Race day is back as I start out on a 24 hour triathlon journey. 

Setting out on my most ambitious race to date, I can’t help but think about just how I’ve gotten here? Life takes some very strange turns. I spent my youth and twenties competing in sports, but endurance events never interested me. It was always about the competition. As I continue to get older, it seems my only real competitor is time… and this race perfectly encompasses that challenge.

I’m very fortunate to be racing this year at all. The ultra format lends itself well to social distancing, there are only 34 teams / solo racers on the course. The Washington Island Ultra is quite a unique race. There are actually 4 different times available instead of distances, 36, 24, 12, 8 hour options. Since this is time based, the goal is to cover as much distance as possible via small loops per discipline. There is a .25 mile swim, 10 bike bike and 2 mile out and back run. Each discipline must have the same number of loops complete to get your total, so for example 5 swims, 5 bikes, 4 runs would be 4 2/3 completed. There is also the option of doing just a single sport, or 2 sports instead of all 3. This makes for a lot of options and allows you to really choose how to best tackle this event. Full event details.

Race Goals

Having never raced this long or in a format like this it is quite difficult to set realistic goals. I’m usually not one to share my goals before a race either, feeling as if I’d somehow be letting myself down more by not achieving them if others also know about it. But, what the hell, this race is about big goals and I’m taking a big risk on it, so giving myself another reason to keep pressing forward can’t hurt.

Within 24 hours, my target is 17 loops, or 208.25 miles.
Covering 4.25 swimming, 170 biking and 34 running. This comes down to manageable pacing, but the question is can I hold out for the full duration? Minimizing the amount of down time is going to be key.

A Year’s Preparation

Preparing for this race has also been a bit unusual for me. I first heard about the Washington Island Ultra about a year ago. Right after I did a 1/2 Ironman with My Team Triumph some of the people from that race were also doing Washington Island. I looked into the race and thought it was epic! Amazed it was so close to home and had never heard of it. The race was full at the time, but I emailed the race director and was able to still get a solo spot as they were working on expanding. A month after signing up I still had Ironman Wisconsin 2019 to compete in (my first Ironman).

At this point I had my ‘A’ race for 2020, so I started to build out the rest of the race calendar year, with Ironman Tulsa on May 30th, which I thought would be a perfect launch point into Washington Island. Little did I know almost every race in 2020 would be cancelled. But I did the Iron distance myself after Tulsa was knocked out and continued training.

The hours put in this year so far have been my highest yet. Since the beginning of the year I’ve so far covered

• 47 hours 25 minutes covering 153,806 yards swimming
• 161 hours 7 minutes covering 2,771 miles biking
• 121 hours 7 minutes covering 850 miles running

I’ve trained through snow and storms, heat and cold, night and day. All to get ready for the next 24 hours.

Why?

I’m doing this race to test myself, to push my body and mind further than I have previously. I know others who have done much harder things, and they’re an inspiration for what is possible in your life. Now is the time for me to test those boundaries. This may very well be the last race of this length I do. I could hit a wall at 20 hours I’m unable to recover from. But what I really want is that chance to come back from it. To face the challenge head on. To really test myself, my will and my drive to do something so much larger than anything I thought previously possible.