Ironman Wisconsin Spectating Report and Updates

Two weeks ago I began becoming concerned over my lack of any motivation to make plans for next year. Mostly I was worried (if you can call it that) that I would end up standing in line yesterday to register for IMWI after being there all weekend. However, I was reading in the Slowtwitch forum that registration for IMCA was still open--the poster was also waffling as to whether to pull the plug and sign up. I like IMCA--I liked it in 2004, I enjoyed riding the course again last year during Ultraman Canada, and I could see myself going back. So after I was finished working on 8/31, I went to the website to check whether registration was still open, and it was. I clicked on the link to active.com. I filled stuff out. I went to get my credit card. I was actually a bit nervous! Not because I have any qualms about being able to do an Ironman--it was just that as soon as I click that SUBMIT button, it means I've made a commitment to train. So I did it. And just like that I went from no plans to sketching out in my head how I was going to train for it. And thinking that maybe I will also do Ultraman Hawaii. Who knows? After I finished registration, I checked the IMCA participants list and found a bunch of people I know who are going, one who raced IMWI this weekend--Melinda. It will be her 6th Ironman and my 16th (unless I decide to sneak one in beforehand).

In thinking about how to train for this next season, I can now draw on so much experience, having already gone through a UM cycle, so I will do things differently. Through May, I will be doing my "normal" IM training, except that my Friday swims will be at least 5,000 yards (but no more than 6,000). Then, beginning in June, I will begin doing longer swims and changing to my UM weekly training pattern (it's a secret!). I want to do American Triple T, 24 Hours of Triathlon, IMCA, then a "broken" IMWI (full swim Friday; full bike Saturday and marathon Sunday), then buckle down and get ready for UMH. I don't see myself doing any 50-mile run races, but that could change. If I do, it would need to be in January-February timeframe.

And now back to IMWI...

I had a great time up there. This was my first trip this year, unbelievably! Usually I'm up there 4-5 times. I had my car all tuned up and a free place to stay with friends Brad and Morgan (who are getting married next month), and Melinda (Morgan's mom). I pulled up to this house Friday afternoon (after a PR drive--I guess I did some "light" speeding) and was immediately accosted by 2 labs. I figured they were friendly, but not completely sure, so pulled out of the driveway and called Brad, since I didn't want dogs all over me while trying to unload my car. Turns out there were 3 labs in the house (one is old and injured), all friendly, all wanting tons of attention. Melinda was already there, and Morgan was arriving later in the evening.

I'd made a plan for us to have dinner at Heiney's, but first we were going to drive the course with my narration. A bike course never feels as hard in a car as on the bike, but there were a few times when on the steeper climbs we could feel and hear the car shift gears down. While we were driving around, we kept checking for Morgan trying to get to Madison from Orlando (Brad drove from Dallas and Melinda flew in from California). Meanwhile, another friend, Adam, was already in town, and he opted not to drive around with us but would meet later for dinner.

Morgan almost missed the connecting flight from Detroit to Madison, but somehow she got on, so that was good so everyone was accounted for. Brad, Melinda and I finished driving one loop of the course and then maybe 1/2 more and then we headed to Heiney's, where Adam arrived maybe 2 minutes after we did. Good food, good beer, lots of great conversation and laughs! I noted that the collective training/racing mileage at our table was quite high! I think I ate the most food of anyone at the table, which is odd, since I'm the smallest, but I'd been training all week and well, I hadn't been to Heiney's in a few years so I indulged myself.

Brad dropped Melinda and I off at the house and went to retrieve Morgan from the airport--the airport was maybe 3 miles from the house. Chatted with her a bit and we all got some sleep.

Saturday my plan was to ride the stick (what lots of people call the out-and-back portion of the IMWI bike course) plus 1 loop. Brad and Melinda needed to get their bags and such together. We all slept in, so I didn't get in my car until maybe 9:30, and as soon as I got on the road, I was in gridlock, and figured out why when I saw all the people with red shirts on--the Badgers were playing. After barely moving for about 15 minutes, I turned somewhere and got on a different route, but all told it took me almost an hour to get to where I could park and start riding. I parked at Olin-Turville Park (free!) and it was a beautiful day and I was happy to ride.

Except that I have barely biked on any hills this year. So in the back of my mind was how much it would suck, so I figured I'd just ride nice and easy. I wore my full pirate kit, so at least in my head I looked spectacular on LGL! I had so much fun riding--I saw maybe 4 other cyclists out, as I'd started late and the bulk of them were racing and sequestered, and there was very little car traffic due to the Badgers game. It was the most peaceful ride I've ever had on that course, and I delighted in the fact that I still know the turns without a map and could flash back to the 2 times I'd raced there and the countless training rides I'd done. I rode all the big climbs seated, and only stood to stretch and on the 2 sharp rights up tiny, steep climbs (on to Sugar River Road and from G onto 92). I averaged 16mph, which felt nice and easy to me. How about that?

When I got back to the house, I showered and then we headed to get groceries for dinner--your basic pasta with meat/marinara sauce, garlic bread and we had cookies and ice cream for dessert. I don't think any of us ate dessert, but I really chowed down as I did not eat lunch after my ride. Adam joined us for dinner, and I talked him through as much as I could about the bike course. We showed him around the weirdly laid out house, where you could easily sleep maybe 20 people on various couches! I knew it would be a late night and then early wakeup, so I did my best to make sure I had my own stuff ready for race day, as I planned on running one loop of the run course and then going out for spectating.

Luckily, these folks "slept in" until 4:30AM--I would have been up at 3AM, but hey, I wasn't racing! The dogs had a barking fit at some point during the night, so I have no idea how much sleep I had, but didn't care--I wasn't racing!

Brad had scoped out a parking garage 1 block from transition on Pinckney Street, and we got there and got a spot for $4! I drove my own car since I had more crap in there and Brad's was full of bags, 1 bike and 3 people. Morgan and I got to hang out with Brad and Melinda until about 6:30. Then Morgan and I went to find a spot on top of Monona Terrace to watch the swim, which was fun (my pics from the race are posted to Facebook). I think there were about 2800 starters, and the swim start was crowded, but it appeared from our vantage point that things spread out nicely. After ensuring that Brad and Melinda and Adam (and the other 20 or so athletes I knew were racing) were finished and on their way, Morgan and I walked back to the cars, where she would nap and read, and I suited up to go for a nice run.

There were arrows on the roads for the marathon course, but not much else, and there are a million turns, so I messed up slightly but got 13 or so done in about 2 hours running time plus more to stop and get fluids. I ended up running through Camp Randall stadium twice, which made up for some wrong turns and course cutting at the beginning of the loop since I couldn't exactly get onto the actual course start. It was hot for me to be running, so I knew the heat would get to the racers at some point. Just as it had been fun and peaceful to ride on Saturday, it was awesome to run on the race course without much other runners until I was along Lake Mendota. I was happy I got to run through Camp Randall! It didn't seem as big (around the perimeter of the field I mean) as I remembered from when I'd raced before. Several people along the way thought I was maybe in the race, and I'd laugh and shout, "I'm WINNING!" That was a ton of fun. Anyway, that run course isn't exactly easy, but I don't think it's as hard as Lake Placid's run course. But I was only running half of it and hadn't biked 112 miles before so what do I know? When I was almost back, I saw two college students walking with a huge pizza someplace for their lunch. I told them they better go faster otherwise I would steal their pizza (I'd run 13 on maybe 200 calories). They offered me a slice, but I declined since I had to keep going about another mile. But wasn't that nice of them?

I got back to my car and cleaned up as best I could and changed tops--I left my run shorts on because I expected I might end up running some more. Morgan and I headed to go get some lunch and saw the first pros head out to run, and we began checking for updates on others' race progress. Some looked good, some not so good. We got sammies at Subway and camped out to eat in a bus stop stand, and then we began the job of run spectating. As always it was great, except that we got concerned about Brad and Melinda (and I got concerned about another friend, Denise) not seeing bike splits and then getting close to the bike cutoff. Meanwhile, a lot of people I know came through, and I got choked up a few times watching them do their thing. I was reminded again of just how hard this is no matter how long it takes you, and that people who say ANYONE can do an Ironman are fucking crazy.

Finally Brad came through and I jogged alongside him for a bit to understand what happened. He'd had bike mechanicals and a mental meltdown (I won't tell his story--it's his to tell). I'm sure I told him to suck it up and just get going. Not too long after, Melinda came through and asked me to run with her, which I did for just over a mile. She'd also had bike mechanical issues, but no mental meltdown. She'd be fine. After I was certain she was OK (she was justifiably upset), I turned around and ran back to town. Of course, people thought I was in the race even though I wasn't wearing any numbers. It was fun to be cheered for, even though!

We never saw Adam come through--somehow we'd missed him--but he ended up with an Ironman PR on the day, which I attribute to the fact that I lent him one of my race belts. My gear is lucky! Seriously, though, Adam raced smart and well, he's pretty fit after doing TWO Ultraman races last year.

I got worried about Denise until I finally saw her coming back from her first run loop, and then I was so happy to see her and actually run with her for a bit. She was running great (running is her thing), and I knew she'd finish strong.

Morgan and I tracked Brad and Melinda and figured out they were keeping each other company out there on the run course. I don't know the entirety of what went on out there, but at least we knew they'd finish, so around 9:15 Morgan and I headed toward the finish line, got some more Subway and settled in to watch people finishing. It was great even though I was pretty tired, having run 17 or 18 miles and standing around jumping up and down and screaming for hours, but hey, I wasn't racing! We saw some girls with so much flashing light glasses and decorations on themselves that I really liked--I ended up calling them "spectating machines." I need to find stuff like they had, because, well, I should really dress up more for spectating!

I got to see Denise run down the chute and was so happy for her to finish, after having a broken back and recovering from it. I caught up with my former coach, Rich, and got to chat with him briefly--he'd returned to do the race after a 3-year hiatus from racing triathlons, and had a great 10:20 something time. Then it was time to bring in Melinda and Brad. We figured Brad was hurting because we saw Melinda by herself and she waited at the final turn into the chute. Then they both came in, and Morgan and I were so happy for them! I've done enough of these things and had several horrible races, so I know how it feels to have had problems and not meet your goals, but the reality is that ANY Ironman finish is a good one.

Congratulations to all the Ironman Wisconsin finishers: Ebe, Dawn, Katie, Carl, Dino, Brad, AJ, Adam, Hayes, Denise, Russ, MJ, Rich, Jodi, Melinda, Joel, Blaine, Spencer (Kona slot), Vicki. If I forgot anyone, I'm sorry!

Morgan and I had already retrieved their bags and taken Melinda's bike back to Tri Bike Transport, so the last thing to do was to get Brad's bike. Morgan and I did that while we left the 2 racers by the parking garage so they didn't have to do any more exercise. We walked to the cars, Brad put his bike up top his car and drove back to the house, talked through the usual post-race stuff, agreed on a wake up time, and tried to sleep. Of course the dogs had to have another barking fit which seemed to go on forever, but maybe it was 10 minutes.

We all got up just after 6. I was just going to pack up and drive home, and the rest of them went to the finisher's gear store and then would begin their respective travels. I PR'ed my drive home, unpacked, downloaded/uploaded photos, then went for a 1:45 bike ride on the MTB. I was very tired, but it was a beautiful day, and those are going to be few and far between soon enough, so I just enjoyed the sunshine.

I got some good sleep last night, but still am not caught up, but that will happen this evening. Now I can get to planning my season for next year!