06/19/2026
1.2 mile lake swim
56 mile bike (3200 ft. elevation gain)
Half marathon (1000 ft. elevation gain)
8 hrs 25 mins to complete
This has been years in the making. And 10 months of dedicated training. Two-a-day workouts, 6 days a week. Time studying course maps, elevation maps, headwind trends, training on hills and more hills. Getting my stomach used to eating 90g of carbs/30 minutes while moving. Weight lifting to get stronger. Injuries, illnesses, recovery days. I couldn’t have done it without the incredible support and patience from my family, their encouragement, and the days when they said, “Go get your second run in” even if it was 10:00 at night. And I’m so grateful for my coach Mark Sortino and MPI Training. He is a wealth of knowledge and supported me throughout the entire process.
I’ve had many hours to think about how I would describe this moment. But someone else (not sure who wrote this!), took the words right out of my mouth. So here it is…
There are four words an athlete will train for years just to hear. But the truth is the race is only 1%. One day, one number on a clock, one line to cross. The other 99% happened long before anyone’s watching. It’s the 5 AM alarms, it’s runs in the dark, wet, and cold. It’s the long rides where your mind goes quiet and loud and quiet again. It’s the runs you grind out on tired legs that already gave everything the day before. The swims where you stare at the black line, lose count and start over. Months of this. For some of you, years. The sessions nobody sees, the recovery required. Nobody posts the discipline that looks boring from the outside, because it is. The 99% doesn’t just build fitness but a different person, more patient, more honest with themselves, than they were the day they signed up. Then race day comes, 1.2 miles in the water, 56 miles on the bike, a half marathon to finish it off. And somewhere in that final stretch when your body has nothing left, and you are running on something deeper than fitness, you turn into the chute. Lights, noise, and you hear it. You Are An IRONMAN. Four words. Those words aren’t about what you did that day but about who you became in the years it
