DukeMed Alumni News
Fall 2007

Harward's Steady Commitment
Leads to Ironman Triathlon Finish

By Jim Rogalski

In 2000, Timothy R.S. Harward, T’75, MD’79 could barely manage 10 minutes on a stationary bike three times a week, and he tipped the scale at a doughy 215 pounds on his 5-foot-10 frame.

He was as close to understanding what it’s like being an ultra-endurance athlete as he was to walking on the moon.

This past June the now 170-pound svelte vascular surgeon from Orange County, Calif., plunged into the choppy, white-capped water of Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho and churned out a 2.4-mile swim. He then cranked his bicycle pedals for 112 miles over seven straight hours and finished the day with a 26.2-mile marathon run that culminated his continuous 14-hour effort. At age 54, Harward had joined the elite ranks of those who can call themselves an Ironman.

“This was not my intent,” he says with a laugh. Harward began exercising seven years ago simply to improve his health. “It was time to get physical and do something. I was getting too worked up about work and things that were going on in the health care system,” he says.

His mind and body relished the release and stimulation that exercise provided, even in the small doses that he began with. Early on, Harward’s only athletic goal was to stick with it. Within a year his 10-minute stationary bike sessions had grown to an hour-and-a-half four times a week.

Within a year his 10-minute stationary bike sessions had grown to an hour-and-a-half four times a week. “I’d watch Duke basketball games and yell at the TV while riding away,” he says.

“I’d watch Duke basketball games and yell at the TV while riding away,” he says. “I really like this stuff. I have a passion for it.”

So much so that after the first year Harward joined a master’s swim group because he enjoyed swimming. He gradually built up to swimming two-and-a-half miles four mornings a week. He added running, figuring that “my joints could tolerate it since I had lost weight.”

His improved fitness level and transformed physique were testaments to his dedication over the long haul. The confidence that came with that sparked his competitive juices, and doing a swim-bike-run triathlon seemed eminent.

When he completed his first short-distance triathlon (900-yard swim, 22-mile bike ride, 4-mile run), he says, “I was hooked. I loved the challenge of it and the achievement of doing something that I set out to do.”

He entered more triathlons of gradually increasing distances, and within four years of beginning a regular exercise routine Harward completed his first half-Ironman triathlon, which is half the distance of a full Ironman (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride, 13.1-mile run).

The next year he raced the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon, which consisted of a 1.5 mile swim from Alcatraz Island in 49-degree choppy water, a 22-mile bike ride, and an eight-mile run. While much shorter than the previous year’s half-Ironman, the challenging event inspired him with new found confidence.

“I had never been as charged to finish as I was that one,” he says. “The waves were at least three feet tall. That’s when I really got hooked into believing I could do (a full Ironman).”

Over the next two years he completed eight half-Ironman triathlons, including one in Hawaii last June. Completing a full Ironman seemed a natural next step, but committing to the increased training volume needed would require the support of his wife Mary, MD’80, and family, as well as his practice partner.

“I talked to my partner and said, ‘I want to do an Ironman and it’s going to require a lot of time. I’m not going to back off the job, just change the schedule,’” he said. “I still do the same number of operations. I talked to my wife and she was very supportive.”

Harward’s ramped up training includes running 16 miles round trip to and from work three days a week; swimming four days a week at 5 a.m.; riding the stationary bike at night; riding his road bike for five or six hours on Saturday; and going for a continuous 15- to 20- mile run on Sunday.

His only injury of consequence was in January when he needed knee surgery to repair a torn medial meniscus. It sidelined his running and biking for a couple of months; however, he was able to maintain his cardiovascular training by swimming during his recovery from surgery.

Harward says the lesson people can learn from him is that his current fitness level is not founded on Herculean strength, but on Herculean patience.

“Your initial goal may be exercising three times a week,” he says. “Start slow but stay committed.”

He plans to return to next year’s Lake Coeur d’Alene Triathlon in Idaho and if he remains injury-free, believes he can shave two hours off his time.

Harward and his wife have three children, Stephen, T’07, MS1; Thomas, a Duke undergrad currently on leave and taking classes at the University of California at Berkeley; and Christina, 14.