Training began early in the year for an early season marathon. The miles piled up quickly throughout the winter months and as spring approached I ran my first race of the year at the Des Moines Leprechaun Chase 10k on March 11th. An overnight snowstorm forced the race to be shortened to a 5k, although I wasn't aware of it until almost 2 miles in. Either way, it turned out to be a great start to the season.
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| Wearing my green and ready to go |
Next up was the Drake Relays Road Races half marathon. This race was just over the half way point through my marathon training program and was to be my warm up race. Training had been going even better than expected, that was, until the weekend prior to the race. That weekend I ran 18 miles, which is the farthest that I had ever run and shortly after finishing, I noticed that the heel on my right foot had started to hurt. It did not get better throughout the week but I decided to run through the pain the following weekend.
I ended up running an unexpected PR half marathon time of 2:16:39 but it came at a cost as the pain in my foot became unbearable. Within the week I made it to the doctor with a diagnosis of plantar fasciitis and instructions to completely rest for at least a week while doing a series of stretches 3 times a day. Although I was able to gradually start running again after a week off, it took about 2 months for my foot to completely heal. I had to make the difficult decision to not run my first marathon this year. That decision still stings to this day, although I know that it was the right one to make. I did end up racing on that very hot and humid Saturday in June, but opted for the half marathon instead.
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| Waiting at the start of the Marathon to Marathon half marathon course |
With 3 road races in the rear view mirror, it was time to shift my focus to triathlon. After how well I performed at the Des Moines Triathlon in 2016, I was very excited to compete in several more races this year starting with an Olympic distance race at the Accel Triathlon in Waterloo. This was the same race that was cancelled the previous year due to a severe thunderstorm that came through at race time. Leading up to race day, Erin and I spent a week on vacation in Madison, WI and I knew that I wasn't in peak racing condition when I arrived in Waterloo for the race. I raced well until about half way through the 10k run when I began to fade. My mom and oldest daughter, Abigail, came out to watch me race and I was happy with my performance for the first race of the season.
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| Out of the water and headed to T1 at the Accel Triathlon |
Accel gave me a lot to evaluate, and with only 2 months until my planned half Ironman distance tri, I knew that I had some work to do. I trained extremely hard throughout the months of July and August, putting in a lot of miles on the bike and a lot of time swimming in open water. My focus was purely on long distance endurance and not speed at all. I was feeling good heading into the Crossroads triathlon the first weekend of August. Crossroads was the first sprint distance triathlon that I competed in and I absolutely loved it.
It was a beautiful day to do pretty much anything outside and I put in a great performance. The race started off rough as I nearly lost my goggles jumping into the water for the swim, but it only got better from there. I put in a good time on the bike and a fantastic time on the run course with a 5k time of 29:54. I finished 65/118 which was my best finishing position of the entire year, and better yet, I had a ton of fun racing.
With just a few weeks left until the big race, my nerves were starting to get the best of me and for about 3 weeks leading up to the race, I couldn't sleep at all. I really lost a lot of confidence during this time as well and I think it was mostly nerves but also, it may have been a bit of over training as well. Through all of this, I did have one last warm up race at the end of August at the Bluff Creek triathlon.
The day started off with a bit of chaos, but I think this ended up being my favorite race of the year. I was originally planning to race in the Olympic distance race, but after a long weather delay, they cancelled that distance and all racers were moved to the sprint distance race. My parents, sister with 2 of her kids, and my wife and kids all came up to watch me race. The field at Bluff Creek, which included collegiate athletes, was stacked and combining the races made it even more that way. Crossroads may have been my best finish of the year, but this was my best overall race of the year. I averaged 2:07 min/100 yd for the swim which is the fastest pace that I have ever kept in open water. The bike course was flat and I took advantage, averaging 19.3 mph and both transitions were flawless. Having a big cheering section sure helped keep me going during this race.
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| Finishing up the run |
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| The best cheering section |
Next up was the big race in Lawrence Kansas on the 2nd weekend of September. With no marathon, this was the biggest race left on my schedule and I put all of my energy into it. The race itself was well documented in another blog post but I will say here that I have never been more proud of myself then I was that day. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. This is the first time that I ever started a race without the confidence that I would for sure be able to finish it. I had a great swim and powered through the bike, but by that point I had used up everything that I had in me. I was tired, I was hurting, and I was emotionally spent. After 2 laps of the 4 lap run course, my body started to break down and I literally hobbled my way to the finish line. Even though I didn't come anywhere close to the time I was hoping for, I did manage to finish and win my division. I will never ever forget the way that I felt in that moment that I crossed the finish line.
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| Extremely proud finisher and division winner |
I will openly admit that returning from the race in Lawrence I was less invested in the remainder of my season. It isn't like I started skipping workouts, but my heart just wasn't in it as much as I would have liked. I wrapped up my triathlon season with the Cyman sprint triathlon in late September. I did not perform very well at all at this race, but I did get to spend some time chatting with some co-workers from Pioneer. Although I didn't perform well, it was a pretty small field so I did actually finish in 2nd place for my age group (male 30 - 34) and was only a couple minutes off of 1st.
With my triathlon season over, I dialed back my swimming and cycling and focused more on running. In mid-October I put another team together to run the Des Moines Marathon Relay and it was a blast, yet again. After running the 2nd leg of the relay, I even spent some time helping out at an under-manned water station handing out cups of water to the marathon runners. Even though it was a relay, this turned out to be my best performance of the year. My leg was extremely hilly and 6 miles long but I was able to average 9:39 min/mi. If I would have run an additional .2 miles, I would have blown away my previous 10k PR.
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| Des Moines Marathon Relay Team 2017 |
With my season nearing the end, I did set one more goal to run a 5k PR at the Des Moines Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day. After focusing on long distance endurance for the entire year, I started incorporating 3 days of speed work each week. 4 weeks before the race, I did a 5k time trial and ended up breaking my current PR with a time of 28:13. I wasn't able to beat that time at the turkey trot on Thanksgiving (although I wasn't too far off) but was still happy with how my season ended.
It was a long year with a lot of ups and downs. I really feel like I learned a lot this year and look forward to implementing some changes and setting new goals going into 2018. 2017 was a great year for me (possibly my best one so far) and a made a lot of memories along the way. I do plan to create a "top 10" style list at the end of the year, but for the most part, I'm beginning to transition my focus to setting new goals and challenges for 2018.
I hope that you have enjoyed my posts this year, I know that I have really enjoyed writing them. Keep an eye out in the upcoming weeks for more information on the plans that I am making for my 2018 season. For now, I hope that everyone enjoys time with friends and families during this holiday season. I would encourage all of you to carve out some time for yourself to start dreaming about what you can do to make your 2018 better than your 2017.
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