When I jumped in the water my goggles got a little crooked and were leaking. I had to stop 2 quick times to adjust them, but made sure nobody was about to run me over. After that, things were good. It wasn't hard to find your own water and swim. The wind was coming upstream, so once we hit the turnaround we were getting hit with some waves that were pushing us around a little. But the current made it go pretty quick. It took longer than I expected to get back to the start of the island, but the distance from the island to the finish went really quick. Plenty of volunteers to help you get out of the water and up the steps.

Took my time and got everything ready. Did a full change, dried off put on plenty of Chamois cream.

Averaged 147 Watts. My goals was 150. Tried not to push it past 225 going up any hills. Took it easy the first 10 miles as we had a tailwind. Hills started at mile 10 and just took it easy on them. A few big hills around mile 25, but again, just took it easy and didn't let my Watts jump. Great crowd in La Grange, as we flew by with a tailwind. At mile 40 my legs were still feeling really fresh. By mile 50 they were starting to feel it a little. The last 13 miles on the first loop sucked. Headwind and no protection. Really just wanted to be done with that stretch and start the 2nd loop. On the 2nd loop, things seemed to go pretty quick. Hills didn't seem as big and time went quick. Stopped at Special Needs. Put on some more cream, at a PB&J and was on my way in 2:20. Put another PB&J in my pocket (which I never ate) and a Snickers. Made sure I was in some better gears on 2 steep hills that are right after descents, and mostly rode in my small chain ring the 2nd lap. Wind again in the 13 mile stretch before we got on the "stick" home. I had a hard time telling exactly which direction it was coming from, but knew it wasn't a pure headwind. With about 15 miles to go, the wind got nasty. Straight crosswinds of about 30 mph were pushing us all over the road. I stayed in my horns and held on tight. Saw one guy in the ditch, not sure if it was due to the wind or not. Luckily the with 10-20 to go you get a lot of downhills. With about 10 to go, things got more protected and the wind seemed to die down, but there were leaves, pine needs and tree branches all over the road, so you had to really pay attention. Did stop at the 2nd to last aid station to put more cream on and ate half my snickers quick. In all, I had half a banana, 4 salt tabs, 5 gels, half a snickers, PB&J, bottle of water, and about 4 bottles of Gatorade Endurance. We got everything for weather. It was overcast most of the ride, a few spots of drizzles, then some sun and it really heated up for about an hour, then back to overcast. Luckily I never got rained on too much.

I'd like to do more strength training, but on this day, I think I rode perfectly. I rode 24 minutes faster than Wisconsin, but rode smart enough to leave plenty in the tank for the marathon.

Got off my bike and my legs felt really good. Ran my bike the 200 yard or so to bike drop off and ran into the tent. Fairly quick getting ready and was out the door. Had to pee, but there was a line for the 3 porta-potties, so I ran over to a different set. In all, probably took an extra minute.

Started out feeling really good, and had to pull my pace back. My goal was to run around 8:45 pace and walk the aid stations to average 9:00/mile on the first lap, and was dead on my goal. My legs were getting pretty tired, but I knew they felt better than the last IM I did. At Special Needs I missed my bag, but a girl ran up next to me with. I grabbed a long sleeve shirt (which I put on right away and later took off), and an extra pair of socks in case it rained, which I never needed. Used the bathroom to pee twice on the run, including right after SN. On the 2nd lap my hands were starting to tingle, which I feared was due to lack of sodium, so I took salt every aid station (I had skipped taking it at a few aid stations on the first lap). My goal was to run as much as I could as things hurt more and more. My calves, left knee and right ankle hurt the most, but I never cramped up. One thing that motivated me to keep running was trying to catch my friend. I ended up just taking it one aid station at a time. I'd get to the aid station, walk it and get what I needed, and take about 10 seconds to stretch, and then run to the next one, and this worked great. My pace was around 9:30/mile at this point, and 1 or 2 miles hit just above 10:00. But I thought, if I can average 10's, my overall pace will be 9:30. I continued to take it one aid station at a time. My constant thought was "the later in the race I start to walk between aid stations the better I'll be", and eventually I was left with 3 miles to go and knew I could run the rest of the way (and actually picked up the pace a little the last few miles). Passed my friend with 2 to go and knew I had a good chance at sub 12, which I didn't think was possible at the beginning of the day. The sun fully set and it got dark the last 3 miles, so I got to finish in the dark, but didn't have to run in it very much. Amazing finish line. I was giving everyone high fives and looking for my wife. Finally saw her and ran over and gave her a big hug, and crossed the finish line!

Volunteer gave me my medal, water, hat, shirt and blanket. Got my picture taken, and went to find my wife. They had just got done seeing my friend finish 3 minutes behind me. We went and got our morning clothes bags, which our wives took back to the hotel (4 blocks away). We got a quick massage and some food and walked back to the hotel. Met the wives on their way back from getting our bikes. Rested and relaxed in the hotel.


The weather made the day tricky and even more memorable, but nobody can control that. The race was fantastic. It's a great city with great support from the community. The venue is awesome and the volunteers are spectacular. I would definitely consider doing this race again.