Watch me finish the Ironman Wisconsin!

Ironman Wisconsin 2008! Yeah baby!

Call me Mr. IronMan!

Swim, bike, run, then repeat again. That was my mantra during my many training sessions that prepared for my first Ironman in Wisconsin. I choose this Ironman location because it was close and the temperatures would be cooler than the average day in sweltering mid-west. Also, I was lucky enough to have a faster computer online to sign up for the slot last October. This was by far the the fastest part of the entire event!

The location was beautiful. The Ironman Triathlon had been racing here in Madison, Wisconsin since 2002 so the organizers had mostly all the kinks ironed out which was very nice. The 2.4 mile swim would be in freshwater Lake Monona, surrounded by the city of Madison and Monona Wisconsin. The start of the Ironman was at Monona Terrace, which is the isthmus that forms downtown Madison. After the swim is the every enticing 112 mile bike ride through town to the county roads of both chip and seal the smooth pavement. Of course, what Ironman bike ride would be complete without its fun-filled hills - 7440 feet in all - this alone made my legs cry out for mercy post bike as I hit the pavement running two 13.1 mile loops through downtown Madison, College Campus, Camp Randell Stadium and finishing up at the Capital!

If you every had any anxiety about swimming with 2207 people in one big mass, then you may not want to participate in this Ironman mass start. That's how you start in this race, and like you can imagine the first 20 minutes is nothing but fish trying to swim out of barrel in a mad frenzy to escape! A water most pit was more like it! I stayed back to let the faster swimmers go by but that strategy didn't really work too well. "Why don't you swim OVER me!" At the first quarter mile buoy everybody bunched up around it, but as time went on eventually I found some open water so I could maintain a long, smooth, relaxed stroke pace, for the rest of the swim. After the second lap I had some problems with my site breathing as the sun was directly in my eyes trying to see the water buoys and fighting swimmers as I went around the buoy, however I just kept swimming, seeing other swimmers going the same direction. Looking for the last, large Red water triangle buoy begun the next lap or swim for the finish, I knew that I was close to the end as I swam toward the beach. I slowly moved to the beach exhausted from the swim. The volunteers pulled my out of the water, I faintly heard my name over the load speaker and ventured my way through the gauntlet of people and to the wet suite strippers. Checked my watch and it said 1:40:50 which was not bad for a 2.4 mile swim. The strippers quickly pulled off the wetsuit and I was slowly running to the helix where I had to run up four floors in a circle up to the first T1 and get ready for the long bike ride next.

The T1 transition was different than those I had done in the past. After running up the four story helix I ran into the Monono Terrace building into a large room full of T1 bags with volunteers shouting out bib numbers as we came in. I quickly grabbed my bag and went into another room full of chairs and more volunteers helping us sort through our stuff. I quickly put on my bike shoes, helmet, sunglasses and number belt and off I went. Outside there were the people with rubber gloves to apply sun lotion as we all darted out to find my bike (Red Horse) in the T1 parking lot. I was fortunate that my rack had a helium Star Wars balloon floating from the rack so I new exactly where to go. Took my bike and ran with it (we could not mount bike until outside of T1) which seemed like a half mile to end of the transition and off I went down the helix to start the long journey of 112 miles!

The start of the bike portion was along Lake Monona along the a very nice bike path. We ventured through a large parking lot to very rutty road for about a half mile to some country roads for the first 14 miles till we reached the loop that we would have to repeat twice. The weather was beautiful, nice and cool, about 65 degrees and sunny. We had heard of previous Ironman races were the temps and weather were much less and higher so I was glad to be right in the middle temperature for the next seven hours.

The challenge of this ride was the frequency of the rolling hills so it was hard to get into a steady, fast rhythm since I was constantly shifting all the time. The large hills were toward the end of the first loop and that's were most of the spectators were, clamoring and beating drums and holding signs for their loved ones on the race. There was chalk graffiti all over the course (it was emphasized NOT to use paint). I saw a few individuals walking their bikes up some hills, wondering if they would make the cutoff time of 5:30pm after biking 112 miles, some were on the side of the road changing out flat tires or fixing some mechanical issue. Lots of interesting signs posted along the way "There are only IronWomen - Men don't Iron" and "If this was easy, then they would call it Pantyman!). It was very entertaining during one part where all of the spectators where dressed in pirate costumes shouting at us as we whizzed by. All distractions aside, at the first time check I was averaging around 15.1 mph, not slow but would put my bike time over seven hours. On the start of the second loop I needed to get my bike speed up to decrease my total bike time. However, half way through the second loop I had to pee. I was hydrating and eating but after four hours on the bike I had to go and thought of doing it a la European style (Tour de France) off the bike but there were port a potties at the aid stations. So when I saw the next aid station, I quickly jumped of the bike and did my business. Unfortunately, that didn't help my overall bike average so I quickly accelerated back up to warp speed (in this case 20mph) while I was on some easy flats hoping I could up my average a bit and get off this !#$@ bike!

My butt and right toes were numb (your feet tend to expand in the heat) due to the warmer temperature in the afternoon ( 72 degrees). I was still feeling good at the 56 mile mark (half way!) and decided to stop for my special needs bag and quickly gulped down an Ensure drink and I chalky cliff bar. I jumped back on the bike and quickly accelerated to gain back some time so I pushed in on the rolling hills at top speed of around 45 mph to push over most of the hills and sucked down to gels to prepare for the large hills at the 80 mile mark. I was ready and charged to get up those hills on the loop. When I got to the large hills the second time around I noticed less people on sidelines this time. This make sense, the pros and leaders were already through and they were probably going home or heading downtown to see the last leg of the race: the long distance marathon! I realized there that I need to slow down a bit and rest the legs a bit knowing that I still had another six hours of running to do after this! This wasn't just a lone century that I had done in the past. Up I went, not a powerful this time, my legs were starting to really feel it now, 10mph....9mph....8mph... I was getting close to the top, people shouting. I here some guy say "welcome back, we missed ya...", I show a sly smirk as I go by and slowly inch up to the top of the hill again, pushing and pulling my legs looking for the distant peak of this long hill. I finally make it to top, still in my lowest gear, heart rate maxed, only 42 miles to go....

I hit the time check for the forth time, quickly checked the my avg and it was now 15.2! Wow! All that effort for another .10 of a mile increase! This wasn't my fastest average but I wanted to conserve some energy for the next leg of the race. I quickly followed the bright colored arrows back to Monono Terrace. I pass the 100 mile mark, now only another 12 miles to go. I'm thinking to myself, why did they (Ironman Creator) have to find and island that was 112 miles in diameter? Now only 10 miles to go and I'm back to Rutt Road again where I started 7 hours ago; I try to jump the ruts, but there's just too many of them. Now I was back to the large parking lot and biking on the trail, I could now see Lake Monona and where I started. It was 3:30pm, over 7 hours on the bike, but 2 hours before cutoff time for the bike race. I quickly spiral myself back up the parking deck helix and cross the time check mat and had my bike off to another volunteer to take back to the Transition parking lot. My butt and feet thank me and I scamper my exhausted body into Transition to the long awaiting run.


It was still very quite warm when I started the long run. Only 26.2 miles I said to myself as I started my walk, I was just too tired to start a 8-9/min pace run like the pros. About five minutes later into my walk, a few tasty protein/carb chews later, I was feeling my legs again so I managed a slow jog about 14/min mile than proceeded to a faster pace to see how I'd feel. I figured I could jog a slow pace to each aid station and eat up and continue like that the rest of the way. I had plenty of time and I wasn't trying to catch anybody but the clock. I was enjoying the scenery of the city, university of Wisconsin, Lake Monona, and the crowd. My legs felt good, although a bit tired, I took it easy on the fist loop and might increase the speed on the second 13.1 mile loop.

1st Lap

The first 13 .1 mile loop I all right up to mile 8 where I had started some blisters in my heel. I discovered my I had not put my socks all the way up so my heel was exposed to the back of the shoe! Ouch! I quickly stopped and fixed the issue as well as loosen my shoes a bit to the heat of the day. That helped and I continued on through the park and university in the city. We even did a lap inside the University of Wisconsin's football stadium. I finished the first 13.1 mile loop around 6:30pm which starts again at the finish line for which I have to do the entire course once again! To watch others finish while I start my second loop was somewhat disheartening but I continued on one step closer to the finish line. I was handed a glow loop, so I guess its going to be a night finish! This was also the furthest I had every gone on a run! Wow! I felt good, a bit tired, but still able to keep moving which was the key, albeit somewhat slow, I wanted to increase the pace this loop as I continued on but for now, I was content to keep it slow, not overheat and maintain a good, even pace. What was nice about this triathlon is that our bib numbers had our first or last names prints on them. So as I'm running (or slow jogging) I here the crowd shout out my name: "Hey Brett Farve, great job". Okay then, someone had too many beers!

2nd Lap
I stopped to for my Special needs bag and drank a 5-hour energy drink to boost me up for the next 13 .1 miles. I left my rain jacket behind since the weather was fine and I would be done in a few hours! That was not a good decision as you read later on! The stop at each aid station was an oasis of life each mile. They offered up delicious food such as bananas, pretzels, powerbars, water, gatorade, grapes, gooes, coke and even hot broth! At each aid station I ate something, tried the mini pretzels and promptly spit them out! I took the bananas and washed them down with gatorade or water and even tried the coke a few time to see what it would do. No powerbars for me, hard enough to choke them down when I not running, so I could easy bypass that option. The night sky, the cool breeze along with the wet rain cooled things off a bit, never felt like I hit any wall or even bonked, just felt a bit tired. A few times I had jogged/walked the the next few miles, no use in burning up precious energy up those darn hills on campus. Then in mile 18 it began to rain, fortunately, I was in the campus park with lots of trees to shield me and it only lasted for about 10 minutes. The rain cooled things off although it was already dark at this time it energized me a bit to pick up the pace a bit. I was now up to mile 20, only 6 miles to go, a 10k left, I could sprint this with no problem I thought. However, I was just too tired to increase my pace, I wanted to but my body said no... not yet at least! I was running a bit faster now, the blur of the landscape, every nerve aware as is near the finish, less than a mile to go!

Was I zoning out, this all looked familiar again. I'm getting closer! I saw the turn around, all of the people surrounding the finish, I quickly sprinted to the finish, I hear the roar of the crowd, I was excited, elated to see the finish line. I was done!! I had finished! I was an IronMan!

Brett, you are an IronMan!

.... and here's what you get after 140.6 miles!