ATLANTA – A Georgia Tech sophomore has made history after competing in one of the toughest challenges in the country.

Second-year biomedical engineering student Jacob Beldick is now the youngest person to complete Ultraman Florida – a three-day, 320-mile challenge that tested him to his limits.

Local perspective:

The triathlon almost forced Beldick to give up. Instead, he doubled down, and now he’s sharing his message of perseverance and resilience.

“When I crossed the finish line, it was actually a really different experience than what I thought it was gonna be,” Beldick told Good Day Atlanta.

He called the race one of the most intense experiences of his life.

On the first day of the triathlon, participants hit the lake for a six-mile swim.

Beldick trained for this in the pool at Georgia Tech’s recreation center, but he wasn’t expecting how strong the winds would be on competition day.

“I’m getting thrown around by the waves,” he said. “It was crazy.”

He ended up swimming eight miles, then he still had 90 more to go on his bike.

On day two, Beldick got back on the bike for 261 miles. That’s when fate threw a curveball.

“Around mile 85 of the bike, I ended up getting a flat tire and noticed that the saddle for my bike had broken,” he said.

And that’s not all.

“I was having just extreme lower back pain,” he said. “The best way I found to describe it would be imagining if someone took a power drill and dug it into your lower spine.”

Dig deeper:

As a beginner, Beldick didn’t have an official team behind him – just the love and support from his mom and dad, who also had no experience with such an intense race.

But Beldick said he found help along the way.

“They were fully prepared to do the entire three days just helping me out, but we got lucky, and a couple down there that’s been very involved in Ultraman ended up helping us on Day 2 and 3. They realized my parents were getting me to the finish line, but they were struggling a bit just with the logistics.”

After all the adversity, Beldick survived and moved on to the double marathon on the third day.

It took him a little over 11 hours to run the 52.4-mile course.

It may seem impossible to some, but Beldick had months and months of training to pull from.

“Around this track, I did a lot of running. Two to four hours was generally my sweet spot,” he told Good Day at Georgia Tech. “My shorter training days were around the 10-12 mile mark, and then my longer days would go over a marathon distance.”

The sophomore challenged his mind, too.

“A lot of that had to do with mastering my thought process. While I was actually in the training sessions, I would stimulate exercises where I wouldn’t have access to water for a bit, or I might not have access to my nutrition all the time. Maybe I’d run out of electrolytes and have to go a few miles before I catch up with my crew.” 

What’s next:

After all of the ups and downs, the moment came. Beldick raised his arms in victory as he crossed the finish line. His total time was 35 hours, 17 minutes, and 20 seconds.

Beldick’s total time was 35 hours, 17 minutes, and 20 seconds. (Courtesy of Jacob Beldick)

But for him, that wasn’t the ultimate reward.

“When someone is trying to achieve something great, the actual reward for getting there isn’t the actual reward,” he said. “The real reward lies in the type of person they become by putting themselves through that challenge.”

It was a double celebration for Beldick after finishing the race. He turned 20 years old the day after the competition.

He’s now qualified for Ultraman Hawaii but he doesn’t have plans to compete. Instead, he is thinking about doing a 100-mile race to raise money and awareness for Save a Child’s Heart, a charity that helps underprivileged children get access to treatments for various heart conditions.