IRONMAN WISCONSIN Race Report:

Swim: The swim conditions were not ideal. My strategy coming into the race was to hang to the inside of the buoys. I was hoping this would give me the open water to swim my own race. The thing is, open water was not my friend on race day. Because of the line I took I had a hard time staying on a straight line the entire time. The waves were tossing me around, as well as other swimmers into me. On the back stretch I decided that I wasn’t going to push it, I didn’t want to exert any more energy than I already had by just trying to swim straight and out of too much commotion. I came out of the water 27^th in my AG with a time just under 1:08.

Riding my Specialized Shiv from Erik’s Bike Shop

Bike: I’ve never had more fun on a bike ride then I did on Sunday. The first 30 miles flew by and I was feeling great. I knew I had the wind at my back and wanted to take advantage of it. I played leap frog with a guy for about 10 miles before I asked him what he was planning to split on the bike. He said he was shooting for a 5:10 split, which was about 15 minutes faster than what I planned on going. I decided to try and keep him in my sights for the rest of the ride. He was a great climber and I had an advantage on him in the flats. We made up a lot of ground on people throughout the bike. I still felt good into mile 80 of the bike, although my pace had a faded a bit. The guy I had been leap frogging with pulled away on the first of the 3 big hills on the 2^nd loop. As I turned home towards the finish, the wind smacked me in the face. I chose to back off a little bit and ride steady into T2. I was 5^th my AG off the bike with the 4^th fastest split in my AG on the bike. Thanks again to Erik’s Bike Shop for the super fast Specialized Shiv and my TT2 Helmet.

Run: I knew that I had pushed the bike a little harder than I had planned to, but I still felt pretty good starting out on the run. I paced my first 3 miles at a 7:15 pace and began passing a good number of people, including a few female pros. I then fell into a 7:30ish pace for the next few miles. After the turn around on State Street is where things got interesting. The negative thoughts started in my head and my legs began to hurt. To combat this I began taking in Coca Cola at every aid station and trying to break down the race in smaller segments. It was frustrating to see other people in my AG run past me, but my legs weren’t going to go any faster. I held on for the last 15 miles and came down the finish chute smiling and taking in the crowd. I even gave the ‘Discount Double-Check’ at the finish line. I finished 7^th in my AG with a time of 10:10, which put me 7 minutes out of Kona qualification.

Finish Line Video:

Photos from the race : https://ironmandiary.com/ironman-wisconsin-photo-gallery/

Special thanks to:

Jackie Arendt, Endurance House, Erik’s Bike Shop, Peak Performance Massage, Pinnacle Health & Fitness, Specialized, 2XU, and of course all the race volunteers on Sunday!