Ironman Wisconsin - Triathlon

The swim was the thing that I was most concerned about. I had done the distance in the pool and was very close in the open water so I knew I could do it but I knew it was going to be long and slow. When I saw the conditions that day with the wind I would be lying if I didn't tell you I was nervous and had my doubts of whether or not I could do it. This was the biggest part of the Ironman for me, I'm not a fast swimmer or a good swimmer yet. I can hold my own and get it done but I knew this would be the hardest part of the race. I just don't have the confidence in my swim that I have with the bike or the run. Swimming is hard and it takes a long time to really get good at doing it so I resigned myself to just doing the best that I could do. I lined up all the way in the back and to the outside and I didn't have much company so I was happy with that. I figured the less contact the better for me plus it would allow me to just focus on the task at hand, swimming. The cannon went off and off we all went. The front part of the course was not bad for me. It was rough but not that bad and with few people around me it allowed me to just focus on swimming. I went right side only every other stroke. All was good going towards the first buoy. I had one guy who swam next to me for quite a while. I think he was side drafting off me LOL! I went more toward the inside and he followed. He finally crossed in front of me which made me have to sort of stop and go to the outside. At this point I am heading toward the first buoy and now I start catching up to a pack of people so there was some contact here not much. I had to watch where I was going. I made it around the first turn buoy and it got much rougher at this point. The wind was blowing the water toward the shore so I was swimming against that. I'm thinking this is going to be a really long and tough swim for me. In any case I get to the second turn around buoy to start the longest stretch of the swim. Now looking at the map of the swim course it doesn't seem too bad but when you look at it in person I was like damn, this is a loooooong course! Well it seemed that way being out there. The back stretch was tough for me. I swam good almost to the halfway point on the back stretch but I was going all over the place. The water was pulling me inside the buoys so I had to swim back out. I was so bad with the sighting and with the waves dragging me inside I was all over place. I was inside and I was all the way outside. I finally got myself to the point where I was just outside the buoys and stayed that way for the rest of the way. I checked my watch at one point and I'm thinking I have been in the water forever but the watch said 1:18 so I thought well I am making progress. As I start to get to around the halfway point where Monona terrace is I hit a guy in the head with my left hand. I stop as he was stopped and I apologize to him. He says it's ok and asked me how I was feeling. I said I was fine and asked him how he was doing and then we start swimming forward. At this point I'm getting tired and thinking man this tough. I did not allow myself to start thinking why did this happen to me today? I know I would have in the past. I thought ok look how far I've gotten, don't worry how far you have to go. You can do this you have an hour to go. You can make it. So with that my strategy became just swim to the next buoy and that's what I did. I stopped alot but I kept pushing myself forward until I got one buoy away from the turnaround. One of the volunteers on a kayak asked me if I was ok and I said I was. I asked him is that second buoy the last turnaround buoy and he said it was. He asked me if I need to grab a rest on the kayak and I told him no I'm good and I can keep going and I did. I made it to the last turn around buoy nearly running into it. At this point I did not have far to go but I'm thinking I don't have much left in me for this swim yet I am soooooo frealkin close now. I have to keep going I have to do this and I can do this. The volunteers now were urging us on telling us we were just a couple hundred meters out. You're almost there, keep swimming. So I went right side only and then bilateral as long as I could then I would stop and catch my breath and then go again. I finally look at my watch one last time and I see 1:57 and I think well so much for that 1:40 to 1:45 I was looking for. I figured man I am cutting this way too close I have to go now and get this done. I am so close now I just put my head back into the water and I swim. The current is pushing us in but it pulls you back and then pushes you forward. I just keep swimming and I am now 10 or 12 feet away I can see the finish and try and stand and I can't so I start swimming again and a volunteer helps me out of the water. I look at my watch and it's 2:01. I start walking out and slip down and I am on all fours and start getting up when I hear a guy ask me if I am alright. I say I am and it was just a very rough swim as I start looking up and lo and behold it's Mike Rielly! It took me a second to realize this and I'm thinking holy crap this is Mike Rielly! LOL! He says to me you'll be fine and I start to head over to the wetsuit strippers who help me out big time as I am still thinking about how brutal the swim was for me. I'm also thinking damn I should have told Mike Rielly I'll see you later on at the finish! I start running toward transition and I see my friend and fellow Asphalt Junkie Brenda run up to me and she's telling me Tony you got this you can do this and I'm so shell shocked from the swim, completely traumatized all I can do is nod and say ok. Geez I felt like such and idiot but really all I can think about at this point is I made it through that brutal swim. I've just overcame the thing that I had the most fear and doubt about, I actually did it. Well off to tranistion I go. After looking at my Garmin data I see I actually swam 2.78 miles!

I don't think I could have done much more than I did. This part of the race I knew would be the most challenging for me. I've been swimming less than two years and I'm not fast and still have a lot of work to do on my technique. I will say I definitely faced any fear and doubt I had about doing this long distance swim and was able to overcome it. It wasn't a good swim let's be honest it was terrible but I couldn't be more proud of myself for not even thinking about quitting and just going out there and getting it done in some brutal conditions. My focus this offseason is to improve my swimming again. Last year I sucked, this year I was just bad and next year I want to be average.

I was so shell shocked and traumatized coming out or the water it was a small miracle that I actually ran as much as I could towards and up the helix to the transition. Good thing I did because it did matter. I got my bag and one of the volunteers sat me down and was a tremendous help in getting my stuff together and helping me get dressed and ready to get out of there. I didn't forget anything. I left transition and hit the porta potties and then went off to get my bike. The volunteers called my number down and they grabbed my bike for me. I took my bike and ran it down through the transition. It was a long way to the bike out. I stopped running and walked quickly to the bike out and one of the volunteers is yelling at us to keep moving. We only have 30 seconds to make the cutoff to leave transition with the bike. I forgot all about this so me a few other guys hustle over the line and out we go down the helix. That was not too bad going down the helix, it was lined with people. That was so cool having all those people on Monona terrace for the swim and the start of the bike. Holy cow I just made it! My day could have been over right than and there. I get sick thinking about it now that after that swim I was 30 seconds from being a DNF! Could you imagine?

I think I would have moved faster in transition and I would have hustled more. I can't complain though this was my first IM and I wanted to have everything and not rush but then again I never imagined I would have that tough a swim.

I studied the Wisconsin bike course for the last year. I've seen the simply stu video a million times and so I was very familiar with how the bike course looked and what to expect from it. I also spent the entire summer chasing my friend Wynn around Long Island on long endurance rides and long hills rides preparing for this. I swear he tried to go out of his way to kill me! He did IMWI in 2010 and gave me a lot of really good insight to the course. I did not have the opportunity to ride the course but I did drive it before the race on Thursday and I was very intimidated after driving it. It made me forget all about how long the swim would be be lol. I was hoping this would be like Syracuse was for me. I drove the bike course there and felt the same way but once I got out there and rode it during the race I realized it wasn't that bad. So I started out on the 16 mile stick and it wasn't really that bad once you get through the bike path and onto the roads. The one thing about this course is you know you are going to get the 3 big climbs on the hills but it's really the culmulative effect of all the other smaller hills that does everyone in. I made sure that i used the Endurance Nation strategy of JRA (just ride along) for this race. I rode conservatively because I wanted to actually be able to run the run plus being my first Ironman there are many unknowns. So riding out on the stick for the first 16 miles wasn't bad I was just trying to get warmed up and get a feel for things. I rode out without issues until I got to Valley Rd. or Messerschmidt Rd. where on some smaller climbs I dropped my chain twice. I thought this is going to be a long day if my chain is going to keep dropping. I fixed that and I figured it must be me so I became very cognizant of which rear gear I was in when I shifted down the front gear my compact 34. That solved that problem and I didn't have any issues with this the rest of the day. I think things started to get interesting on the loop when I got to Witte Rd. It's all up and down. I think the course becomes more challenging starting here. I just kept riding along not pushing too hard spinning up the hills and coasting down the down hills and not going all out. I was saving as much energy as I could for the run. When I got to Garfoot Rd. I definitely was conservative on the winding downhills there. I was not going to end my day in crashing in the woods there. Stagecoach Rd has to be one of the roughest rodes I have ever ridden on. Not for nothing we have some crappy roads on LI but man Stagecoach is one of the worst ones ever. They need to repave that road. The 3 climbs were not easy but not bad the first time around. It was very cool to see all the people out there supporting the athletes. I thought that was awesome. I took all 3 hills as easy as I could I just spun up as slowly as I could. I didn't care about putting on any climbing exhibition. I just got up them with the least amount of effort. As I was going down Timber Lane the first time down the hill there I saw a girl bent over her bike in the middle of the road. I made sure to stay to the left as I'm going down I see a guy running over to her. She must have went down I saw she had ripped shorts and top and road rash. I felt bad for her and hoped she was alright. At about mile 52 I made my first stop I had to use the rest room and then I made another stop starting the second loop for my special needs bag. I wanted to grab my Infinit and get my bottles set up for lap two. The second lap of the loop was pretty uneventful. I was getting concerned about the weather though it was pretty windy out there for much of the ride and it really looked like it was going to rain. When I got back to Witte Rd again I was thinking man this will suck if it rains let me get past Garfoot and Timber Ln and Midtown Rd. It never happened thanfully. I also wound up having my left shifter for my front ring pop out of the tri bar on my bike. Making the trip up from NY and all the road work going on must have loosened the clips inside the aero bar. I knew it was loose so I bought a roll of electrical tape the day before the race for 57 cents. It saved my race I think because it wound up popping out. I wound up stopping at one of the school aid stations maybe N 8th St.? I'm not sure but the volunteer there was totally awesome helping me get that taped up and refilling my bottles. So with the 4 stops I did lose at least 10 minutes on the ride. I was pretty conservative the rest of the way. I was getting worried I might struggle on the 3 hills but I did very well. I took it easy and made it up them. No doubt they were much tougher the second time around. I finished the second pass of the loop and hit the stick for the ride back. I passed alot of people on the way back in from the stick. I felt good and keep my effort up but didn't over do it. I got towards the end of the stick and once again I see my fellow Junkie and friend Brenda there yelling encouragement and holding up a sign. I can see she also wrote on the pavement words of inspiration. That was so cool and gave me such a boost. I felt so good going in I thought I might actually be able to have a good run. My nutrition on the bike was spot on. I drank a 24 oz bottle of infinit just about every hour. I made sure I ate plenty but not over do it. My friends Wynn and Bobby hammered the nutrition points home so I took it to heart and ate even if I didn't want to. It really paid off for me. When I finally made it back I rode up the helix and it was not as bad as I though it might be. One of the volunteers grabbed my bike asked me how she performed and I told me she was great today and she really took care of me. I was very happy with my bike leg. I could have rode harder but there were just way too many unknowns for me so I choose to be conservative and save it for the run. It was clearly the right thing for me to do. The goal here was to finish not to compete and the over 4400 miles put in the bike really paid off for me.

I think I could have done better on the bike course. I was very conservative this being my first Ironman. I didn't want to blow up on the bike and walk the run. I think I lost some time on the 4 stops that I had to make as well. Being that I did not ride the bike course before hand I thought I did well. I probably could have pushed it a little harder but I am not sure how that would have affected my run. I think I executed the bike well to set myself up for a good run.

I got back to T2 and took my time here. The volunteer who helped me with my bike at the school told me not to rush and to take my time and he was right. It gave me a chance to regroup and catch a short break. I hydrated, got dressed and used the porta potties once again and then headed out for the run. At this point I knew I was going to be able to do this.

Not much I could have moved faster and with more purpose but it really would have not gained me that much time. It was better to get set up and take my time so I could have a good run.

The goal here was to run the entire run leg of the Ironman. I trained running very slowly and staying in zone 2. I am not a fast guy and never will be but I can run the distance so I focused on keeping my HR down and making sure I did not overexert myself. I trained at 11 to 12 mpm and my plan was to stay in that range, walk the aid stations and the inclines/uphills. I did all those things and it worked out perfectly for me. When I started the run I figured it will be 5 hours that was the plan. I figured just do exactly what I did in training and I got this. Going out I knew I was going to be an Ironman, I knew it. I had 7 hours so I figured just focus on one loop at a time if I need to walk I will still finish. I took each mile down, I didn't worry about where I was I just ran. I made sure at each aid station I took in powerbar perform and I ate something along the way. Early on I took some ice and I drank some water throughout. I also ate a few bonk breaker bites, bananas, pretzels, potato chips and crushed chocolate chip cookies. I never had any stomach issues and did not have to go with coke at all. The first loop went really well I started too fast but got myself slowed down and just took it all in. The run was very well supported people were out encouraging the athletes, calling out there names and cheering them on. That was so freakin awesome to have someone call your name out and tell you that you are doing well. I loved the running through the UW football stadium that was so cool and we got to do it twice. The first loop went by pretty quick. I felt great on the run. I enjoyed running around UW by Lake Medota on the bike/run path. I strategically walked the aid stations and the hills and inclines. As I'm finishing up the first loop and coming up to the last aid station my friends Brenda and JoAnne were volunteering there along with their daughters and friends. I got such a big boost seeing them there it was great. I felt really good at that point and told them so. I didn't want to jinx myself at that point but I figured I should be able to get to mile 20 and if need be leg it out from there. As I started the second loop I just keep myself patient. I wanted to move it along and get to the finish but I knew I still had a ways to go and I did not push myself to the point where I couldn't run. I just took it mile by mile and kept knocking them down. As I was running the path for the last turn around at about mile 22 I knew I had this. I started thinking about what it was going to be like to get back towards State St. and that rockin party they were having over there. I figured I could start pickup the pace once I hit mile 23 and I did. I actually ran negative splits from mile 19 on. That is pretty amazing I was feeling very strong at the end. After I passed the football stadium and started heading back I kept my pace up and people where telling me how good I looked. They were saying I looked strong and to be honest I felt strong. I closed in on two miles to go and I just kept telling myself to keep the pace up your are about to fulfull your dream of becoming an Ironman. When I hit the last aid station and saw my friends Brenda and JoAnne there were volunteers on both sides I ran right down the middle high fiving everyone it was so awesome! I made the right on Pickeny St. and people were cheering us on. I was moving with a purpose now and people were calling my name telling me I am looking good and I got this. I hit Main St and then make the left onto MLK and start to head down the chute. Every single training run I did I ended it with me imagining I was coming down MLK into the chute and hearing Mike Rielly call my name and saying You are an Ironman! As many times as I thought about that is was nothing compared to how it really turned out to be. The bright lights, the cheering crowd and the loud music, time slowed down in that moment for me. I took it all in, kissed my hand and pointed skyward to give thanks to the good Lord like I always do when I get down to the finish of every event I do for keeping me safe and bringing me home. I ran in slapping hands with the crowd and giving one good fist pump. I just could not help myself it was just so amazing. As I approached the end of the chute to cross the finish my plan was to do my best Craig Crowie Alexander Kona leap across the finish. Well I did leap and I sort of got airborne sidewards so it was a pretty horrible Crowie impersonation but I made it my own and cross the finish. I heard Mike Rielly call my name and my home town and say that I was in fact an Ironman. One last fist pump after crossing and it was done. It was totally surreal, I couldn't believe I finished and about how great I felt. It almost seemed too easy. The day went by so quickly as well as the entire year it was hard to believe. 20 months ago I couldn't even swim and here I am finishing an Ironman, just unbelievable. I have to be honest I had my doubts but I was so proud to bring it home and finish. The dream became the reality. I will never forget coming down the chute and finishing my first Ironman in Wisconsin. This was one of the most humbling experiences of my entire life.

Nothing, I had an absolutely awesome run. I couldn't be happier with how I finished. I may be a slow old guy who will never be fast but this slow old guy can run me some distance. I executed my run perfectly.

After I crossed the finish line the volunteers asked me how I was doing and I honestly told them I felt great and I did. They explained the refreshments, the finisher photos and the food tent. I thanked them for there help, drank a chocolate milk and got my finishing picture taken. I then looked around to see if my wife Joyce was there and I saw her there. I was surprised I didn't think I'd find her that quickly but I did. I went over and got a big kiss and saw my dog Luna with her. I went over to them and we talked for a few before heading off to get my bike and my bags.


This being my first Ironman my goals were very modest. I just wanted to finish and I did. I could say the wind slowed me down on the swim and the bike. It did for sure but I made up for it with a great run. I also could have pushed harder but at what cost? I wasn't going to win my AG and I certainly wasn't going to Kona so I stayed within myself to ensure that I accomplished the mission I had set before myself which was to finish and become and Ironman. I did that. I think I had a great race for my first Ironman.


I know people get on WTC for alot of different things but I have to hand it to them they put on a first rate event here in Wisconsin. That's why everyone wants to do an Ironman. I felt as important as the professional athletes racing that day. The city of Madison and the surrounding counties embrace this event and the provide tremendous support to the athletes participating. The people in Wisconsin are awesome! The volunteers are so awesome I wish I could thank each and everyone of them personally. They all went way above and beyond to help me and ensure my every need was taken care of, just awesome. Thank you. I would highly recommended this race to anyone wanting a very well supported and challenging race. I had a great time in Madison and a lot of fun. I am definitely going to come back to Madison to do another one. I am also going to try and come back next year to support my three friends and fellow Asphalt Junkies Brenda, JoAnne and Dirk who are going to take on Madison next year. I look forward to following them on their Ironman journey the way they followed and supported me. I also want to thank everyone who supported me the last two years on my journey to Ironman Wisconsin and helping me fulfill my dream of becoming an Ironman. My family and friends provided tremendous help and support along the way and I couldn't be more thankful and grateful to everyone who contributed to my success. I can't wait to start training for the next one, IMMT 2014! The goal now is not to just finish but to get faster doing that.