In addition to an ambitious schedule, I set some very challenging goals for myself this year:
- Complete my first full marathon
- Set a new PR for a 70.3 triathlon
- Set a new PR for an Olympic distance triathlon
- Set a new 5K PR
- Set a new 10K PR
- Set a new half marathon PR
- Set a new triathlon swim pace PR
- Set a new triathlon bike pace PR
With such a long list of goals, I knew that I would only have 1 or 2 chances to accomplish each one, so I had to stay focused leading up to each race.
My season did get off to a rough start when I had to miss my first 2 races, both indoor triathlons, in January. One was due to illness and the other was an unexpected death in the family. In addition to the missed races, I was battling brutal winter weather with a lot of snow, wind, and frigid temperatures. Even with several miserable days, I was running extremely well and feeling good.
A brief reprieve from winter greeted us the first weekend of February as I headed down to Kansas City to run the Kickoff 5K with my uncle, Mike O'Connell. Coming off an illness the weekend before, I wasn't very confident in trying to set a new PR but I ended up doing just that. I finished the race with an official time of 27:51, 9 seconds faster than my previous PR, and happy to have goal #1 checked off my list.
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| Super focused and running hard |
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| Uncle Mike and I before the race |
My next race was the St. Paddy's Day Half Marathon in Des Moines. I was a little nervous leading up to race day because rain, along with all of the melting snow and ice, had caused a large part of the course to flood. Luckily, the race directors worked with the City of Des Moines to alter the course. The weather on race day was perfect and I ended up running a nearly flawless race. I finished with a time of 2:08:14, shattering my previous PR of 2:16:18. In addition, I managed to run a 10K split of 1:00:39, breaking my previous 10K PR by almost 2 minutes!
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| My friend, Dan, and I both had a great race |
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| Feeling like I'm on top of the world |
Here I was, 2 races into the season and 3 of my 8 goals already checked off the list. My next race was the Drake Relays Road Races 10K. Since I had already reached my goal of setting a new 10K PR, I decided to shoot for the stars and set a new goal to finish in under 1 hour. I pushed hard from the start of the race, but with a 1 mile split that came in over 10 minutes, I nearly gave up hope and actually took my foot off the gas pedal a little bit. As ran into the stadium and onto the world famous blue oval, I couldn't believe my eyes, I had done it! I finished with an official time of 59:49.
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| Giving it everything I had left for the last quarter mile |
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| Justin and I after the TriByKnight |
Even though I had a solid race at the TriByKnight, I was not able to check off any of my other goals. That put a huge weight on my next race, the Quad Cities Triathlon, in June. I was beginning to run out of likely chances to set new swim and bike pace PRs so I knew that it was important to knock off at least one of them. In addition, I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder going into that race as I struggled there in 2018. Even with high winds and the threat of rain. I ended up having an outstanding race. I was able to average 1:59/100 yards on the swim, edging out my previous PR of 2:01/100 yards. In addition, I was able to average 19.7 mph on the bike, narrowly missing the 20 mph that I was hoping for, but still good enough to beat out my previous PR of 19.4 mph. Just like that, I had checked of 5 of my 8 goals for the year.
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| Coming out of the water after a record-breaking swim |
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| Heading into T2 after a record-breaking ride on the bike |
The year was half over, and I was having a blast! As I headed into the month of July, with the Door County Triathlon looming, I quickly realized that I was having a very special year and there was little room left for error. I had 3 goals remaining but only a single chance at each of them.
Even though I had identified 3 "A" races for the year, the Door County half-Iron distance triathlon was truly the pinnacle of my season. My training schedule from late March through July was grueling. I was training more than I ever had and there was very little time for anything else in my life. Every race in which I compete holds a special place in my heart and provides a lot of great memories, but the Door County triathlon went to a whole new level. There are no words that I can write to truly describe how that race made me feel, I still get chills every time that I think about it. If you haven't read it, or if you are in need of some inspiration, I would suggest taking a couple of minutes to go back and read my blog post about the Door County Triathlon. My official time for the race was 6:53:24, beating my previous PR by nearly an hour! I raced better in every phase of the race and felt fantastic as I crossed the finish line.
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| Conquering Lake Michigan |
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| Crushing the Door County Triathlon Bike Course |
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| 70.3 miles in the books and cruising to the finish line |
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| Extremely proud finisher |
After the high of the Door County Triathlon, my season really started to slow down and my normal level of determination and focus started to diminish. 2 weeks after Door County, I raced at the Accel Triathlon in Waterloo, IA on a relay team. I did the 1,500 meter swim, my friend, Justin, did the 40K bike, and my friend Matt did the 10K run. It was a lot of fun, and even though it wasn't a goal of mine, I ended up with a swim time of 37:05, beating my previous PR by over 6 1/2 minutes for that same distance. Our team finished as the 2nd place relay team.
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| We had a blast! |
My racing season was quickly winding down, but I had 2 big races left and I needed both of them to count to check of my 2 remaining goals. Leading up to to the Bluff Creek Triathlon, I ended up injuring my foot. I was unable to run and wasn't sure what to do. Even if my foot would hold up, the likelihood of breaking my Olympic distance triathlon PR was fairly low. When race week arrived, I made the very difficult decision to pull out of the race with the hope that I would still be able to get back on track in time to run a the Des Moines marathon.
Even though I didn't race the triathlon, I did decide to compete in the sprint Aquabike at Bluff Creek. For those who don't know, an aquabike is simply a triathlon minus the run. For that race, I competed alongside all of the other triathletes but just stopped when reaching T2. I had a really good race, and even managed to average 20.3 mph on the bike. To my surprise, I ended up being the overall winner of the sprint Aquabike. Let that sink in for a few seconds... It was, and still is, a very surreal moment for me. I purposely don't set goals that deal with placing or competing against other people because I honestly am not a very competitive person, but I would be lying if I didn't say that it felt good to be standing atop the (figurative) podium with a gold medal and prize in my hand.
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| The long run uphill to T1 from the lake |
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| Winner! |
With my triathlon season complete, and knowing that I would fall a goal short for the year, September and October really turned into a grind for me. I pounded out a lot of miles over that time and by the time the IMT Des Moines Marathon weekend rolled around, I was just ready to be done. The weather on race day was picture perfect and I had my parents, wife, and girls out to cheer me on. The race, like the previous 2 months of training, was a grind, and was very hard, but I finished. As I crossed the finish line in downtown Des Moines with an official time just under 6 hours, I had some tears streaming down my cheeks. The tears were not only because of the pain and exhaustion but also from knowing that I had done it, not just finished the race, but finished my entire season.
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| The most proud and supportive wife a guy could ever ask for |
To wrap it all up with a nice bow, I planned out a long season for 2019 and ended up executing it nearly to perfection. I set 8 very lofty goals, and was able to accomplish 7 of them. At this point, it is very hard to imagine having another year that is as successful as 2019 was.
I have a lot of thanks to give this year. To everyone who raced with me: Uncle Mike, Dan, Justin, and Matt. To those who came out to cheer me on throughout the year: my mom and dad, Melissa, Brycen, Aubree, and Callie and my friend Megan (and anyone else that I may have missed). And also, to everyone who has followed along on my blog or on Facebook throughout the year. All of your support and encouragement means more than you will ever know.
Last of all, I couldn't draw the year to a close without a huge thank you to my daughters, Abigail and Bridget, but most of all to my wife, Erin. This year I was all in, and it required them to be all in too. You all get to read about all of my joy, struggles, and dedication, but hidden behind all of that is the sacrifice and support of my family. They are my whole world and I would never be able to do any of this without them.
I'm sure that you are all dying to know what is next, but the answer may not be all that exciting. The truth is, I have dedicated a lot of my life over the last 6 years to training and racing. I have learned a lot about myself over that time and have fallen in love with running and triathlon. 2020 is sure to be my most epic year yet, but in a very different way. My goals for 2020 will have little to do with racing, and a lot more to do with spending time with my family. As stated above, they have spent the last 6 years sacrificing for me, so it is now time for me to return the favor. I'm sure that I will run a few races next year, but there won't be any elaborate training programs and anything racing related will take a back seat to family time. Weekends will be spent at the cabin or taking family outings instead of spending hours on the bike or pounding the pavement. Instead of waking up at 5:00 am to run 10 miles, we will still wake up at 5:00 am but to go fishing instead.
