That Triathlon Life Podcast - Eric Wins Ironman 70.3 Santa Cruz Triathlon, Nick DNFs Ironman Wisconsin

Episode Date: September 15, 2022

This week we changed the format of the podcast a bit to give the full run down of the two triathlons the boys raced. First Eric's big win in Santa Cruz and then Nick's tragic defeat at Ironman Wisconsin. Next week we will be back to our normal groove after discussing Paula's PTO race. For gear head over to http://www.thattriathlonlife.com

Hey everyone, welcome to that triathlon life podcast. I'm Paula Finley. I'm Erica Loggstrom. I'm Nick Goldston. And we are coming to you on a very busy day trying to squeeze the pot in because we know it's a super, super important week. Nick's actually and his Tesla recording this from Madison, Wisconsin. I'm in a freaking rental car, by the way. Oh, you're in our, yeah, that's right. Your Tesla's back in L.A. What was I thinking? Yeah, so it's not even soundproofed. No, it's not great and it's hot, but I have a beautiful view of this lake that I almost died in. to turn it that you almost died in two days ago. Well, yeah, it's a really cool podcast today because both Eric and Nick race this past weekend, having very opposite experiences, but both valuable experiences. I don't even really need to be on this podcast because I don't have much to say,

but I know we're all super, super excited to hear about all the details of their races, how they went down. We did actually have a lot of questions this week that we won't probably get to, maybe a couple, but we'll save those for next week. And yeah, this podcast is really just about the debriefs. And I might have to step out early because I have a PTO board meeting. So take it away, boys. Yeah, I guess for the people who are listening for the first time. Oh, man.

Do we still get new listeners? I don't even know. Yes, we definitely do. We get new listeners every week. I'm a professional triathlete. Eric is also a professional triathlete. Nick is a professional musician, one of our best friends, and raised his first Iron Man two days ago.

so he's an amateur triathlete. I don't know if he's going to do any more Iron Man's, but he did one, sort of. Well, not really. Not really. You were so close to the finish, I'd say. I was. I was close.

But yeah, I'm not sure either, by the way. Like, I'm still, like, the pain is still so fresh. Like, the physical pain is still so fresh. But I thought it would be really fun to start with Eric's race. And maybe not everybody knows how you're, race went, Eric. So I don't know if you necessarily want to give it away, but I would love to hear the nitty-gritty details of the story. I would say that people probably know because Eric actually just put out a vlog miraculously about the race week, including his drive down and like all the

pre-race stuff. So it's so crazy that he got to vlog out. First of all, you got to tell people what race it was. Yeah, so I did 70.3 Santa Cruz and beautiful. Is that called Northern California? Is that Central California? It's funny because geographically it's central, but colloquially we consider that northern California. Yeah, so it was in Santa Cruz. And Santa Cruz, we've talked about it on the podcast before in previous episodes. It always comes up when people ask what our favorite race experiences and courses are. And it's one of my all-time favorites.

And we actually haven't been able to race it since 2018, actually. And it usually falls around the same time as 70.3 worlds. So in 2019, we missed it. And then in 2020, the world had COVID. and then 2021, it didn't happen. And finally back to 2022, I got to go back down there and do it, and I won, which is actually a really, really awesome experience

because the last time that I won, 70.3 was in 2018 at 70.3 Santa Cruz as well. So the next time you had the opportunity to race it as a pro, you did and you won. Because I actually did the race last year, but there was no pro field. Oh, right. Yeah.

Right. I forgot. Yeah, they did it without a pro. pro field. And it was actually a pretty strong field. Tim O'Donnell was there. He's just kind of like, this was his last checkup race before Gona, Iron Man Cona. Matt Sharp was there. He got third. He won Boulder 70.3 just about a month ago. And then there were a couple of international guys there as well. I don't know his name, but a guy who won Iron Man Western Australia, I think. So, good, good cast of characters and just a beautiful, beautiful race course.

The weather was perfect. Ocean is always kind of like a question mark of whether or not the swim will be canceled because of fog. We got to swim. So pretty perfect day. And if you've listened to us, talk before, you know that I am a fan of ocean swims and cold races. And this is definitely on the cooler side. Do you feel like the days leading up to it, you knew it was going to be a good day for you? Did you feel right?

Like the checklist that you go through in your head, did it all feel right? Yeah, I mean, I'm a very feely guy, so I definitely kind of operate off of like just this kind of growing emotional wave, I suppose, and a wave of feelings of how something's going to go. And it did feel really good. The day before the race, though, I just, I have this kind of chronic hip injury and that all of a sudden started really bothering me the day before the race. I went on this bike ride and like it's super tough. heightened up and felt like a horse had kicked me or something. And that sort of like broke my

confidence just a little bit. But I spent a bunch of time on a foam roller and road. Luckily, they allowed the pros to ride to the race course in the morning. And that makes a huge difference for me on whether or not, on how well my bike goes just because I can like be in that position and loosen things up. I don't even ride hard just like spinning and going through the range of motion It helps a lot. Did you say that you drove to the race, which also could aggravate your hip a bit? It's a lot of sitting. Yeah.

Yeah, it is a lot of sitting. But you had to weigh the pros and cons of like packing a bike, flying, renting a car, renting a, getting a hotel room versus like the convenience of just loading the van up, driving for eight hours and being there with a bed, basically. Totally. And I split up the drive into two days. It's just under a nine-hour drive and I did about seven the first day, which I kind of feel like five to seven is the range where if you drive to the airport and park the car and do

the airport thing and get there early and take a two hour flight and then get a rental car and get to the hotel and like do that whole thing it's around like five or six hours of like driving that balances out like a hour 45 minute two hour flight so I think it was worth it and I was able to get up and we know like just walk around it when I stopped for the gas and stuff like that and it was fine. Nick, I will say that, like, you and I felt like he was in a good headspace just from talking to him. Like, you can kind of tell if someone is in a good mood, has energy, is feeling positive just by, like, talking to them on the phone. And I think, like, every conversation I had with him and you had with him, he was, like, feeling really good. So I think we had a feeling.

We had a feeling. It was going to be good. And pair that with the fact that it just seemed like the right race, the right timing, the right course. You've been feeling good lately. It just seemed like it was all coming together, right? Yeah, and you know, I think a lot of people might think, oh, driving, that's bad. But, like, for me, I get more excited about it. I'm like, oh, drive into a race in the van. Like, that is so cool. And, like, that gets me more excited and cancels out any amount of, like, I don't know, whatever, however my body might be feeling from driving. I just get all excited about it.

So that was, it was, like, a perfect buildup. And by the time, like, I, you know, went to bed the night before the race, I was zero percent stress. I was just kind of excited to go out there and do it. And I felt like, for the first time since Alcatraz, earlier this. this year that I really truly just wanted to go, like, go out and go as hard as I could. And I felt like my body was ready to do that. That's a special feeling. It's a feeling I've only ever had in like short races where I'm like, I'm ready to go out there and absolutely crush it. To have that for a 70.3, I feel like you just have to have that next level of race ready

fitness that you just had. After I just watched the vlog, not long ago, it just went live. The way you sprinted into that water in the video was nuts. It was like you were running for your life. Like, no one in their right mind, I feel like, would run that hard with still like four hours of max effort ahead of them. But you were just like, no, I want to get out there ahead of everybody else. Yeah, well, I mean, like the only races that have gone poorly for me this year was because I didn't start hard enough. And I don't want to say poorly, but not as well as I'd hoped. It's because they didn't start hard enough on the swim. In St. Anthony's, I had a great day, but I didn't go hard enough the first, like, 150 of the swim. And I lost the feet of Ben Canute.

and then in Chattanooga, I kind of just got beat up really bad at the beginning of the swim, and it really impacted the whole rest of the race for me, because I'm not so strong that I can drop a bunch of people on the bike, but if I have a little bit of a gap, then it's hard for people to bring that back, and that ultimately, I think, pays off later in the race when you're just that little bit fresher. And me going that hard on the swim, I don't think takes that much out of me. So, like, as we came into, towards the finish, I knew that we, I keep saying we. Matt Sharp and I. Matt Sharp was on my feet. I knew we had a little bit of a gap, but I wasn't sure how much. But regardless, in Santa Cruz, it's a really long run out of the water, right? You've done it. You run probably 150 meters on soft sand just to get to like, you know, the asphalt. And then you run on. You literally were like run on the street, like a round to roundabout and like a over train tracks, under train tracks.

Crazy. Yeah. So I like the last 100 or, you know, 150 of the size. swim. I definitely thought about that and started trying to call my breathing down and kicked a little bit more, just like get my legs warmed up and then really like pushed it hard through that first transition. Because I remember last time we did it, Paula actually out split me in T1, just because she went so quick through it by like 25 seconds. And so I just thought, if I really nail this first transition, like that could pay dividends a little bit more on the bike, a little bit more on the bike. And then the first three miles of the bike are super twisty and windy. So I did that pretty hard as well. And I think that blew up our gap from like 30 seconds to

probably 90 seconds, you know, by the time we were at like mile five on the bike and we hit the highway. So I was like, I feel like what I really am proud about it with this race is that I kind of played all of my cars that are like my strengths and I was able to use them strategically to like just save enough that I was able to run fast at the end and like, just be mentally in the place that I needed to be at each point in the race. And that is just, that is like what I dream about. with racing is feeling like you're racing and it's not just oh my gosh i'm just trying not to blow up for four hours yeah watching from the tracker from my perspective because there was no video so i didn't all i had to go off it was like refreshing the tracker and it was like the amount of time he gained in

transition in t1 and in t2 was so crazy and it just like set up those gaps that ultimately i think let him win because he kind of got out of sight from people and it's a good reminder when you're doing a 70.3 that transitions really do matter. It's not like, I mean, Nick, you had probably the longest transition in the history of the universe. Yeah. But that was different circumstances. You know what?

Transitions still do matter because I needed that long transition to survive. But on the flip side, if you're, if it's a decent day outside, it's not like whatever you were going through in the rain, you can make up so many seconds just by making it quick. And that's what Eric did. So it was pretty cool to see. I'm like, oh, yeah. must be feeling good because he's like ripping through these transitions like a maniac. That is a great measure of how good someone is feeling, right?

Yeah. Because if you're kind of like, oh, when is this over? You're just going to be like a bit sluggish and not attack it. Yeah. Then what happens next? I'm like on the edge of my seat here in this car seat. So we get out of what I just call the squiggly section, but it's like the beach front, right? You're like going along this bluffs over on your left and beautiful houses on the right. and you get out onto the main highway and that's at about mile four on the bike and at that point Matt Sharp comes around me and is like

okay let's push this man I'm like that's what we're doing we're pushing it we're pushing it we're doing feel free to take part in the push so he did he fully did he went to the front

took really big pulls and it really had an impact on this race I think because of the way that it rolls and like there's a lot of wins So like going into headwind and stuff and at certain times, it's being with at least one other person can really be psychologically a huge thing in addition to like an obvious draft benefit inside of the legal distance.

So we took turns, taking polls. I think we rode pretty well and we made it all the way to the turnaround before the group of Tim O'Donnell. Tim and Company, right? German guy. and Dylan Gillespie and Danilo Pimentel. Tim said after the race, it sounded like Tim did the majority of the work, bringing that group up,

and Tim is riding really well this year. And I kind of felt like that was inevitable, but it was just up to Matt and I to drag that out as long as possible and make Tim work for it. Because, yeah, I just felt like Tim was the number one threat to win this race, for sure.

Kona Fett. Yeah, Conafit. And he was, huh? He, like, really showed up. Yeah. So, yeah, he's, he's, He's kind of fit. He caught up and they almost had us at the turnaround, but like I saw that we had like 15 seconds.

So I actually put in a bit of a surge just to like think that maybe in the shuffle like that group would get blown up just a little bit as they were like trying to make the pass or if somebody tried to make a hard pass. And that did end up happening. It actually ended up happening. The German guy just as the group came together made this humongous move like hero move. And I was on the front and I just tried to shift. down and go with it while riding arrow and I was doing like no joke 460 watts while arrow and he's just crazy slowly pulling away and and then I was like okay I can't do this this is this is this is suicide so I backed it off to like 350 for another minute and he's still just pulling away and still crazy I was like okay well somebody

else is going to do this because I've been doing a lot of work so far and Tim came around and kind of I don't know if he was trying to catch up or just like keep the tempo high or whatever but then Tim took a pretty long pole and we never caught the guy. That is so crazy that he stuck to that pace. Yeah. Well, not necessarily stuck to it,

but he like stayed away. I mean, it was a good move. According to Tim, he didn't take any polls. This guy didn't take any polls like in the first half and then he just freaking, that was his card to play. Yeah. He just, he went for it after saving energy up to that point. So we just tried to mitigate,

the time gap. Tim did a lot of work. I took a couple of poles. Matt Sharp took a couple of poles. And we got back to the main squiggly section. The squiggly section again, the technical section. Which for everyone that doesn't know,

it's like this beautiful, beautiful like walk or drive along the cliffs there just north of the Santa Cruz pier. It's iconic. But as part of the course, and you 100% if you're not a great bike handler, you could lose a lot of time or make up a lot of time.

on that section. It is, it is very twisty. It's crazy how twisty it is. It is the worst road you could ever drive on if you weren't trying to get somewhere quickly. And so I'm curious, did you stay arrow through all of it? Did you have to get up through most of it? Like, how much were you down in the bars? And did you feel like you were kind of pushing the limit of what was smart? So I took the lead as we made the hard left onto that, a 90 degree left. I like went past Tim through that corner and then just engine just hit it as hard as I could. There's one other corner that you have to get out of the bars and that you just, it would be suicide to try to do it at that speed in the bars.

Otherwise, yeah, I stayed arrow unless I just felt like getting out of the saddle would be productive and rode pretty, pretty hard for that last three miles into transition. I never looked over my shoulder, so I wasn't sure if I was going to have a gap or not. But actually, as I was getting to my bike rack, the other guys were just getting. to the dismount line, which was, I could see them, which was probably a 30 second, 40 second gap, I would guess, maybe 30 seconds. I also got the get, which was, I was pretty surprised it was that much. I also got a gap coming into transition of 150 to the German who had taken the bike flyer, and that was super helpful. And I did T2 as fast as I could, had a great T2,

and got out onto the run, and at like 400 meters into the run, I got a 9.00. I got a another gap and it was only 110 to the German guy, taking 40 seconds out. So 40 seconds you made in T2? Just in T2. Think about 40 seconds of bike fitness, right? Like that is so much. How long that would have taken? So, yeah. I mean, and imagine if I hadn't ridden that last three miles hard, it could have been two minutes and 30 seconds. So again, just like playing cards properly and like having the experience to not go with that initially. And at that point, I heard a minute in 10 seconds, and it was just like, oh, this game on. It's happening.

I need to, one, not get caught by Tim and Matt and two, catch this dude quickly. So I think I ran my first 5K, like, pretty freaking fast. I was probably on like 109 half marathon pace, but I was just trying to make it through all that stuff as quickly as possible and not really give anybody behind me any hope in terms of, like, oh, I can catch up. And I caught the German guy just as we got to the state park at about three and a half miles.

He ran with me for a mile, which I was very impressed with because I came up on him super fast, but then he just kind of like went into bulldog mode and hung on right on my shoulder and we were going into a headwind. So again, I think he was an ex-pro cyclist. Oh, really?

I say it with pizza in my mouth. That would make me feel a lot better. I'm really just here listening, but yeah, I went to his Instagram because I was like, who's this guy? And it says, ex-pro cyclist. Oh, there you go. So that's what he, he showed up. He's like, I'm going to show these triathletes how to bike.

And he really did. Well, he's a pro-traveling now, but he used to be. So I was like, oh, okay, that makes sense. I wonder if he can run. And then Eric started gaining on him really quick. Well, yeah, but it sounds like he stayed with Eric for a bit when Eric caught him, almost like he was like, I'm going to try to recover. I'm going to try to recover until whoever catches me and then try to go with them.

I mean, I'm still impressed, considering how fast Eric. was on pace for it. Totally. Totally. The only, the thing that actually gave me the opportunity to break him was we went across some railroad tracks that were like very dirty and slippery. And I could just, he was breathing really hard and I could hear this. And I could tell like we hit that.

And it was, if you're really tired and you hit soft stuff, you're just kind of like, ugh. And I took that opportunity to surge a bit. And that's kind of the moment that it actually. Tactician. Broke a little bit. Yeah. So. Okay.

So then in your mind, you dropped him. what were you thinking? Were you thinking this race is mine to lose now? Or were you thinking no focus? Like just anything could happen? I mean, I raced, again, just going back to T.O. I raced really against him in Chattanooga. And I came out of T2 feeling fantastic

and dropped him in the first like three miles. And then like mile five, he just went by me like I was standing still. And he ran the same pace from like start to finish. So I knew that he was going to run pretty well and he would run very consistently, and I couldn't at any point in time just kind of like be looking at birds

and realize I wasn't, you know, there was no opportunity to like lose 10 seconds. I also didn't know how much feedback he had of the gaps. Well, that was part of the problem, right? Like you had a bike escort because you're the first pro and you were trying to get some kind of information from him. Yeah, I was like, just can you tell me if somebody's back there?

He's like, nobody's back there. You're totally fine, man, you got this. I'm like, there are people back there. you look really fast I kept looking over my shoulder and he kind of started getting like a little bit annoyed he was like there's nobody back there

be confident and I'm like dude just be helpful or just be quiet please oh my God I love it I'm like I'm not going to feel good like I have this until I cross the finish line on the sand because I remember

the last time I did that race like that last three miles on that road just seem like they take forever Yeah. Because you've done that squiggly road, and then you've gone into the state park and run on sand,

run all these hills that you didn't really take seriously. And then, I don't know, it just, it just, I feel like you're so wrecked and you're just trying to get to the end, and that three mile of road just goes on forever and ever. Yeah. And it totally did. It totally did.

But I had built up enough of a gap, and I think T.O. ended up running, what, like, maybe five seconds, slower than me or something. The gap from T1, and I mean from T2 and from that attacking on the bike that just held the whole way and I definitely I don't know if that would have

if I would have won if we'd have you had the second fastest run split and the fastest was from RACCla and he ran really fast but he ended up being I think eighth or something like that so it wasn't didn't come from one of like top five guys so you outran all the guys that you were racing against at the front yeah yeah

Yeah, I don't know. It was great. And you came down like at the end. I remember the end of the course after you're on the squiggly top there. You kind of run down like downhill and then onto the sand as like this final punishment, right? Of like, you're so tired. Yeah, you run down a steep hill and like have to make a hard right onto like the sand area. On sand. There's like fine sand sitting on concrete and you're wearing and I'm wearing super shoes. And you're like just don't freaking like fall. because if I fall over, I'm not getting back up.

Everything hurts so bad. I'm going to, like, crawl it the rest of the way. But then, yeah, you've got like 40 meters on actual soft sand to run across the finish line. And that is one place I do not ever want to be in a sprint finish. Right. Oh, my gosh, yeah. I mean, when did you know I just won another 70.3 after this, like, four-year gap?

When did you know for sure you had it? Probably one mile to go. I was sitting at the park playing Chuck It with Flynn, and I was just like, oh, my, the last gap was like a mile from the finish, but Tim was running faster than him. I was like, he could have a catastrophic blow up. Yeah. So I was just like, refreshing, chuck the chuck it.

Refresh it, chuck the chuck it. Refreshing, chuck the chuck it. That's cool. Yeah, I mean, I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom very soon and my legs were like really on. Number one or number two? Number two, for sure. Number one would have been a non-issue. That's the emergency kind.

I felt like I was moments from disaster for probably half of that run, but it worked out, okay. And I felt like cramping was like a legitimate concern. So two miles to go, I still was thinking like I could seriously at any second just like my calf could like lock up and this could go bad. So I was intentionally dialing back my effort from like a 10 to like a nine or an eight. Right. Because I thought, okay, he'd have to run like 25 seconds a mile faster than me after this. Like that's a dead sprint. Right.

So just don't cramp and, like, fall on that final corner. Nick, you were racing at the same time. I think your mom told you. My mom did when I was on the second loop of the bike. There's the first time I saw my parents. And the first thing I heard was, Edik Stavintech, which means Eric is winning. And it was like, it puts such a big smile on my face.

The day before, I was thinking about telling them, like, if Eric is winning or if Eric wins, tell me. but if he's not, don't tell me. Right? Like, I don't want to know if he's not doing well. Don't tell me he's winning. Yeah. So, but I didn't say anything to them.

My mom had the forethought to, on the Iron Man Tracker app, which is not the best app in the world, she went and found Eric's race and found Eric and found Eric and figured out that he was in the lead. And I kind of did the math from when you started, and I thought, if he's in the lead now, he must be within like 15, 20 minutes of finishing, that's a very good sign. Yeah. And so it was one of the very few, uh, really great moments of the day for me was, was that moment. And, and even when things

got really bad later, I still, I still was like out loud. I was talking to myself out loud a lot when things got bad. And I was just like, fucking Eric did it. I can't believe you did it. I was just so happy for you. Dude, I felt like I had a bit of an extra burden on my shoulders because you would know. Right. And like, you're at like, a critical. point in your race how my race was going. I didn't want to let you down. But at that point, you didn't know about Nick's race really. I had no idea how your race was going. Of course not. I figured even when I finished, I would have plenty of time to expect to take your race. Oh, there was, oh, there was plenty of time. There was plenty of time. My T2 was a quarter time of your

race, basically. Even if it had gone great. Yeah, exactly. That's right. And then like the amount of people on course that saw me and then told me that you won was crazy. Because everyone knows that like That is so cool. You know, that I wanted to see. So so many people saw me. And it's funny, it's like, I looked crazy because I was wearing so much stuff and, like, the helmet's all soaking wet.

And people still recognize me and had the thought to tell me, Eric won. That is crazy. That's crazy because you just got a new kit. It's not like you have a custom, like super recognizable thing. No, someone on the run was like, don't stop running.

I'll tell Paula on you. Someone said that. It was just, yeah, it was great. It was great. Even when things up real bad, it was great. So that's great, Eric. And I keep checking the PTO site to see when they're going to update the points. Who knows what they'll do for a race like that?

I don't know. They're not going to update them until after Dallas, I would think. Okay, right, right. Oh, really? Well, I did email Thorsten, the guy who does them, to let him know that the course is a quarter mile long because I really want to get credit for a fast run split. Yeah, good for you.

But, yeah, I think it should be a good. a good-ish score for me anyway. T.O.'s ranked okay and people know he's good and Matt Sharp is just one. So I think, and it was a course record. It was a course record? Yeah. That is amazing. That's what my mom asked. She's like, did Eric get a course record? And I was like, I don't know. I didn't know that either at the time when I made the video and everything.

Oh, Eric, I'm so freaking proud of you. Yeah. That's amazing. And crucially, I want to let you say it, but did anything happen with World Championship slots? Oh. Yes, I qualified for World Championships 70.3.

Nick, you get so more excited than we do about this kind of stuff. It's amazing. Well, Nick knows he's getting a free plane ticket to Finland. Nick, we all qualify for World Championships. Yeah, that's right. If it qualifies, we all qualify. that's no it's so cool i think the reason it matters so much to me is because i i had this goal of qualifying

for 70.3 world championships even though it feels like it's getting further away instead of closer so i kind of i insert that excitement into you uh yeah yeah what a day what a day i feel like it's such a good day for such a good place for you to win again yeah yeah and um i don't know if you haven't watched the video i am extremely proud of it so listeners, if you watch one video all year, go watch this one. I love it. It's really cool. Yeah, I think it was a perfect

It was a very Eric Loggerstrom film. The whole weekend was just awesome. It was just like a really good experience and one that, I don't know, is what I think is the coolest way you could do triathlon. Yeah. Super beautiful recap of it all.

The drive is just so nice and the drone shots and everything. Sorry, you broke up for a second there. The what shots? Well, it's his old drone. Everyone's like, oh, the new drone, it was totally worth it. And I'm like, this is his old freaking drone. Actually, both drones used in this video he already had.

Further confirming that he doesn't need a new one, he's got plenty of good drones. You know, I can just edit all that out. The power is mine. The new drone hasn't even shown up on the doorstep. Everyone's like, it was worth it, dude. Don't remind us. You just need to chop up some other Paula talking moments and take words like, I am sorry. The drone is good, good, great drone.

phone by drone. I approve. Okay. Nick, I got to go on a call in 17 minutes. Do you think you can recap your race in 17 minutes? I don't know. I felt like I felt like I was out there for three years, so I'll try to put it into 17 minutes.

Well, it's like Inception, dude. You were like four levels deep. For us, it was much shorter. Yeah. Oh, man. It really got to a point where, I mean, I felt like 30, 40 minutes had passed on the bike and I had ridden two and a half miles.

Wow. Well, Nick, first of all, just say what race it was, what the temperature was, and what that was coming out of the sky. Let's take it from the top. Yeah. So it was, and I don't at all regret choosing this race, but it was a few people recommended this to me, but Lindsay Corbyn, our friend Lindsay Corbyn, has won this race multiple times. And I was, I asked her, I asked Heather Jackson. I had a few friends who've done it before

and everyone said it's like this amazingly beautiful course and it really is. Iron Man Wisconsin, it's in Madison, Wisconsin. Absolutely beautiful. Got here and the weather was amazing. Drove the course, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful place. But as the days got closer to the race, it became clear.

The weather report was just getting worse and worse. And it seemed like the day before it was confirmed that it was just going to be between 55, 59 degrees, and rain all day with 10 to 20 mile an hour winds all day. To translate to Celsius, dismal. Yeah, in Celsius, it's 11 degrees. Well, no, not 11. Between 11 and 15 degrees all day.

I didn't have the right gear for it. And I knew that at first. Now looking back, it's hilarious how much I didn't have the right gear for it. but I wasn't the only person that made this mistake. There were a lot of people who didn't have the right gear for it. But anyway, the day before the race, Eric, you said you were kind of like you had a little moments of whatever of not feeling so confident with your hip. The day before the race for me was very, very, very bad.

I don't know exactly what, but it was just emotionally bad. The dread that I have some nights before a 70.3 or some mornings of a 70.3, I had it for just the whole day before. and I just felt so tired all day. I don't know exactly why. I was like, I don't know why I'm feeling like this. It's going to be a fine day. Like, it's just going to rain, but I'm going to get through it.

Nick, this is like, you know how I said I could tell Eric was in a good mood and like, in a good headspace? Opposite for you when you were like texting and you're just like, I'm so tired. I'm falling asleep. Yeah. I didn't even call Eric. I was very like, I felt very scared and alone. even though my parents were with me and I have the huge support system and talking to so many people, I don't know what that was.

I still haven't figured that out, but it's a very weird switch that flips. That doesn't seem to be triggered by anything, but it happened to me also after the race a couple of times. Just a very, very, like, I feel like I go into an instant temporary depression. And I'm just like, I don't, I just want to get as far away from whatever I'm doing as possible. Like I couldn't open up my messages. I couldn't open up Instagram. not great. But anyway, morning of the race, as we're driving there, I actually thought, no, this is going to be a great day. Like, it's going to be a terrible weather and I'm going to fight

through it, but I'm only going to do one of these, so I thought. And it's going to be one that I remember, right? And we're all out here. So I'm, like, in transition, trying to get my bike and sety, and I'm like, already shivering, which was probably really stupid. I was only wearing my TTL crew and it's cotton, so it got wet, and I was just like, I was very cold. And then once I got my wet suit on, I was just like, you know what, let's go for it. And I don't know how many people didn't start, but a lot of people did start. I'm sure a lot of people didn't, but a lot of people did start. And we get down the helix, and the vibes there are so cool.

It's such a cool race, even though it was like a third of the people that are normally out there. It was so cool. The lake you swim in was great. And I saw Tofer before the race, said hi to him. When the swim started, I loved the swim. The water was warm, so the rain and the weather was like not an issue in the water, obviously. And people were complaining that the water was choppy. But compared to what I'm used to swimming in the ocean, it was like completely fine.

So I had no problems. And I loved the swim. I'm very happy to say that I loved the swim. I've never loved a 70.3 swim. I've always like halfway through and like, get me out of this water. I loved it. It was beautiful. I loved looking around.

I think I was really enjoying the fact that I was doing this crazy physical feet. And the swim took, it was like no problem. I swam 112, which, I know it was not fast, but for me, swimming is a big weakness for me. And so I was very happy with that pace. I've swam slower 70.3 paces than that. Yeah. That's crazy. Because it sounds like you were just out there just swimming.

I was. Doing it, like not necessarily like race mentality. That's a testament to all the swim trains. I think so. I've never done so much swim training and I feel like it really paid off. I felt great the whole time. I don't know if you remember I had that shoulder like soreness burning in Edmonton. Yeah. I really focused on getting like my wet suit on well and I had no problems of any kind. Just swam the whole time. I didn't get like once again. I started with like the 115 to whatever 120 people and those people swam like 135.

I mean, I went past like 300 people on the swim. It's like the seating is so off. But whatever, you know. So swim was fantastic. Got out of the water and I was just, I was really happy. And the rain was really coming down and it was windy. But I just swam and I wasn't cold at all. Ran up, ran up the helix.

It's a spiral like garage thing where people lined the sides of it and are cheering for you. Nick, was the transition indoors? Yes. That's what Lindsay told me, which is almost worse, because you get this false sense of like, oh, it's so nice in here. And then you have to go into the elements. I will say, though, if the transition weren't indoors, my day would have been even shorter. I desperately, yeah, I think if the transition were outdoors, half the people that finished would have not finished. I'll tell you about it when I get there, but the T2 was necessary to be indoors.

Yeah. We wouldn't have made it. It was like a scary. scene in T2. People were in there just sitting there shivering, talking, just like warming up. Like, no one was rushing through T2. Well, also, I was with people who had, I slowed down so much on the bike that I was with people who very much were just trying to survive at that point. Yeah, yeah. But anyway, I got onto the bike and it was so funny, the day before, I'm like, discussing with my parents, it's like, should I just do my tri-kit and gloves or should I

use this like my dad has this like rainproof cycling rafa jacket i was like should i use that i'm like i'm going to get too hot and i don't want to just throw this rafa jacket and like whatever it's like three hundred dollars i can't i can't emotionally handle like throwing that away so i was just like okay when i get too hot i'm going to unzip it and just going to flop in the wind and that's whatever i'll lose time but i'm here to have fun not to win this race and that was so far from what happened i mean it's unripped i mean it's unrued real. So we get onto this bike and it is it's just. You didn't

unzip it. No, no, no. There was no unzipping. It was, it stayed arrow the whole time. Yeah, that was the one positive is I stayed as arrows I could with that jacket on. It's so funny the day before I'm like, oh, I'm going to lose so much arrow gain from wearing this jacket, but I'm like, I'd have to be a piece with this and just focus on my goal of finishing. Whatever.

So we get on to the bike and I'm already like, I'm already like, okay, I'm not going to worry about pushing hard. I'm just going to go out. I had like the goal, what my training was got me ready for was doing about 215 watts. And I looked down and I'm like, I should just do like 185, 190, something like that. And it felt so easy, obviously, relatively to what I was prepared for. It felt so easy. So we're biking. And the vibes are great at that time, even though it's raining. I can't really see out of my visor because it's so rainy. So I'm like taking it. it on and off trying to like clean it off.

You can just sense that there are good vibes out there somewhere. I thought so we're all, it was more just like, wow, we're all out here doing this dumb thing, right? Like, what? It's like we kind of felt like a team there, and I think people were still smiling at that point. Then, so anyway, we start biking, and this was the start of the bad stuff

that started happening to me. I started to have this feeling like I really, really, really had to pee. And I've never had that in a race before. And it was like really early on into the race. And it's not like I over hydrated. I thought I did a great job. I did all the water I was drinking the day before had electrolytes in it. So I thought it was like whatever.

But I was like, okay, no problem. I'm still not going to worry about it. I'm just going to see if I can keep riding and it's not an issue. But I start to like panic at how badly I need to pee. I finally could stop to pee and I peed for like two minutes. And I'm just like, okay, that's weird. get back on the bike. That's a lot of water.

Yeah, keep going. Keep in mind, I'm doing like a 30 grams of carbs every 20 minutes, like just pounding them, feeling great. I actually never had problems all day with my stomach, and I was eating a ton. And then I had to pee again. And again, I peed four times on the bike. And each time, it wasn't like I had this feeling that I had to pee,

but I didn't really have to. I peed like, sorry, this is so, this might be a little gross for people, but I really had to actually pee a lot, four times on the bike. And you looked it up after. You looked it up after and that might be a sign of hypothermia. It's, yeah, it's something your body does before hypothermia. Because your body has to, basically, you're warming up that liquid in your bladder and it's useless.

So it just tries to get it. But the thing that's weird, it's actually, it's more than that. It's actually pulling water away from other parts of your body or something like that. Because I wasn't drinking, I was drinking a normal amount. I wasn't drinking that much. I mean, like if you're dehydrated, you do. definitely get warmer more quickly. Like the water in your system would cool you down

and like, feel better or for worse. I definitely didn't ever get warmer. At the second lap, that's when I finally saw my parents and they said, Eric is winning. And that made me feel great. And I was still feeling relatively good at the time. I kind of already like mourned the loss of any semblance of this is going to be a good race.

You know, it was just going to be a nope. Just get to the finish. And Mike Riley is retiring next. year and this is, you know, what a great time for me to do my Iron Man. Like, this is my, he's going to say my name. I'm just going to be at the Capitol building there. And I had like enjoyed the city so much leading up to it and like building this thing of like, it's going to be this lifelong memory, this great memory. And then I saw a bunch of TTL people out there that were super supportive, a lot of people racing that were super supportive. And then right at like mile 85,

it happened within like two minutes. I just started feeling like bonked, really bonged, like instantly. I don't, I still don't know what exactly led to that. I was eating great. I was digesting it. At least I felt like I was. And not looking back, I think I was. I wonder if when it's cold like that, you need to like almost double your carbohydrate or something. Like, I don't know the answer, but maybe just like the shivering and being cold makes you just burn more. I don't know. Or it was like a cold bonk. Yeah. At the beginning of the bike, I wasn't too cold, but by mile 85, I had gotten, I was just, I would say I was cold. I was like pretty cold. I wasn't like scary cold, but I was pretty cold. And I was, of course, focusing on just keeping the

power up so I could stay warm. And then once I balked or whatever happened there, I had to slow down because, and I just had this feeling of panic. It's like, oh my God, I feel this bad. I still need to bike all the way back and then run a marathon. And that, you know, just compounding thing felt awful. I felt that's when I started feeling really, really down on myself and it switched so fast. And then all these people who I had been like casually passing all just came ripping by me. Even some people, some TTR people that were just like, dude, keep it up, you got this. And I was just, it was just now, it was like totally switching to like have a good day and make it to the finish to like survive enough to make it back to T2.

don't even think about a second after T2. Yeah. And those, yeah, and I definitely slowed down quite a bit. And man, those, whatever, two hours. It felt like four hours. I don't know how long it actually was, but. Well, it's like, I mean, that's like a double-edged sort, like,

compounding problem there is that you got tired, you were cold, wherever you bonged, and, like, you went slower, which less body heat is generated, get colder. That's exactly what happens. That's just cycle. That's exactly what happened. Once the power dropped, I just started getting so cold so fast.

And of course, it's very windy. And unfortunately, going back into T2, it was a headwind. And there were a lot of people on the first loop of the bike. On the second loop, I went for like 20 minutes without seeing anybody behind me or in front of me. So many people had dropped out. So many people had pulled out of the race. I assume that's what happened because I saw like nobody. And I was still stopping to pee a lot and I was getting a little concerned about why that was happening.

I was just like, am I something going on with my body? But I was just like after that I, the last hour, I was never arrow. I was sitting up the whole time just laser focused on to just get back. Just get back. And it was scary because we were kind of out in the middle of nowhere. and I was afraid that the cold, I was just, I was getting colder and colder. And like on the descents,

I wasn't pedaling, but I was shaking so much that I didn't want to like fall off the bike because I was shivering. Oh my gosh. And then every once in a while, I was horrible. Just so everybody knows, too. Nick is not like a small guy. No, no, not at all.

Yeah. I'm not 6'2. I'm 511, but I'm not that skinny. Like I should have been fine. but when I finally did start seeing some people like all the smiles from the first lap they were gone we were just like

everyone out there was zombies just like I could tell people were feeling the same thing of like what am I doing out here yeah like this is not what I signed up for can we take a quick pause? Yeah yeah yeah I am so sorry everybody but I have to go

I have a board meeting this was literally the only hour that was free where Nick wasn't traveling, we aren't traveling so we could get this pot out. So the other option was me not being on it at all. Yeah, thank you, Paul. Thank you so much. Not sure I brought much to this pod.

No, you did. I cannot wait to hear the last half of the podcast on Thursday morning. Yeah, sorry. Sorry, you said 17 minutes. We're not even off the bike yet. Sorry. No, it's okay. I'm really sorry to go,

but I'm really glad that we did this because I think everyone is going to be on the edge of their seats, just like I am right now, wanting to hear about this is all the thing. Well, I've thought about this a lot, obviously. Yeah, yeah. Okay, Paula, well, I'll talk to you later. Yeah, thanks, guys.

I'll talk to you to next week when we recap Dallas, and I'll let the boys finish off here. Yeah. Bye. Bye. So those last miles felt like they took forever, and that was the worst part of the day for me. That was worse than not finishing.

That was worse than any part of the run. those last two hours, I don't know exact, there was some weird emotional brain chemical thing happening where I was very scared, I felt very, I felt like my life was in danger a little bit, I guess. And I just kept getting slower

and kept getting colder, and the finish was just like, oh my God, I still have 15 miles, you know? And at that pace it was taking me like almost an hour to get back and I just didn't know what was going to happen. And of course, I'm also thinking about all the amazing people, the listeners that have just been so supportive.

And I'm thinking about how I'm not only letting them down, but I'm letting my parents who flew out down. Because in that point in my mind, I was like, there's no way I'm finishing this race. I'll be lucky if I make it off the bike. Have you felt that in races before when you think that they're going poorly and stuff? Or is this kind of a new thing now that we've got the podcast and stuff? I don't think it actually has to do with either of those things. things. I felt this on a very strange. I felt this like three weeks ago on my 120 mile ride at the same distance on the bike. And I was also fueling very well on that ride, but I started feeling bad and

had a pan. It's not panic. It's more like, it's like a deep sadness and fear. Anyway, I did make it back slowly and I saw my parents right before getting into T2 as I got off my bike. And I just told them, I was like, I don't know what's going to happen. And I once again had to pee so badly. I could only talk to them for like 10 seconds before I ran into transition. By the way, Iron Man, if you're listening, not having bathrooms, but like at the end of the bike is insane. I got off the bike and there were no bathrooms until you left T2.

Oh, wow. So luckily I knew there were bathrooms in the Manona Terrace, right, the area. So I ran to those and peed again, then ran back to T2 and I sat there and the people coming in. It was like, I mean, if you see it now, I'm sure it would be very funny. I'm just picturing like a scene from like a World War I trench warfare. Yeah, I definitely don't want to discount real like actual suffering and war, of course. but in there we were looking around like guys we are brothers because that was the worst thing that felt absolutely terrible and we're looking around like no one's in a hurry everyone and of course everyone

has like a towel in their in their transition bag and fresh clothes and I don't because I'm an idiot but I sat there and I just sat I didn't take any of my clothes off and yes they were wet but I couldn't possibly like conceive for moving anything because I was so cold and I was shivering on the downhills, but when I got in there, my whole body was shaking. Like, my hips were shaking. Luckily, they had, like, hot water, but they'd hand me the cup, and I couldn't hold the cup steady enough to, like, drink it properly. So I went through six cups of hot water. Yeah, I had this, I had cold that bad, like, when I crashed that year in Oceanside and Paula was racing, and they, like, finally got me back to, like, the medical area. And I just laid

there underneath, like, one of those spaceman blankets for, like, two hours. Because, like, Yes, exactly. I couldn't stop shivering, could not comprehend, like, going anywhere to, like, try to find my jacket. And I was like, I hope she comes in here and looks for me because I can't move. Yeah. It's crazy. Your body is just full on protection. Don't die much. And what's funny is, like, on the bike, I was holding it together. But once I got inside to the warmth, that's when my body really opened up and was like, no, you are way too cold to do anything right now. And that's when I had these, like, full body shakes, like, viability.

Like, people kept asking me if I was okay next to me because of how much I was shaking. And you're generating zero body heat anymore. Yeah. Yeah. And it definitely felt like that. And then after sitting there for an hour, like a few people came out to me and asked me if I was, like, pulling out, if I was okay. Definitely some podcast listeners were there and were being super nice and supportive. That was very helpful.

I even had a guy give me his sweater that he wasn't using. And it was wet, but I put it on, you know. and then finally I went to pee again after the hour and after that time I actually felt like okay I'm going to at least try to make it to mile one on the run because I had no idea what my legs were going to feel like I got to that point like my legs felt fine I didn't have any cramping of any kind

and it was like more my like core aerobic fitness that felt like it was gone but I talked to my parents for a second because they were there and I was just like I think there's about a 2% chance I'm making it to the half marathon mark. So I'm going to try to make it to mile one and see what it feels like. And if there's one lesson here that I can tell people listening, it's, man, when I started that run, I actually felt okay.

And I could not believe that I felt okay. But I started running and I like, I almost cried a few times because I was like, oh my God, I think I can actually do this. And I had put two of those emergency blankets on underneath. my cycling jacket, which I ended up doing the run in. And I would actually felt, after about a mile, I actually felt not cold amazingly. Wow. Yeah. So I started the run and I actually felt fantastic. It was the most euphoric I felt all day. It was like mile one and two on the run. And I was going very slow. Like I was hoping to run 8.30 pace and I was running like 10, 10, like 930, 10 pace.

at first and 10.30 pace eventually. And I thought, okay, at zero ego, whatever it takes to get to the finish, right? So I'm going super slow and it's okay. Like aerobically, I'm not working hard at all. Like I noticed that I could be running with my mouth closed and I could have a completely normal conversation. But I'm like, okay, great, I'm not cold and I can do that. So that's a good sign. I can keep this going. And I did keep it going. And I noticed that at one point I was like, I felt maybe like I might start cramping, which actually never ended up happening during the day, but I'm going to do four minutes of running, one minute of fast walking. So I started doing that, and I noticed that on the walks, I would feel very dizzy and disoriented, but on the runs, I would feel okay. And I kept that going for a long time. I was having these small issues with the inside of my ankles. They felt like I was overpronating too much, and they felt like I was putting some strain on my ankles.

and I had put a second pair of shoes in my run, what's it called, personal needs bag, where you can put in whatever you want. Oh, wow. And the second pair of shoes is like a very old pair of shoes, but it's their stability shoes, so they help with that over pronation. So I was like, okay, in that bag I have dry socks because my feet are soaking wet, soaking wet, and so is everyone else's. It never stopped raining all day.

I had that second pair of shoes in there. I was like, all right, I'm going to put on dry socks. I'm going to put on the next pair of shoes and I'm just going to make it to the finish whatever it takes. And I got to the half marathon mark and I was like, I think I can do this. I saw my parents and I was like,

I'll see you guys in three hours. I put on those shoes. And the first like 10 steps in those shoes, I could just feel how dead the foam was, something I didn't really notice before, but coming from those, the endorphin threes, with this brand new super pillow shoes,

I could immediately tell the difference. And I was like, okay, but I'm just going to run, and within three minutes, I started having IT ban pain on my right side. And I'm familiar with this pain because it's what stopped me from really running my first ever marathon. And in that race, I made it to Mount 15, and I thought I was DNFing. I stopped for 45 minutes and then walked the rest of the marathon. But if I walked very duck-footed, I actually was able to finish that first marathon.

So I thought, okay, no ego, I'm walking the first marathon. rest of this thing. I'm walking 13 miles. I don't care what it takes. I'm walking 13 miles. And at first, it seemed okay. And then it was so heartbreaking. But it started hurting more and more. And so I had to slow down more and more. And that's when I was getting cold. I got like cold, cold. And I thought, so you think if you hadn't changed the shoes, you would have been okay? I do think so. Shit. I do think so. Because I think that pain would have at least, I would at least got another six or seven miles before that happened and then I could have suffered through it. But the problem wasn't so much the pain and the IT band. It was that I needed to keep running

to stay warm enough to go on. Totally. You know, so at mile 15, I, you know, I thought, I've, I pushed through so much and many, at many, most of the race, I thought this was not worth it. Like, I don't like this. This is not fun. This isn't my job. This is, torture. It felt like torture. And it was more mental torture than physical torture. For sure. This is something I guess I got to work out. Ultimately, endurance is all about what you're willing to

mentally endure, whether it's like a screaming child sitting next to you on an airplane. Right. Right. Or like, yeah, holding your hand over a fire. Yeah, exactly. Well, and that's kind of what it felt like. It stopped feeling like a challenge and it felt like continuing to keep my

hand over a fire, right? But I didn't care. Like, I still was like, I've gone through this, I'm going to finish this. But at mile 15, it became clear to me like, okay, I think this is all I got. So I called, I had someone, I used someone's phone on the course, and I called my parents, and they were just like a mile ahead. And so I was like, okay, never mind. I'm going to get to them. And they gave me, I asked for my old shoes back, because I thought that might help. And so they gave me their old shoes back. And when I put them on, I instantly felt better. And so I ran for like four or five minutes.

And then it came right back. And then I went up this hill. As I came down the hill, I couldn't walk forward. I had to walk down it backwards. And I got to the bottom. And I could take like three steps and then I'd have to stop for 10 seconds. And three steps and then I'd have to stop for 10 seconds.

And I am now very, very, very cold. And I could tell it was just like, this is going to get very bad, very quickly. At the pace I was walking at, it would have taken me about I was seven miles from the finish it would have taken me about

four hours at least if my knee didn't get worse to walk the rest of it and so I was like I'm so cold right now even if I didn't get colder I don't think I could do another 30 minutes

yeah and the coldness was for the coldness was for sure impacting this IT band thing like you did your marathon in LA like at least it's like a little bit warmer ambient temperature and like your muscles aren't just inherently tight from the temperature

I very much think that the coldness, the IT band, because I actually haven't had the problem with the IT band thing in a long time. Yeah. Yeah, it was, I, people, some people were, like, congratulating me for, for, like, knowing when to quit. I, like, there was no, the choice was no longer mine. I, I would have gone on if I could, but it was, it was too much. And, man, to make that call to finally quit it, it's just,

I just flashed back through, like, five years ago, sitting with my dad watching the Iron Man stream and being like, I want to do this one day and building this up in my head for so long and thinking about the podcast listeners and my friends and just like knowing like I didn't make it. It was it was hard. But in the moment to be honest, it was like the choice was no longer mine. I got to the end. Yeah, I got to the end. And I was getting, I was getting like so cold that I couldn't, I was getting quite dizzy and couldn't think very clearly. I wasn't getting to the point where I was like warm yet, like the hypothermia warm. I still felt very cold, but I just knew that there was no, I could maybe go on

20 minutes before I'd have to be medically taken care of, and I wasn't going to make it four hours. Even though that was still within the time cut off, I wasn't going to make it. It was, everything was going to get worse. So, pulled over, and there was an Iron Man van. It was like, hey, are you done? And I couldn't say yes to them at first. I was like, no, I don't think so, but they stayed right there with me. And then, like, I just just like, yeah, I can. I got into their warm van, and I started violently shaking again. But they were, they were sketched out and worried about me.

But I knew I was like, I'll be fine now. And then I got to my parents. And my parents were so nice and so supportive the whole weekend. But, like, it was great to have them there. But got home and, you know, I was disappointed, but nothing was like waking up the next morning to just like this harsh reality of like, Oh my God, I didn't make it. All that, and you still didn't quite.

Yeah. I have so much respect for everybody who started that race and so much respect for everybody who finished that race. It was brutal. The next day I went to the award ceremony just to be like, you know what, I didn't make it, but I've got to pay respects to the people that did. I went there, and Mike Riley was, of course, talking.

And there was a guy there who has done every year of that race. 20 years. Wow. And he asked him, he's like, was that the worst conditions you've ever done in this race? And the guy's like, by far! And everyone had a good laugh. No way. I'm coming to terms with it.

It's not that negative of a thing in my mind anymore. It was a few days ago now. I mean, you still, you got, I feel like you got the whole, almost the whole experience. You got to go out there and like find the limit and push yourself and like really, you can feel really good about how far you did push yourself and focus on that versus is like the point where you ultimately body. Yeah. It was an issue.

It's funny because in the moment I thought about that. I thought about, oh, people say like you find this, you know, you push yourself beyond. And I don't know if that was so good for me. I think I might have done some like psychological damage on the bike for myself as far as wanting to do anything like this again. But now, literally the next morning I was on the website. I'm like, huh, Iron Man Waco is only a month from now. I guess I could do that. It's like, God, what is wrong with me?

Like, why would I ever? Anyway. Well, I mean, like, trying and failing is, like, makes you want to succeed at something that much more, no matter how terrible it was. And, like, it only gets less terrible every day that goes by. Oh, yeah. And your memory of it is just going to fade slowly. Especially, this is how my memory works. Like, I am so much, I only remember the positive things, you know.

It was your greatest gift, dude. Yeah, oh, for sure, for sure. So, anyway, Mike Riley is, like, he's telling the story that some parents went up to him at the finish. Like, do you know where our son is? And he's like, yeah, I'll call his name when he crosses. And they're like, we walked here 15 minutes in the rain. It's like, oh, my God, lady. Yeah, we know.

We've all been in the rain for 14 hours, okay? You can wait for your son to cross the line whenever he crosses. Also, as if Mike Riley knows, like, where every single athlete is on course at any given time. No, they just found a guy who listened to them for a second. Exactly. But yeah, so the experience was, it was extremely hard. I have a lot of respect for everyone who's listening who's ever done an Iron Man. That is no joke.

It is a seriously, seriously difficult endeavor, not just the race day, but the training and the sacrifice every weekend, the things that we didn't do. It's really amazing. And also, I wanted to say that earlier in the week, I got a fortune cookie. And I didn't understand what it meant at the time, but it says, I'm reading it right now,

you will help someone in need this week. So even though I didn't get the Iron Man finish I wanted, I thought about the podcast a lot during the race. And I thought, like, how can I make this something that's going to help people or maybe give some kind of comfort to people who have had a similar experience to me, who gave it everything and it wasn't enough.

So hopefully there was something, there. That was way longer than I thought I would go, sorry. But I feel like I needed to get it off my chest too of how that miserable experience went. And I feel pretty okay about it now. The next day I also was hanging out with Jordan Bryden and

Brent McMahon who won the pro field. And just chatting with them about it and like, you know, they went through some really hard times in that race too. It was hard for everybody. And Ben Hoffman pulled out and Nick Chase pulled out. It was kind of nice to know that everyone had a really, really hard day.

out there. But there's no way around it. I mean, as we saw the conditions starting, I was trying to decide if I would have even started. Right. You know,

like from a professional standpoint with like points and everything. And you're kind of going, oh man. I mean, it's just like, like I said, that's not what you signed up for. Like you signed up.

Like you're thinking, okay, there's this like range and maybe I'll be a little chilly and stuff. We're just like, this, completing an Iron Man, as hard enough as it is

when it's like a nice day outside. Yeah. Yeah. And the sad thing is if I didn't have the IT band thing, I would 100% made it to that finish, you know? There's so many little things that if I could go back now, I would change. But given the information I had,

it's not like, I don't think I made a wrong choice with what the information I had was. I was honestly always doing everything to give myself my best possible chances. That's all you can do, man. I mean, if somebody told you to like, hey, go walk around in circles in a parking lot for 14 hours in those weather conditions, dude i mean good luck no one was no one no no so i i guess i want to officially say that i i will try

another one again i think if i if i can um but i need some time mentally just to like not be thinking about that right now i think because it was so hard for sure for sure no this is this is too early you know give it a few days yeah let it all the different ways to process it run run three your brain. I love Madison though. Madison is beautiful and I highly recommend this race, even with all the climbing on the bike. It's really a really a beautiful course. Yeah, everybody, go do this race. 40 minutes of Nick's horror stories. Go do this. You know, I was thinking, I was like, man, at least if you'd done Alaska, you would have been like in Alaska while you were experiencing those conditions. Oh, man, it's like the bait

and switch where you thought it was going to be like kind of potentially warm and humid. Yeah, totally. Yeah, I'm just used to, this is the downside of living in Santa Monica. The upside is I get to train all year, no problems. The downside is I'm not used to any bad weather conditions, so it hit me so hard. You're the softest. Yeah, I have the softest with that. Anything above 73 or below 70, I can't, I can't handle it. Well, I'm just going to assume that we don't really have any time for any questions. Yeah, that was, that was, I don't look the timer. But hopefully people can, like, as they're on their trainer or whoever listening to this,

just whatever you're doing right now, just be happy that you weren't in Iron Man, Wisconsin. It's you're doing a thing that's fun and you have control over. Yeah. No, I mean, I didn't talk that much during your thing, but that's just because I was pretty riveted. So I think it was a great story, man. And I don't know, it just adds to the mystique of the whole thing. It's amazing. The more, the more that you hear something is challenging really hard and not just anybody can

do it, the more I think, at least I want to do it, you know? Yeah. Like, oh, anybody could do it. It's like, okay, well, then I'm not that intrigued. Yeah, I'm really proud of anyone who's ever finished one. And if you want to do one, you should be extremely proud of yourself just to making it to that finish line.

It is a true feat. Yeah. Next week we'll have Paula's racing PTO Dallas this weekend. Is it Saturday or Sunday for the women? It's Saturday for the women and Sunday for the men. Got it. So definitely follow along for both, but we're very excited to see how Paula does. Eric, you're going to be there as

well, right? I'm going to be there yet we fly out tomorrow. I'm going along just to make sure that everything goes as smoothly as humanly possible. It's freakishly hot there. And Paula does well in the heat. And I do not, so I'm not racing. But still, even if you do well in the heat, it's something you have to take seriously. And I just want to be there, like, if there's anything that I can do to help and just like make it a smoother experience overall. So at least it's not stressful leading into it. Yeah. That's great. That's great. Yeah, and I'll be like trying to take a bunch of pictures and do videos and have some fun stuff with TTL as well. That's great.

Follow along on Instagram and maybe I'll get out a midweek video or something if I'm feeling extra ambitious. Yeah, that's good. I love that. And let me know if you want some help with that because I can maybe we can tag team it or something. That would be, yeah, that would be fantastic. We'll see if we can figure that out. So yeah, next week we'll talk about Paul's race and we'll get back to questions. So I hope that no one sat through that my race recap and was just like, oh, please, dude, come

it's fine. But hopefully we balanced it out with your amazing day, Eric, at Santa Cruz. And it's like one of the only things that brought me joy, along with the amazing, amazing support from the spectators. And everyone in TTLNH that said hi

before, during, and after the race, it was like, what an amazing, amazing feeling it was to be part of this community that you guys have built. It's amazing. Yeah. Yeah, I sincerely wish, and in the future,

want to go to some events that we're not racing at. because it is so overwhelming to try and talk to every person who comes and says, says hi, and wants a picture or just to tell a story about their triathlon journey or whatever. Like, I love doing that. And I know you love doing that so much, Nick. And it's just, I wish we, I feel like we should go to a race someday where we, like, just have a booth and we can go 100% in on that and then, you know, just be exhausted for a week afterwards.

Yeah, totally. Totally. Oh, it was such a highlight for me to talk to everyone. really, I really loved it. This is such an amazing sport that we all do. We're all crazy for doing it, but it really is amazing. And even though it's not a team sport, TTR somehow makes it feel like it is a team sport. Like we're all doing it together. For sure, man. That's, I mean, that's what we, that's why we started and that's what we were hoping for. So, dream come true. Well, guys, we'll see you next week. Sorry for our longest podcast ever and we didn't even answer a single question.

Well, maybe, maybe some people were wondering, how did Eric and Nick's race go? So there's one question That's right. That's right. That's right. All right. Well, we'll see you all next week. Yeah, see you next week, guys.