Month: October 2026

During the awards ceremony for Adaptive Mixed Relay Nationals in Milwaukee, they said if you qualified for Worlds in Germany, you’d see an email that following week. Even though we finished 4th in the Adaptive category, I didn’t see an email before leaving for Finland. So I believed that we hadn’t qualified. However, I received it shortly after returning from Finland!

The athletes on the team have all claimed their spots, and the “mice” will have to formalize guides by the end of July 2027.

I am extremely excited for this opportunity! And I am extremely grateful to everyone who’s helped me on my triathlon journey to this point!

Because of the large cost (at least $5,000 for myself and guide), I will be launching a fundraising campaign in early 2027. If you would like to generally support the campaign, please watch for the link here and on socials (@nocrappyexcuses). If you would like to help partially or fully support a specific piece (i.e. team apparel cost, airfare, lodging, etc.), please reach out to me directly. Especially if you’re in Hamburg and willing to let us use your house during Worlds! 🙂

(Photo courtesy of John)

Over the years, I have talked about my struggles with the run. I’ve worked on it a lot over the last few years, and I believe it’s finally starting to pay off.

When I ran this race two years ago, I was coming off of Tough Mudder Pittsburgh Infinity. So my body and legs were already “warm” for this 5K the following day. From memory, I had about fourteen hours between when I crossed the finish line in PA and when I crossed the start line in IL.

This time, I did not have a race the day before. But the results ended up very close to the same..

Prior to the race, John and I had a chance to stretch and warm up. After about 1/3 of a mile, the race transitioned from pavement to crushed limestone trails. While the pace was slower on that part, I was able to pick it back up at about 1.5 miles when we merged back onto pavement.

The second half of the race went really well, and things felt really good with the socks I was using. I will continue testing them and hope to have a formal, public post at some point in late 2027 regarding them.

Because the 5K race start was running a little bit behind, I don’t have an exact comparison between 2024 and 2026. In 2024, we crossed the finish line within 30 seconds of the start of the kids race. This year, they had already begun by the time we crossed — but we had also started a few minutes later.

I’m grateful to PATCH for the opportunity, and to John for all his help and guiding.