IRON WISCONSIN 2008

I had a good day at Ironman Wisconsin on September 7. I won my age group, qualified for Kona and broke the course record for my age group by 34 minutes. Okay, all the suspense is gone. Polly has always told me not to bury the lead. If you’re interested in the details, please read on.

Toward the end of July and beginning of August, I was beginning to feel optimistic about my chances for two reasons. My long rides were going well, and I honestly thought that I could go faster than the record time for my age group. At that time, I mentioned this to my coach Adam Zucco, and asked him to keep it quiet in the likely event that I was deluding myself.

As the day of the race approached, weather reports began to look sour. Chances of rain were increasing, and projected temperatures were dropping. Flashbacks to the horrible conditions of the 2006 IM Wisconsin filled my head. My whining was increasing in direct proportion to the sinking weather reports. Polly made fun of me and called me a whimp…a shocking characterization.

The day turned out to be perfect, although I have heard that some people complained about strong winds on the second loop of the bike. While looking for a place to relax before the start of the swim, I ran into all the Schmitts clustered around Jenny who was about to compete in her first Ironman. I was Jenny’s coach for this event. She trained like a pro all spring and summer, and had a great day finishing well under 13 hours. Tom Geldermann strolled by as we were sitting there. I was also Tom’s coach. His training went well right through the Triple T, and then hit a few speed bumps. He still soldiered on, and finished the race.

Tom and I got in line and headed down for the swim. We swam out to the buoy line and positioned ourselves so as not to be clawed and pushed under by the better swimmers and those overly ambitious athletes that we would be passing later. When the canon went off, I found myself in a Piranha tank. The water came alive with 2300 people all trying to be in the same place at the same time. During the first 1.2 mile loop, I had by goggles knocked off 4 times. In spite of this, I swam easily, and exited the water 3 minutes faster than my previous best effort.

After running up the spiraling traffic ramp to the transition area, I dashed into the convention center and put on my helmet, ran out to my bike and took off on my 112 mile ride through hills of the Madison country side. I can honestly say that I never pushed on the bike. On the bigger hills people tried to encourage me to push to the top. If they had followed my progress to the top, they would have seen me pedaling past those that had passed me going up as they tried to recover. I hardly glanced at my power meter. I just felt that I was in the right effort zone. I was averaging a little over 20 mph until I began the second loop of the course. As the wind picked up from the South, I began to slow down a bit, but it seemed that others were slowing down more. I wasn’t passed on this loop, and when I turned to ride the final 14 miles back to Madison, I saw that my average speed had dropped to 19 mph. The wind pushed me all the way back and pushed my average speed back up to almost 20.

I had another quick transition, (that seemed to be my best event-changing, I was almost twice as fast in T1 and T2 as the others in my age group) and headed out on the first loop of the run course. The run at Ironman Wisconsin is fabulous. It winds back and forth through the campus, even entering Camp Randall for a run around the football field. The crowds are dense and enthusiastic. My first mile was way too fast. I spent most of the first loop telling myself to take it easy. I wanted to run a 4:20 marathon, and felt that 4:30 would be an easy time to make. In the end, I only managed a 4:40, so there’s plenty of room for improvement. Everything was going pretty well until I turned up State Street and headed toward the capitol for the turn around. At that moment I felt a stitch in my side. I used all the tricks that I know to get rid of it, raising my arms, breathing in on the stride of the opposite foot, and explosive breathing out. As the sharp stitch pain began to dull, I noticed that I was beginning to feel some intestinal distress. Unfortunately, this stayed with me for the rest of the run. However, my greatest moment of the day was only moments away. Oona lives on Dayton at a point between the turn around and the 14 mile aid station. Before the race, I had asked her to track my age group on Ironman Live. As I passed her on the run, I yelled “How am I doing in my age group?” She yelled back, “You’re in first place by 40 minutes.” I knew that I could almost walk in from there, and still win, and thus get my spot for Kona. I relaxed, and just lived with the stomach cramps for the rest of the race. Polly must have known how I was doing as I turned around at the capitol because she was chanting Kona, Kona, Kona as I passed her. I crossed the finish line at 11:43:41, faster than I ever imagined I could race.

Unlike the California Half Ironman of 2006, I actually lost my chip this time. As I rode the final 50 miles of the course I yelled my number to every official standing on the side or driving by on a motorcycle. At the bike to run transition, I screamed at every volunteer "I need a chip; where can I get a chip?" It was a little Shakespearean...a chip, a chip, my kingdom for a chip. If I had bothered to read the race brief, I would have known to stop at the run start and ask for one. When I finally arrived there after my paniced screaming, a volunteer calmly strapped a new one to my ankle. Somethings never change.

My friend and client Ben Schloegel did not have the day he wanted, but he learned things that will propel him to the place he deserves to be. When I say he didn't have the day he wanted, we mere mortals need to understand how someone who runs a 3:03 marathon and finishes 12th overall is disappointed. Look for Ben in the Florida Ironman in November. He's going sub 9 hours.

Polly is my number 1 fan and supporter. She’s not that interested in triathlon, but she encourages me to do what I love, and even keeps me on track by reminding me of my goals, when my will begins to falter. She lets me be who I am which always amazes me because I’m such a dufus.

I can’t end this report without thanking Adam Zucco. He has been my coach since I decided to do my first Ironman over 3 years ago. He has had to put up with my constant questions, and suggestions, but in the end, I do what I’m told, and evidently what he’s been telling me to do has worked. I completed my first Ironman. I dropped my time by almost an hour in my second one, and I dropped that time by over 30 minutes in my third. Now, it’s on to the world championships in Kona in October of 2009. The race will be on Polly’s and my 24th wedding anniversary. It should be another good day.

For more images of the day click HERE

Once you arrive at the gallery you can select the way you want to view it at the bottom of the page. If you click on an individual image, you can click on the i that appears below it to see the caption.

YOU GO GIRL

You only do your first Triathlon once. Oona had modest goals for this one. She wanted to finish under 3 hours. She was much closer to 2 hours than to 3. Her attitude was positive all day. If she was nervous, it certainly never showed, not at 5am when we picked her up, and not in the transition area before the swim start.

Rumor has it that she may join the UW Triathlon Club. Whatever she decides to do, I will always be so proud of her for deciding to train and complete her first tri.

To see Oona swim bike and run look HERE.

2008 American Triple T

This is a long self obsessed ramble…..SHOCKING! If you want to skip to the pictures click HERE.

The Triple T (TTT) weekend began on Thursday with a drive down to Henryville, Indiana to pick up Tom Geldermann. We competed as a team last year. As the photos of our home offices demonstrate, we probably lack the similar mindsets that underpin smoothly functioning teams. This year we decided to go solo. We got a late start on Friday morning, but made it to the lodge at Shawnee State Park in plenty of time. That was when things began to come a bit off the rails. It turned out that our reservation was for the next weekend.


I immediately tried my old and inevitably useless tactic of asking “where would you put President Bush should he suddenly show up asking to stay the night?” The indirect answer was a mirthless “We have no vacancies and no cancellations.” Someone later pointed out that the Secret Service would probably pay a registered guest several thousand bucks to take a hike. Being neither presidential nor Warren Buffetian, I accepted the help of sympathetic desk clerks at the lodge, who were able to find a room for us in downtown Portsmouth, Ohio.

Before heading there, we did the Prologue, a short 250 meter swim (more like 350), a sharply ascending and steeply descending, five mile bike ride (more like 4) and a one mile run. It was just a warm up for the weekend’s activities. This short test was the fastest I’d done in the three years I’ve competed at the TTT. Tom took a more conservative approach given our meltdown last year.

As would be the case for the rest of the weekend, we met our two rackmates, Martin Cole and Jerry Donohue during both transitions. However, as he would all weekend, Jerry went on to trounce us all on the run. Before the Prologue began, I ran into Ben Niles of Multisport Madness, and Russell Lane of TrainingBible Coaching. They both went on to have great races all weekend.

The following morning, the first Olympic distance race went pretty well. I was about two minutes slower than 2006, but a little faster than last year. Tom, again playing it conservatively was a few minutes slower than last year. The swim and run are on the same course for all the races. The water was quite cold this year. The reported temperature was 56. It was cold, but I don’t think it was actually that frigid. The morning bike course twists and turns its way through the Shawnee State Park and featured the steepest climb of the weekend, a 14% grade that gradually leveled out to an 8% pitch for the rest of the mile ride to the summit. The run goes up up up and down over a rocky, eroded and very hilly trail that winds through the forest. The weather was perfect, although a bit cold at 45 degrees for the start of the swim. It warmed up to the low 70’s by the end of the first race.

We headed back to the hotel for a nap before the afternoon Olympic. For those not familiar with the distances, an Olympic Triathlon consists of a 1.5 K swim (almost a mile), a 40 K bike (almost 25 miles), and a 10 K run (6.2 miles).

We were a bit groggy as we headed back to the transition area. The afternoon race is the beginning of the team competition in which two person teams are allowed to draft each other on the bike. I must have been groggier than I thought since I arrived in the start line with a flat tire. I managed, even in my building panic, to change the tire in time to start a bit behind my seeded spot. But since we’re timed using an electronic chip around our ankles, no harm was done. I was a little nervous about riding on a new tubular tire that had not be glued down, especially after the unnerving speed wobble that I had experienced during the morning ride. Unconventionally, the afternoon race began with the bike, a straight out and back along the main drag leading to the park. The first 9 miles are generally hilly, but at about mile seven a steep climb begins which is followed by a steep 1.3 mile descent to a 3 mile windy flat out to the turn around. The climb on the way back is a killer.

I had my second scary speed wobble on the big descent. As I passed a guy, I could see the fear in his eyes. I can only imagine what he saw in mine. My bike was shaking so violently while descending at almost 40 mph that I was afraid that the top tube was going to snap. When I got control on the flat portion, I stopped until I stopped shaking and checked everything out. It seemed fine, but I was very conservative on the way back.

Swimming after the bike was a welcome relief last year. It was 93 degrees, and the water was a perfect 74. This year the cold water left me on the verge of cramping the entire swim. As I emerged from the water, I saw the beach and bridge back to transition littered with bodies in various frozen and cramped positions. Some of these competitors had attempted to save time by swimming without their wetsuits. Not a good idea.

I managed to keep running for the entire run course, but my pace was considerably slower than the morning’s effort. I did manage to beat my best time from the previous two years by a couple of minutes. Tom beat our time of last year by minutes as well.

We were pretty tired at this point. So, we drove back to Portsmouth, ate and went to bed.

The next morning we packed up early and headed to the park for the half ironman, a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. Hills, hills, hills. I took it easy on the swim, and headed out for the first loop of a two loop bike course. After an easy five miles, we hit the long 1.3 mile switchback climb. This double loop is the most beautiful of the weekend, although I’m not sure that everyone was in the best frame of mind to appreciate it. I was faster on the bike, (although that’s a relative term), than my two previous years. As I started the run, I was tired, but felt pretty good. I intended to finish the event by running the two loop course. However, after the first turn around, I was passed on a steep incline by a guy who was walking. It was time to re-think my plan. I walked up the steep parts for the rest of the day. At mile 12 my IT band began to cause some serious problems. I was forced to walk a considerable portion of the last stretch. Even with the walking, I was amazed that I was 13 minutes slower on the run than 2006. But, with faster swim and bike splits, only 4 minutes slower overall. Tom finished almost 30 minutes ahead of our time from last year.

263 of the 287 who started the Prologue finished the last event. I was fifth out of 15 in the 50+ age group, and around 175 of the 263 finishers. For the third year in a row, I was the oldest person at the race. I will not be the oldest in next year’s race. Three Triple T’s are enough.

For pictures, click HERE.