had gone by quicker than he could have imagined.

The last leg of the triathlon had been stewing for over two hours, but Henry knew there was a finish line waiting for him 13.1 miles down the road.

When Henry got off his bike, he was ready.

Pacing himself to avoid burnout, he had nothing on his mind but running.

1 mile.

2 miles.

5 miles.

8 mi-

“Oh my god, he stopped moving,” Leubuscher said as she watched the Henry icon come to a halt on the tracking app.

She, being a runner, started frantically making her way to find her son. Leubuscher started to sprint as her worry grew.

Thoughts went through her head: Was he throwing up? Did he pass out? Had he just hit a wall?

“She thought I was dying,” said Henry. “I just had to go to the bathroom.”

When Leubuscher had caught up with Henry, he asked what she was doing and why she was not at the finish line.

“That 11th or 12th mile, you just hit a wall because it feels like it’s never-ending,” Henry said.

Henry was able to pull himself out of the final miles funk to finish the race.

“It didn’t feel like a normal training session where it’s just you and your music,” Henry remembered. “There were constant supporters everywhere.”

And then he crossed the finish line.

Henry had managed to sign up, train and compete in a half Ironman in under four months. He was in the youngest age group competing and had an impressive time. After exactly five hours, four minutes and 21 seconds, Henry felt the relief – and the hunger.

“I’ve never been so hungry after doing anything. I had an ungodly amount of food,” said Henry.

He placed 45th out of 242 for males ages 18-24, 308th out of 1,807 for men and 346th out of 2,641 overall.

For his first triathlon ever and having very little experience in two of the sports, Henry’s finishing place was exceptional.

“I mean he was literally on cloud nine,” said Leubuscher. “He was ecstatic, he was so happy.”

Over the process of preparing for the Ironman, Henry had to change many things, and his parents learned more about their son.

“In terms of everything from his nutrition to his fitness, it was just such a 180 from the kid who would only eat Annie’s Mac n Cheese and carrots,” said Chris.

The completely different world that Henry had experienced over four months was still attractive to him.

“I remember driving back and being like ‘I want to sign up for the full,’” said Henry. “You almost forget about how hard it was, and you just feel that adrenaline to do it again.”

So, when Henry got home, he did just that.

He signed up for the full Ironman.

The Lake Placid, N.Y. Ironman waits for Henry with 140.6 miles of endurance in July 2026.

Already starting his preparation from calculated calorie intakes by the hour to conditioning, Henry will get to do the thing he loves, with the support of his family.

“And maybe he only loves it for now, but it’s just so fun to see him get excited about something, have a goal, meet that goal and feel like he achieved it,” said Chris. “And we are just so excited and proud of him,” added Leubuscher.

Four months ago, Henry had never swum in open water, had barely ridden a bike and did not enjoy running whatsoever. Now, he has a medal hanging in his UNC dorm room that reminds him of the hard work he put in on that October day in Wilmington, N.C.