The race started off in wave of 50 at the two minute mark, so I was wave 3 and watched the first two waves go off. I didn't get too far up because I knew there would be a wild sprint off the line. As soon as the gun went off, I started off, Mom and Dad taking pictures, cheering me on. I knew I started off fast but I wasn't sure just how fast because I didn't have my Garmin on. There was a water stop around .5 mile and I didn't grab anything there. When I hit the mile 1 marker, my watch said around 8:30 so I slowed it down a bit. There was a big hill around 1.5 miles and I was forced to walk up that but as soon as I got to the top, I kept going. My spin buddy from am spin caught up to me just past the hill and we talked for a few minutes before she continued on. The waterstop repeated at mile 2 and I grabbed some water there and did a bit of walking before started up again. I was well on pace for a great run and made my way around Lambeau Field to the transition area.

Again, I went out way too fast... but I really don't think that can be helped... if anything I just need to work on slowing down. I should have taken some gatorade at the waterstop not water because I needed the calories later on. I pushed about as hard as I could handle, but still missed moving up an age group rank by about 25 seconds. I was also having a lot of problems with tight calfs and just a lack of energy in my legs.

This was a pretty good transition even though I was one of the slowest in my age group. I had to get out of my socks and then get into my bike shoes, put the helmet on and put the sunglasses on. They were fogged of course.

I think I need to get bike shoes that only have one strap not three and practice, practice, practice like usual.

It is really nice to have the police officers stop traffic. Got to the mount line and got going. The first road was rather bumpy and I just tried to get up to speed and find a comfortable pace. Hit my first set of train tracks around mile 1 with the first big turn. I was getting passed by a lot of people, a lot of people! Kept going, pushing at as fast as comfortable. Around a turn, probably around mile 3, my bike pump wiggled loose and I had to stop to pick it up because I was afraid if I left it, I was going to need it. Kept going hard, crossed the DePere bridge and left down towards Wrightstown. Felt the first bit of breeze from the south and knew that was going to become a challenge as the miles continued on. Went through some of the most beautiful trees and colors I have ever seen. Some trees framed the road and it would have made great pictures if I had a camera, however, I had a race to ride. Went down a few roads that had a hard headwind and a few that were in rather bad shape. It was a passing fest between everyone and there was a lot of drafting going on even though it wasn't suppose to be legal. Around half way to Wrightstown, I just began to hurt. Different areas of my body depending on how I was sitting on the bike were just aching. I realized that I wasn't consuming enough of calories so I increased that, but the wind was causing problems as well. Finally got to Wrightstown, had a gel, and conquered the biggest hill of the race, the bridge across the river in Wrightstown. Changed off my water waterbottle for a new bottle of gatorade and started drinking that immediately. Got outside of town and just started rocking it. My average up to that point was around 17.0 mph or so. A very nice woman caught up to me and we road side by side for a bunch of miles just talking, keeping each other at a good pace. Thanks Chris for the company! Got back to DePere, kept drinking the gatorade and just kept going. I wasn't sure where I was on the course because I actually didn't change my computer to distance. Finally I got to the place where the course overlapped and just kept on powering away. I wasn't honestly sure when I got to the end if my legs were going to handle another mile, but I gave it my all and just hoped for the best.

This one is hard... I was just hurting the whole ride no matter was position I was in. My hands were going numb and well I just was stuck. I didn't take in enough calories early enough and that hurt me. I also noticed that a lot of the people passing me were riding very nice bikes with aerobars and triathlon bikes. I need to make some bike decisions.

I rubbed the bike weird down my leg when I was jumping off because there were a few people dismounting with me. Ran with the bike unlike many others. Then I had to take the helmet off, put on my socks, put on my shoes and get going again. My parents were all around snapping pictures.

Not much... I wish I could run without socks... but oh well.

Just a single mile... started running out of transition and was able to run till the hill out of the parking lot where I let myself walk a bit and get some gatorade and drink that down. Continued running but was forced to walk again but only for a small distance. Then I ran again and just kept running just trying to turn my feet over time and again. I was getting close and the finish was near so I tried to pick it up a bit and got myself across that finish line as fast as possible! Mom and Dad were going nuts when they saw me cross!

Try not to walk, but again, this was one very painful race for me.

I grabbed some water, filled out a pre-race survey to get a goody bag, grabbed some water and found my parents. Walk around a bit to try and cool down the legs. The food line was horribly long so I got my finish time, packed up my transition area and left.


You know this one was really weird... based off my training in the past few weeks you would think I was really ready to go. Granted my times did come in really good, but I thought it would have been a more comfortable race. I think the yoga and pilates from the day before really hurt the comfort level and then you can't help but question if I wasn't hurting would I have been faster. Who knows.


I was rather disappointed with this race. There was 8 port-a-potties for everyone. There was lines everywhere. The race started late. The police were not very friendly. It just didn't seem nearly as put together as it could have been.