When I planned this 5K race, I didn’t know about the Tough Mudder Infinity that I’d have to do the day before. But I managed to get a minimum of 15.6 (but really probably 16.1) miles before heading out that morning.
Even after two epsom salt baths the night before, my left knee was still tight. But I was able to get it almost completely stretched out before the race started.
Going into the race, my plan was more of a walk/run. Especially after 8+ hours on course the prior day, I didn’t think I’d have much of anything in the tank. But I was wrong…
After we started, my focus was to run until my legs became tight and then go into walk/run mode for the rest. But that never happened. While it wasn’t break-neck speed, it WAS the first 5K that I’ve been able to complete without having to stop.
I did pass up the aide station as I was concerned about a repeat from Houston 2023. And where I was at with consisentcy, I didn’t want to have the last mile be a ragged run. We were able to finish right before the kids’ race began.
Thanks to John for all his help and guiding for me!
For those of you who haven’t read Eyes of the Dragon, the context is one of the later characters and one of the main characters racing back on a sled dog team. That quote is what’s said to the lead dog — it’ll make sense shortly…
After the painful crab walk in Chicago, I started trying to figure out World’s Toughest Mudder (WTM). This included going down the rabbit hole of all the details around the race. One of which showed that I needed to also do an Infinity (8 hour) race before WTM.
So in very short form, I started trying to find guides and how to get between Pittsburgh and Cooper’s Lake. As painful as the Chicago crab walk had been, it did have a silver lining (as I had mentioned in the last blog). Several people from Chicago who were in the Pittsburgh area saw me struggling through it, unwilling to quit. So when I asked for guides and help, many were willing to do so. Also, a friend of a friend (Jenny) volunteered to be a Sherpa.
Going into the race, I was under the impression that I only had to do two loops to obtain the minimum 13 miles. Even though it’s listed as 15K and 5K, the 5K loop has been 3.5 miles of prior races. So I didn’t see too much problem for them to add .1 for the 15K loop. However, pre-race, we were told that it was strick Kilometer to Miles conversion, so you really needed 2 5K loops after the initial 15K loop for it to count.
Also prior to the race, several of those helping me (both of the official guides and one of the support crew) said they were planning to race in costume the following day. This led to one of them (Ben) deciding to do the Infinity race in costume, to which I said ‘come dressed as a guide dog’. While he didn’t have that costume, at least both Brittany and Rob were (ears, tail, etc.)
** LOOP 1 – 15K **
After Sean’s normal pump-up (video is on IG at @nocrappyexcuses), we were off. Before arriving at the first obstacle, we had to go through creeks and ravines.
When we arrived at Kiss of Mud, Rob and Brittany helped with the positioning so I could get under the barbed wire fence. They and at least one of the support crew from the side helped with positioning so that I wouldn’t have the fence. While this crawl was far more mud that Chicago 2024, it was still far less rocky than Chicago 2023 had been.
After more running through creeks and ravines, we next arrived at Skidmarked. While I didn’t realize it from the pre-race descriptions, this was the obstacle I ran into significant issues with at Chicago 2023. That was because I messed up with the leg positioning at the top (as I did with Pyramid Scheme at Chicago 2024). This time, I had a harness and rope along with the knowledge of what I needed to do to not screw it up from the top. Even with all of that, I still almost screwed it up — but made it work.
Next up was the first Devil’s Beard of the course. Having the group with helped to make it through the obstacle.
Next up was an obstacle that I intended to bypass for safety reasons and complete “alternate” penalty for. I had fallen twice at Chicago 2023, so I didn’t want to chance falling again. But Ryan helped to “persuade” me into at least trying it. And while it wasn’t great or pretty, we did make it over with the harness and rope.
Next up was the Block Ness Monster, which is a fun water obstacle. It’s also a great opportunity to get some of the mud off. With the help of others, we were able to get the blocks turning and over both.
After Block Ness was a Mud Mile that was more challenging than RTM Chicago had been. This was because the pits seemed deeper and the water level was lower. Also, unlike RTM Chicago, there weren’t ropes within the pits to help you climb out. It took all of the group and others to help get through the obstacle.
After Mud Mile, the course split and we headed towards the woods. But before getting there, we encountered Laying Pipe. This was a holding and swinging obstacle. While I tried a couple of times, I just couldn’t get it to work, so I had to give up a penalty bracelet.
For safety reasons, my guides were told race morning for us to skip the next obstacle (Texas Hold Em). So we headed into the woods and “concrete mud”.
What I mean by that is the path through the woods was a 4×4 trail, which had ruts to begin with. It had been raining overnight, so it was a solid, muddy mess for about 4.5 – 5 miles, with obstacles put in. There were a couple of points where it tried to suck my shoes off. There was also one point where we needed the rope to get over a slippery mud slope/hill.
In the middle of the concrete mud, the first obstacle we encountered was Cry Baby. This was a 20 ft crawl through a pipe filled with methan gas. While that would have been challenging enough, the ground which you had to crawl over was littered with sharp rocks. Honestly, the crawl was several times worse than the actual gas.
The next obstacle we encountered in the mud was Hero Carry. As this was not possible due to my / size, we had to go with the “alternate” option.
Next up was Pitfall, which was a watery pit that then had holes within it. Prior to the race, we had decided that one of the guides would go in front to find the holes and be able to guide me through them. That worked out fairly well…
The next obstacle was Just the Tips. As with Laying Pipe, this one was a no-go, and cost another penalty bracelet.
The next obstacle up was Electric Eel. At RTM Chicago, I had gotten shocked a couple of times when I had more flexibility in my lower body. With how the legs were at that point, I believed I could get shocked several more times (far more painful in water), so I opted to give up the penalty breacelet.
The next obstacle was Hangin’ Tough, another upper body/swinging obstacle. After the experience on Laying Pipe, I had to give up the peanlty bracelet.
The next obstacle was Ladder to Hell, a climbing obstacle. With the guidance of the guides, I was able to find a safe path over and up and we continued on.
The next obstacle up was Funky Monkey. This is one which I will always have to skip for safety reasons. While I know I’ll get better with the stable swings (pipes / rings / bars) over time, trying to judge a rotating set of bars with the vision I have is a no-go. I did give up the penalty bracelet here.
As we finally came out of the mud somewhere between 8.5 and 9, Brittany saw Lumberjacked and the grassy area around it. Jenny was also in that area. While I don’t remember if it was before or after Lumberjacked, she told us that the plane had been delayed by 55 minutes at that point. In 40 years of flying, that has been the one and only time that I’ve ever been excited to hear about a delay! It also gave us a little breathing room to get the third loop in.
Out of the 4×4 tracks, the first obstacle was Lumberjacked — essentially two 8-10 foot sawhorses. The guides and others on course helped me to get up and other both of them.
Next up was Everest, which I have continually had issues with. This was the obstacle in Chicago that led to the crab walk. I did have to give up a penalty bracelet here.
Up next was Arctic Enema into a second Devil’s Beard. Going into the race, I had put on a set of Under Armour because it was colder in the morning. Having that paid off extremely well during the rounds of Arctic Enema — especially as they kept adding ice into it. Once through and up, we completed a second Devil’s Beard like the first.
The last obstacle was Electroshock Therapy, and I gave up a penalty bracelet.
After getting through the penalties and getting some fuel in, we headed out for the 5K loops.
** Loops 2 and 3 – 5K **
Loops 2 and 3 are very similar to loop 1. The obstacle list went from Mud Mile into Lumberjacked for the 5K (skipping everything mentioned between).
I did have to go with the “alternate” penalties and giving up penalty bracelets more on these 5K laps. The most notable thing from these laps was Mudderhorn on the first 5K lap.
When we arrived at it, my left leg was having problems getting “lift”. But I still went up onto the slick wall and into the cargo net. When I got onto the net, I started having trouble going up. I was concerned that I would fall, so I started trying to come down. But with the slide wall, there wasn’t any real way to get down. So for about 5-10 minutes, I played pickle on the obstacle — stuck between wanting to go down and up. I did finally find a walk to work through the pain, and with help from the guides, made it over. But it was a struggle.
Also, when we made it to the split and went into those woods, I was told a 3 mile sign was at the apex of the 180. However, it was far more than .1 mile (528 feet) between that sign and the finish.
As we were doing the 5K loops, Jenny helped tremendously by keeping track of the time for us. This helped with knowing where and when to really push. WIth the penalties after the 3rd loop, we still finished with twenty minutes to spare.
As I was changing, all of the emotions hit me. It was nice to have that semi-privacy to let go of everything that I’d had pent up over the last two laps. I was so tense about trying to get through those 2 5K laps and obstacles in roughly 3h 20m.
Thank you to Rob, Brittany, Ryan, Ben, Steven, and so many others on course for their help. Thank you to Dan, Scott, Ben (Spartan), and Joan for their help behind the scenes. And thank you to Jenny and Dan for their hospitality and to Jenny for being a super Sherpa. 🙂
With both the Infinity and Toughest checked off, the final step to obtain a Holy Grail is WTM.
“[…] I’m a stronger man by far. There is power in me yet. […]” – Les Miserables
Last year’s Chicago race was simply about finishing. I struggled throughout it, including falling off of Berlin Walls and almost falling off of Murderhorn. It was also a very slow slog overall — I think somewhere in the 3 – 3.5 hour range for 3.5 miles plus obstacles.
Between that race and this year, I had had the opportunity to be in Vermont. As I mentioned in that blog, I came away stronger in several ways. Also, implementing the incremental changes that Don talked about helped tremendously.
Even so, I was nervous going into the race. Simply because the race was going to be in the dark for the first ten hours. But I knew I would be safe — I had two strong guides in Scott and Anna. Also, Scott B. (Producer) had provided information pre-race that helped to quiet a few of those concerns.
Prior to the race, I had purchased a harness, rope, and carabiner to try and help with the climbing obstacles (specifically Everest and Mudderhorn, but others as well). While the rope was the proper strength, it wasn’t thick enough. While Scott B. was able to help find rope, we weren’t able to find anyone to help tie proper knots mid-race, so we were without the harness for the race.
After setting up our Pit area (well, really just dropping things), we gathered with everyone for the mass start.
For this race, almost all of the obstacles were closed for the first lap. They opened on a rolling schedule, so if you ran fast enough, you could get two loops in before the early obstacles (i.e. LumberJacked / Sack Up) opened, and a third with minimal obstacles before the late course ones (i.e. Everest and Electric Eel) opened. Since you received a “skip” bracelet for each loop starting at #3 (approximately 15 miles), you could time skipping your most challenging obstacle if you were fast.
This was not the case for me. While I was able to get a decent first lap (Mudderhorn was the only true course obstacle I had to do), the second one was a challenge. I believe that if I had had the harness, I might have gotten a third and fourth loop in. But that was not to be…
On the second loop, the first obstacle we encountered was Lumberjacked. These are wooden hurdles (maybe 8 – 10 feet high). Scott and Anna helped with a boost up onto each, and I was able to get up/over both.
After a brief run, we made it to Sack Up. This was a relatively easy obstacle for me. The biggest challenge was getting through the path when I couldn’t see it. But Scott and Anna helped with that aspect.
Next up was the Mud Mile. This year, there seemed to be more pits and several of them seemed deeper. Both Scott and Anna helped to ensure that I could safely get into and out of them. Getting out involved using one of them for a boost, the installed ropes, and the pre-made hand/knee holes outside the rim of the pits. Even still, I did fall back down into one of the pits because of the slippery mud around the edges. But we did make it through safely.
After this, we made it down to the creek (with me going down between the guides) and across. The creek crossing is always a great opportunity to get mud from Mud Mile off. You’ll end up with plenty more before crossing back, it’s just about getting the first layer off…
Next up with Kiss of Mud, which was a bit better than last year. I expected another gravely mess (which tore up my knees last year). This time, it was more sand than anything else. Both Scott and Anna helped to ensure that I kept myself low enough to avoid hitting the barbed wire.
After that, we headed to Block Ness Monster. We did have to wait a few minutes until others showed up to help rotate the blocks. But once we had enough people, it went fairly smoothly.
The obstacle after that was Well Swung. For safety reasons, I skipped the actual obstacle and went to the penalty.
Once the penalty was complete, we headed to Just the Tips. While I tried this one (hanging and moving laterally) obstacle several times, I couldn’t get past getting off the platform. I think I would have had more success with the harness. But since I couldn’t complete it, I had to do the penalty.
Next up was Funky Monkey, which I again had to skip for safety reasons. Once we made it through the water base, I completed the penalty.
Next up was Cage Crawl, which is a water based obstacle where you’re crawling under a cage. Both Anna and Scott helped me throughout this, expecially as I got caught a couple times.
Next up was Berlin Walls, which was “skipped” for safety reasons. I did complete an alternate obstacle instead.
After that was Pyramid Scheme, a climbing obstacle. While I made it up the face of it just fine (using a rope that was on the obstacle), I had issues at the top. Like last year’s “inverted log” climbing obstacle, I had my legs in the wrong position when I made it to the top. This meant that I couldn’t easily turn around to climb down the A frame. Scott and Anna tried to help coach me through it, and a couple of other competitors tried to help. But I just couldn’t safely reposition myself. So I ended up having to come down and complete the penalty.
After making it back across the creek and up the cargo net, we headed to Ladder to Hell. While I was able to get up the first two steps, I just didn’t feel safe without the harness. So we had to move on.
When we made it to Everest, we were about 4 hours in the loop. That wasn’t bad given I couldn’t run as much in the dark/mud the second loop and I’d had to do several penalties. And then it all fell apart…
While I have intentionally excluded what the penalties were for prior obstacles, I will talk about the one for Everest. This is because others have already publicly commented on it and seen me doing it.
When we got to Everest, there was a rope, and I was able to get about halfway up. But without the harness, I just didn’t feel safe enough to make that stretch/grab between the sets of knots, so I headed to the penalty (crab walk). It was a 200 yard penalty, which in the dark took me almost two hours. I’ll admit that crab walk has never been my strength. I’m sure that I also lost time/distance by unintentionally going at angles since I couldn’t see anything. Scott and Anna helped throughout that ordeal, and helped to reposition me and ensure I wasn’t hitting posts. There were a couple of points in the first 100 yards that it almost broke me. But I was able to draw strength from what I had been able to work through in Vermont.
After almost two hours of a very choppy, very tiring crab walk, my legs were spent and I was exhausted. So I limped over to the next obstacle.
Arctic Enema was up next, and it actually felt really, really good. If there hadn’t been a sizable crowd at the obstacle, I would have tried to stay in for a little longer to get more feeling back in my legs. Scott and Anna helped me to get under the barricades, and we made it out.
As we went from Arctic Enema to Mudderhorn, I remember saying to Scott that I didn’t know how I was going to do it. My legs were so spent that I was afraid of falling off. As this was a mandatory completion obstacle, Scott/Anna were able to find others to help. It was a very slow trip up and over, but we made it through safely.
As we were standing before Electric Eel, I had a discussion with my guides similar to the one I had with Scott last year. While it was Electroshock Therapy instead of Electric Eel last year, the conversation was still about which would hurt the least.
While the penalty option would have been the best, I wasn’t confident that my legs would hold out for it. Also knowing that there was water knocked out the running through it option. So I went with the crawling option, with a volunteer helping to be our eyes from above. Even with all that help, I did get hit by the wires a couple times. And yes, they hurt a whole hell of a lot worse in the water…
After completing this lap we were done. The crab walk had killed my legs, and the opportunity to try another loop. At that point, it was 4:30 AM and the race ended at 8:00. In a best case scenario, it would have been 5-5:30 before I would have been “ready”. But my legs would not have supported a third lap, and there wasn’t time to get through it in a best case scenario. Crab walk had killed things. So we spent the time trying to walk out the cramps in the Pit and meeting people.
While it was a challenge and painful at times, it was also a lot of fun. Thanks to Scott B. for all of his help, Scott and Anna for their help and guiding me, and all of the others on course who assisted (especially during Murderhorn and Electric Eel on the second loop).
And there was a silver lining to the painful crab walk. More on that in the next blog…
This race had been on my list for a solid year. I tried to make it work in 2023, but the timing just didn’t work out. I also tried to make one of their July 2024 races work, but the logistics just didn’t.
Prior to going into the race, the RD (Marc) had worked with us so that this race could potentially count as a Nationals Qualifying race. I really appreciated him / them (FSService) doing that. It did mean that like Glenview, we would be the last ones into the pool.
Once we were in the pool, it seemed to be a solid swim. I believe we were out about ninety seconds behind where I wanted to be. But I was OK with that since I couldn’t see anything in the dark pool area.
After making it through a little bit of a gauntlet to get to transition, I had a very solid and extremely fast T1. I believe it’s the fastest I’ve ever gotten through T1.
On the bike, we had lots and lots of hills to deal with. I would guess that they were 6-7% grade. Not as bad as they were in Knoxville, and even on the worst of them (those with false flats), I still managed to make it up.
Even though it’s been more than two years since the crash in Texas, I am still working through comfort issues on ths bike. This reared its head as we were going 30+ downhill. Having Paul as the pilot and guide at that point helped tremendously. Not only did I know that he’d keep us safe in that moment. But I also knew from experience that we had done 22 into and through curves (prior to the TX crash) without any issues. Therefore, instead of panicking, I was able to just curse out my anxiety…
After a normal T2, we headed out on the run. The run course was most of the first mile of the bike course. This meant that all of those fun hills we had done on the bike came back again on the run… Even still, I was able to put together a fairly solid walk/run through it and finished strong.
Thank you to Marc, Rob, and the rest of the FSService staff. I cannot wait to do my next race with them. Check out their race calendar at fsseries.com. Thank you to Paul for all his help and guiding!
Since my initial race at Naperville, I have constantly tried to figure out the best way to handle the swim. If I go in too early (clean water ahead), then I get swum over by the Elites. If I go in at the end (clear water behind), I end up having people climb over us as we pass slower swimmers and catch people at the last turn or two. Maybe someday I can crack the code on this…
After arriving and finding a very “quiet” and “subdued” Chris (that man needs a megaphone for 2025… :P), we headed in to set up the transition. Because of how things ended up with setup, we were racked in with the kids section (but still in the same general area as usual).
As mentioned at the beginning, we had the “people climbing over us” issue in the last couple of turns. Even still, it felt like a solid swim until that point.
After coming out of the water, we then made the long trek to where the bike was racked. Things were going well in T1 until I couldn’t find my second bike glove. After a mildly frantic search as the clock ran, I found it in the last place I expected. I didn’t notice it was still in my helmet when I put it on…
After that was sorted out, we went out and had a fairly solid bike. We did have a minor crash on the first U-turn, which led to us dismounting and manually turning the bike around during the second loop.
After a normal T2, we headed out on the run with a plan for the hills (especially the one up into the bridge). While it became a run/walk at times because of both the hills and heat, the run was OK.
Even though there were a few hiccups, the finish time was where it should have been. Subtracting the time lost in T1 looking for the glove and for the crash would put me at about where 2023’s race was.
Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped to make this a great race! Thank you to Joe, Dave, Bill, and everyone at 10X for all their help. And thank you to Scott for all his help and guiding.
Earlier this year, I had two key races on my schedule for July. However, one was postponed until 2025 and the other sold out before I could get a team together. As I was looking for other options, I came across this race in Glenview. Not only did it look like a great race, but it would also serve as a good “warm up” for Naperville the following weekend.
To make things work most smoothly for the pool swim, we were the last ones in. As we were waiting, the rain came — mostly a drizzle, but a constant drizzle that would make the bike more interesting.
After a solid swim, we headed to T1. Because of the rain and wet feet in general, T1 took a lot longer than normal. And T1 wasn’t the only place where weather came into effect.
I have been using double sided clips for about seven years. In all that time, I have never had so much trouble getting cleat in and getting them to stay in. I believe the issue was partly the clips being wet and partially the cleats being wet.
After several attempts, I was finally able to get them in, and we were off. Because of the wet streets, we kept it at a much slower pace. There was also one part of the open course where a motorist almost caused a real issue for us because of how they were driving. Scott was able to keep us safe throughout both the inclement weather and the traffic.
As we made it back to T2, the weather had changed. So for the run, we had a lot of humidity instead of rain. So after a reasonably normal T2, we headed out into the heat.
Before heading out, I had been told that there were only two hills. While that statement was accurate, they did not count the inclines. So there was a lot of up and down — both on the actual hills and on the incline. What helped tremendously during the run were the ice station and full water bottles (instead of just cups).
While it was a challenging race, it was also a very FUN race. I was surprised to see how well supported it was by their sponsors. Usually, you’ll have a few giveaways post-race. Their raffles kept going, and going….
Thank you to Kathleen and the rest of the staff for their help. Thank you to Scott for all his help and guiding!
THANK YOU to Catapult for their continued support of my athletic endeavors! Their grant will enable me to continue working with swim coaches and improving there!
If you would like to support their missions — and ultimately help other athletes like me — please donate through teamcatapult.org!
“But I’m not gonna break and I’m not going to worry about it anymore.” – Counting Crows
If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you’re familiar with my MO by now. If you’re new, I’ll summarize it — if it looks or sounds like it could be fun, I’ll try it even if I’ve never done it before. That willingness to try new things has allowed me to participate in so many amazing opportunities.
In that vein, when I received the invitation from Joe De Sena to come to his farm, I immediately said yes. This was without knowing what to expect — and as we all found out in June, none of us would.
Between accepting the invitation and arriving in Vermont, I did the prep work that I could. I’ll admit that it was a little bit nerve wracking to not have any idea of what to expect. Sure, we had minor frameworks (like ‘practice carries and planks’), but nothing definitive. The only other two pieces of concrete information we received were a gear list and shuttle/meet up info.
I think the best way to summarize the weekend Farm Experience is “Death Race 101” (which I heard it referred to several times). The Hurricane Heat (24 hour), the Death Race (ended up being 46 hour), and the Mount Sparta Challenge (24 hours up and down the mountain) were all going on throughout the weekend. We ended up getting mixed in with all of these events and having an opportunity to experience parts of them.
I’m not going to go into the weekend in a lot of detail for a few reasons. The main one is to respect the hard work that is done by so many. Even though I’m sure that every Death Race is different (and thus any surrounding Farm Experience would be), I don’t want to ruin the specialness of it. What I will share is a brief overview of my time.
During the experience, I learned a lot about myself and being able to push my own boundaries. As I’ve talked about in the past, continually finding the ability to be “comfortably uncomfortable” throughout the different experiences. I also had a personal experience that in the past would have mentally broken me. But in this case, once I had some time to regroup, my answer to Carlos’s question of “how are you doing?” wasn’t “Ok” or “I’m better”; it was “Let’s get up the fucking mountain.” (as the group was getting ready to go up).
Because it had started raining Saturday morning (and then kept raining), Mount Sparta became a slippery mess before day’s end. As a result, I did respect and accept the safety limitations about not going up to the top and Shrek’s. I hope there will be other, safer opportunities to do so… Maybe Mother Nature will cooperate during my next visit to the Farm.
Even though I was unable to make it to the top, I was still there in spirit. The sunrise video where the group included me is one of my favorites from the experience. 🙂
While there were challenges for me throughout the experience, there were also a lot of successes. And I believe the latter far outnumbered the former. I am extremely glad that I accepted the invitation, and even more glad that I didn’t let some of the challenges “break” me. I also came away with a list of things to improve upon for the next time I get an opportunity to visit the Fram (like my Rubic’s Cubs skills…)
I am extremely grateful to Joe for the invitation and opportunity, and to Don, Carlos, and everyone else within Spartan who made the Farm Experience possible!
As I have mentioned several times in the past, what was supposed to have been a “one and done” Triathlon in August 2015 grew into years of racing because of Dare2Tri. Without that meeting at the Shamrock Shuffle and Keri’s generous offer to attend their camp, I might not have had the opportunities to train and race throughout the country over the last 9 years!
In that first camp, I showed up with very little; this year, I showed up with a lot of gear and bruises sustained from falling onto train tracks. At this time, that’s all I can or will say about that part.
Like last year, Andrew was my guide. He knew about the injuries going into camp, which helped him to help me throughout it.
Day 1 started with a triple brick (simulated swim in -> T1 -> 3 mi bike -> T2 -> 3/4 mile run x3). After Andrew had everything put together with the bike, I got on to try the fit. When I played around with the starting clipped in left foot first, it felt OK. However, with my normal starts (right foot in), I couldn’t get up onto the seat because of the ribs. Andrew made some adjustments, and we focused on different mounts and starts/stops until I was comfortable with the adaptations. Once that was done, we did 2 shortened bricks before packing up.
During the afternoon, we were in the lake instead of inside in one of the pools as usual. I liked that change, and it was nice to have the extra space. During the swim, I had to stop several times to catch my breath — the ribs were an issue at times.
Day 2 started in the lake again. Prior to getting in, Andrew helped to partially rebuild the swim tether, as we had been bumping into each other a lot the prior day. The swim on day 2 went a lot better, and I believe I only had to stop twice due to my ribs.
Prior to doing a course preview, we had to have our goggles and tethers reviewed by officials (Leigh Turner checked ours).
The second half of Day 2 included bike skills led by Aaron, breathwork, and an ice bath. We came back from the bike skills a little early because my ribs started really hurting.
The evening ended with the traditional fire pit and s’mores. Shortly after things broke up, the non-traditional tornado alarms started going off. While the storms passed, it was still an eventful 40+ minutes. In that time, I found out about YouTube tornado live-streaming, which I had never heard of. Very interesting to hear it, and very informative.
On race morning, we arrived by 5 AM and started race setup. By 6:15 AM, we were all ready to race and headed down towards the water. Because there was an in-water start with holding times after you went over the mats, I believe that the swim times were off.
We started after all of the Championship waves as a group of twenty (ATD1). Without meaning or intending to, I went out way too fast. When I surfaced the first time because of my ribs, Andrew told me that I was swimming 2:00/100s. That was about 30 seconds faster than intended — and I paid for it throughout the rest of the swim. Between the ribs hurting and not being able to get / keep enough breath, my swim from 200 to 750 meters was the equivalent of a “run / walk” in the water.
T1 went a lot more slowly than normal. As I had mentioned earlier, not being able to get full strength from my upper right side caused issues. So it took longer to get the wetsuit off and the bike gear on (by about 2 minutes).
We got out on the bike and had a successful 14.3 mile ride. We did have to stop and dismount because of how narrow the u-turn was. We only lost about ten seconds from it though. On the way back, I tried to tuck in, but could only get about 75 percent of the way to Andrew’s back because of the ribs.
T2 was a little more in line (although about 45 seconds longer) as normal than T1 had been.
We headed out onto the run, which became more of a walk/run because of both the calf and rib injuries. But Andrew helped me to find a way to power through the run through his continual encouragement. While I did speed up a little going into the chute, I couldn’t get the normal kick I have in the last 60 – 75 yards.
While it wasn’t the race I had planned, it was still a successful one. Because of Andrew’s help with the adaptations for the bike and encouragement throughout, I was able to finish. And I did podium (ATD1 VI Male – 2nd)!
Again, thank you to Andrew for all of his help throughout the weekend. And thank you to Dare2Tri for all of their support — not just at this camp, but since 2015!
Like last year’s blog, I want to mention that this post will be a bit different. For years, I’ve gone into a lot of detail on everything related to that post. For this particular one, there are large parts that I’m not going to focus on. For the simple reason that I believe going through every single detail spoils the special aspect of this experience.
Also, there are several public items that I will reference:
To get a good overview of what went on in more detail, please take a look at [1] and [3]. The two combined, along with the below should give you a really good idea of what you’re in for if you can make camp work in 2025!
As I’ve mentioned in the past (and shared during camp), I first found the Notre Dame Football Fantasy Camp (NFFC) in 2006. At that time, it was run by Global Football (Patrick Steenberge — who I learned during last year’s camp was a former ND player). At that time, it wasn’t feasible. 17 years later and multiple false starts, I was finally able to attend camp last year. During that 17 year interim, there were times that I feared my ‘borrowed time’ of vision would run out before I could attend at least once.
I was fortunate to have an opportunity to be back again this year for my Sophomore season. It was great to see so many familiar faces along with new ones. And yes, given my vision, I know how odd that sounds… 😀
One of the first familiar faces that I “saw” was Chris Zorich. I had enjoyed talking with him a lot last year, and he was one of the people who found me on the field after last year’s game. This year, he “bookended” things — in being one of the first people I saw at camp, and one of the last I saw before I came off the field this year. Always great to see him!
After talking with him, I went through the process of checking gear and doing the lifestyle photo shoot. I really like how they came out!
I know that when you hear someone say “I ran into [person] at the store”, you think , ‘hey, that’s great, you saw [person]’. But when I say I almost ran into Reggie Brooks in the locker room prior to the first practice, I mean that literally. 😀 Thankfully, my “seeing-eye Judge” helped to ensure that that didn’t happen. The photo with Reggie ended up getting shared by the Holtz’s Heroes Foundation after camp.
Day 2 also included a welcome by Coach Freeman and the coaches, along with meetings. It ended with an amazing talk by another ND alum (Bryant Young) after we had eaten dinner under the Dome.
Day 3 was our two-a-day practice day. Because of potential storms, both practices were at the IAC instead of just the afternoon one. After one of the practices, we had an opportunity to see what the new facilities will look like. Very, very, very impressive presentation by Ron Pawlus. It also included the blue-gold draft (I was on Gold again), meetings, and a visit to the Grotto.
Day 4 (game day) included our final practice / walk through, a meal at the training table, mass at the Basilica, and meetings with Coach Freeman prior to the game.
As mentioned in [1], there were a lot more people there this year. While the total count was 63 campers, I believe the player count was about 48. That’s in comparison to last year when there were about 30 players.
Last year, prior to the game, we had to do some quick work to get a proper pant/belt fit. This year, I had tried the pants on Day 1 and made an adjustment. So I thought I was fine for game day. However, there were issues with the flag belts not being long enough. So the solution of connecting two didn’t work properly for the first couple plays I was on the field. But I was able to sort it out relatively quickly.
The game was a defensive struggle this year, with both teams intercepting the opposing QBs. It also somehow featured a Mack truck on the field… Wait, my apologies; that was just Ron Jones.
With about a minute left, the Blue team was driving down for a score. After they didn’t convert on the 4th down, I was brought in for a final play, and scored an 80+ yard TD! I also won a MVP award later in the evening at the banquet!
As mentioned in [1], we gathered at Brothers. At some point in the evening, I was looking at my phone using VoiceOver. I have already let Andy know that his conspiracy theories in [2] will be properly addressed by my attorney, Miles T. Cat…. 😛 😀
I am extremely grateful to all of my ND brothers who helped me out throughout the week (especially Judge). I am also extremely grateful to Coach Freeman and the entire ND football program (including current players and alumni) for an amazing and special week.
Registration is open for 2025. Just remember, this one week in the sun makes up for months of having to eat raumen to make it work. I hope to have an opportunity to be back for my Junior season in 2025!
