Ironman Wisconsin - TriathlonFull Ironman

Cannon went off right at 7, very crowded. Kept getting hit in the face, goggles got knocked, got kicked a lot as well. Basically swam 3/4 of the way down with my head out of the water just to protect my face. There were a few nice open pockets, then I'd come upon a cluster I couldn't get past, or someone would swim over me and push me under. Hear the mooing as I came up to the first turn, seemed to stop once I arrived, so I started mooing like crazy which go people going again. Too funny! Was just a little wide and was able to make the turn pretty well--better than last time. Ended up going wider than I thought so really no traffic on the second side, brought it in on the second turn again with little contact. The third leg was more congested again. The sun was right in my eyes so it was hard to sight--I pretty much just followed the herd in front of me. Kept swimming up on people--some very hard to get past. Very annoying! Was swimming next to people a lot of the time even though I was initially wide--got an elbow to the head so hard the guy actually stopped and apologized. I saw stars and had quite a headache for a while. Decided to try to get in toward the buoys more, ended up inside them, with the kayaks yelling "go right"! Was able to pee along this long strip. Drifted back out, then back inside the buoys one more time, then ended up wide again coming up on the third turn. Things seemed to open up more now, and on the 4th turn I was really wide and no one was around. Peed one more time. Got all the way in with very little contact. When I got to shore I swam all the way up to the mat, tried to stand, but gravity pushed me back down. Tried to stand up again, and fell back in. The 3rd time a volunteer helped pull me up, and once I was totally upright I was fine. Got my zipper undone and arms out as I reached the strippers. My gal was great--pulled off the legs, pulled up off the ground, and gave me my wetsuit in one quick motion. Jogged slowly all the way up the helix, couldn't find Roy and Drew. Finally took the goggles and cap off my head right near the top, and went into transition.

Gosh, I don't know where to seed myself. Last time I was way inside and didn't have as much contact until the first turn. Maybe that's what I'll try next year. I was both running into people and getting run over, so I think I was the right distance back. I only did 2 swim workouts (plus the 3 races) so I could certainly do a little more swimming if I want to shave some time off. Took 5 mins off last time anyway, so was very happy about that!

Had a great volunteer this year. She dumped everything out for me, and prepared things as I asked for them. I wore my little tri shorts on the swim so changed those out to the pink chamois bike shorts, but kept the same (blue floral) try top on the whole time. The wind was bitter at the top of the helix, so I knew for sure I'd wear my new blue long sleeve jacket, but wasn't sure what to do about the windbreaker. Was going to put it on, but the volunteer said she was hot riding in at 6am with just sleeves, I wouldn't need it, so I trusted her. Glad I did!

I sprayed sunscreen on my shoulders before putting on the jacket. I never took it off so that wasted a little time, but I would have needed that sunscreen so I don't think I'd change that. Just speed things up, I guess.

Ah, the bike--my nemesis. My great fear is that you will fail me, and you did a great job at that today. We started out well, made it along the stick quite nicely, got passed by Janel around mile 4. Had a couple of tiny sips of water and gatorade but that's about it. Got to the loop, and started eating bites of the sandwich and had an ounce of Hammer. Started taking in more fluids too. Stomach seemed fine with the sandwich, so took a bike about every 5 miles or so, and Hammer every 15 like usual. Around mile 20, but left shifter started getting mushy. I had to push it all the way back to get it to flip into the big ring, and sometimes it would hesitate first, then finally pop in. By mile 28, just past the Mount Horeb aid station, it wasn't working at all and I only had my small gears. Bike tech was on the side of the road helping someone, so I pulled over and had them look at it. They tightened the cable for me, and it seemed to be working again, but only for a few shifts then it was intermittent again. Luckily I had it coming down Garfoot, so tried to take advantage of that, but after coming up Old Sauk Pass, the big ring was gone forever...

So if that's not bad enough, I start climbing up the third b*tch and my back wheel feels funny. I look down, and it's flat. Great! I'm on the middle of the hill which is not an ideal spot to clip out, so I ride a little more to get closer to the summit and clip out in the heart of all the various sponsor tents. I started yelling out for a bike tech, but of course these are all just spectators, none were part of the race. So I'm walking my bike up the hill and people are trying to encourage me to keep going, I'm doing great, etc etc., while I'm just thinking about how good I feel and how I really want to keep going. So this guy comes running up to me asking what was wrong, I told him about the gears and the flat tire. Since he was a spectator he didn't have any tools, but since I had all the stuff for my tire in my bag he changed that out for me real quick using my tube and CO2. I took advantage of that time and peed in the ditch behind some parked cars. He checked the gears for me and discovered the cable was completely frayed--nothing he could do to fix that. Thank you, kind stranger! So I get back on the bike just as bike support drives by. A bunch of spectators flagged them down and i had them look at my cable. Because all the cables run inside the frame, the mechanic said if he were in the shop it would take him 40 mins to change that out, and he didn't have that much cable with him anyway. So yes, the big gears were gone with 62 miles to go. Thank God I had my small ones, or my day would have ended there. So off I went to finish the loop. Kind of a bummer not to be able to pick up any speed on the downhills, but it is what it is!

I stopped at special needs at mile 56 to get my second sandwich and split it between the 2 baggies.I debated taking of my jacket at that time, but I was only a little over-warm, and it was protecting me from the sun so I kept it on. As I started going up valley road at mile 59, I saw bike support and decided I should have them inflate my tire the rest of the way (forgot to do that at the last stop when they were looking at my cable). Turns out I was only at 80 PSI for the last 10 miles when it should be at 120. (I keep it at 110). Well, that helped a bit! Pretty uneventful, getting used to timing when I could start to pedal on the downhills without spinning my legs off, when, coming up the first little big hill on 92 toward Mt Horeb, by back tire felt weird again. Really? Really? I look down, and have another flat! I really did laugh out loud this time. This bike is doing everything to make me DNF, but I am not going to let it! So here I am, around mile 68, walking my bike since I have no more tubes or CO2. And what's even funnier is the fact that bike support had literally driven past 10 seconds before I noticed the flat. I figured I could have as long as a half hour without help, so I just kept walking. Thank you to all the athletes who called to me to see if I needed help, especially the guy who actually stopped and tried to give me his spare tube! I probably walked 3/4 mile before bike support came. Thankfully he gave me a tube and got the tire filled up, agreed nothing could be done about the cable as he didn't have those supplies either, and I was off again. Needless to say, I was very wary the rest of the ride, just waiting for that stupid tire to go again. Both times they checked for glass, and the second guy checked the tire itself very closely for the cause of the flats. Who knows! But I made it out of the loop and onto the stick eating maybe 1/3 of the second sandwich and 3oz Hammer total. Refilled water twice, Perform twice, was pretty much empty of fluids by the time I got back to T2. The wind was out of the North which was not helpful on the ride in--insult to injury at that point.

Ride a different bike? I don't know, I got a tune up from the same shop I've gotten all my tune-ups, so whether they are to blame I'm not sure. I've had to work every day since getting back and work all weekend, so I won't be able to bring the bike in until next week to see what they say. My bike was only 8 minutes slower this year despite spending about 40 mins on the side of the road, so in my eyes I actually took half an hour off my previous time and was happy about that. Certainly have the big ring would have sped me up, but I know I'm not a strong biker, and despite riding the loops on 3 occasions this summer I need to spend a lot more training time on the bike. This is my mission for next year. Maybe I will end up with a new bike for next year as well...?! 693 people passed me on the bike portion.

Wow, legs were pretty shot getting off the bike. Every time I had to stop on the side of the road, I would ride way too hard trying to make up for lost time. I knew I shouldn't do it, but it made me crazy losing all that time doing nothing! Quads were especially bad. Grabbed my bag (not many left in the room at this point!), made it into the changing room, and the volunteer dumped everything out for me while I pulled off my shorts. Body glide again, then running shorts on with Gu and shot blox in the pockets. I had also taken the Hammer out of my bento bag to bring along giving me3 gels and 1 shot blox. Body glide to my feet, change socks, shoes on, visor on, glasses back on and only 4 minutes passed. Jogging out I saw the ART table and stopped, had them work on my quads for a couple of minutes. Since I was their only client at the time, I had 2 of them, one on each leg, so that saved time. Thought they were gonna kill me! It definitely helped, though. Didn't have to pee too badly, but figured I'd rather go here than chance it out on the course, so quick stop for that. Ended up with about the same T2 time as last year.

Not much. I think the ART minutes paid off as I had NO quad issues at all on the run. Peeing here was smart too as I didn't go at all on the run.

Was determined to run a lot more this time and only walk the biggest hills in order to get the run time down. Definitely wanted to be less than 6 hours. Started out with a 10-min pace which then became 11, then downhill from there. Started with Coke right away. Saw Roy and Drew right at the SN area, good motivation right away, saw them again at the turn around, Jackie and Curt from the gym were there too. Legs got really heavy, tight in the glutes and hamstrings. Did great from a nutrition standpoint and thankfully had no issues there--I think I finally have that figured out for this distance (3rd Ironman's a charm!). I pretty much just listened to what my body wanted. If my stomach was sloshing I'd take in Coke. If my legs felt tight or crampy I'd drink broth. If I felt thirsty I'd drink water. I pretty much ran between aid stations and had generous walks through each one. I never did have any gu or shotblox. I added bananas on the second loop when the leg cramps seemed to increase. They always let up after bananas and broth, thankfully! Unfortunately, they did run out of Coke at a couple of the aid stations along the lakeshore path, but not completely out everywhere like they did in 2010. With about 5 miles to go, there was really only me and another guy who were still jogging--everyone else was walking. We kept passing each other back and forth when one would stop for a bit, and at mile 23 I came up on him walking. I told him he needed to run with me, that we can do a 5k no problem, and that we needed to finish this running so we could break 16 hours. He joined me and we just kept going faster and faster until his diaphragm started to cramp up. We walked a bit and chatted--he was from Aurora IL, had a ton of family here cheering for him, and this was his first IM. I told him about the magic of the finish line--to take it all in, savor it, high 5 everyone in the chute, and to smile for the Ironmanlive camera. My friend Kelly was working the capital aid station, so I told him I was going to stop there to say hi to her, and he needed to go ahead to enjoy his time through the chute. I found Kelly and had a sip of water from her (we had skipped the last 2 aid stations), then jogged toward the finish. I was high-fiving everyone along the right side, and just as planned, Roy and Drew were right in the corner at the left turn. Drew came out to give me a big hug and kiss, and said he wished he could cross the finish line with me. I left them and headed the final block to the finish. I was still high-fiving everyone along the right side, and one of the hands yelled my name and grabbed my hand--it was Steve! I was sobbing the last 20 feet coming in as Mike Reilly announced my name. Just before the finish I raised my hands to heaven to thank God for getting me here, then pointed at the camera, mouthed "thank you" and blew kisses to the camera as I knew my parents were watching from Florida even though it was almost midnight their time. The volunteers gave me my finisher medal, shirt, and hat, and I found my "friend"--I said I din't even know his name and looked his bib--you did it Tim! He gave me a huge hug and said "it was everything you said it would be, thanks for making me run in with you". Now that REALLY made my day. I found Roy and Drew just outside the finish area, and Steve came up shortly after. They went to get the bikes but because they took my ticket and the other one was at the hotel, I had to go transition to get my own bags. Drew was so sweet, he was trying to hold me up, and when the typical nausea, dizziness, and "I'm going to pass out" feelings came and I had to lay on the ground to get blood into my head, he laid down with his head on my stomach. He also "massaged" my calves for me. I tried to eat some pizza, but that gave me stabbing stomach pain, so I had to toss that after only 2 bites. Once we had everything I was starting to feel better, and actually did ok so long as I kept moving, and we walked to the truck which was parked a few blocks away. Back to the alliant center to transfer everything to steve's van, then back to the hotel. Roy had to get Drew home--still an hour drive. We let him sleep in the next day and go to school after lunch.

I was very happy that I did much less walking, but my pace got so slow for a while that some walkers were going as fast as me! I think I can push more to go faster next time. And hopefully I'll have all my bike gears next time, which should help me on the run as well. Nutrition was perfect, although I think I'll start bananas sooner as well.

Got back to the hotel and took a super hot shower for 10 mins and tried to do some stretching. Then put the water to cold for another 10 mins.


Well, I do need to train more, esp on the bike. And not have so many bike issues!


I am determined to get my time into the 14-hr range. Would have been close this year, so I know I can take another half hour off next year to succeed. Just gotta put more time into it, but had an especially stressful summer. Fortunately no broken bones or other health issues for this race!