Ironman Wisconsin - TriathlonFull Ironman

I suck at swimming, by far my biggest weakness. The switch to a one loop course was supposed to improve the contact, but I felt I was boxed in for pretty much the entire swim. Which is odd since I'm so slow, there couldn't have been that many people left in the water. I also didn't like that I couldn't check my pace the way you could at turns 2 and 4 of the old course. I finished the swim exactly one second faster than in 2010. Woohoo, two years of master's classes paying off!

What can I do. I suck at swimming.

My wetsuit got caught first on my watch and then on my timing chip, which probably cost me about 30 seconds. The two poor strippers were frantically pulling and apologizing. I wasn't worried about the extra time and just relaxed while they did their job.

Saw my wife and boys near the sunscreen ladies and went over for a high five, then I was off. At least off to the johnnies. Damn coffee.

It is a bit depressing to see all the empty bike racks. On the other hand, it sure does make it easy to find your bike.

Apparently make sure my watch and timing chip are under my wetsuit.

My taint and my bike have never been on good terms. About two months ago I bought a Cobb saddle and dropped my seat height, dear lord what a difference that made. Confindent with my new found comfortable-ness, I went out looking to improve on my none-too-stellar 7:00 bike time. First half flew by. Felt great spinning up hills and pedaling down them, passing a lot of people on the way who decided to coast down. I love this bike course, and the number of fans seems to have doubled since 2010. Also, much love to the pace booty in the white shorts, whoever you were.

The second loop went just as smooth and fast, with one exception. The temps were so low that I wasn't sweating, but I also didn't change my nutrition plan which included a lot of drinking (it was tough training in the St. Louis summer this year). That meant I had to pee, often. Try as I might, I could not pee on the bike. I ended up stopping four times. That's also when I found out that maybe my saddle wasn't quite as fine tuned as I thought. It burned to pee. It literally buckled my knees it hurt so bad. I can only assume this is what chlamydia feels like.

Overall this was one of the best bike rides I've ever had. Aside from the STD-like bathroom breaks that probably added a good 5 minutes to my time, I rode strong and fast (for me) throughout. Ended up passing about 750 people, which is both a testament to my improved biking skills and my horrible swimming skills.

I really need to learn how to pee on the bike. Stopping four times is just ridiculous.

One more (painful)stop at the johnny. Otherwise, in and out in 3:17. I was pretty happy with that.

Again, figure out how to pee on the bike.

Intentionally left my GPS watch and home so that I could run by effort. I run a 3:30 stand alone marathon, and I'm pretty sure if the stars aligned I could run an Ironman marathon in under 4 hours. So when I saw my first mile was 7:30 I knew I better back way off before this run blows up in my face. It just felt so effortless. The first three or four miles flew by while I willed myself to run slower. Even walking through each aid station I was running 8:00 miles. By about mile five I had finally managed to settle in to a comfortable 9:00 pace. That's also about the time my stomach revolted. Solid food wasn't an option, gels definitely weren't going down, so I switched to Coke and water, and when they finally started serving it, the broth. But I still threw up about a 1/4 mile after every single aid station. Not full on vomiting, just bringing up whatever I had tried to swallow down. How many people can say they've vomited on the field at Camp Randall Stadium, three times (sorry 'Sconnies).

Around the halfway point, I realized if I could finish with 9:00/miles I'd come in under 4 hours on the run and 12 hours on the day. But by that point my pace had creeped up to about 9:30 and I took the easy way out. I would have had to stop walking the aid stations and I was afraid that would just make my stomach issues worse.

Once I decided to not push the run, I settled in to having fun. I stopped and hugged my kids each time I passed them, danced on command at an aid station, high-fived every little kid I saw. It's amazing how much better you can feel when you let the crowd pick you up. The group of four ladies that had the sign "She's not wearing underwear either" were the greatest. Around mile 23 I decided I felt good enough to go ahead and end this race. No more walking from that point on. My legs were pretty tired, but as the crowd grew heading back to State St, the pain just disappeared. Did a full-on (sort of) sprint around the Capital and made the final turn. Since I was already bunched up behind four or five people, I stopped when I heard someone yell out my name. It was my sister holding my youngest. Went back and gave my little man a big kiss, then headed down to the finish line. Some guy went flying past me in an all out kick about 3 seconds before the finish. Kind of made me laugh. Heard Mike Reilly call out my name for the second (and hopefully not the last) time, and for some stupid reason decided I had to throw up a Usian Bolt pose. To di world! I may have been a bit delirious by that point. It's probably for the better that I did it a step before the finish line and therefore it doesn't show up in my actual finish line pictures.

I was so very tempted to push the last 13 miles and try for both a sub 4 hour marathon and a sub 12 hour race. It would have been fun to see if I made it or crumbled. But in the end I'm not upset for playing it conservative. I finished with a smile and before the sun had set. And I passed another 300 people on the run, so really I can't complain.

Finish line catchers led me through the crowd to get my medal, shirt, and hat, then over to the post race photo. Possibly one of the worst pictures of me ever. Photographer snapped it right as I started to tilt to the side and had to be caught by the guy next to me. After that, sat down and revelled in my glory. Then my two kids jumped in my lap and it was back to the real world. Gathered my bike and bags and walked the mile back to our hotel. Hobbled back out to State Street to eat dinner on the sidewalk and cheer on the other athletes. Amazing to see the different attitudes as it neared midnight and athletes headed in to that last half mile. Some continued the death march, while others looked like they're running on air.


I missed so many workouts in July and August that surely would have led to better times. But I also improved all three legs and both transition times, and knocked over an hour off my overall time. So really, I have absolutey nothing to complain about.


Can't stress how much I love the course, the fans, and the volunteers. As much as I'd like to try other Ironman races, I don't know that the Madison experience could be topped.