Santa Cruz 70.3 Race Report

Santa Cruz was a very late add that was chosen to fill the 13 week gap between Lou 70.3 and IM Arizona. I signed up after feeling strong coming out of Lake Placid, but my body was starting to feel the load of 4 full IRONMANs in under 10 months. 

Travel was long, driving down to St. Louis after work Thursday and hoping on a plane that next morning. We had a 90min delay on our second flight that put us in a little later, but all in all not bad. I got a quick practice swim that evening before grabbing dinner and heading to bed.

Race morning was smooth and we had plenty of time to relax before suiting up.  It was a little chilly and the water temp was 62, which gave me some issues during my warmup swim. I came out of the water a little dizzy out of breath…a little concerning.

Swim: Beach start for the 50 pros and it was chaotic. I got out as hard as I could to try and make a group, but within 2 minutes I was panicking. I was actually to the point of grabbing onto water support and withdrawing from the race. Fortunately there was no one close by and I opted to just slow down and try to catch my breath. I was still near a few other pros and pushed to stay on their feel. I knew I was pretty much the last swimmer and just wanted to get through it.

Bike: Flying mount was alright and I immediately focused on pushing my power up to my goal of 270W. At mile 4 I had to cross some rumbles and lost my 160g bottle of carbs despite having a rubber band this time. That required me to slow down at all 3 aid stations trying to grab bananas and gels. I also lost a small aero benefit from that bottle. My power was great, but the speed just wasn’t quite there. I was passed by 2-3 other pros and the first place amateur. I only passed 1 other pro and was a little bummed to be at the back of the field. My goal was the average 270W and I was at 273 before the final technical section and flying dismount. I ended with my all time best average of 269W and 275 NP. I was a full 1mph slower than Louisville at higher power, but several other pros that competed in both races had similar splits. Little bummed, but so hopefully I can sort that out.

Run: I pushed harder than I ever had on the bike and was behind on nutrition starting the run. My goal was to take a gel every 2 miles or more. Spoiler, I PRed my gel intake at 8 gels in 81 minutes. Honestly, my only goal was to not get run down by any of the female pros that started 5min behind me. I figured 6:20’s would be faster enough, so that’s what I set out for. I was hovering around 6:15 pace as I got to mile 5. The middle 5K was all packed dirt out on a bluff with lots of tight turns. I didn’t lose too much time and held steady. Each gel I took, I could feel a small surge of energy within 1-2 minutes, but it was short lived. That final 10 minutes seemed to take forever and there was another pro 50 meters ahead of me that I just couldn’t catch. As I rounded the final corner, I saw the tape ready for the top female pro. In a panic I waved them off as I sprinted through the deep sand to get through so they could have it ready for her. After crossing, I turned around and Tamara Jewett came around just 24s after me.

It was unfortunate to travel all the way to California to have a sub par result. 

3 weeks prior, I finished just over 7 minutes ahead of the female winner Jackie Hering at Louisville 70.3. At Santa Cruz she finished just under 3 minutes ahead of me. That’s over a 10 minute swing between the 2 races and a pretty disappointing result for me. 

Another athlete that was at both races was Justin Metzler. He finished 6 minutes ahead of me at Louisville and 24 minutes ahead of me at Santa Cruz, an 18 minute difference… All that is to say despite pushing career best power on the bike, I was significantly slower this time around.

I have 2 more races ahead of me to close out the 2025 season, so I’m hoping to turn things around and end on a high note. 

Lou 70.3 Race Report 2025

 Trending in the right direction! A lot of text before I get into the race itself, but I want to give some context going in. I was really looking forward to racing again in Louisville with how well the course suits me. Unfortunately I was feeling rough with heavy fatigue and the inability to sleep and recover the 2 weeks leading in. It was a downward spiral and I was no longer looking forward to putting myself out there. In the pro field, I feel much more exposed if I have a bad or off day. 

For more context, IRONMAN Lake Placid was 4 weeks prior and it was also my 4th IRONMAN within 10 months (Madison, Kona, Texas, Placid). We also went straight into 13.5 and 22 hour training weeks coming off Placid. Needless to say, it was all starting to add up. But after some good conversation with my coach Brent, we landed on putting myself out there knowing I had heavy recovery on the other side. I was also listening to a Podcast with Joe Skipper where he said, “I would rather be at 100% mindset and only 80% physical going into a race”. With that, I did all I could to reframe my mindset for the next 24 hours. 

We got in after 10pm Friday night, checked in and got to bed as soon as possible. I was up early the next morning to ride before traffic picked up and just felt worn out. I tried to nap a bit before taking care of the pre-race logistics and just relaxed as much as I could. It was a busy day between meeting up with family/friends, checking in, pro briefing and gear drop. I was on my feet much more than I typically would be, but I told myself I was staying loose.

Race morning went well, and no issues to report (other than noticing my cycling shoe inserts were missing when I was setting up for a flying mount). We got to the swim start plenty early and I relaxed for a bit before starting my dynamic warmup. At the swim start they had some ice in a cooler that I was able to grab and put down my kit to cool off the best I could. They allowed the pros a quick 5min warmup before our in-water river start.

Swim (25:29 - 24th pro): The hottest swim I have ever done at 86.9F. I only swam ~100 yards to loosen up and ultimately floated on my back to relax and not heat up more than necessary. The start was crowded and I had myself in the 2nd row all the way to the right. The cannon went and it was chaos for the first 400 yards. This was a good sign for me because it felt like I was “in the mix” and battling for position. I didn’t feel like I could get dropped from the guys around me, and I knew the main packs were already out of reach. I opted to stay where I was and watch for any breaks within the small group. The warm water definitely made it harder, so I just sat on the feet and conserved as much energy as possible. Other than the start, I felt completely in control and within myself. Overall a pretty comfortable swim. Also my fastest 70.3 by over 2 minutes thanks to the current. 

Cheezin after seeing a 25min split

T1 (3:20): Took the time to put on my aero socks and the right one ripped as I would trying to pull it up. Nothing I could do about it, so I just grabbed the bike and started running. The bike start was perfectly flat, so getting into my shoes was easy. I was also around a few other pros, so it was good to feel like I was in the mix. 

Bike (2:16:02 - 29th pro): I was a little anxious to see how my legs would turn up when I tried pushing my power targets. Getting that average above 260 in the first 5 miles even with a flying mount was very encouraging. As I was going, Brian Reynolds (someone I’ve tried to be competitive with as an age grouper) came around me with another pro around 15 miles in. I was happy to be ahead of him the far into the race and did what I could to stay with. He ended up getting about 100-200 yards ahead of me, but I sort of maintained that gap throughout. I ended up passing another pro, which doesn’t happen often for me on the bike, so that gave me even more encouragement. A big highlight from the bike was seeing friends and family numerous times. Being a single loop bike course, I was surprised to see them 4 times! Definitely gave me the boost I needed. For the most part I held close to my power target and was around 265W through 35 miles. I had 1 incident with an SUV on course that I couldn’t get around and had to coast a bit. I eventually found a way around them with a big surge. I had 1 shortfall with fueling and that was missing a bottle at the final aid station. That aid station was staggered on both sides for 2 way traffic. An outbound age grouper came across the center line (cones included) towards me because he probably missed the aid station on his side. I reacted and missed half of my aid station to avoid a collision. I had a shot at the last bottle but missed… Pretty annoyed with that guy and had to ride the final 15 miles with minimal fluids. Regardless, I stayed steady coming back into town and was pushing the sneak under 2:15. Close, but still a good bike split for me on the day.

T2 (3:10): A very long run with the bike, but I was fairly efficient. Pretty much middle of the pack with my split and just a little slower than athletes like Ben Kanute and Jason West.

Run (1:21:17 - 11th pro): On paper, this doesn’t look like an impressive run. But given the conditions, how many places I moved up and checking other run splits…this was a great run for me. My legs were heavy at the start and I pretty much knew sub 6 pace was out of the question. I saw 2 athletes up the road (Brian being one of them) and clocked a 50s time gap. I caught one of them right at mile 2 and was approaching Brian at mile 3. I surged hard around him thinking he’s definitely want to run with me. After another ½ mile I had a comfortable gap. In hindsight, I closed 50s in just 2 miles so I was running 25s/mile quicker. As I got into the shaded park, there was 1 short out and back where I got to see 6-7 athletes ahead of me. I knew they were all within striking distance with gap of 5-6 minutes. I caught a few more throughout the park and was still feeling in control. I was very mindful at aid stations to get enough fluid since I was probably at a deficit from the bike. I was also taking a gel every 2 miles and had 4 down through mile 8. This run didn’t drag on too much and felt the miles ticking away. One thing I noticed was my core temp hit 103.2, which is the highest I’d ever seen it. It was only taking 2-3 minutes for the ice to melt inside my kit, so I knew I was running hot.

I still felt ok and kept track of my HR. As I came out of the park I could see a few more athletes up the road. My mantra the final 5K was Eyes Forward. I saw the next guy start to walk through an aid station and could see the heaviness in the other guy’s legs. I kept pressing and got a boost each time I caught someone. At this point, everyone was crumbling and I didn’t think any would pick it up and go with me. Even if they did, Eyes Forward…who is next? I passed 3 more in the final mile and kicked it in to the finish. 

Pure Pain

Finish (4:09:16 - 19th pro): Very proud to have cracked the top 20! This race was a big step up for me in terms of feeling like I belonged. Especially on the run, I was actually racing, making moves and dropping guys. I will say that I was fully expecting carnage on the run, and I was prepared to pick up the pieces. I did my specific heat prep before the race and planned to be smart and stay within myself. Seemed to work out alright :)

Post Race Dinner

Ironman Lake Placid Race Report 2025

My 3rd pro race of the season and 2nd Ironman pro series event! By the numbers, this was my best Ironman despite the slower bike time. I swam in a small pack, some tactical moves to stay in it, pushed my biggest bike power for a longer duration, and ran my fastest marathon by 6 minutes. Let’s get into it.

 

Pre-Race: This was an incredible trip. Ty and I flew out early Thursday morning and travel was smooth. I spent a little extra money to stay at the Best Western between Mirror Lake and transition, which was well worth it. This eliminated the need to drive anywhere (offset a little gas money and parking). After unpacking we went for a quick swim, and I had a short run to shakeout the travel. Friday, I rode the Keene descent in the rain, and I’m glad I experienced it once before the race. Everything else from check-in, pro briefing and gear check was standard. My final ride/bike were great and it felt like the body was ready to roll. My swim felt good but pace was slow, so I had some concerns of repeating IM Texas.

Race Morning: I was up around 4:15, ate breakfast right away and walked my gear to transition. Given the technical start of the bike, I decided to not flying mount. That saved bike setup time, and I was out in just a few minutes. We walked back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit before I started warming up and getting my gear on. Pros had to report the start at 5:55am, so we didn’t have too much time to chill. I got in for a quick swim warm up and was a little chilled waiting to start. 

Some quick numbers before diving into the results and details. Of the 60 pros registered, only 42 started and finished the swim (8 total DNFs). I’ll include the DNFs in my placement if they finished that leg of the race.

 

Swim (58:17 - 33rd): One quick note is the water temp was 75 degs so non-wetsuit for pros and wetsuit for age groupers. I would argue that this was my best swim in terms of pace and execution. They started the pros knee deep and I stood behind in a 2nd row. I got out as hard as I could for the first 2 minutes and sighted very often to see how the packs were forming. With how clear the water was, it made it easy to see bodies and feet even with my face down. I found myself in a pack of ~6 and think I was on the very back. Despite having the underwater cable to sight, I kept my eyes up to watch for any splits. My first proud moment was seeing a split happen and surging around to stay with the faster swimmers. Shortly after, a second split occurred, and I managed to bridge back up once again. Now it was just 4 of us with me on the back 1000 yards in. The rest of loop 1 actually felt comfortable and relatively easy. I stopped sighting and just followed the feet/cable. As we approached the Aussie exit, I surged up next to the guy in front of me to not lose the front. As we came out of the water, he cut me off and I had to sprint back into the water and put in a very hard effort to get back onto those feet. I was now sitting 3rd in the group and could feel my feet getting hit. The worst part of the swim was passing the age groupers not staying left of the buoys (pros were told to take the inside). I kept getting knocked off those feet and put in big efforts to get back on. The second half was a much harder effort than the first with more water churning and dodging the stray lapped athletes. I managed to hang on until the end of the swim and I am incredibly proud of my result and tactical racing.

 

T1 (4:34): Bit of a run and I took the extra time to put on aero socks. I more than made up that time in T2 though. I also carried my cycling shoes to my bike and put them on at the rack. A flying mount didn’t feel safe in the beginning mile of the bike. 

Bike (5:11:30 - 36th): I felt like I was in a good position out of the swim, but not able to ride with the few stray athletes around me. I was nailing my power targets and still getting passed by a few male and female pros. Penny Slater and Laura Jansen came around me with a male pro, and I sat off the back of them for a few miles with the race ranger light OFF. Unfortunately, we rolled into a hill and the light went orange, blue, then red for a millisecond and back to blue. I had to make the pass and pushed 380W for 90s to pass all three of them; burned a match there. Otherwise, the first ¾ of loop 1 was uneventful and I felt like I was doing alright until we started climbing back to transition, around 1,200 ft in 14 miles. This is where the top amateurs came by in a pack with some females pros. This was degrading after a 12-minute head start. Then it down poured, and visibility was tough. I took my visor off several times to see better and slowly watched my average pace drop. I also started running potential bike splits in my head. My goal was 5:05 and it was looking more like 5:15-5:20. At this point, I considered stopping after loop 1 with how much time I was losing. This was by far the worst part of the entire day, and I really did not want to go out on the loop again. The only reason I stayed out there was to take my shot at breaking 3 in the marathon. Once I saw Ty the rain let up a bit and I started loop 2. At 56 miles I was at 2:37:30 which would be a 5:15 if I even split. My power was where I wanted it to be at 227W, but I didn’t think I could increase it much if at all. As I got back out of town, I started pushing 250-260 and actually felt pretty good doing so. My average power began to creep up, which was very encouraging. I kept the pressure on best I could and it wasn’t until mile 100 that my legs really started to hurt. The last few punchy uphills were tough, and I just wanted to get back to transition without digging too much deeper. I ended up averaging 231W (243 NP) with an average speed of 21.3mph. I pushed about 10W higher on loop 2 and negative split the ride by 3.5 minutes. I was at least happy to salvage something, but the power to speed was still not making sense to me.

T2 (2:00): 2nd fastest overall T2 on the day! Flying dismount was flawless, bike catchers were great, and I was running fast. Everything was soaked, splashing through puddles, but I was so happy to be off the bike. I did have a fresh pair of dry socks in my bag, but I knew I’d soak the instantly. Opted to save the ~30s and get moving. Very fast and smooth getting my shoes on and I was GONE. 

 

Run (2:54:51 - 16th): At this point, it had rained a lot and continued on and off for the rest of my race. Lots of water runoff down the hills and puddles to run through. I had a plan going into the run and stuck to it. The course had around 1,100 ft of gain with the first 3 miles all downhill. I knew I needed to run 6:20s for the first section to be on pace and clocked 6:16, 6:20 and 6:07. Miles 4-7 didn’t have any net gain with some gentle rollers, and I was still holding low 6:20 pace. As I started to climb back up, my goal was to be under 7:15 pace so my average stayed around 6:40 at the top. My slowest split of lap 1 was 7:14, so I knew I was doing great. I saw Ty around mile 9 and told her I may have gone out too hot given my average pace was around 6:30 even after the climb. I finished the next 2 out and back sections and started the second lap with an average pace of 6:35 (around a 1:26 half marathon). I was still feeling strong and was able to attack the steep downhills without needing to hit the brakes. I brought the avg pace down and with a few more 6:20s as I got back down to the bottom of the main hill. The next 2 miles, I set my focus on running sub 7s until mile 18. Doing my mental math, I wanted to have 60 minutes to run the final 8 miles (7:30 pace). I held steady and had about 61 minutes to do it. Mile 20 was the base of the 200 ft climb back up again, and I had about 48 minutes to run the final 10K. In my mind, I just had to run under 8:00 and anything faster was time banked. My slowest split of the day was 7:48 with a net uphill of 100 ft. This was encouraging since I was now close to the finishing elevation with 4 miles to go. I saw Ty again and told her I was breaking 3:00 today. This is where my legs really started to hurt, and I could feel myself slowing. I kept digging until that final turnaround where I saw 1 more pro that I could catch. I passed him with ½ mile to go and gave everything I had to the line.

Finish (9:11:10 – 27th): A phrase I started using this past weekend is “What’s the best that can happen?” Instead of worrying about the negative what-ifs, I tried to think about the positive outcomes. What’s the best that can happen? I make a swim pack and break 3 hours in the marathon. I’ve never regretted leaving everything I had on the course, and I’m glad I didn’t bag the race after a poor bike split. Coming away with what felt more like an elite run split was well worth the mental battle on the bike. There is always more to work on, but I’m content with how this one ended.

Quad Cities Triathlon 2025 Race Report

Final Quad Cities Triathlon

Pre-Race: Coming off a work trip from Arizona in 100+ degree heat, I had a feeling some of my energy would be zapped. I landed in Moline the evening before and drove straight to packet pickup. I got home, hopped on the trainer for an hour and did a quick runoff the bike. I hadn’t been on my TT bike in over a week, so race morning I got on for a quick 10 minutes to make sure everything was good to go.

Swim (7:48 – 3^rd): I was the only registered Elite athlete, so I just started at the front of the race. I paired with a guy who wanted to be first out of the water, so I expected some quick take-out speed. I got on his feet for the first 200 yards until I noticed him drifting to the left. I cut straight towards the buoy and put in a surge as he corrected and got onto my feet as I rounded the buoy. On the way back a highschooler came around me followed by the first female athlete. I got in her draft as we closed out the swim and was out of the water in 3^rd.  I was expecting a slightly faster time, but all in all an ok swim.

T1 (1:58 – 5^th): A very rough transition and I can’t explain why I was so out of sorts. I opted to forgo a flying mount with the uphill start, and I spent much more time getting my cycling shoes on than I should have. I came out 40s slower than the previous year but only lost a few seconds to the front.

Bike (36:31 – 1st): Starting the bike, I already had my shoes on and was able to punch it out of the park. I went by the high schooler and lead female that first ¼ mile and was off the front on my own. We had a strong tailwind heading out, but I could tell my pace was slow. HR was hanging at 172bpm and I was struggling to even hold 300W.  With my computer set to auto lap every 5 miles, the first 5 was 296W and I knew it’d drop more the 2^nd split with the U-turn in the middle. Next 5 was 291W (298NP, so I’m actually ok with that) and the final split dropped to 275W with the flying dismount at the end. Average Power: 285W (294NP) at 25.1mph. The next fasted split was my buddy Matt at just over 2 minutes back. So even though power was ~10W lower than last year, I felt like I had a decent ride. 

T2 (0:50 - 20th): I thought I was incredibly efficient and opted to go sockless again, so I’m surprised to be so far down the list. 2^nd place pulled 16s back on me, but I was through transition and well into the run before he came in.

Run (18:14 – 1^st): I had a comfortable lead of about 5 minutes to 2^nd after I hit the turnaround, but I made it a point to push as hard as I could. At the halfway point I was barely averaging 6min pace and didn’t have another gear. This was my slowest QCT run to date, and I was bummed to not be under 18. In the end, I came around the line over 7 minutes ahead of 2^nd.

Post Race: Not going to lie, it felt good to finally win what I consider a hometown race. At the same time, I must acknowledge the fact that the guys I couldn’t beat in previous years were absent. I was slower across the board in at 5 of my splits, so it’s hard to feel like I earned it. However, I am reminded that you can only race who shows up, and it’s possible that I could have dug a little deeper if I was chasing like previous years. I can blame travel, being in “Ironman shape” or a whole mess of other things. But when I have a race like this, I’m learning to let it be and just get back to work. So many times, I over-analyze an effort and convince myself that I’m off track. Instead, I’ll take winning the final QC Tri with a smile and start building to Ironman Lake Placid.

Here to hoping for a resurrection of the Quad Cities Triathlon in the near future.

Ironman Texas Pro Debut

Pro debut!!! So much to unpack from the weekend and race. Might need to set aside a little extra time to get through this one. I plan to include a few tidbits on key differences that I noticed between the amateur / pro experience as well.

Travel to the race went very well. My dad, buddy Matt and I took off for O’Hare around 3:30AM the Wednesday before the race. No issues or hiccups with the flight and arrival in Houston. We packed ourselves into a Nissan Rogue and drove straight to the venue to get check-in out of the way. At athlete village, there was a massive line for check-in. Unsure if I’d need to wait, I hesitantly walked by everyone and found a volunteer to ask where pros check in. She let me through, and I walked up to the pro registration table with no wait time. Everything else was the same except a different colored wristband, pro-series backpack and pro-series shirt. I also got to sneak ahead and grab my timing chip. That is all to say, the check-in process was much quicker!

On the way out, we saw Kristian and Gustav taking pictures and seized the opportunity to grab some as well. I told them it was my first pro race, and my big goal was to earn at least 1 pro series point (basically finish within 83 minutes of the winner). When I said my predicted time of 8:55, Gustav laughed and said that wouldn’t be fast enough. I was shocked at him implying they would break 7:30 in the heat. Fast forward and Blu went 7:24.

 

Pro briefing: This was new since there are slightly different rules and requirements for the professional athletes on race day. This was mandatory to attend (we had to sign in), and it was held at 2pm Thursday before the Saturday race. The briefing wasn’t announced until a week out, so I was glad I booked my travel early enough. It was so cool sitting around my idols, and I met/shook hands with several of them.

Some key highlights from the meeting were: Race Ranger, GPS pucks to be worn in our kits, a lower wetsuit threshold and a few differences for our transitions.

Without going into too much more detail on pre-race… I did a shakeout swim that felt great, 2 short bike sessions and 3 runs between Wednesday-Friday. Given how hot and humid it was going to be on race day, I spent additional time outside to acclimate the best I could. The Midwest hadn’t done me any favors and sauna prep only got me so far.

Race morning was great. My sherpas did a phenomenal job finding parking and getting me to transition 10 minutes before it opened. Since the pros were required to report to swim start by 6:05am, I wanted to be there as early as possible to set-up my gear and start the mile walk over. I was the first one in thanks to a volunteer letting me go early. The mechanic filled my tires for me, I prepared my nutrition and pre-mounted my cycling shoes. Once I was set, I swung by my gear bags to see where they ended up (Ironman moved the T1 bags overnight). After that, it was a long walk to the swim start. As I was walking, I chatted with Ty on the phone to calm my nerves (while also sipping on a Redbull to amp myself up). Once we got there, I put on an extra layer of sunscreen, suited up, took lots of pictures, then got into the pro corral.

All that and I haven’t even gotten to the race itself!

*I’m taking a guess on my placements relative to the male pros in each discipline since there were a lot of DNFs. I do know that 61 male pros started, so that’s what I’m going off.

Swim (1:01:04 - 56^th?): 10 minutes before the start, they let us all into the water for a quick warmup. I did a few take-outs to rev things up, but it was nearly impossible to see with how dark it was at 6:15am. The strangest part for me was treading water during the national anthem. I wasn’t going to fight for position on the line, so I just got into my prone position in a 2^nd row somewhere in the middle of the buoys. After the cannon went off, my goal was to push hard and try to stay in the draft of the main pack for as long as I could. I don’t think I even made it to 200 yards. I did, however, find some feet, and the effort to stay there felt hard enough not to try going around. Even though I was far off the back, I felt like I was doing ok…until I heard a boat and saw the media crew slowly creep up next to me. I took one breath to the opposite side and saw Rachel Zilinskas and Taylor Knibb FLY by me. I was not expected to see them until the canal (2/3 of the swim), but they passed me at halfway… This was that gut wrenching feeling that I was already having a bad day. Shortly after, Haley Chura came by as well. For the rest of the swim, I was feeling down and disappointed in myself and just wanted to get through it. I stayed on that athlete’s feet until he took me off course and a kayak directed us. I took over and swam the rest of the way down the canal. I got out of the water and saw 1:01 on my watch for a not-so-great swim. My goal going in was to be in the 58-59 range, so I didn’t totally fail, but it just wasn’t how I wanted to start my race. I saw 6 lonely gear bags remaining and grabbed mine from the end of the row.

T1 (2:58 – 29^th): No real issues here and my bag was easy to find amongst the few. Since I wasn’t in a wetsuit with calf sleeves underneath, I opted to put on aero socks that always take a little extra time. I got them on efficiently, threw my swim gear back into my bag and took off with my helmet. I grabbed my bike and as I was getting to the mount line, both of my rubber bands broke so my shoes swung down. This made getting going a little more difficult and added 5-10 seconds onto my bike split. Maybe I need some thicker bands next time.

One perk for the pros was leaving our gear bags in the change tent for the volunteers to take care of.

The Bike (4:37:28 – 48^th?): Not sure on the actual position, but I know a few did not finish the bike so my place appears better than my swim. Either way, this was my fastest IM bike split, and I was completely solo. Getting through the first few miles Alice Alberts blew by me along with a male pro working together. I knew I couldn’t keep up, so I just settled into my own pace. Once I got through the first 20 miles, I was excited to time trial down Hardy Toll Road. With only overpasses for elevation, this was the fastest and simplest bike course I’d ever ridden. With the wind from the south, it was 20 miles of headwind and 20 miles of tailwind repeated twice. I decided to push a little above my power target into the wind and a little under with to allow myself to stretch and eat. It was a little lonely the first loop, but that made it easier to simply focus on my power and HR. I did come up to a female pro around mile 30 and opted to sit behind for just a minute or 2. This was my only real exposure to race ranger, and I really liked it. Sitting in the blue was MUCH closer than I expected. I pressed on and anxiously waited to see the lead group heading back north so I could get a time gap. As I got to the turnaround, I was already 30+ minutes back after averaging around 22.5mph at 240W. Once I started heading north, I dropped to 230W and was going closer to 28mph. This part flew by, and I took the time to sit up more often and stretch out when I could. Before starting loop 2, I slowed way down to grab water from an aid station before the course got crowded. My preference was to only grab aid into the headwind since I was already going closer to a good “bottle grabbing speed”. I was glad I got it early because the next aid station was jammed, and I would have needed to stop to get anything. Loop 2 was completely different from loop 1 with the age groupers scattered throughout. It took a lot more focus to navigate and stay safe, going quite a bit faster than them. Even though the headwind was increasing, I felt like I got a slight draft benefit and went about the same speed as loop 1. After loop 2 there was a very tight right handed U-Turn that I struggled with, otherwise it was mostly tailwind there rest of the way back to transition.

Average Power: 230W (236 NP) / Average Speed 24.2mph

At first I was quite pleased with my bike split until I saw Cam Wurf set the all-time Ironman Bike record in 3:53. I feel like I still had a good ride with my best power output, but it was also a very fast day and all bike splits were fast. Still a lot more work to do losing over 40 minutes to the lead group.

T2 (2:13 – 7^th): One highlight was looking back at all the T2 times. I had the 8^th overall fastest time amongst every athlete. It helped that I already had my socks on, but I am proud of that one. The only thing to note is that Blu had already lapped me before I made it out of T2.

Run (3:05:21 – 24^th): I had a goal of running 3:10 or better going into this race. Reminding myself that I had only started running again for 4 months, I relaxed on my usual target of breaking 3. I also wanted to break 9 hours, and I was in the perfect position to achieve both. I started the run at what I felt was very conservative, and my first 8 miles were all around 6:50 pace. I was happy with where my HR was sitting and honestly did not expect to be running sub 7s. I was amongst 3^rd-5^th place, which included Rudy Von Berg and Nick Thompson. I felt that I did a great job of sticking to my plan and pace as they worked their way passed me. My HR was also in the 150-155bpm range, which is exactly where I wanted it to be. Around mile 9, I felt like I was already hitting a wall. I don’t typically say much when I race, but I told Matt and my dad that I was already struggling after getting through Hippy Hallow. My pace slowed up to around 7:20, and I felt the bonk happening. About a mile later I came up to my friend Ernie (who is a Dynamo OG with his wife Betty). He could see my pain and struggle and instead of yelling and pushing me, he simply nodded his head in acknowledgement. Something about that recognition struck me in that moment, and it was exactly what I needed at the time. From there I brought my pace back down to low 7’s and even snuck a 6:57 back in at mile 14.

From here on, I felt like the best I could do was just barely sneak under 9 hours. To do that, I needed to average 8min pace for the final 10 miles. To me it became a game, and every mile I ran under 8:00 was seconds banked in case the wheels really came off. 16-22 where I had a lull and relaxed my effort to reach that goal. I still kept it in that 7:20-7:30 range and “banked” about 3 minutes going into the final 4 miles. At this point I could almost close in 9 minute pace, but my motivation started coming back. Now if I stayed on that 8min pace, I’d finish in 8:55 (which sounded much better than 8:59). I got my pace back down to 7:15 and kept pressing into the effort. I would say that this was the most impressive final 10K I’ve ever run in an IM marathon. My final 3 miles I got back down to 7min pace and closed in a 6:53. As I was approaching the split to the finish after 3 loops, I came up on another male pro with ¼ mile to go. After we split off, I surged hard up a short hill and glanced back to see that he didn’t go with me. This allowed me to soak in that red carpet and give some high fives as I came across the line in 8:49. I ran down 15 pros (if you include the DNFs that came off the bike ahead of me), and it felt good to finally play pac man again.

Kudos if you made it through all of that. For my first pro race, I wanted to capture everything I could possible and reread this blog months or years from now. A few highlights at the finish were grabbing another picture with Blu (after telling him I missed that 1 point by 43s), chatting with Taylor Knibb and just being done by 3:30pm! It took me a little longer to get this post written, so I’ve had time to assess how my body is recovering. This was the easiest IM course I’ve raced, and I would say that my recovery has been the quickest. Chattanooga is just over 2 weeks away now, and I’m excited to put in a hard week of training after some down time.

Kona 2024 Race Report

This was one of those races where the final 2 months were less than ideal. After Ironman Wisconsin I took 5 weeks off of running due to a hip injury that still isn’t fully resolved. Coupled with some personal conflicts, my final build for Kona was far from what I had hoped. Regardless, my coach did everything he could to prepare me, and my wife even got me on an underwater treadmill to give me some running stimulus in the build-up. 

Race Week: Travel to Kona was perfect. No issues with flights and baggage arrived only scuffed. We arrived on Monday to give me plenty of time to adapt to the heat and humidity despite 10 days of sauna prep. My first few workouts were rough with heart rate ~10bpm higher than normal. That first morning I swam 50 minutes with my buddy John (thanks for being my safety buoy), then went on a social ride with my bike partner Kú. Wednesday I rode up to Hawi to get a feel for the climb and crosswinds with a short uphill run off the bike (easier on my hip going up). Thursday was just an easy swim and Friday was my final shakeout in the Energy Lab. I hadn’t been sleeping well all week, but I did get a good night's rest right before the race. In terms of that final prep week, everything went very well.

Ku Photoshoot

Race morning: Very smooth morning getting up at 4:00 to start the day. Breakfast was 3 pieces of bread with PB and a banana. Later in the morning I had a cliff bar as well. We found good parking and I quickly set up my bike without any hangups this time. While we were waiting the start the race, my mom’s side of the family dropped by to wish me luck and sent me off with some encouragement. I drank my Redbull and took that final Gu before heading to the corral. As luck would have it, I joined my buddy Kyle and we took to the start line together.

The Swim (59:23 - 73rd): As we were treading water waiting to start, I heard several guys say owe, ouch! Seconds later I got stung 2-3 times as well. I unfortunately did not have a great starting position, but seeing that I was 73rd in my AG, I probably deserved to start 3 rows back. The first 10 minutes were pure chaos and there was no clean water. As things started to settle, we caught the next wave and more chaos ensued. Overall I felt like I was in control and having a great swim, but I wasn’t able to get feedback from my watch. Probably for the better not checking it all the time. Knowing the different colored swim caps was incredibly helpful since I knew who to just go around. As I got to the pier, my goggles decided to break with 200 yards to go. This was my 2nd race in them and I got this new pair to avoid that… I was able to snag them and shove them down my kit to not litter. I swam eyes closed and only opened them when breathing/sighting. Coming out of the water, I had no idea what my swim time was, but I felt like I did well.

T1 (3:53): I skipped the fresh water hoses again and had to walk with all of the older athletes moving slowly. I got my bag and the change tent was Packed. I opted to sit on the wet concrete to get my socks on. More of a struggle than normal, but got them up and took off. As I was running out, I had a volunteer spray my jellyfish stings with vinegar, and I rinsed off with my water bottle as I ran to the bike. The rest was smooth as I cruised out and successfully got my feet into my shoes.

The Bike (4:50:53 - 67th): I felt good heading out and was mindful to not get caught up in the excitement of other athletes hammering up the first hill. I tightened my shoes and settled right in. Once I got back up to Queen K, I turned my attention to power numbers. Before I even got to the airport, I knew I needed an adjustment. I was already over my max HR cap and settled for 10-15W below target. As I was riding along, I caught my buddy Mitch (who was having a mechanical at the time but didn’t tell me until after). We gave some encouragement and off I went. The next 30 miles were uneventful other than a media moto riding alongside me for a few minutes. I tried to look like I knew what I was doing, but I don’t think they used the footage :/

Around 45 miles I heard a familiar voice, Kyle Martinelli right on schedule. As he went by, he had 4-5 guys within a few feet of his wheel… I can’t say enough how much I hate cheating, and there was nothing Kyle could do. He eventually pulled onto the shoulder and forced them to pass and came back by me before trying to surge ahead and drop them all. I hung onto the back of that group for ~5 miles until the climb to Hawi started. At that point I was starting to cook and let them go. To my great joy, an official went by me. 15 minutes later I saw at least 2 of those guys in the penalty tent after the turnaround. 

Last time I did Kona, I left a lot of time out there on the Hawi descent. This time I pushed the entire time. Thanks my to Kú TF1, I can honestly say I felt very stable in those crosswinds. I moved up 18 spots and averaged 34mph in that 5 mile stretch. From there it started to thin out and it was easier to focus on my power and my race. There isn’t much else to report other than the conditions were mild. I got back to transition before the crosswinds turned into a headwind like they did in 2022. My power ended up being 20W below my target, and I knew I wasn’t really “in the mix” going into the run. I had to alter my expectations a bit more and started focusing on a course PR.

T2 (2:56): Fast and efficient. I felt great about this one and scanning through some times, not many were under 3 minutes. Nothing to report other than my salt tube staying in the bag… May have come back to bite me later.

The Run (3:19:12 - 46th): One of my goals for this race was the start the run before 6 hours elapsed time. I was happy to have about 2 minutes to spare, so I took that as a small win. At this point, I was focused on running a 3:30 to beat my time of 9:29 back in 2022. As I was getting settled, Mr. John Butcher BLEW by me ½ mile into the run. In typical fashion, him and I were never separated my more than 1 minute (up until that point). Before my injury, our dream scenario was to run together in Kona. We were perfectly set up, but I just couldn’t go… sorry man. As he vanished, I stuck to my plan of saying slower than 6:50 pace for the first 5K to settle in. Good call because my fastest mile of the day was 6:55 that first mile.  I was never under 7 the rest of the run. From mile 1, I was missing that spring in my step and was content to just hold 7:15 pace. As I continued to adjust goals, I knew I needed to be under an 8 min avg. With that in mind, I wanted to be at or under 7:30 pace in the energy lab to give enough buffer. Seeing my family along Palani was a nice boost and I pretty much plugged along for the most steady run I’ve ever done. 

I felt much smarter this time keeping a water bottle to have it refilled at aid stations. I did this twice and it only cost me 30s to always have water on hand. I took the aid stations slow and walked about half of them. Once I got to the energy lab I was still holding 7:15s, so that was encouraging. One thing that pissed me off was athlete 977 blatantly cheating. Numerous times his partner came by on a bike and handed him a cold drink from a cooler. He’d drink it for a minute or 2 and drop it for her to come by and pick it up again. I saw it at least 3 times, and I engrained his number into my memory. Fortunately I beat him by just a few seconds…

Back to my race, I was very conscious about walking the aid station prior to leaving the energy lab. I made sure I had ice and extra water. It was slow running out, but I didn’t breakdown like I had previously. Once I was back up on the Queen K, my pace was hovering around 7:20. With 7 miles to go, this was a great place for me to be knowing the finish was net downhill. Around this time I noticed I needed a bathroom stop. As I came up on mile 22, the opportunity presented itself and took care of business. The hardest part was getting my dang kit zipped back up. That was my slowest mile of the day at a 9:20 with the stop. As I got to mile 24, my aunt and uncle were still out there to cheer me on at the time I needed it most. Everything started to slow down at mile 25 and forward progress was my only thought. At Palani, I was stoked to actually open my stride and run down. Coming through that final mile I saw the rest of my family spread out and I pushed as hard as I could to the finish. I passed a handful of athletes down the final stretch and did not soak up that finish like I should have.

The Finish (9:16:14 - 40th): Given what I brought into the race, this was the best I could manage. I left everything I had on the course, and I’m proud of my effort and execution. To my wife and family that came to support me, I can’t thank you enough for everything all week and in race day. And to everyone back home sending me encouragement and tracking my progress…thank you.

To be blunt, this was not how I wanted my season to end. I wanted to leave amateur racing with a bang and feel confident turning pro. To not run for 5 weeks hurt me, and I wasn’t even sure I could run the whole marathon. Considering that the pain was a non-factor during the actual race, that’s all I could have asked for.

3 weeks before the race my wife got me on an underwater treadmill as the only way I could run without pain. It was our best stab at acquiring  any run fitness, so we did what we could.

Enough with the excuses though. I’m in a better spot injury-wise than I was leaving Madison, so that’s a win. I am hoping to avoid surgery and manage this with physical therapy as I enter the off-season. As for next year, I don’t have a single race on my calendar, and I am somehow ok with that.

Ironman Wisconsin 2024 Race Report

A few days before the race a wise friend asked me if there was a scenario where I didn’t win but walked away satisfied. I had to think about it, but my answer ended up being yes. Fast forward to the finish, and that was the case. So thank you Phil. 

I didn’t start much of a taper until 3 days beforehand, but the body was feeling rested and recharged. My resting HR and HRV were the best I’ve ever seen, dropping to 36bpm at night. I knew I was primed from a cardiovascular standpoint. Musculoskeletal-wise, I was not feeling 100%. My only complaint was not feeling loose.

In terms of final race prep, everything went as well as it could. Two nights out I ate my traditional Taco Bell and the night before I got my sub from Firehouse. I got up early to get my final ride and run in on Saturday and went to a diner for a large breakfast right after. I was in and out to drop my gear at the venue before heading back to the house to put my feet up.

Race morning was smooth with no issues. I ate 2 pieces of bread with a banana and peanut butter the second I woke up. We left my brother’s and parked where there was zero traffic or stress. I got all my gear setup and found a spot to chill at the terrace. I had so many friends come up for this race, and many of them were there to send me off race morning. I felt like I handled the stress better this year (slightly), gave my final hugs and worked my way to the start.

The Swim (57:29 - 16th OA): This was actually a very comfortable swim. It didn’t take too long for everyone to find their space and I focused more on myself than trying to find feet. On the top side of the loop, I remembered just how far an Ironman swim is. I concentrated on getting to that first turn signifying I was ¼ done. I knew the wind was against us on the way out and the return trip went by much more quickly. Before merging with everyone on my 2nd loop, I found a guy swimming the same pace as me and jumped on his feet. He had a distinctive wetsuit and lifted his upper body out of the water when he sighted, so it was very easy to track and follow. I let him navigate through the slower swimmers and sat very comfortably behind. After we made 2 more turns, I decided to take my own line on that final stretch back to transition. Part way back I was completely stopped by water support informing us that there was a water emergency. After 10-15s I was able to locate where it was occurring and opted to continue swimming the other direction around the kayak. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to help and just wanted to get myself out of the way. As I came out of the water and got my wetsuit down, I glanced and saw a 57:?? on my watch for 1 minute IM swim PR.

T1 (5:25): I got my wetsuit down easily before the peelers and felt like I had a solid transition. I pulled on my new aero socks that take a little more time plus a pair of throwaway knit gloves that added an extra step. I ran with my shoes in hand across the top of the parking garage and put them on next to my bike while a volunteer grabbed it for me. I moved up 5 positions to 8^th and was 19s slower than last year. I’ll take that with the gloves and how cold it was.

The Bike (4:59:58 - 5th OA): The bike started out quiet and I only passed 2 or 3 people the first few miles. It was around 50 degrees at the start going into a headwind, but I felt comfortable. I knew my pace would improve on the way back, but it was tough only seeing 20mph. Not even 10 miles in, Alfredo blew by me. After having such a good swim and transition, I was shocked to be caught so quickly. I had intentions of going with him when he did pass, but it would have taken way too much power to stay with him. I focused on my own race and pushed the exact numbers prescribed. At mile 40 Ty told me 4^th and 6 minutes down from 1^st. This meant I lost 6 minutes in just under 30 miles. At that rate, I’d be about 15 minutes down starting the run. Honestly, I didn’t believe I would win a run battle even if we came off the bike together so this was bad news. As I was coming up the last climb of my first loop, a fellow Ku Next Gen athlete caught me on Timber and told me nice bike =) I was hoping I wouldn’t see Kyle until lap 2, but he was riding FAST. We shared some notes on splits in the race for about a minute, but I wasn’t going to be able to hold his wheel. As I started lap 2, I had the first loop riders to contend with. For the most part everyone stayed right, but a few times I was help up. Annoyingly, one of the bike marshals cut me off on a turn. I had to brake hard and lost a lot of momentum. Nothing else too exciting other than me consuming all of my nutrition. This was important because I had an extra 50g of carbs in 2 Maurten gels if I felt I needed more. This put me right at 105g/hr.

T2 (1:44): I felt good coming off the bike and was ready to work. I already had my socks on and the shoes came on easily. I grabbed my gear/nutrition and was off. Glancing at the tracking now, I was around 30s faster than the next best split.

The Run (3:02:10 – 2^nd OA): Run legs felt good right out of the gate, so I knew I had to be mindful and hold back. First update came within 1/4 mile, so I knew I had 13 minutes to first and around 7 to second. As I came around the capital, I had more friends and family ready to pump me up. That first mile was net downhill, and I clocked a 6:18. In those first few miles I focused on the heavy nutrition plan of 4 gels/hour and had two down before mile 5. I felt completely in control but did notice some GI issues around that time. I saw the gaps at the first turn around and Alfredo was a solid 12 minutes ahead of me. The other two were getting closer but still 6+ minutes. At this point I was averaging 6:32/mile and was a little discouraged to run that fast and not make up much time. I saw my crew again on state street and keep pressing. At this point, I knew I needed to make a pit stop but I wanted to make sure I was only going to do it once. I also wanted to do so before I caught anyone. My idea was that at the next turnaround, the 3 guys ahead of me would think I was already slowing down. Needless to say, it took around a minute and I felt like Kristian Blummenfelt pulling my kit back up. That mile split ended up being 7:28 so I estimated about 50-60s lost. Regardless, I was back in pursuit and measured my gaps again at the next U-turn. Around mile 12 is when I finally caught back up to Kyle, and he told me the same thing I said on the bike - I was hoping to hold you off until lap 2. We pressed on and I started working my way towards 2^nd. At the halfway point, I was only 1 minute back and had him in my sights. I made the pass at mile 15 and was told there’s still a chance, keep pushing for the win. Around 16-17 is when the body started to push back. My 6:40s were now 7’s, but I knew everyone was probably slowing down at this point. I had enough calories in me, but was probably lacking on fluids despite the cool temperature. I made it a point to slow down through the next few aid stations and really had to muscle down 3 more gels in the final 10K. I measured the gap at just over 6 minutes with 6 miles to go. Very different from last year, I was able to avoid those dark thoughts of you “you don’t want it enough” or “forget the tape”. I held onto the idea that if he slowed down to 8’s and I held my 7’s, it’d come down to the wire.

The final 10K I did just that and averaged 7:05 pace to the chute, but unfortunately so did he. At 1 point I was within 5:30 but lost by over 6 minutes in the end. Initially I was disappointed to not have broken 3 hours on a very ideal day, but looking at my Garmin splits I was actually 5s/mile faster than last year.

The Finish (9:06:44 – 2^nd OA): I was a little bitter coming into the finish chute while the winner was showboating and even walked in front of me as I came through. Zero acknowledgement whatsoever. When I won last year, I stayed behind the finish arch and waited for 2^nd place so I could congratulate him. Different mindset I suppose. Despite the disappointment of not defending my title, I walked away with a 6-minute Ironman PR and my tank empty. Given that this race was a full year apart since my last Ironman, I was expecting to perform a little better than what I displayed.

A few key take-aways:

1.      The 6-minute PR all came from my bike split, and I attribute that to hard work and my new Ku TF1. Also, a note that Kyle rides a TF1 and dropped the 2^nd best bike spit on the day, 12 minutes faster than me! These bikes are no joke.

2.      My friends and family are the real MVPs. I’m afraid to leave anyone out, so I’ll just say I had a massive crew come up for the sole purpose of supporting me this weekend. I got so many updates and was able to feed off their energy all day.

3.      Last year this was my A race. I was peaked for the season, got a full taper and it was the only full Ironman that year. I can give myself some grace and focus all of my attention and effort on Kona.

I truly appreciate everyone following my journey. I know most of you are proud no matter the result, but I really hope to have a better showing in Kona.