Paul Davis

Paul has always loved doing events that other people thought were too hard. He grew up as an armchair admirer of the marathon, which at 17 led him to enter a 30 mile trail race with no training.

After running the first 10 miles with the world orienteering champions, he managed to get to mile 24 before his legs locked up and he collapsed in agony. Undeterred, he started running more seriously and managed to finish the Manx Mountain Marathon (30 miles, 15000ft of climbing) inside the elite finishing time. He went on at 19 to run the Lakeland 100 in 27hr32min, a rather dismal performance by current century standards, but it was a very pretty course.

At age 29, he read about the Cannonball, a 300 mile time trial between Seattle and Spokane, and became convinced that this would someday be his specialty. Returning from a 3000 mile tandem crossing of Europe, he entered the Cannonball in 1994 and finished 4th.

After moving to Philadelphia in 1996 the Death Valley Double in March and the New Jersey Double in June served as anchors for his year. In 2005, his wife Julie Deery trained for and finished IM Wisconsin and convinced him to get into triathlons. Eschewing the typical fast flat courses of so many area races, Paul has sought out hilly, challenging and just plain hard races, managing to end up near the front of the middle of the AG packs.

Strength: Cycling (preferably for a long, long time)

Highlights:
2007: Harriman Half Ironman, 7th 5:26:15
2006: Halfwit Trail 1/2 Marathon, 5th AG
2004: Death Valley Double (200 miles), 10th, 11:23
2003: New Jersey Double (200 miles), 6th, 11:34
1994: Cannonball (300 miles), 4th, 14:01
1989: New Jersey 10 miler, 10th, 58:02
1980: Manx Mountain Marathon, 5:55:57 (Elite)