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2015 IRONMAN Wisconsin Run & Finish

This is the third part in my IRONMAN series, read about the swim here and the bike here. At this point I’m almost seven and a half hours into the race. This number, while large (it was the longest I’d ever raced up to that point), only represented just over half my total race time that day. With that in mind, I knew my running pace would be slow. However, the excitement of seeing my family again and hitting the crowds on foot gave me a short burst of energy, netting me an 8:30ish pace for the first (mostly downhill) mile. At this point I started pacing a Illinois grad decked out in Illini gear. We stated with each other for the first few miles, chatting about anything and everything to keep our minds off our whining legs and draining energy. Eventually he would pull ahead, only to show up…

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2015 IRONMAN Wisconsin Bike & T2

This is a continuation of my 2015 IRONMAN Wisconsin race report. Part one, Pre-Race, Swim & T1 can be found here. Transition is held on top of Monona Terrace, a convention center designed by one of the best architects ever, Frank Lloyd Wright. The back half of the terrace is a parking ramp, which is accessed via a corkscrew ramp. We ran up the ramp from the swim into T1 and now it was time to ride down the corkscrew and out of T1. This was a bit worry some for me, as I chose to leave my shoes clipped into the bike and put them on during the ride. Experience has shown me that running in hard, plastic-bottomed bike shoes is just awkward, if not dangerous. It’s just easier to run barefoot to the mount line and get your shoes on during the first hundred yards of the ride. Usually…

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2015 IRONMAN Wisconsin Pre-Race & Swim

Ready it or not, the day finally came. I officially became an IRONMAN this past weekend when I completed IRONMAN Wisconsin. Not surprisingly, I was quite anxious in the weeks leading up to the race. It didn’t help that it was in the 90s with high humidity a week out and it was forecast to rain on race day. Thankfully, mother nature gave us all a break and gave us 70° waters, and highs in the 70s. No rain was in sight and the wind was in the single digits. It could not have been a more perfect day for a race. I took my time on race morning, arriving about 15 minutes before transition opened. This is exactly how I like to operate, with plenty of time to take care of problems and no reason to stress out mentally before I stress out physically. The water was opened at 6:30…

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IRONMAN Weekend

There’s a lot of hype surrounding an IRONMAN race. It’s a lot to live up to. And I think they did a pretty good job. IRONMANs are a little different than most triathlons in that you are forced to make a weekend out of the event, rather than just grabbing a packet one day (or on race morning) and then showing up a few hours early to setup transition on race day. Packet Pickup I was a little surprised by the amount of waiting required for packet pickup on Friday. It seems like all of the 2600 or so participants decided to show up at the same time to pick up their race packets. In them you get a bag for everything. Morning clothes. Bike gear. Run Gear. Bike special needs. Run special needs. And of course the “free” IRONMAN backpack to hold it all. It’s definitely an interesting way to run a race.…

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2015 Chicago Triathlon Triple Challenge

This past weekend I competed in my second Chicago Triathlon Triple Challenge. This “challenge” involves racing in three triathlons in one weekend. Saturday morning we did a SuperSprint (click hear to read about just that race) (375m swim | 10.5K bike | 2.5K run), followed by an International (1.5K swim | 40K bike | 10K run) and Sprint (750m swim | 24.5K bike | 5K run) four hours after the International race started. All told, I was going at race pace for just over 4.5 hours. Needless to say, I was a bit tired Sunday evening. International Distance Race The first race of the morning on Sunday was thankfully the International Distance. Us crazy triples were the first to go off, hopping in the (comparatively) balmy 65° water a couple minutes before 6:00 am. Once we all had our chance to “self-heat” our wetsuits (yes, I wore mine this time, in addition…

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2015 Chicago Triathlon SuperSprint

This past weekend I competed in my second Chicago Triathlon Triple Challenge. This “challenge” involves racing in three triathlons in one weekend. The first of the three was held on Saturday, at it was the SuperSprint. SuperSprint Distance This year I was more mentally prepared for this extremely short race. There’s no time to “ramp up” to speed with distances this short. You have to start fast and finish faster if you’re looking for a quick time. I was not, however, mentally prepared for the weather. The rain never stopped the entire time I was out there, the only changes were how hard it was coming down. Due to the rain, everything was slowed before the race, requiring me to wait about 20 minutes to get my race packet and another 20 minutes to enter transition. Unfortunately, all these delays had me literally running through transition setup. When I did find an…

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2015 Naperville Sprint Triathlon Race Report

I finally was able to get in my first triathlon of the year. Shoulders, you have not won! Who needs sleep? As seems to be the case, I slept like crap the night before. I felt like I only got a few hours of actual sleep, though my Fitbit disagrees, clocking nearly 6.5 hours of sleep with only 12 periods of restlessness. I can accept that, if you consider that I was still for 3+ hours of that time, looking at the ceiling. It’s not that I’m nervous. I’m not exactly sure how to put it. I guess I’m just excited and can’t wait to get my tri on. Will I remember how to swim? Prior to this morning, I have swum exactly four times in 2015, including two lap swims and two open water swims. The latest swim, done in early July, got me a stern talking to by my shoulder…

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ITU Chicago Triathlon

It’s time for my first olympic triathlon, and my first “big time tri,” ITU Chicago. For those of you not in the know, this is close to the same race that the professional triathletes do as part of the ITU tour. The day started off wet. As in, my car nearly hydroplaned into a concrete highway divider on 294 due to the torrential downpours. Not the best way to start the day. Given than transition setup was the day before the race, some athletes had the foresight to cover parts of their bike to protect from the rain. This was a massive transition area, but thankfully my spot was near the end of a row and right by a sign. I felt bad for those in the center somewhere without an easily recognized landmark. Annoyingly, transition was a good half mile or more from the swim start. Preferring to not throw away…

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The 2014 Batavia Triathlon

It’s nice to finally know what to expect at a triathlon. You know transition, the course is familiar (giving you a good way to judge the gas pedal), you recognize faces, if not names … it’s no longer the first day at a new school. This year’s tri was a chilly one, but I had a new secret weapon – a wetsuit! Instead of being too cold to warm up in the water (my body takes a long time to open up and reach full potential), I was able to wade on in and get a few laps down before lining up for the staggered start. Plus, I just look good (or not, according to my wife). It’s a Orca Equip Full Sleeve Triathlon Wetsuit, in case you were wondering. It’s a nice mix of thicker (5mm) neoprene for buoyancy and thin stuff in the arms (2mm) for flexibility. Even though the swim…

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The Naperville Triathlon

Finally, a triathlon that doesn’t require a long drive. I get to sleep in a whole 30 extra minutes! This time I get to transition right when it opens. I prefer to give myself time to relax and chase down any issues that could pop up. Rushing is no good. Here’s the obligatory, “I’m here before anyone else, including the sun” shot. And the, “now EVERYONE is here” shot. Some of you may be interested in how I set up transition. You’ll see that I place my helmet on my aero bars, with the straps out and front of the helmet towards the front of the bike. Then I place my sunglasses inside the helmet. This way I can out on glasses, put on the helmet and be strapped in as quickly as possible. As for my footwear, I put my bike shoes in front, on my towel to dry/clean…

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