Daniel Tichon Is Ironman

Daniel Tichon, 22, of Newtown, competed in and finished his first full Ironman triathlon at Lake Placid, New York on July 25 with a time of 11:09:06, which placed him 371st overall out of a field of approximately 2,700 athletes who started the event. He finished tenth among 50 in his age group of 18-24-year-old males in the Ford Ironman Lake Placid.

The Ironman race is the longest single day triathlon, which is a combination of swimming, biking and running. The athletes first complete a 2.4-mile swim, then immediately ride a bike 112 miles and, finally, finish by running a marathon (26.2 miles), for a total distance of 140.6 miles.

Tichon completed the swim in a time of 1:06, the bike ride in 5:41, and the run in 4:12.

He is a 2010 graduate of the University of Connecticut, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering. He is currently interning at Technology Associates in Stamford, a forensic engineering firm dealing in accident reconstruction. He will attend UConn this fall to pursue his Master’s in Biomedical Engineering.

Tichon started competing in triathlons during the summer of 2006. Triathlons vary in distances with sprint triathlons being the shortest and the Ironman being the longest and most challenging. He gradually worked up to competing in three half-Ironman distance triathlons within the past year. He competed in the Ironman 70.3 Providence, the Ironman 70.3 Florida, and the Rev3 Half at Lake Quassapaug.

The Newtown product was a member of Newtown High School’s indoor and outdoor track teams during all four years as a Nighthawk.

Tichon plans to continue to compete in a variety of triathlons in the upcoming year and plans to compete in Ironman Louisville the summer of 2011.