Madison, Wisconsin. The home of cheese, cheeseheads, the Wisconsin Badgers, brats and beer, and one of the five Ironman competitions in North America. You may be thinking "Ironman? Isn't that some sort of power lifting or wrestling competition?" Well, not exactly. It is a long distance triathlon event where competitors swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and finish with a 26.2 mile run.
This year marked the first annual Ironman Wisconsin, which was held on Sunday, September 15th. The swim was a two-lap rectangular course where almost 2,000 athletes started together in the water. I have never been inside a washing machine, but that is what it felt like after the start cannon went off. There were arms flying, legs kicking, and splashing water everywhere. Thankfully, Christian and I managed to survive the swim (an equivalent distance of 156 lengths of the Tech 25 yard pool) with no major kicks to the face or elbows to the head. Christian was 38th overall out of the water in a time of 00:54:22, and Laura's time was 1:10:02, placing her 8th in the collegiate division.
After a short transition was the 112 mile bike ride, about the same distance as from Socorro to the VLA visitors center and back. The two-loop course weaved along beautiful country roads and rolling hills, with several substantial climbs that will rank this course among the most difficult of the 17 Ironman competitions held annually worldwide. Although our bike splits were not among the best of the day, I feel that we raced smart, saving our legs for the run. Christian maintained an average speed of 19 mph and I kept my pace at 17 mph.
The final segment of the Ironman competition was a marathon run. Highlights of the two lap Madison course, located almost entirely on the University of Wisconsin campus, took us around the capitol, through Camp Randall Stadium (home of the Wisconsin Badgers), and on State Street, the downtown hub of activity. Aid stations full of enthusiastic volunteers were handing out everything from Gatorade to grapes to chicken soup every mile. Christian passed many athletes on the run with a marathon time of 3:43:34. His total time was 10:45:02, good enough for an impressive first-time Ironman finish of 150th overall. I was happy with my marathon time of 4:23:56, considering the bike was so difficult. I learned a lot from this race and was completely satisfied with my final time of 12:19:10 that placed me 5th collegiate (this race was a collegiate championship meet) and 696th overall. Other Socorro Striders And Riders finishers included Michael Montoya (11:35:46), Steven Montoya (12:03:34), and Terry Moore (12:57:43). A total of 1,802 athletes (393 women, 1409 men) finished the race before the cutoff time of 17 hours.
One of the best parts of the entire experience was the enormous community support that was shown from an estimated 50,000 to 75,000 people that were cheering on race participants that day. Thousands of upbeat and enthusiastic people lined the shores of Lake Menona and the streets of downtown Madison and surrounding towns, making the day seem like something out of the Tour de France. My running career has included high school and college championship races, but none of these came close to the thrill of this Ironman. The energy of the crowds and volunteers was contagious and made the event one of the most thrilling experiences of my life. Both of us feel that we left much room for improvement and eagerly look forward to our next Ironman......date and location to be determined!