IM Wisconsin

Ryan completed Ironman Wisconsin last week in Madison and I couldn't be more proud of him!

After a week of not seeing each other, I flew into Milwaukee on Friday (Sept 5th) and was greeted by Ryan, who drove an hour and a half to pick me up. Upon seeing him I immediately got butterflies in my stomach, always a wonderful feeling! Ryan looked as he always does but, to me, he seemed a little nervous; I'm sure me asking him five times a day for the entire week before didn't help hehe. Yes, I secretly wanted him to be nervous. That night we hung out in Madison, met up with Ryan's sister and a few of her friends and retired a bit early, back to Joel and Sara's house.

The next morning, the day before the race, Ryan and I did a 30 min swim in Lake Monona, where the race was being held. The water was so clean and the perfect temperature, couldn't ask for better conditions for a 2.4 mile swim. After running some last minute race errands Ryan and I chilled out and just watched some PSU football. I could kinda sense Ryan getting more and more nervous as he got crankier and crankier haha. We went to bed as early as possible that night, but I found that Ryan had a little trouble sleeping, well who wouldn't?

Race day morning we were up at 4am and off to the race site we went. Anne and I dropped Ryan off and proceeded to the closest Starbucks for a morning pick me up and some food and after parking the car we met back up with Ryan. Oh boy he was definitely nervous now, his one word replies and his grumpy expression said it all.

Around 6:30am Ryan headed down to the swim start and Anne and I headed up to the top of Monona Terrace to watch the race (great suggestion Carl, thanks!). I swear I was more nervous than Ryan was at this point, I even had to take a potty break to "relieve" some of my anxiety. At 7:00am the race began and boy, what a site it was... 2,200 triathletes began the swim as a mas start. It was so cool to see 2,200 people start together, from up above it looked like a moving island of people, it almost seemed unreal...but it was just so beautiful. After an hour and 13 mins Ryan was out of the swim...his fastest time for that distance EVER! It was amazing, I was bursting at the seams with pride, I must have looked like a real idiot. tehe

Ryan proceed to the bike with a reasonable transition and off he went and off we went. I must admit I was a bit pushy throughout the day as I wanted to see/support Ryan wherever possible. Thus we headed back to Joel and Sara's house, which is conveniently on the course, but we walked to downtown Verona so we can see Ryan as many times as possible. Around mile 56 we caught a glimpse of Ryan as he raced by still looking fresh and relaxed...I was calculating in my head the whole time how fast he was going and according to my calcs 19 mph...yea he was fast. We saw Ryan again a little bit before the 100 mile mark and yet again he amazed us by his speed (18.7 mph) and his fresh demeanor. If it were me, I'd have my tongue hanging out at that point. Ryan completed the bike (112 miles) in an amazing time of 6:08! Next, the dreaded 26.2 mile run.

Ryan is definitely not a runner but he can definitely hold his own. This was the only part of the race I was worried about him. Luckily we got to see him 4 times on the run, which I think really helped his moral. At the start of the run he seemed fresh and happy to be off the bike...this soon changed. Around mile 13 Ryan looked awful, he was pale and his gate had change and you could tell he was laboring quite a bit. After seeing him at mile 13 we dashed off to try and catch him at mile 19. So from 13 to 19 is 6 miles, my guess was we would see Ryan an hour from when we saw him at mile 13, but an hour passed, then and hour and 15 mins and then an hour and a half, I was freakin' panicked! Finally around an hour and 37 mins later we saw Ryan...whew! At the time I didn't know Ryan had hit the wall around mile 14 and had to walk for an hour...that blasted wall, we all can understand that. At this point I kinda underestimated Ryan and assumed he would do the last 7 miles in an hour and 20 mins...boy was I wrong he did it in an hour and 5 mins. He looked awesome when he was finishing, all smiles and tired as hell. I was so incredibly proud of him I was almost in tears! He crossed the finish line in 12:22:10, one hell of a time for a first ironman, let alone his fourth triathlon ever!!!!

I truly believe Ryan was so successful, not only because of his consistent training but because of the dozen+ friends and family he had there cheering him on. I have never seen such support of one individual in a race....now those are some good friends. As of last Monday Ryan and I are both signed up to do IM WI next year...together. I'm very excited, to be able to share this race with Ryan.