Madison, Wisconsin United States Ironman North America 62F / 17C

Total Time = 11h 46m 29s Overall Rank = 531/2207 Age Group = M40-44 Age Group Rank = 82/305

I have notoriously long race reports. I also always like to give a little background leading up to the race. Jump ahead if you just want the race details (and it will still be long!).

As far as my training was concerned, I had originally hoped that I would be cruising off my fitness gains from Lanzarote. Unfortunately, due to a toe issue (general health, not overuse issue), I had stopped almost all of my training for about 5 weeks. I had to scramble again to build my fitness and had okay results at the Door County tri (half IM) 6 weeks out from IM Moo. I didn't think I was ready (for the SF Marathon 4 weeks out from IM Moo, but I surprised myself at how well I did. Three weeks out, I felt strong on a moderate century. So, fortunately, I felt pretty good about my training level again by the time IM Moo rolled around.

Wednesday
Flew to Madison. Came out this early because I had no idea how my toe would react again to flying. Fortunately, my toe ended up being a non-issue (ironically, I would later stub it very badly when I slipped and almost fell running to my connecting flight at O'Hare on my return. at least it was AFTER the race). Turns out DW won't be able to join me at this race because of work, but I do have one of my best friends KL (she was my best man at my wedding!) coming up from Chicago on Friday. I stayed at the Sheraton on John Nolen Drive at the end of Rimrock. Given that I booked this fairly late, this was a great option for getting to Monona Terrace for everything as well as easy access to the start of out/back section of the bike course, and running near the lake. The disadvantage is that there isn't much within immediate walking distance of the hotel.

Thursday
Raining today. Not clear what it means for Sunday. Did some grocery shopping for supplies and such.

Went for a short little run to loosen up my legs. Put together my bike. My rear brake was sticking. Took it over to Williamson Bikes and they took care of my very quickly.

Had Nepalese food at Himal Chuli, which DW and I didn't have time at which to eat when we were here 6 weeks ago. I had the Tuck-Pa, a "very spicy vegetarian Tibetan herder's soup mixed with broccoli, cabbage,carrots, and mushrooms in a blend of Nepali herbs" with momocha (vegetarian steamed dumplings) and roti (flat bread leavened with yogurt). Because it was a soup, it wasn't quite as substantial as I had wanted, so I probably would have been better off with one of the Tarkari's they had available.

Friday
Went to the swim start for the gatorade swim (gatorade had a booth set up where you could check in a bag while you swam and they'd give you gatorade when you were done). Was supposed to meet up with the BT group, but there were so many people here and I had no idea what anyone looked like (all look same...kidding) or what they were wearing so I just went ahead and swam myself.

Water was pretty warm to me (low 70s) since I'm used to doing my OWS in the SF Bay (low 60s would be warm) and the water had likely cooled off thanks to all the rain the previous day. But it was nice. Was trying to stay in taper mode so I didn't want to do a whole loop. I only swam out to a few buoys and back.

After the swim, i went over to registration. Pretty long line already of people waiting for registration to open at 10:00. Everyone was wearing race t-shirts and such from various triathlons, marathons, etc. It's kinda interesting how everyone is identifying themselves with the race they did. Of course, I certainly can't be critical of anyone since I'm wearing my Wildflower t-shirt.

Registration was well organized and briskly. It wasn't crowded at all because they had various stations for the registration very much spread out in the convention center (on different floors, in different areas) so no area was crowded and waits were all brief.

I went to the fairly large NA Sports booth set up to sell all the stuff. i bought two IM Moo t-shirts, a bike jersey, and a tri top. Almost $200, which wasn't horrible (esp. compared to when I bought less at IM Lanzarote for about 200 euros...ouch). They no doubt do good business on merchandising.

I was a little surprised to (later) find that there wasn't an athlete's race guide/program in my race bag (not sure if this was the case for everyone or just me). I ended up going online to find out that the "mandatory" pre-race talk was at 7:30pm and signups for the 2009 race were 9-11 on saturday.

In the afternoon, I went for a short ride since I wanted to make sure my bike was okay. I did the out section to Verona (the start of the loop which is done twice on race day). There weren't many people out on the course, but there were a good number who seemed to be driving the course. DW and I did this stretch and one loop on the course when we were out here 6 weeks ago so I knew what to expect. I was surprised at how good I felt (tapering works!) and seemed to cover the out section to Verona pretty quickly. Ride back was equally speedy and uneventful.

My best friend KL (she was my best man at my wedding) arrived from Chicago at about 6pm. I haven't seen her for a year and a half. She'll be able to stay about halfway through the race before heading back to chicago. I'm thankful to be able to spend the time with her and have her for any part of the race she can.

We took off to Essen Haus for some German food for dinner. Okay, maybe German food isn't the best choice for pre-race food, but i did pick something fairly innocuous, the Huhner Schnitzel (chicken breast sauteed in a Marsala wine sauce with onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and garlic. also came with fried potatoes and sauerkraut (yum)) after starting with the split pea soup. KL started with the liver dumpling soup (I had to have a taste of course) and sauerbraten. She also ordered a side of spaetzle, which actually wasn't very good. She also had an Optimator (had a taste...yum...and I was bummed I couldn't drink myself). We also ended up having the apfel strudel and the chocolate mousse torte for dessert. i just had a small bite of each and really wasn't that impressed with either.

Time flew by and suddenly we were going to be late for the pre-race talk. We hurried over to Monona Terrace and by the time we arrived at the auditorium, they were already talking about the bike. There was reference to no passing zones on the bike ride (but they obviously had mentioned them previously), so I didn't know exactly where they were. I also didn't know exactly how the transitions were going to work (I knew they were in the convention center). I wasn't too worried about it since I figured the transitions would be a bit more obvious when I did my bag drop on Saturday.

It's strange...I have to admit that I was feeling very unworried and almost blase/unmotivated about the whole race. maybe it was because I had already done my A+++ race this year. maybe it was because DW wasn't here. i wasn't quite sure to make of it.

Saturday
Saturday morning, I finished packing up my transition bags. My tires are mostly flat just from overnight, so i want to make sure they are okay. I inflate them both and neither one of us hear any air leaking so I assume it's just a slow leak and I'll need to inflate them right before the race. no biggie.

KL and I headed over to drop off the bags and my bike. Could see the whole length of the parking structure on level 4 would be the bike holding area. Could see that after the swim, we would be running from the helix and into the convention center. I dropped of T1 bag in one room and T2 bag in the other. Then downstairs to the IM 2009 race pre-registration.

KL and I then checked out the shops inside the convention and the ones outside near the finish, but nothing of interest. We headed over to State St. so she could see that area and a bit of the campus. Had lunch at Kabul restaurant for some Afghani food. I had the Karayi Murgh (chicken breast sauteed ith onions, tomoatoes, green peppers, topped with poached eggs, served with seasoned rice) and a cup of mashawa soup (chick peas, kidney beans, split peas, rice, meat, dollop of mint yogurt) and KL had the lamb pita and the masahwa soup as well.

After lunch, we walked down State St., went through the student union.

Picture at the student union terrace on lake mendota.


KL did some shopping at a few stores on the way back on State St. I was ready for a nap so we headed back, but first drove Observatory Dr. since DW had recommended checking that out (which was also a bit on the run course).



As we were heading back, the Badger game had obviously recently ended since there were streams of people dressed in red walking. It was pretty obvious when we passed the stadium, so it was good to note where that was since that was also on the run course.

I napped for a bit back at the hotel and then it was getting close already for an early dinner. Decided to go for Italian for innocuous pre-race fare. We called the hotel concierage for a hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant. They said Tutto pasta on State St.

So, we went there, but being right in the middle of downtown, it wasn't exactly a hole-in-the-wall place. It was really packed, nuts-to-butts-packed, in fact because of all the Badger fans at the bar. We didn't have to wait too long though for a table, so that was good. I had the Rigatoni Salsiccia ("Large tube shaped pasta sautéed with olive oil, onions, Italian Luganega sausage, red and green bell peppers, and mushrooms, in a light tomato basil sauce." I didn't eat the sausage though. Yawn.) and KL had the Rigatoni Alla Norma ("Large tube shaped pasta sautéed with eggplant, olive oil, garlic and Buffalo Mozzarella in a basil tomato sauce, finished with shaved aged ricotta."). Could see a few other IM people eating here as well.



More shopping from KL after dinner and then it's back to the hotel to get to sleep already!

Sunday!
We're up at 4:15am. I had initally considered getting up at 5:00am, leave by 5:30am which should have been plenty of time for the race start at 7:00am. However, the hotel told us there was an ironman shuttle at 5:00am, so we figured we'd take that.

Made some coffee to start. This, of course, is coffee that I brought with me and had roasted myself since I've been roasting my own beans for several months now. These were Kenya AA beans. Had a banana, granola bar, and a peanut bar.

I check the weather forecasts, but they don't really tell me anything new. Accuweather is predicting rain a little bit in the morning and a little in the early afternoon with temps up to low 70s.. NOAA just says 20% of thunderstorms and temps in the 60s.

I'm wearing my Zoot/Gu team kit and warm up clothes. I have my swim gear and morning sweats drop bag. KL and I head downstairs.

There are several people up and about in the lobby. We step outside and we can see a school bus ahead on Rimrock, but it turns down John Nolen and doesn't stop by our hotel. Someone says there is a shuttle from the Alliant Energy Center. There's a group of 3 guys driving downtown so they offer to give us a ride, so we take it. Not much traffic and parking was easy to find (or at least these guys knew exactly where to go). Thank you guys whoever you are.

We head straight to the bike area. There are a lot of people here this early at the race. My tires are flat as expected so I pump them up. I fill my aero water bottle with cytomax and it's ready to go. Body marking is just outside the bike entrance area, so I get that done.


KL and I just hang out for awhile. It's still dark out. More and more people are flowing in. Lines for bathrooms are starting to get longer so i decide to hop in line. There's a guy behind who's really chatty (in a good way). It's his first IM. he says he's a nervous talker. he talks about how he went in the hotel already, but sometimes there's that second one. he said he hates that feeling of being in a wetsuit and having to go. he tells us how he was at one race and 5 minutes before the start, he has to go and has to run to the bathrooms. He's amusing...definitely a nervous talker.

It's still a bit chilly outside so KL and I decide to go inside. I drop a couple extra CO2 cartridges in my T1 bag and add a long sleeve tech shirt in my running bag in case it's cold. It's pretty clear to see how the transitions will work. After running up from the helix and into the convention center, we run into T1, grab our bag and the dressing rooms are in an adjoining room. T2 is located across the hall from this changing room, so we'll just run there to get our bag after the bike. Looks very cleanly laid out.

We hang out inside before the race. A lot of people are just sitting around here too so we plop down along with all of them. KL hasn't attended a tri before so she gets to admire and covet all the male tri bodies.



When 6:20 rolls around, I put on my wetsuit. I left my body glide behind so I bum some off of someone (thank you again whoever you are). We head down to the swim start. The helix is packed with spectators. I drop off my morning sweat bag and slowly move along with everyone to the water. They asked us to start entering the water at 6:30am because it takes that long to get all of us into the water.

The pros take off at 6:50, before I'm even in the water. I finally get into the water and it's warm. I head out to the ski jump ramp. It's already full of people handing on to it. I decide to place myself to the left of the ramp and about 25 ft. back from the front. Swimmers keep filing in. It's getting crowded so I can tell it's going to be a washing machine at the start. The sun is out and the sky is nice and clear, so it looks like the weather is going to be decent as long as nothing rolls in later in the day.

Soon enough, it's time to start.

eh, I'm too lazy to do any kind of warmup. Save my energy. Plenty of time to get warmed up during the race.