Daylight and a PR: Ironman Wisconsin Race Report

Just keep going

12 hours and 28 minutes: a PR and my first Ironman finish in daylight. Wisconsin is a brutal course but everything came together - ideal weather, injury-free training and a disciplined race strategy.

Here’s a race report from a long and intense day:

5:30: Final race prep is always a bit of a scramble: dropping off gear bags, pre-race pit stop 😆 and team photo. I have a minor crisis after misplacing my wetsuit but Nadia helps me track it down.

6:55: Mike Reilly is in the swim chute! Mike is an icon in triathlon, announcing “You are an IRONMAN” to over 350,000 finishers including my first race in 2021.

The Swim: A calm start to a long day

7:15: We’re in the water! I’m fresh, caffeinated and excited to start the day. The swim seems less chaotic than normal - I haven’t been elbowed or kicked (yet). 🤞

7:25: There’s a tradition of “Mooing” at the first turn. I do this every year but it seems a bit pointless as you can’t really hear anything.

8:00: The swim is less chaotic than normal. I haven’t been kicked, dunked or gone massively off course.

8:30: And we’re out of the water! I run up to the ramp to the “wetsuit pullers” who yank my suit off. They used to be called “wetsuit strippers” but those were racier days 🙂

The Bike: Smelly and Hard

8:35: I cruise out onto a bumpy John Nolen Drive to start the bike leg. My strategy is to hold back, eat well and save strength for the marathon. This is easier said than done given the course’s endless supply of rolling hills.

10:30: I spend two hours dreaming up a newsletter edition for how AI is like an Ironman, comparing input data to nutrition and model training to supervised fine tuning. Or was that just an in-race hallucination? 🤔

11:30: My favorite fan group: Two fans in inflatable goat costumes with a “You GoAT this” sign. 🤣

12:30: After a couple of farm animal whiffs we ride by a freshly dead skunk emitting a cloud of odor. Luckily they’ve cleaned it up by loop two. 🤧

Noon: I break out my new nutrition: Potato & pickle wraps. Yum!

1:30: I’m running out of gas with a ton of miles to go. I pass a couple of bikers sitting on the side of the road, one seems to be crying and another is getting sick. 🤢

1:55: I begin climbing the last of the “three sisters”, a set of steep hills from mile 89-95. I think up a number of more accurate (but spicy) names. 🤬

2:00: I pass my training team on the second loop. They erupt in massive cheering and “beast mode” signs. This is a huge lift and I summon energy for a push to the finish.

2:30: I have decided to nominate the inventor of Nutter Butters for the Nobel Prize.

The Run: Just Keep Going

3:25: We’re on the run course! 8 hours into the race and now we’ll see if my marathon strategy pays off. Mostly though, my butt is grateful to be off of the bike 😮‍💨

4:30: I come up on a group of fans who start going crazy, jumping up and down and hollering. Then they realize I’m someone else and quit cheering. This is fairly soul-crushing 😢

5:30: My mantra for the run is “marking miles” - just one at a time. I pass 10, 11 and 12 and somehow I’m still going.

6:00: I pass a guy wearing a sponge on his head. I ask him if his name is Bob and he gives me a confused look. 😬

6:15: The fans are awesome: Some folks cheer wildly, some are bemused, some have jokes or music, others distracted by their phones. A few look into your eyes and give you genuine words of encouragement.

6:30: My stomach has had enough but I need to keep the calories coming. I force down one final bar using water as a chaser.

7:15: Mile 23 and I still have energy…the race strategy is paying off! I pass my wife and a group of students cheering. I accelerate for the last two miles.

The Finish

7:33: I cross the finish line! For the first time, I’m finishing in daylight and a PR to boot.

8:30: We take pictures with Nadia and a group of my daughter’s friends who came out to cheer even though she’s in New York. 😍

Daylight, a PR and Ironman #4 is in the books. The race was hard, and I mean really hard! But it was also full of memories: fun costumes, wild cheering and yummy Nutter Butters. As always, the best part is sharing it with others: team Precision, coach Craig, Mary, my friends and family and my amazing wife Nadia.

I hope whatever challenge you face will be equal parts difficult and satisfying and that you’ll have a team to share the journey with. Godspeed.