This weekend was the final race tune-up before Ironman Wisconsin at the Steelhead 70.3 in St. Joseph Michigan. If I could travel directly across lake michigan (from home in Sheboygan) it would probably be only about 50 miles away give or take, but instead it is a 6 hour drive through the great cities of Chicago IL and Gary IN, where you get to look at nothing but the bumper of the car in front of you at 10mph on the freeway or the smokestacks billowing smoke into the air. But at least I was traveling with my training buddy Jeff Fleig and his wife (who had already traveled across the state from Onalaska) which made the trip much more enjoyable. Well, at least Jeff and I were able to shoot the breeze about tri stuff the whole time, (sorr Robin).

But anyway, onto the race. For those of you who didn’t read the previous update (its right below this one so you should do so), I had a bad bike crash this week so my spirits were a little dampened about my chances of a good finish. None the less, I was still hoping to break the top 10 and have a shot at scoring a spot for the world championships in Clearwater later this year. The morning swim started off with a jump off of the pier in St. Joseph, and a swim parallel to the shore to rack up a total of 1.2 miles. Every time I have swam in Lake Michigan it has looked fairly flat, but no matter how flat it looks there are still some waves and swells that make it more challenging. I started off with a good rhythym and had to swim through a lot of the wave ahead of me. I came out of the water in a strong 26 minutes. The strong swim did not carry over to the bike though. I knew at mile 5 that my legs felt “empty” and it would be a long day. The bike by no means was pancake flat as I was expecting as some climbs I used the little ring (well maybe it was just my weak legs), but I came off the bike with an avg. of just below 25mph. So I thought I could still salvage something of the race if I could not fall apart on the run. Mentally I was telling myself that my legs could turn around and theres still a lot that can happen. Plugging away on the run I was holding under 7min miles, but not up to the sub 6:30 that I am capable of. So I knew I would not be running anyone down, but merely trying to hold my position. At about mile 11.5 I really started to feel sluggish and the leg turnover really slowed down and my stomach was not feeling so well at this point. The last mile was then a struggle to the end but I made it across the line in 4:18:31. I still maganged to grab a slot for Clearwater by placing 2nd in my age group and 12th overall.

Congratulations: Timex teammates Josh Ritchie and Tom Schuler on their great finishes

Special Thanks: Ben Harper the Timex Magager for getting wheels to me in time for the race, Jeff Fleig for all the help and travels, and Chris Miller of Wigwam for being a great host, I couldn’t do it without you guys.