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 Swim
Comments: My biggest fears were realized when I started swimming. The waves were extremely choppy on the opposite side. I started from the shore and after waiting a couple minutes, I said screw it and dove in and started. I was feeling good the first length. I was free styling and sighting off a person to the right of me, who I prayed was going the right way. I had a plan on being close to the buoys but really never worked out that way. I ended up far right most of the time. As I turned to come back the other way, I tried keeping up with free styling. But I got sea sick from the waves. As soon as I would lift my head to breathe on the side, the wave would dip and I would get completely disoriented. So I started breast stroking. I was cursing the whole time because I thought I was not going to make the cut off times at that pace. As I made the turn to start teh second lap, I resumed free styling. But I was still a little shaken up by the waves. The whole time, on the first lap, I had managed to get by without getting hit or run into swimmers by staying far right so I tried it again. But I made a big mistake. I went completely off course, almost hitting the shore before a kayaker came by to tell me to turn left. I decided to hook onto his kayak for a sec to get my bearings. "Hey, great day to swim" I yelled at him. He laughed and told me I was doing well. I thanked him and kept going. I must've added 10 minutes getting back on course. The 2nd time around, I breast stroked on the other side. Seeing the end, I started sprinting. I felt really good. I couldn't believe I did the whole swim thing, 70% breast stroking. I got out of the water and saw I had done much better than expected. What would you do differently?: I wished I had more experience with dealing with waves. Next time, I'll try to stay more on course. Maybe try to stick with an experienced swimmer and draft off of him/her.  Transition 1
Comments: Saw my parents and family on the side. Almost fell in the porta potty. Noticed it was starting to rain. What would you do differently?: Nothing. I was happy with taking my time. My wetsuit popped right off. I was kinda stupid for drying off. Little did I know it would be a long day of rain.  Bike
Comments: Water included: I had nightmares of the bike course. Researched it to death. Watched stu's video. Imagined it would be sunny and painfully hot. Couldn't been more exactly opposite. I bought a bento box and it worked wonders. I stuck my pills and cliff shot blocks in plastic baggies in them. I started popping Endurlytes at the start of the bike. I had Gu in bottles that I was going to squeeze out but I thought about it and decided to leave them. Thinking of shaving valuable pounds off my bike. Big mistake. Aid stations started running out of Gu on my second lap. So I was riding, feeling pretty good. Fans were great. Verona was a bastion of high hope. I loved how they were staged around the hills, screaming and cheering us on where we needed them the most. I think I over worried the level of hills. They weren't all that bad. I actually kept in my saddle and got up each hill 9 mph. The fans powered me up most of the later ones. The steepness wasn't all that bad. For the rollers, I stuck with a conserative strategy and just let me speed downhill take me almost all the way up hill. I actually at one point started looking forward to the hills because going up them, my HR would pump up and I would feel somewhat warmer. I started running out of nutrition midway thru the race. I couldn't get any Gu and started chomping on my cliff shot blocks. I found out this later, but they contain caffeine. I stopped maybe 10 times that bike ride to pee. Gave me time to stretch and reflect on the beautiful scenery. I got kinda bored of looking at the road and praying I wouldn't get a flat or fall so I started reading the signs people had up for the racers. There was this chick- bib 2185 who had a sign up almost every 10 miles with some weird inside joke. Couldn't really understand any of them but her fan support was terrific. I couldn't believe it when I saw the 100 miles mark sign. I was almost yelped in glee. The rain was hitting me nonstop and I wasn't hydrating really from the gatorade. The rain water was enough. I was planning on drinking 5 bottles down. Ended up finishing two. Kinda indicative to how cold and rainy the day was. Not surprisingly the weather wreaked havoc on bikers. People everywhere were changing tires and flats. My bike's chain kept sliding off when I changed from the big chain to smaller one. So I just kept in the smaller chain gear. I was at mile 102 or so and this racer ahead of me. I think her name was Karen. She was making a left turn. And she ate it. She slid down, her helmet and head hit the concrete hard. As I passed her, I saw blood pouring down. She was more pissed than hurt though. She slammed her fist into the ground. Watching her fall scared me so much. I wanted to stop and help her but the cops at the intersection had already gotten to her. I hope she finished. I can't express in words (but I'll try) how much the fans meant to me on the bike course. I expected a lot of them to leave after it started raining and continued raining. But they stuck it out. I will never forget them and the volunteers. A lot of them couldn't pronounce my name so they called me the Michellin man (wore the michellin man jersey). What would you do differently?: I played it really conserative. I held back because of the weather. But I really could've pushed myself and maybe had a sub 7 hour ride. I ended up finishing the second lap stronger and faster than the first lap. Transition 2
Comments: Saw my family as I turned around. Everyone around me was shivering uncontrollably. I didn't want to think about it. Just kept moving and chanting, 26.2. I popped out running and feeling good. What would you do differently?: Nothing  Run
Comments: Running is my strength or so I thought as I started with my friend. We met up in the transition area and I waited for him. I ran with him for 7 miles. I was feeling great. Visualizing or flirting with the idea of 13 hours. But then everything went horribly wrong. It started from my feet to my legs to my hips, everything just ached. It felt like 1000 little men hitting me with little itty bitty hammers. The rain also soured my mood. It was unrelenting. I had jokingly put a poncho into my special needs bag. Oh man was I happy to be reunited with it. I had my sponge bob watch on too to make sure I was making the cut off times. I didn't realize how hilly the downtown was. I was even hurting walking up hill. I was disappointed with my marathon part. It could've been different if I maybe had trained more by bricking biking with running. I don't know but as soon as I finished, I wanted to do another IM or at least the marathon part. The finish- I had my flag out. I had my dad on my left side and my friend on the right. Couldn't be any more happier. I heard my name being chanted out. Wished it had stopped raining. What would you do differently?: see above. Post race
Warm down: Pizza and subs. I just wanted to change out of my clothes and get dry. Event comments: Weather weather weather. Too hot, too cold, I feel like goldilocks here. Hopefully next year will be nicer. Thanks for reading and I wish you the best of luck if you are planning on doing next year's Ironman Wisconsin. The course was great, fans rock, city amazing. I have a couple regrets but little on attempting to do my first IM. Last updated: 2006-09-13 12:00 AM
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United States
Ironman North America
50F / 10C
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 1882/2439
Age Group = 18-24
Age Group Rank = 80/87
I've been waiting for this moment for so long. Before doing the Ironman, I researched it as thoroughly as possible. I read race reports, watched Stu's videos. I wanted to write a race report because I thought reading other people's past IM race reports really helped me a lot prepare for what was expected or unexpected.
A little about me- I started a thread in the Iron forum with the title "Training for an Ironman in 23 weeks" in April. I absolutely at that point of posting had no clue what I was getting myself into. I had done maybe two marathons and never was much of a swimmer/biker. I didn't have a bike yet and was contemplating the dream of an IM. I wanted to do the Collegiate Championship. Madison is really close to Chicago and I've heard it's a beautiful city. Halloweens are insane. Some people on BT gave me the thumbs up, a lot told me I was crazy. But I decided to go ahead and enter.
Training:
I followed the beginner ironman plan on this site religiously. With the exception of the swimming, I did everything that was written. I started the plan with the IM 23 weeks away.
I had to start from scratch with the swimming. I couldn't even really swim 25 meters free style without getting completely winded. So I just kept plugging at it. First doing 500 meters continuously, alternating 1:1 free style and breaststroke. Then kicking it up to 1000, 1500, 2000, and eventually 3000 meters. Eventually I felt like a fish in the water. It took me about 10 weeks before I actually started believing that I would be able to survive an IM swim. I did some open water swims in the ocean with my friends who were also training for a shorter triathlon. Little did I know how this would pay off later on in the race (but jumping ahead of myself).
Biking was probably the easiest event to train for but the part of the IM I feared the most. I live in Westchester, New York aka surbubia or tons of trees. I didn't have trouble finding great bike trails to ride on. Only problem was that there were no hills on the trails. I started to worry as my mileage started to increase that I wasn't going to be prepared for Wisconsin. I heard the hills were brutual. I started sprinkling in some hills here and there. But they were small and very steep. I completed a 100 mile bike ride about a month before the IM. Surprisingly, I survived and felt really good the next day.
Running- longest run I went on was about 2 hours and 20 minutes. I didn't do the 3 hour run scheduled on the program (in hindsight, wished I had). I got kinda lazy and complacent with my running. I wasn't having troubles with doing the long runs. I figured that I couldn't train for the pain I would be feeling running in IM.
Interesting stuff before race- I flew into the airport. It was small but extremely nice (couches are comfy). I met a lot of people doing the IM. I sat next to a pediatriac surgeon who was doing it as training for his later IM Hawaii (general lottery entry). He told me it was his second one and he had been using the online Mark Allen training program. He was only going to do the swimming and biking and then stop at the running. To not tempt himself with finishing it, he decided to put a beer into his bike to run bag instead of running shoes. I was almost jealous of his plan. Contemplated putting a beer in my special needs bag during the run. The people I met at Monona and during the race, I will never forget them. Kinda cheesy but I felt like we bonded over the bad weather.
So woke up at 4:30. Downed two ensures. Almost puked. That stuff is horrible. Doesn't taste like a milk shake. I also ate a couple fig newtons. I didn't sleep well the night before. I tried getting 6 hours but couldn't fall asleep until like 1 or so. I took the bus from the Alliant Energy center. Got tagged and then put on wetsuit. Put some food into my bento box and went down to the swim start. The area was packed. I could barely see the water. They started herding us into the water after the pros started. I stuck with my conserative strategy of hanging on the side. I didn't want to be stuck in the middle or front, getting hammered by swimmers. Apparently, I wasn't the only one doing this. There were 1100 first time IMers and a couple hundred were hanging back on the shore. I heard over the speakers someone say that this was largest swim start ever for IM. A lot of swimmers in the water cheered.