Here’s a question for you: How would you like to jump in the Savannah River at 7:30 am., swim 1.2 miles downstream, climb out ant hop on your bike and ride on a loop that went through Augusta into South Carolina and back for a total of 56 miles, then run 13.1 miles through downtown Augusta on a day when the temperature reached 95 degrees?

That’s what Dillon native Jennifer Newton did when she competed in the Augusta 2011 ESI Half-Ironman 70.3 triathlon in Augusta, Ga. on Sunday, September 25. There were more than 3000 total participants (it was a sold-out event), male and female, minimum age 18 and no maximum.

How long did it take her to complete the course? Twenty nine minutes for the swim, 3:21 hours for the bike ride and 2:49 hours for the run, for a total time of 6:49 hours, and a total distance of 70.3 miles. She was in a bracket of Females age 35-39, with a total of 165 women in her age group who finished.

Jennifer is the daughter of Bob and Susan Newton of Dillon. She is a graduate of The SC Governor’s School with a with a degree in civil engineering from Clemson. She is employed by Carolina Gas Transmission Co in Columbia as a USA Engineer.
When asked which was the most difficult course in the triathlon for her, she replied that it was the run.

“I don’t consider myself a runner and I had never gone that distance before. I had worked hard on the bike course, so when I reached the run course I was very tired. However, since I’ve been training since February I knew I would be able to finish in the allotted time of 8 hours to complete the event. I had to walk more than I wanted to on the run course, but I’m very proud of myself for pushing through the moments that I wanted to quit, and finishing. My parents were in the crowd and seeing them at different points on the run course really helped.”