Dentist ends hiatus to compete in Ironman triathlon with his father
Many boys look up to their father when they're young, but as Dr. Nigel Morgan can attest, the same can hold true when they're all grown up.
Morgan, who runs a dental practice on Fifth Avenue in Hendersonville, had competed in a dozen Ironman Triathlons before taking a break five years ago to start a family and establish his practice.
His hiatus ended on Sunday, however, when he and his father, Kevin Morgan of Chapel Hill, competed together at Ford Ironman Lake Placid in the Adirondack Mountains town of Lake Placid, N.Y. Nigel Morgan, 38, completed the 2.4-mile lake swim, 112-mile mountainous bike ride and 26.2-mile run in 10 hours, 16 minutes, 49 seconds — finishing 74th overall out of more than 2,500 professional and top-notch amateur endurance athletes from around the world.
His father, meanwhile, who was racing in Lake Placid for the fifth consecutive year, completed the course in 16:09:48 — more than 2½ hours slower than his time from 2010. The 68-year-old, however, was forced to back off in his efforts Sunday since he is still on the mend from a near-fatal abdominal aortic aneurysm he self-diagnosed just 10 days after last year's Ironman.
“His aneurysm kind of motivated me to do the race,” Nigel Morgan said via telephone Tuesday from upstate New York.
The two men never saw each other on the two-loop course, but they were never apart in spirit.
“Even if I didn't see my dad all day, just knowing that he's out there when I'm out there is pretty neat,” the local dentist said. “I hope when I'm 68 to be able to be at the same sort of fitness level that my dad is at, which is kind of inspiring in itself because he was one of the oldest competitors in the race. Only 17 people in the whole race were over 65, and he was one of them, so it was pretty amazing just being out there with him.”
His father felt the same. Kevin Morgan, who recently retired after 40 years as a veterinary pathologist, began watching Nigel Morgan compete in triathlons when his son was 16, and it inspired him to take up the sport.
The two competed in several races together over the years, including half-Ironmans, but it was a trip to Lake Placid several years ago to watch Nigel race there for the first time that really got Kevin Morgan's blood going.
“I came to Lake Placid and I went to see the race start and I saw the energy of the race, and then I saw (Nigel) at the finish, and somehow the bug grabbed me,” Kevin Morgan said, “and I thought, ‘I want to do that.' ”
He got so good that, at age 67, Kevin Morgan was beating many athletes half his age, finishing Ironman Lake Placid in just more than 13½ hours. But competing with his son — despite the slower time this year — was extra special.
”What can be better than approaching 70 and to be out there racing Ironmans together with your kid?” said Kevin Morgan, who is originally from England and moved the family to Chapel Hill in 1981. “I'm probably the first person in the world to finish an Ironman with an abdominal aortic stent, and so I thought (my performance) was pretty good for one day, and I came in to the finish feeling good.
“I don't know what can be better than being out there still alive — and to do it with your kid, I don't know, I just feel like the luckiest man in the world.”