IRONMAN Racine 70.3 - The Report

Lake Michigan 5:45AM

It's been over 24 hours since I finished the race and I still cannot stop smiling. 70.3 miles was everything you think it would be, challenging, painful, and exhilarating. The weather conditions were absolutely perfect for racing. Lake Michigan on was 62 degrees and almost as smooth as glass. One of my favorite parts of the day was coming up over north beach and seeing the sun rise. I knew that it was going to be an amazing race.

Erin and Myself Ready to get after it.

I also had my older Sister, Erin competing in the event as well. Yesterday, is my favorite memory of us together by far. The picture below is us, right before she started. Here is how I felt through all three disciplines and the end.

Swim: I would not be telling the truth if I didn't say my warm up swim was really intimidating since the water was so cold. It took some getting used to but after you got going it felt really nice. I decided to take a new approach to my swimming strategy. Normally I am pretty timid and stay in the back but this time I wanted to be aggressive in the water as well as with my positioning so I started in the second row from the front. However, within the first 250 meters of the swim, I was kicked so hard in the face that I actually choked on water like I had never choked on water before. I came up and was absolutely GASPING for breathe. It took me some time but I regained my composure as well as some distance from the lead pack. From there on out, I had a really strong swim. Eventually the age group waves started to mix and I found myself catching up to the slower swimmers who were not going in a straight line. Unfortunately, I've found that you have to body roll and swim over those people otherwise you cause congestion behind you, it slows you down, and it also puts you in danger of other people swimming over you. I was also really impressed with the visibility in the water--at one point towards the end I tried to touch the bottom thinking I could and it was still too deep. I stood up from the water, relieved i twas over and felt pretty decent except a little bit of dizziness.

Bike: The bike begins with a climb out of the transition area which is always eventful. There were a lot of people falling over and crashing but I had learned from watching lasts years race to have my bike in the low gear. Off I went and I was feeling really strong on the bike. The bike course overall had rolling hills. My one really big negative on the course was how bumpy it was. I passed probably 7 people changing flat tires which is a lot! I honestly think
my butt was more sore following the 56 miles than form any of my long 100+ mile bike rides I have done on the IMWI loops. My nutrition also got a little wonky towards the end of my ride since I only had two water bottles. I ended up throwing a bottle so I could get a water at one of the aid station. I averaged 21.7 MPH which was WAY faster than I was planning to go. In hindsight, I think I may have pushed myself too hard and paid for it on my run since I didn't run as fast as I think I could have or wanted to.

Run: The run was an out and back, two loops course along the beach. It is my favorite part of
the triathlon and I always feel so relieved to have 2/3 of the events over with. I started off at a 7:05 pace which was what I was hoping to hold for the entire course, if not get faster, however about mile 8-9 I began to have some significant side aches which you can clearly see by my running splits dropping to a 7:45-7:50. I'm not sure where the side ache came from but it was right on my diaphragm. I continued to run through the ache, even attempted drinking some warm, non-carbonated cola at the aid station thinking it was my body telling me I needed more sugar/calories. My other favorite part of the run was seeing all of my fellow Badgers from the UW Triathlon team and most importantly my sister running the course at the same time. At first I didn't even know I had passed her and then I heard "I love you Brock Polnaszek" being yelled from behind me which made me laugh and smile. From that point on, we high-fived each other every time we overlapped on the course. I couldn't have asked for a better boost!!! I also think, the run is when it hit me.....I was actually doing an a half Ironman....something most people will never do. I loved seeing all the athletes stretched out over the course, watching the volunteers rake the hundreds of cups into trash cans and offer words of encouragement, knowing exactly what each athlete was experiencing since I was doing it as well.... it is a memory that will always give me chills.

Volunteers: I also want to give a shout out to the amazing volunteers and the residents of Racine. The volunteers went above and beyond to make sure I had everything I needed and their energy really helped make the race memorable. I appreciated the few resident who put sprinkler heads on ladders that showered us with cold water on the run.

The feels: I definitely had a lot of emotions over this race. Setting up transition and wracking my bike the day before, I got really  teary eyed thinking about how hard I had trained to get here and the 9 day arthritis flare I just overcame. Crossing the finish line was like nothing, not even qualifying for the Boston Marathon, I have ever experienced. I felt absolutely like crap, nauseous and I just hurt in places I never knew I could and yet, I couldn't stop smiling. I always get emotional after working out for a long time (hours on end) and it was amazing to have my awesome support crew (pictured below) there to give me hugs and to congratulate me. I am so very lucky to be doing what I am doing and blessed to have all of the amazing love and support around me. I also want to give a huge shout out to my girlfriend for driving out of her way to help me reach this goal. After the race, all I could think was how in the hell am I going to double this distance in September. I tried to stop thinking like that and just enjoy the accomplishment.  A day later, I would without a doubt sign up for another 70.3 and am still trying to wrap my head around the 140.6 mile journey that lies ahead for IMWI. For my first half Ironman I finished in 4 hours and 58 minutes, placed 25th in my age group (25-29), and 196 overall. Not bad for a guy with arthritis. :)

Amazing support crew that helped me reach my goal. L-to-R: (Brother-in-Law Eugene, Older Brother and person responsible starting the Ironman journey Alex, Sister Erin, me, Girlfriend Jenny, and Sister-in-Law Mae)

WE DID IT!!!

Can't believe it happened.

Arthritis Related News!: Today, I had the pleasure of life coming full circle. I finally had the opportunity to work alongside a Pediatric Rheumatologist at the American Children's Family Hospital. To be honest, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed my time with the team. I have never been so engaged and I think I could see this specialty as a career in my future. Still keeping all options open but I think the ability to relate to patients and families after going through the journey, not knowing the side effects of new medications that enable me to do things like Ironman and marathons, will be unparalleled. I hope to pull on these things over second year when I am spending hours in the library studying the various systems.