My Background

It's interesting to realize that I'm a triathlete. I think my story is somewhat different from most, mainly in that it's "reverse" of what I usually see. In conversations I've had, and magazines and books I've read, I've learned that most triathletes are recovering runners. Many of them have had injuries and needed to back-off their training and so possibly turned to cycling or swimming during their rehabilitation. As a result, most triathletes are best at the running portion of the event.

I'm just the opposite. I started swimming at age 6. My mother signed me up for the local summer swim team in my home town. I hated it. A lot. I cried and told her I didn't want to do it. She insisted I stick it out, at least that summer. Long story short, I did stay with the team and it turned out I was something of a natural. I was no Rick Carey (my idol, since I was primarily a backstroker) or Pablo Morales (another idol, as I did the IM, too). However, I did win our state championship in the backstroke in High School, took second in the IM, and had another win doing backstroke for the medly relay team. Thanks, Mom, for making me stick with it!

Starting college, I had a very difficult decision to make. I was being recruited by universities to swim for them. However, I wanted to study electrical engineering which takes a lot of time. On top of that, I needed (a lot of) financial aid, which came partially in the form of work-study grants. So, I needed to work, near full-time, to pay my way. I couldn't do all three, so I decided to drop the swimming. It was a hard decision.

Luckily, I had another sport that I'd recently discovered and was falling in love with. I was one of many people to be captured by the successes of Andy Hampsten, Davis Phinney, Eric Heiden, Bob Roll, and, of course, Greg LeMond in the 1980s cycling scene. I also fell in love with the movies Breaking Away and American Flyers. I'd managed to buy an old road-style bike, I can't even remember the brand name, from a garage sale with paper route money. My father helped me drill holes through the frame so I could use standard bolts and nuts to secure a water bottle cage to the down-tube. At first I was just riding out to one of our local attractions and back, a whopping total of 10 miles round-trip. Then I pushed it and started to bike to the next town and back for 22 miles of riding. I had no idea, then, just what I would end up doing on a bike.

I moved from my home town, where I started my undergraduate work, to Madison, WI, where I was enrolled at the University of Wisconsin. Though I was quite poor, I managed to scrounge together (and borrow) enough money to buy a Cannondale touring bike. It was the first bike I'd ever purchased new and it rode like a dream. Unfortunately, that bike was stolen from the porch of the house I was renting (with seven other guys). Luckily, I was able to make an insurance claim against it and used that money to purchase a Cannondale R600 racing bike. It was entry level, but it was the best bike I'd ever been on. I made the jump to clipless pedals (I still ride Look today) and paid to have a professional fit on the Fit Kit at my local pro cycling shop.

With that steed under me, I started riding more and more around Madison and the surrounding area. I then learned of a fledgling student organization, the UW Cycling team. It was a club sport, not a varsity sport, and had just started a year before, but I went to the organizational meeting they were holding and signed-up. I was scared to death. I'd never actually raced a bike before, but now I was on this team. We went to races all around the mid-west (as not many other schools had collegiate cycling teams at that time). I did decently well, never winning a race, but frequently placing in the top 10. Needless to say, I was hooked and continued to ride and race even after graduating.

One other event at the UW-Madison is worth note. During my last year there, I took a physical education course titled "Introduction to Triathlon." An old high school friend of mine who went to the Air Force Academy had gotten into doing triathlons and I thought I'd give it a look. The class was excellent, in terms of learning exercise physiology, something I'd already been studying heavily from my swimming and was the approach I took to my cycling. Class was mostly training, either group rides, runs, or swims, along with some classroom work.

Our final exam was an Olympic distance triathlon, swimming in the pool (for insurance reasons). With about 300 meters to the finish line, I was leading the class, but was passed by the best runner in the group with just 50 meters to go and couldn't catch him. So, I took second in my first Olympic triathlon by just a couple of seconds. I'd managed to do the whole event in 2:02 (hours:minutes). I had no idea at the time how fast that was. All I knew was that I was absolutely spent. I told my partner, who helped in the transitions, that she may have just witnessed my first and last triathlon.

After graduating, my partner and I moved, life changed, and for almost 10 years, I only got out on my bike for occasional rides, some organized. I also had a job sitting behind a desk and started to put on some weight, though never going higher than 95 kg. Along the way, my sister-in-law started getting into triathlon. She was still here in the midwest and was talking about all the events in Minnesota and Wisconsin. She knew I was a cyclist and swimmer and that I'd done the one Olympic triathlon "back in the day," and asked if I wanted to get back into it.

I should qualify that statement. By this time in her growing triathlon career, she was ready to jump into doing an Ironman. Her question really was wondering if I'd do it with her. I dithered for far too long and then gave a tentative "Yes." I had no idea that you had to sign-up a year in advance. I also had no real idea what level of exertion would be involved. I started going out for short runs and found that even just 2-3 miles was very hard for me. I hadn't been in a pool swimming for "real" in 15 years. About all I had going was my cycling, which was my most recent activity.

I never did end up signing up for the Ironman and I never did a triathlon during that time. However, my sister-in-law did and she completed Ironman Wisconsin with nearly the whole extended family there cheering her on. I thought it was incredible! What really got me at the end was hearing this booming voice announcing each runner as they came into the finishing chute and declaring, "You are an Ironman!" Again, I didn't even know enough at the time to know that this was tradition.

By this time, we had moved back "home" to the midwest. With the closer proximity to my sister-in-law, and being in the area where she'd done a lot of her preparatory events, I finally signed-up for my first sprint triathlon in May of 2009. I managed to do three other sprints and two Olympic events that year. In 2010, I added a half Ironman 70.3 to the mix and did decently well. For the 2011 season, I did several sprints, Olympics, and another 70.3. Each year I was getting better and faster. Instead of being a mid-pack finisher, I noticed I was placing higher and higher. In my second-to-last event in 2011, I managed 4th place in my age group and discovered that I'd been shadowing the guy who took 3rd through the whole run, losing to him by just 19 seconds.

Finally, in my last event in 2011, I managed to place 3rd in my age group and get on "the podium" to bring home some "real hardware" (not just a finisher's medal). It was a great feeling of accomplishment. It was partially while I was riding that wave of feeling good that I made my decision to jump in and go all the way for the 2012 Ironman Wisconsin.