More Than 1,100 Compete in Third Ironman 70.3 Happy Valley. Will It Be Back for Year 4?

The Ironman 70.3 Pennsylvania Happy Valley returned on a cool, cloudy Sunday with more than 1,100 competitors, supported by nearly 1,000 volunteers, swimming, biking and running through Centre County.

Starting at 7 a.m., competitors from 36 states, Washington, D.C. and 30 countries swam a 1.2-mile, single loop in Sayers Lake at Bald Eagle State Park. From there they embarked on a 56-mile bike ride that swung into Clinton County before traveling through Nittany and Penns valleys and into the State College area. The final leg was a 13.1-mile run through the Penn State campus.

It was the final year of a three-year contract to host an Ironman event in Centre County, and it remains to be determined if it will return for future years.

“There are talks and negotiations about what’s going to happen next year, but nothing really came to a head yet,” said Eric Engelbarts, executive director of the Happy Valley Sports and Entertainment Alliance, which is the local coordinating organization for the event. “So we’re going to get through today, focus on a successful event, and then just like any other event, we’ll do a recap review, and then we’ll figure out what we’re going to do. We’ll have it done here in the next couple of weeks, but we don’t know where we’re headed yet.”

For the first time, the Happy Valley “half Ironman” (at 70.3, miles it is half the distance of a full Ironman) featured a field of top professional women competitors vying for a $20,000 pro prize purse, along with spots in the World Championship.

And it was a Pennsylvania native who took home the title.

Lydia Russell, a resident of Tucson, Arizona who is originally from the Philadelphia suburb Bryn Mawr, crossed the finish line on Curtin Road with a time of 4:16:45, beating out 2022 Ironman World Champion Chelsea Sodaro with the best time in the event’s three-year history.

“I’m from Bryn Mawr originally, so I’ve raced up in the Penn State area before. So this is like as close to a home race as I’m going to get,” Russell said during a post-race interview.

In her first year in Ironman after previously competing in short-course triathlons, Russell trailed Sodaro and and another top pro, Grace Alexander, before overtaking the lead on the run course.

“I was excited, but I didn’t know if [Sodaro] was going to make it hard or make it easy because she’s also a really talented runner,” Russell said. “So I was just trying to keep my composure and stay focused and stay present.”

Drew Nesbitt was the overall amateur winner with a time of 4:18:51. State College resident Garrison Famiglio was second overall and first in the male 18-24 age group at 4:25:14.

For the third consecutive year, Caroline Moyer took the amateur women’s title with a time of 4:54:18.

In a departure from the first two years, the 2025 Ironman 70.3 Happy Valley did not end inside Beaver Stadium. Instead the run course took competitors on a loop through the stadium, but the finish line was just outside on Curtin Road.

William Oldsey, chair of the HVSEA board, said the move made a better finish for athletes and their supporters.

“Families and friends of athletes can get access to their athletes just as they finish,” Oldsey said. “It was a little harder when we were in the stadium because they had to be up in the stands and they couldn’t come down on the field. So we’ve got a better model now I think. We’ve still got the special nature of having athletes in the stadium but when they finish they can be with their peeps, which is an improvement.”

The most significant change this year was the date, which fell on Father’s Day and was about two weeks earlier than the July 2 and June 30 dates of the first two years. The move was made because of a conflict with student move-in for the start of Penn State’s second summer semester.

Sunday saw about 500 fewer competitors than in 2024, and Engelbarts said the change in scheduling makes comparisons difficult.

“When you’re in my role, you like to try to keep everything the same so you can compare your years,” he said. “So yes, this is our third year, third different date, and now we’re falling on Father’s Day, which makes it all complicated when you’re looking at it.

“But we’re ecstatic they’re bringing people in, they’re staying in our hotels, eating in our restaurants, shopping in our businesses, affecting the economy. So all of that will play into it, and it’ll really kind of be just a decision between Ironman and all the different parties of what do we want to do [in the future].”

In 2024, Ironman 70.3 Happy Valley generated $3.2 million in local economic activity, according to a report by the HVSEA.

While numbers for 2025 remain to be seen, Engelbarts said the event had gone smoothly in everything from organization to the weather. which had some periodic rain, but a comfortable environment with temperatures in the 60s, cloudy skies and low humidity.

“Working with an organization like Ironman, I mean, it’s pretty much top-notch. It is as high a level of organization as you can possibly imagine. So it’s pretty easy,” Engelbarts said. “This year, everything was ironed out, including, the weather. It’s nice and cool for the athletes. So year over year, I think we’re doing pretty well.”