Midnight Madness - Saturday, July 9, 2016 - Ames, Iowa

Midnight Madness is a race in Ames, IA that is run in the evening in July. Usually it's super hot. This night wasn't so bad.

 I wanted Amy to sign up because she needed to run 9 miles as a training run for her half marathon training, and this was 9.3 miles, Perfect. The race is a 15K split into 2 races. First a 5K race, then a 10K race. You can do either one or both. The 10K is just a double loop of the 5K course, so if you do the entire 15K you see the same spectators 3 times.

 We started out great. Amy actually PRed her 5K distance. The 10K was a different story. Amy was tired by 7 total miles in (mile 4 of the 10K) which was the 2nd loop of the 10K, she didn't want to run anymore. We did a lot of walking that 2nd loop of the 10K, but got it done!

We might have been tired because we did a long bike ride earlier that day.

Results are here:  The RESULTS

Started the day with a long bike ride with all these ladies.

A picture before midnight madness started with Russell, James,Amy and I!

Tri in July - Super Sprint Triathlon - Sigourney, IA - Sunday, July 3, 2016

There is no way you could ever have more perfect weather in July for a triathlon. Today was just amazing. It started at around 58 degrees and just stayed in the low 60's with low humidity the entire race, with a nice breeze.

This race is a super sprint triathlon in a small town.  A fun race that you can sprint all out for the entire thing.  Only 300 yards swimminginan outdoor pool, so no openwater! Then almost 6 miles biking and a 2 mile run.  Perfect for a first time triathlete.

I talked my friend Chris into doing her first Tri.  She did great.

The shirt

A picture before the triathlon began.

My garmin time.  I beat my last time 4 years ago by 3 1/2 minutes.

Chris finishing her first triathlon.

The three of us after the Tri.  We all did great and were happy.

Chris placed in her age group!

By some miracle I also placed in my age group.

Water bottle in race packet.

Close up of my medal!!!

Run4troops Marathon - Dubuque, IA- Saturday, June 25, 2016

This race starts in Dyersville and you run on the flat, crushed limestone trail all the way to Dubuque.  It was the hottest day of the entire summer and James Anderson and I still chose to run this marathon. You never know what you're going to get weather wise when you sign up.  So you just do your best with the conditions you are given.

This was my first repeat state for a marathon.  I was helping my friend James complete his first ever marathon.

We started out at a nice 11 minute mile pace and figured that as the morning went on that I could hold that pace.  Wrong.  It was too hot to walk outside let alone run.  We were burning up by mile 13.

The only thing that saved us was our friends on the Cocky Rooster Race team.  They showed up all over the course to give us water, grapes, electrolyte pills, squirt us with water guns and give us bags of ice.  I really don't feel that we could have completed this race without them.  My friend Amy showed up too to cheer me on and offer support.

In the last 4 miles we walked a lot.  Every part of us was burning up.  I was so glad to see the finish line.

Many pictures are below, not necessarily in the right order:

Sunrise

Our friends on our race team.

A picture of us taken just after we started.

Medal,bib and results

After getting cleaned up with my new race shirt on.

The finish line

My race time on my Garmin.

After the race posing with our medals.

Amy and I later that day.

Quad Cities Triathlon 2016 - Saturday June 18, 2016- Davenport, IA

An absolutely perfect morning for a triathlon. Couldn't ask for a better day. Tyler, Amy and I all stayed in the same hotel room to save money and because the hotel had only one room left with a King bed we all shared it.

 Yes, three people in the same bed.  Nice that the bed was massive.  None of us touched all night.  I got the middle so I was happy.

We woke extremely early, body glided everything,  dressed, loaded our bikes and left.

This was Amy and Tyler's first outdoor triathlon so they were a bit nervous.   I was nervous because I always freak out in the water portion of the race.  I very much dislike open water swimming.

The race went well for all of us.  I didn't go as fast on the bike as I thought I had so I was disappointed with my bike time. But I didn't panic at all in the swim and that's huge for me.  Amy who just learned to swim in January completed the entire triathlon and was happy.  Tyler did excellent for his first time out with really fast times in all three sports.

Results are Here  if you care.

Me, Amy, Tyler

My bike spot

Our feet pre race

Us three showing off our race tattoos

The sunrise that morning. 

Driftless Discovery Trail Run - Decorah, IA - Saturday, June 4, 2016

Funny thing about this race is I was told it was flat. Amy said we were doing a race on this brand new flat running trail in Decorah.

Well she was wrong about the location and it ended up being a trail race in the woods that was super difficult.

It wasn't the worst thing I've ever ran, but it was hard.  An experience I won't forget.

Would I do it again?  Maybe, but only after some trail run training  for it'scompletely different from road racing.

It had 1383 feet of climbing and was 6.3 miles long.
My time was long to me- 1:41:01, but given how hard it was and that it was my first 10K trail race, it was fine.  I ended up being 2nd out of 4 in my age group so that's pretty good.

I ran with Amy for just over 5 miles then split off and ran ahead, she wanted to walk at that point and I wanted out of the woods.

Front of shirt

The back of the shirt

Amy andI right before the race started.