Ironman Wisconsin - TriathlonFull Ironman

Goal time: 1:00 - 1:05
Actual time: 1:10:32

*Sigh* This swim was really pointless. It was mostly a 2-mile fight, with a little bit of swimming here and there. Spent most of my time for the first half in head-up swimming or in some sort of dog paddle mode. Every single turn buoy was stand-still traffic and people trying to swim over everyone else. Even the buoys in between turns were chaotic, because I guess people funneled toward them once they were close enough to see them.

I've done a couple IMs before so I knew to expect some chaos, but this was by far the most violent swim I have been in yet. I think swimming brings out the worst in people. If you were in a traffic jam in your car you wouldn't try to monster truck everyone in front of you. You wouldn't do that in the bike or run either. So why act like a psycho during the swim, especially since it's so dangerous? Fortunately I was prepared to repel people, so when anyone tried to swim over me I immediately flipped them back off of me, and I had no problem giving hip checks to anyone who tried to push me around. I didn't use my arms on anyone, but I definitely had no tolerance for anyone pushing me around. Overall I did a good job at defending my position, but still the pace of the swim was just so slow. I couldn't swim a normal stroke at all until the second loop. That's over a mile of completely crappy swimming.

The low-point of the swim was at the final turn buoy where someone climbed on top of me. Like, REALLY on top of me. I was pretty pissed off by then, especially since it was the LAST freakin' turn, so I reached back with my pulling arm, grabbed his chest, and did a double donkey kick with a spin to flip him off of me. It was a pretty awesome move, but it induced bad cramps in both calves. I had to sit there and bob for a couple minutes waiting for my cramps to subside, just a couple hundred meters from the finish. It made the swim very anticlimactic. Once the cramps went away I slowly finished but took it easy. The lesson: lifting people up with your feet can cause cramps.

Given the constant traffic jam I was surprised to still pull off a 1:10:xx. Without the cramps it would have been 1:08, so that wasn't super far off of my goal. However, it just makes me wonder how well I could have done without an insane degree of crowdedness.

Apparently I have to do a balls-to-the-wall sprint at the start in order to get ahead of the chaos, because people near the 1-hour mark didn't report as much trouble as I had. I lined up in the second row but was immediately crushed by the crowd.

The truth is that this course needs to be 2 loops. They have a whole lake to work with, and if we are still fighting at turn buoys 1.5 miles into the race, something is wrong with the course and capacity.

Goal time: 5:00
Actual time: 6:29

I was a little annoyed that the volunteers in T1 insisted on helping me even when I told them I didn't want help. As nice as they were, they messed up my whole system. For example, instead of letting me just put on my race belt myself, they buckled it and told me to step through it. And they tried to dress me. I didn't like it. I put extra things in my T1 bag just in case I wanted them (e.g., socks, leg warmers), so the volunteers tried to put that stuff on me, but I didn't really want them.

I got a sweet transition spot--the third rack from the exit. As I approached my bike I ran off to the side so that my number would be visible to everyone, but they couldn't relay my number faster than I could run. I wound up grabbing my bike off of the rack myself. Not a huge deal though.

Had no problem getting into my pedals and up to speed.



Obviously I need to run a little faster, because the volunteer thing doesn't explain a whole 90 seconds of lost time.

Goal time: 5:53
Actual time: 5:38:24

Goal Power: 180 W
Actual Power: 175 W
Actual Cadence: 89 rpm

I wasn't too thrilled with the first 30 miles of this race. It was a draft-fest. I admit I drafted like crazy, because it was all you could do. It lightened up a bit once you got to Mt. Horeb, but then the blocking epidemic kicked in. People rode all the way in the center of the lane, and I had to yell at people constantly so that I could get by. I felt bad doing that because it made me look like a big jerk, but I was later vindicated when they started handing out yellow cards to the people around me.

Except for the crowdedness and some crazy scary passing, it was an uneventful ride, which is a good thing. The first loop was easy. On the second loop the big 3 hills kinda got to me. My hamstring cramped on the first hill. On the second hill I got some kind of strange groin/quad cramp, and on the third hill my calf cramped up. All in the same leg. I fought through it, which was tricky to do while still putting out 350 W up a hill, but cramping would become a problem again during the run.

My nutrition strategy was to eat and drink as much as my belly could hold. I popped endurolytes too. I think it was a good approach. The Powerbar Perform drink didn't bother me, even though I had never used it in the past. Had no trouble grabbing aid at speed at the stations.

I definitely overachieved on the bike, but it turns out my powertap was lying to me the whole time. It read 20.9 mph and 193 W by the time I finished, but that was totally wrong. The data were correct when I downloaded them later, so I don't understand why it displayed crazy numbers during the race. I slowed my power down to 110-120 W for the finishing stick because I thought I had a huge margin above my goal. If I knew the truth I would have kept pushing.

As a detail, I rode without sunglasses and that worked out really well.

This is the second time my powertap lied to me during a race. I need to rely on it less.

Goal time: 3:00
Actual time: 2:41

Wasn't sure if a flying dismount was allowed, so I didn't take one. It didn't matter though. I run fine with cycling shoes.

Volunteers tried to help me again, but I more forcefully refused this time. Popped on my socks, shoes, headband and sunglasses and off I went.

I made up a couple of seconds from my slow T1. Honestly these seconds/minutes didn't turn out to matter in the end. I wasn't getting to Hawaii or anything.

Flying dismount.

Goal time: 3:30
Actual time: 3:51:20

Other goal: Run every step of the marathon. No walking!


This was the ugliest part of the race for me. I decided to start out conservatively, shooting for 3:30 (slower than training pace), and then at the halfway point I would make adjustments as necessary. I chose this strategy because it would basically guarantee a 10:30 finish (started the run at 7:58). It turns out that I was wrong, but not because of fitness. The cramps that started in the final miles of the bike limited me during the whole run.

Mile 3 was when the first cramp struck. A calf cramp. So I stopped and stretched it out. It's a long race so what do I care? Unfortunately I had to stop pretty much every mile to stretch out some sort of cramp in that leg. If I went too fast I would get a cramp. If I went up a hill I would get a cramp. If I went DOWN a hill I would get a cramp. So I had to ratchet down the effort considerably and stop often. I also had to battle the heat a little bit. I covered myself in sponges and tried to drink a lot at aid stations. I felt pretty hot the whole time, and my head was kind of in a cloud. I don't think I looked real happy during this run.

Despite the cramps, my first loop was reasonably good. I saw the 4th and 5th (er, 5th and 6th?) place finishers sprint it out when I passed by the finish line. That was pretty cool.

The second loop wasn't so good. I didn't get anything but water between miles 13 and 18, because by now there were more people on the run course and the aid stations were crowded. I run through aid stations, but a lot of people walk through, so walkers were crowded all around the good stuff. Finally at mile 18 I couldn't wait anymore and had to stop to grab some energy drink stuff.

My average pace steadily slowed throughout the 2nd loop. I feel like I had to stop more often to deal with cramps this time. When I hit the final mile, I bonked. I was lightheaded and thought I was going to faint. I stopped to lean against a tree and maybe even take a little nap. People encouraged me to walk it in, but I muttered something about having to run the whole thing and refused their advice. I think the missed aid stations caught up to me. I eventually managed to get back to running, and I'm proud to say that even though I stopped about 50 times I didn't walk at all.

My time was way slower than I expected. But hey that's how the ironman goes sometimes. 10:30 would be nice, but this was still a PR by about 100 minutes.

Not skip aid stations.

Got a massage. Ate a ton of food. Walked home. Ran a fever for the next 24 hours as my body must have been rebuilding like crazy.


Swim: the crowds
Bike/Run: leg cramps. I don't think it was electrolytes, but rather fatigue. My longest bike ride in training was 88 miles after all.

I thought a 10:30 was a reasonable goal, and I still think it was, given my level of fitness, but it just didn't work out this time.


The good:

The volunteer and crowd support at this race is great. I wish I was coherent enough to appreciate all the fans lining State Street and the hills on the bike. I was very concerned about the road quality on the bike course going into the race, but it turned out not to be a problem. They repaved some sections just in time for the race and if you run 110 PSI you won't feel most of the bumps.

The bad:

The run aid stations ran out of cola very early. Some speculate that it's because people didn't like the new Powerbar perform drink and took more cola than usual. I didn't like the finisher's shirt because it's a tech shirt. I would rather have a cotton shirt and even tried to buy one at the expo but they were sold out. Definitely shop the expo early.

The ugly:

This race has serious issues with capacity. The swim is far too crowded, especially in the 1:05-1:10 range. The bike course is very crowded as well. If you have a goal of reaching T2 within 8 hours, you might have to use risky behavior to accomplish it with these crowds.

I considered signing up again for next year, but I think I would need big improvements to get fast enough to get clear of the swim chaos, so I ultimately decided against it.