Synopsis

In short, WI was in every way the race day I imagined having. The final few weeks I knew I'd put in the work and knew I had a working nutrition plan from my race rehearsals, but still doubted what that would translate to on the course. Now I know, with an 11:38:01 finish (PR by nearly 4 hrs), 4:00 marathon (also a PR), and very steady pacing execution throughout the day. The wheels are already turning to figure out where I could make more gains next time.

Below is a detailed view on the week and race. Mostly for my reference so I can refer back to it in the future, but feel free to skip around the parts that interest you,

Race Week

Venue, Logistics

This time we flew into Chicago instead of Madison due to the airfares, but it wasn't really ideal. Pain schlepping the gear and kids through the airport. Long wait at Budget for the car, and tons of traffic and construction coming out of Chicago. Made for a long day on Wednesday but we got there in the end.

On the plus side, we choose to stay in town this time rather than on the outskirts and it was worth it. I cannot say enough good things about the Hampton Inn & Suites. Less than 1 mile from the Terrace. Suites are large for all the extra gear. Great breakfast included. Smack in the middle of the run course. And the hospitality of the staff was fantastic. Would definitely be my first stop if coming again.

Check in at the Terrace was smooth as before. Beat the crowds on Thursday.

Finally, love the vibe of Madison overall. The bar and restaurant scene is fantastic. Short Stack Eatery and Dotty Dumpling's highly recommended. The people are welcoming, friendly, and out in full force cheering on the athletes on race day.

Final Taper

Did fewer workouts than planned race week. Road 16mi recon ride on Thursday afternoon. Swam with the team Friday morning, and that was it! Had planned a short run and another swim but wasn't worth the hassle to force them in and didn't seem to be an issue come race day.

Bike Mechanical

Slight scare with the bike leading into race day. I had shipped it via TriBikeTransport which was expensive but a win overall for not having to deal with packing/flying/shipping/assembling it during race week. When I picked it up the front tire was flat, so I changed it but couldn't find any root cause. Road 16 mile recon ride on Thursday and seemed ok. Saturday flat again so took it to the Trek shop at the Terrace. They too couldn't find any issues so as preventative measure replaced the rim strip, tube, and tire. Fortunately everything worked perfectly on the day!

Gear and Bag Drop

The EN squad had this fully scoped out so was able to easily avoid the queues. Got in, got out, all in about 20 minutes tops.

Pre Race Fueling

Madison is jumping with great bars and restaurants so biggest challenge was not overdoing it in the days leading up to race day. Final few meals were:

Friday Dinner - Bison burger at Dotty Dumpling's Dowery

Saturday Breakfast 1 - Variety of things (egg sandwich, fruit, yogurt) at Hampton Inn

Saturday Breakfast 2 - Sweet Potato Oatmeal Pancakes at Short Stack Eatery (amazing)

Saturday Late Lunch - Turkey sandwich from Which Wich

Race Day

Here we go! Big picture I really wanted to nail the execution this time around. I knew I had a much improved fitness level, much better plan, and I had proven it in my race rehearsals. I was still a bit skeptical whether I could string it all together to execute on the day.

With the family all in one room I'd laid out breakfast and go bags by the door so I could slip out early without stirring them. Breakfast around 2am, 1/2 bagel w/ PB&Honey, apple sauce, strawberry banana Bolthouse smoothie, ~800cal total. Back to bed for a bit then up at 4am. Slept well overall, was fairly relaxed with just the occasional prerace jitters.

Walked the ~1 mile to drop S/N bags by the Capitol. Wanted to leave time incase my wheel was flat again so got to transition just as it opened. No line. Breezed right in. Wheels were good so added bottles & Garmin, topped up tires, then got out of there. Quick stop at Run & Bike transition bags to open them up and good to go. BR stop early before the lines formed, then chilled on the main level stretching a bit. Banana and water at t-1 hour. Wetsuit on at 6:15, then headed down for the EN team photo at 6:30. GU and water at 6:45 then into the water!

Swim

About a month before the race I was pretty concerned about my swim time. I had really neglected the pool during the summer, and it showed on my longer swims. Started overthinking whether or not to tear apart my form and fix some fundamental technique issue with only a month to go, but Coach Rich kept me grounded with a simple reco, "Just swim". So that's what I did, and over the last month I logged 6 race distance or more swim's to really get comfortable in the water and my endurance back up.

On race day, I lined up a bit more aggressively than in 2011. Left of ski ramp. About third of the way back. Beautiful morning and an amazing venue. Sun rise is about 20 minutes before the swim start and the terrace was once again lit up beautifully. Kept reminding myself the swim is just a means of transportation to my bike. Stay smooth, count strokes, rotate, breathe, repeat.

All in all everything went very well. There was the usual level of contact. Got a few light kicks to the face but nothing too bad. Lots of people grabbing at ankles (I must be too slow) which was annoying but tried to remind myself to stay in my box and not worry about it. The change to 1 lap instead of 2 was a good thing all in all as there seemed to be less congestion at the turns, but that return length does go on forever. Actually peed about 2/3 of the way through which had never happened before but was glad to be that well hydrated! Sighting was ok but found myself inside the buoy line a few times, so is an area for improvement.

Plan: Assumed 1:25 - 1:35 based on recent full distance swims. Actual: 1:22:11 Previous: 1:21:25 Cumulative Delta: Previous: 12:51 Cumulative Delta: ~4' faster

Bike

Careful descent back down the helix then focused on settling into my "just riding along" (JRA) pace. Topline plan called for:

Power - First 60' @ 197w NP (0.68IF) then settle in a tick higher at ~200w (0.69IF).

Hydration - Planned 2x bottles/hr of Gatorade Endurance = 12 over 6 hours.

Fuel - Roughly 1 item per hour as GU, Banana, GU, GU, Banana, GU

BR - 2-3x over course of the bike including at least once in the first 2 hrs and once in the last 2 hrs.

Throughout the ride I kept reminding myself to treat it just as another race rehearsal. I'm not doing anything new, just riding the same numbers and fueling the same as I had those previous race sim rides. Tried to keep power as steady as possible throughout the climbs and descents. Laughed at a lot of the stoopid hill crushing happening at the start and rode my own ride. Course is a lot of fun but definitely more challenging than Florida 70.3. Lots more turns and rollers constantly coming at you, but overall makes the time go by!

Kept aid stations very simple, always picking up 1 bottle of GE, and on occasion a banana. GUs were onboard to save the trouble.

Everything went pretty much to plan. Hydration was good if not possibly overdone. Pee'd at ~2hrs, then constantly through the 3rd, again around hr 5, and finally right before coming into T2. I ended up backing down the fluids to only 10 bottles as I was clearly hydrated.

The GUs and Bananas went down well although I decided to skip the last GU and prioritize finishing my 10th bottle of fluid. Felt like I had more than enough fuel in the tank so didn't want to hit the run with excess (as had happened in Florida).

Fluids: 24oz/bottle * 10 bottles = 240oz total = 40oz/hr on a cool & clear day (high 69F)

Calories: 160 cal/bottle * 10 = 1600 cal 100 cal/gu OR banana * 5 = 500 cal = 2100 calories total = 350cal/hr

Sodium: 600mg Na+/bottle * 10 = 6,000mg ~140 Na+/gu * 3 = 420mg negligible Na+/banana * 2 = 0mg = 6,420mg Na+ total = 1,070mg/hr

Rode slightly more conservatively than planned. Hour splits of 189, 197, 197, 200, 204, & 192w NP. Final NP 197w (0.679IF), AP 184w, VI 1.071, TSS 280. Next time may target a higher TSS (290-300 range) if I can prove it in a race sim.

Garmin link

Plan: About 6 hours Actual: 6:03:37 Previous: 7:04:21 Cumulative Delta: ~1:05 faster

T2

Very pleased to ride into transition and know any chance of mechanical issues were now behind me. Kept it super simple except for swapping to fresh running shorts which was nice but may need to drop that in the future to save time. Leaving T2 I saw 7:37 on the clock and knew sub 12hrs was a definite possibility if I could stick with the plan and nail the run.

Actual: 3:55 Previous: 6:32 Cumulative Delta: ~1:07 faster

Run

In 2011 this is where the wheels came off from the very first steps out of transition, so it felt really amazing when I got underway, felt really strong, and got to see my three girls cheering for me near the capital. As the run progressed I was constantly reminding myself to hold back, hoping a wouldn't hit a sudden wall, at least not until near the end!

Plan called for 9:00-9:10/mi for first 6 miles, then 8:30-8:40/mi until mile 18, then whatever I had left in the tank. From the start I tried to focus on staying slow, with good form, all while pounding the Gatorade bottle I took from T2. I ended up extending that "warm up" period 2 extra miles and by the end of mile 8 I had drank 2x 24oz of Gatorade. Shortly into mile 9 I had to stop for maybe 60 seconds to pee again, which is reflected in my mile 9 split time. I took this as a good sign however that I had maintained hydration up to this point, and didn't have to worry as much about running into a brick wall later in the day.

Throughout the rest of the run I just tried to stay steady and calm. Didn't sweat the paces too much on my Garmin and instead went mostly by feel. I knew if I could comfortably keep my pace below 9min/mile as long as possible that I'd be setting myself up for a 4hr marathon. I walked about 20 steps most aid stations. Started alternating Coke, water, and Gatorade, all mixed with ice to keep cool and dilute it a bit. I saw my folks, girls, and a lot of the Endurance Nation team throughout the run which was always awesome! When I got to the halfway point I was really fired up and yelled "Let's do it again!" as I looped back out for lap 2. At observatory hill around mile 19 I walked up it for ~2 minutes and after that those last few miles felt a lot harder than the first. I knew I was slowing down into the 9-10 minute/mile range but also knew if I kept that up that I had smashed my target and could finish 11:3X. Rather than bury myself in those final miles, I dialed it back a bit mentally and just soaked it in.

The exact paces are hard to confirm as my 9yr old Forerunner 301 is not so precise and I'm not convinced the IM timing mats were placed exactly at the distances they say they were. Nonetheless, per Strava, the splits looked like this:

Miles 1-8: ~8:40/mi.

Mile 9: 9:55/mi

Miles 10-18: 8:50/mi

Miles 19-26.2: 9:40/mi

Plan: About 4 hours Actual: 4:00:05 Previous: 6:50:12 Cumulative Delta: ~3:57 faster!

Finish

Coming into the finish and seeing 11:37:XX on the clock I was fired up! The work paid off, I beat my goal of finishing in the daylight, smashed my previous time by nearly 4 hours, and most importantly proved I could put the pieces together and execute on race day. To top it off my family was right there at the finish to greet me at the end of a long day (for everyone!), which really meant a lot!

Final time: 11:38:01 (certificate) Final rankings: (AG: Split / Cumulative - Overall Cumulative)

Swim: AG: 165th of 270 starters - Overall: 1390th of ~2600 starters

Bike: AG: 74th / 76th - Overall: 581st

Run: AG: 46th / 55th - Overall: 340th

Thanks!