& Imagine emerging from the swimming portion of an Ironman Triathlon with over 2,000 athletes on your tail.

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& James "Chip" Berry is very familiar with this feeling.

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& Berry, a former All-American swimmer at Penn State, had the fastest overall swim at the Ironman competition in Lake Placid in 2009 — amateurs and professionals included.

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& "You come out of the water and they say [over the sound system], 'Chip Berry from Springfield, Virginia!' It's a pretty big rush," Berry said.

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& Although he dropped to finish 144th, for an amateur this was still a true accomplishment.

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& Berry, Class of 1996, also competed in this year's Lake Placid Ironman race. This time he finished 35th out of almost 3000 competitors — sixth in his age group — with a time of nine hours and 57 minutes, qualifying for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. On Oct. 8, Berry competed in the World Championships alongside fellow Penn State alumnus, Brad Semle.

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& Berry didn't fare as well in Hawaii, finishing 773rd out of about 1800 competitors with a time of 10 hours and 33 minutes. However, going up against some of the best triathletes in the world, he certainly didn't lose sight of his main goal coming into the race.

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& "It would have been really nice if I could have bettered my time, but really I wanted to come out of it with a good experience, and I did," Berry said.

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& And considering the sweltering heat that Berry also had to deal with, he still had a successful race.

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& "It wasn't my best race, and there were lots of times out there when I just wanted to quit," Berry said. "But, you know, I got through it and I finished a respectable time. I made it."

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& Amid dominating swim meets from his youth until the collegiate level, Chip Berry ran his first triathlon as a teenager looking to try a new sport. He didn't fall in love with it immediately, but he knew he would come back to it at some point in his athletic career.

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& Berry, who now resides in Springfield, Va., had a historic career at Penn State swimming under head coach Peter Brown. He broke Semle's 1650-meter freestyle record, one that Berry still holds today.

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& But after attending graduate school, Berry decided he was ready to embark on a new challenge.

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& "For me it's the competitive part of it," Berry said. "I like competing at something and it just so happens that I'm pretty decent at this. It's a challenge that a lot of other people don't take on."

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& He raced in his first triathlon since leaving college in June of 2002 at the age of 28. Although he has developed more confidence over the years, his mindset coming into his first event was anything but positive.

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& "I do remember showing up for that first race and thinking I was going to get my butt kicked," Berry said. "I was thinking, 'Oh I'm going to get crushed here.' "

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& On the contrary, similar to the Ironman in 2009, Berry jumped out to an early lead by finishing the swim portion before any of his competitors. He eventually finished 19th out of about 300.

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& Making his initial success as a triathlete even more impressive, Berry had very little experience biking prior to his brief training period.

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& "One thing that was pretty amazing was that he had to pretty much teach himself to ride a bike," said Chip's wife, Molly Berry.

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& From there, Berry's career took off.

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& He began competing in several triathlon events a year, consistently improving his times. Berry is now a part of the Snapple Triathlon Team, which sponsors him at his Ironman competitions.

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& For Berry, his mildly successful career as a triathlete has been much more satisfying than his extremely successful swimming career.

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& "I swam at a higher level than I compete in triathlons," Berry said. "But I never quite got the peak experience that I wanted out of swimming. I never had that one race where I thought, 'I can't do any better.' "

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& "What I'm really proud of is at Lake Placid [this year] when I had a lot of rough ups and downs during the race, I kept fighting back and I proved to myself that this is a bigger challenge than anything I'd face with swimming."

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& Berry cites his time spent swimming here at Penn State as one of the main reasons for his success in triathlons.

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& Brown, Penn State's head coach from 1984-2001, expressed hope that his program helped both Berry and also Semle to succeed in their next sport.

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& "I would like to think that their experiences as Penn State student athletes taught them a lot about the value of 'grit,' constantly striving to improve themselves, year in, year out, in spite of failures or disappointments," Brown said.

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& In regard to Berry's motivation for continuing to compete for ten years, he referenced an Ironman poster that he used to have in his room as a kid.

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& "The poster said: 'The reasons for entering have nothing to do with winning.' And that's so true."

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& Berry added Ironman competitions are one of those things where most competitors never know why they keep coming back.

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& "You do one Ironman and you always think that will be it; no one's crazy enough to do this again," he said. "And then something kind of draws you back and you end up signing up again and you convince your wife to let you sign up for another one."

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