For those of you who have been following the Blog for a while, you know that Pleasant Prairie is where it all began for me in 2015. It’s always great to go back there for camps and races — even when things don’t go to plan…
After getting transition set up, we headed to the water for the group Para start. Although the time doesn’t reflect it, it was the best swim I’ve had at Pleasant Prairie. I will continue to work on figuring out how to resolve those issues.
After a normal T1, we headed out on the bike for what should have been a solid ride. However, less than a quarter mile in, something happened with the chain. So instead of having the normal 30 gears, we had 3 (from what Scott told me later). This made the bike an extremely challenging and draining one.
After a longer than usual bike, and a relatively normal T2, we headed out on the run. It was at this point the extra effort of the bike due to lack of gears caught up with me.
At about a quarter mile in, it became painful (mostly in my back) to run. So I tried going to a walk / run, which was still painful. So I then had to go to walking most of the course. It definitely wasn’t what I wanted or planned on, but it was the only safe way to finish. I did find a way to jog in through the finish as normal though (although I was in pain after that).
While it wasn’t the race I had planned, I’m grateful to Scott for guiding and all his help. I’m also grateful to Dare2Tri for all their help and support.
I will take some time to fully recover after this race to ensure that I’m at 100% heading into the second half of my season. All of my “A races” are still to come, which means recovery and then lots more training.
Leon’s has typically been the start of my summer Tri season, and it was again this year.
After seeing the normal Dare2Tri procession into the lake, Scott and I got transition set up and then went to the opening ceremony.
While waiting for our wave to begin, I found out that I wouldn’t need the wet suit due to water temp. Shortly after stripping it off, we entered the water for the start.
I’m glad that I was able to do this. It seemed like a much easier swim than in past Leon’s races. I didn’t have the normal wetsuit issues that I typically have at Leon’s.
After a normal T1, we headed out onto the bike. It went well until one of the final turns. At that point, I heard something fall and the bike wobble a little. From past experiences, I knew exactly what it was — one of Scott’s pedals falling out because the threads had stripped.
After stopping so he could get the pedal, the restart didn’t go well. I ended up falling since the pedaling was off-balance (he only had the right pedal). But once we got going, it worked out. It was definitely harder for the last few miles of the bike since Scott only had one pedal, but we made it back.
After a longer T2, we headed out on the run. It went about the same as in past years, although the roughly 1.5 miles along the bridge was a little bit less choppy of a run.
Even with all these challenges, I did still end up with a podium finish (2nd ATD1 VI Male).
I’m grateful to Scott for guiding and all of his help and support. I’m also grateful to both Dare2Tri and Leon for all of their help and support!
Earlier this year, a very good friend said that they wanted to do a marathon for their 60th birthday. While I’ve avoided marathons to this point, I was willing to get the training in because of them.
When my second half of the year (Holy Half) sold out before I could register, I went looking for other halfs that would fit into my calendar. What I found was the Warrior Dash in Wheaton.
With it being on a trail, the RD allowed us to begin before the main start. This helped us to get most of the first loop in before the crowds came.
The race began with roughly a half mile on grass, followed by about a mile uphill on the path. The race itself was a lot of up and down hills, with minimal flats.
As we got back towards the grass (heading in to start loop 2), I was in a decent amount of pain. When we got back to the turnaround, my left leg was completely numb.
After standing for a few minutes and trying to get feeling back to it, I wanted to go back out. But after less than a hundred feet onto the second loop, I could feel it going numb again.
At that point, I made the decisioin that it wasn’t safe to try and push it. I was concerned about potentially tearing something — especially with the first 1.5 miles being a long, challenging stretch. So I had to throw in the towel and accept the DNF.
While the day didn’t go as I had hoped, it was still a great event. I’m grateful to John for guiding and all his help and support. I’m also grateful to the RDs and the rest of the staff for their help and support!
Once again this year, I ended up in “jail” to help support Shining Star Children’s Advocacy Center. If you haven’t already done so, please read last year’s blog for background on the event.
As with last year, my bail increased again. Unfortunately, I have not yet made my goal. If you would like to donate and help me to reach it, you can do so here. .
2027 will be Shining Star’s 25th Anniversary. Because of that, I would like to raise a HUGE bail next spring during the 2027 Jail & Bail event (actual event date TBA). To help achieve that goal, I am asking those of you who are currently having to take RMDs (Required Minimum Deductions) from your retirement accounts to consider having a portion of it directed to Shining Star as a chartiable donation to help support my 2027 fundraising event!
If you are able and willing to make a donation from your RMDs, please email me (sscacinmate@gmail.com) for more details and logistics. If you’re not, please watch my main and fundraising socials (@nocrappyexcuses and @sscacinmate) for 2027’s fundraising launch!
Let’s all help raise a LOT of money to support Shining Star’s programs and help the children of Lee & Ogle Counties (IL) whom have been affected by abuse!
THANK YOU to Dare2Tri for their continued support of my athletic endeavors!
I greatly appreciate their support, which will cover several Triathlon entries! I am also extremely grateful to those who provided the external funding for this grant!
Because it wouldn’t work to go to Florida for the first of the Para Qualifying Series races, I went looking for other Triathlons in April. I found two in North Carolina that were relatively close to each other. After Jonathan confirmed he could guide for me, I made plans.
Day 1 (Belew Lake): After having to move transition around a few times and pre-race photos, we got in line for the swim start.
In the past few years, I’ve had issues with breathing in the wetsuit. It seems to cause problems with breathing at some times and then be fine at others. This race was unfortunately the former, and I had to stop several times to catch my breath.
Once out of the water, we went out on what I would consider a technical, lolipop course. I was a bit uncomfortable from the continual curves and hills. The run was almost all hills — but was still a solid run for all of that.
Day 2 (Cal Tri Charlotte):
In the past, I’ve had races where the RD has called off the swim an hour or more due to weather (making it a run/bike/run). But until this race, I’ve never had the swim called that close to the start…
As we were heading down to the beach (less than 5 minutes prior to start), we were all told the swim had been cancelled. So after a short run from swim start to and around T1, we headed out into the wind and rain for an extremely challenging bike.
The bike was about a 16 mile lolipop, during which there were heavy winds and rain. This meant I was holding on tighter than usual, which led to me going numb early. We did make it through safely after a couple of stops — but I did have a momentary thought of throwing in the towel at about 10 miles of this challenging bike course.
After a normal T2, we headed out on the most challenging run that I’ve had during a Sprint Tri. It wasn’t so much the hills (which I’d had the day before). It was the fact that the third “prong” of the run had us going on a dirt trail into woods, like you would for an OCR.
I’m extremely grateful to Jonathan for all of his guiding, help, and support throughout the weekend. I am also grateful to the RDs and staff of both races for all their help and support.
THANK YOU to Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) for their continued support of my athletic endeavors!
Their support this year will help me to get a new upgraded tandem. I will be working to raise the remainder needed for it, and hope to have the new tandem for the start of the 2027 season!
Going into 2026, I had been told that to qualify for Spartan Para World Championships (PWC), I had to complete a Spartan race in the Para bib (meaning rules in line with AG rules). When I put my 2026 planning calendar together, the mid-March races were what worked best. I had originally targeted Houston, but had to change to Atlanta because of how expensive airfare to Houston had become after January.
After changing from Houston to Atlanta, I found guides. Unfortunately, about ten days out, both of them had to bow out. Thankfully, Tom A. was able to step in. While I was initially concerned about having only one guide, as I found out throughout the races, Tom was able to do the work of more than one.
Before the races even began, there were issues. I have traveled by myself for athletic events for close to a decade. Prior to Atlanta, I have been able to check in and stay by myself without issue. However, when I arrived at the EconoLodge near the Atlanta airport, the co-owners gave me issues. What it boiled down to was that they wouldn’t allow me to stay there by myself unless I signed a waiver. IMO, what they were doing was discrimination, so I went elsewhere. I do have a police report regarding the issue and am still weighing my options after Choice Hotels has refused to address the issue properly.
After volunteering for the final day of the build, I met up with Tom on Saturday morning. I was extremely fortunate that someone found my cell phone after it fell off my pocket in the dark and returned it to me.
One point that I want to make in general before going into race details is this — Spartan races are more on dirt / grass. You may get a few “mud” features (in Rolling Mud or because of rain). With Tough Mudders, you expect the mud. From what I could tell, and the fact that Tom told me about needing to step over a water pipe several times, it seemed that this ATL Spartan weekend had become ATL Tough Mudder weekend…
This set of races was the most challenging set of Spartans that I’ve done. If you’ve read my 2024 Dallas Beast blog, you’ll realize that’s saying a lot…
Day 1 (Beast): As mentioned above, there were a LOT of course challenges. Part seemed to be natural (i.e. creeks, up/downs, etc.), while some seemed to be man-made (from the water issues I mentioned earlier). Tom helped tremendously with keeping me safe throughout all of these.
After the uphill barbed wire crawl, a challenging rope ladder climb up a hill, and a lot of obstacles in between the start and there, we made it back to the festival area. After making it through the Festival obstacles (and another missed Spear Throw), we made the turn into the Super/Beast area. And that was where the “swamp” appeared…
This was at least half a mile through submerged rocks and trees. There was one part where I slipped and fell into a small tree. Thankfully, it went into my thigh and just hurt for a minute, which was better than it going a little to the left…
After making it through the swamp and a few other obstacles, we went into the “trees”. This was several miles of up and downs with an obstacle every 1 – 1.5 miles. By about six hours in, these were taking a mental toll on me. So when I heard one of the volunteers say that we were only at mile 9 when we should have been at 11 – 11.5, I was ready to give up. But we kept going.
In my mental frustration, I made a huge mistake. Throughout the race, I had been refilling my camelbak at each water station. However, at the last one, I forgot to ask Tom to help with that. This meant that with about 1 – 1.5 miles left, I ran out of water. It was a struggle back, and I could feel dehydration towards the end, but we made it through.
Day 2 (Super) While there may have been some rain overnight, Tom made the comment that some of the drops were more severe than the day before. I don’t know if this was because of water or staff digging them out further, but it made things more challenging.
At some point in these increased drops, one of my friends from the Farm Experience found us on course. That was a nice “boost” in these extra challenges.
I trusted Tom’s evaluation of the course and went with his suggestions on safety. After the swamp area, the toll of more than twenty miles in the mud and drops in roughly 24 hours took its toll. It was a very slow and painful march to the finish, but we made it through.
After Tom left for his drive back north, I was able to connect with friends. Because of weather, my flight back was delayed to the next day. This meant I got to spend more time with them before heading to the airport for an early AM flight.
I am extremely grateful to Tom A. for guiding and all his help and support throughout the races. Thanks also to so many within the Spartan staff for their help and support throughout the weekend.
Foreshadowing: “When a Yeti tracks you down as you exit the bathroom.”
Wait, that’s not the proper dictionary definition… Or is it?
After last year’s fun on the Abominable Snow Race, I decided to “upgrade” to the 10K distance for this year. Scott was on board with that, so we showed up ready for twice as much fun.
Last year, the majority of the snow had melted before we started; this year, the trails were full of snow. This made the footing much harder in places — not just from the snow, but also from the melted parts on hills where so many had already gone through.
Close to the halfway point, we made it to an obstacle that’s given me issues across OCR regardless of its iteration. On the ASR side, it’s the 45 degree climbing piece into a horizontal rope bridge into a climb down. Because of my vision, I can never tell where the transition from the top of the 45 degree part to the flat part is. This means, I almost always end up falling off the first part — which happened at least twice before both Scott and a couple others were able to help me get up and over the first piece.
Shortly after, we made it to the largest climbing hill. While Scott said we had done this last year, I definitely did not remember it. But it’s possible in the minimal snow last year that it really wasn’t an issue. But between the snow and the melted areas / ruts from other racers, it was a real bear this year. And after the second attempt failed, Scott found an “alternate” path so that we could make it to the top with more support.
After making it to the top, I threw in the towel on the 10K; the Yeti had caught me. The multiple falls on the big hill rope climb had taken too much out of me.
So we went towards the 5K finish when the 5K/10K split occurred. One big plus of this was we got to the intertube obstacle more quickly. While it was fun last year on frozen grass, it was far more fun on snow this year!
Even with all the challenges (and losing BibBoards and race belt clips in the falls), it was still a fun day. Thanks to Scott for guiding and all his help/support throughout. And thanks to Bill and everyone else from Abominable Racing for all their help and support! I’m planning to be back in 2027!
I was able to race the January ET event becuase the timing between Houston and this race worked out this year.
Because I chose to move up to an earlier wave last minute, the swim start was not as smooth as usual. Usually, I’m in the pool about 10 minutes early warming up. This time, I wasn’t in the pool until the wave had been going for about a minute. Even with this time loss, I was only one length off of my normal swim.
The bike and run were the same as all past ET Indoor Tris — a strong indoor bike, and a struggle on the treadmill. This time, the treadmill was a bit harder because I felt the bike much more.
As always, a great event and a good starting point for the 2026 season. Thanks to Scott for all his help throughout it! And thanks to Coach Joe and so many others who help make these events possible.
Watch their web site and socials (@exptri) for the 2027 Indoor Tri schedule announcements!
