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!
As with the last several years, my athletic season began in Houston again this year.
After doing more offseason work, I was looking forward to beating last year’s times.
After the group photo Saturday morning, Doug and I headed to the start corrals. This year, the AWDs weren’t all at the frount. So we had about 20-30 minutes to wait.
When we got started, it seemed a little fast, so I slowed down. In 2022 or 2023, what really messed me up was flem not clearing. Last year, I didn’t really have an issue. However, this year, it kept occurring. To a point where I lost at least 90 – 120 seconds having to walk to clear it. With that, I was actually 25 seconds slower than last year. 🙁
After having time to relax and seeing the felines play, we had food and crashed out early.
Sunday started off early, and we were in the corrals before sunrise. In past years, while we’ve started in the dark, it’s been full sunlight before mile 1.25. However, this year, it was dark / cloudy for most of the race. I think it finally became “clear” at about mile 9.5.
But before we got to that point, two bad things happened. One was the arch of my right foot seized; the other was that I dropped one of my nice running gloves (which I didn’t realize until that point. :() While I was in pain from about 3.5 on, Gabe and Doug helped me through it. The Liquid IV that Gabe had brought helped immensely.
What helped me keep going was knowing the work I had put in prior to the race weekend. Even though it hadn’t gone as hoped, I refused to give up and just walk it out. And when it got the worst, having someone say ‘I’ve been trying to catch you for two and a half hours; you’re crushing it’ was a great boost.
As with last year, the crowds helped immensely. Especially in that last mile — not so much for the encouragement, but more for the “accountability”. Even when you’re in pain, it’s much harder to walk (although I had to in places) when a lot of people are watching. 🙂 You find the little extra to run through the pain for a little longer.
I am extremely grateful to Doug and Gabe for guiding and all their support during the weekend, to Catapult for all their support, and friends who helped throughout the weekend (including being feline referees :P)
As I know new people continually find the blog, I wanted to share a little bit of background and context before going forward. If you’ve been following the blog for years, you probably already know parts of this story, as I’ve referenced it several times. 🙂
In early 2014, after Rutgers joined the Big10, I started to receive emails from the Alumni Association about the BTN race in Chicago. While I hadn’t run in years, I decided to give it a try. When that first 5K didn’t “kill” me (although there were some very interesting training sessions early on), I tried a couple of other 5Ks before the end of 2014. I must have seen ads for the 2014 Chicago Triathlon that summer, since one of my running guides was also a triathlete helped guide me for my first Tri in 2015. Like the BTN race, a triathlon looked like fun from the ads (very nicely done by their marketing department :)).
After settling on the Naperville Sprint Triathlon, Terri (Jacob) helped with finding a local store that would let us borrow a tandem for practice and for the race (Oswego Cyclery — now The Bike Rack Oswego), we started practicing. At the time, the plan was that the Naperville Sprint Triathlon would be a “one and done” race. And then the Shamrock Shuffle happened…
After the first few 5Ks in 2014, I had learned to reach out to the Race Directors (RDs) about being a Visually Impaired (VI) athlete, needing guides, and finding out what was needed. Prior to the Shamrock Shuffle, I was told to find the Athletes With Disabilities (AWD) coordinator in a specific place and was given her name (Keri Serota). During the roughly hour that we were in the tent pre-race, my mom (who was one of my guides) first found out that Keri was the Executive Director for a local ParaTriathlon organization (Dare2Tri), and then told Keri that I was doing my first Triathlon in August 2015.
While I don’t remember the entire conversation that ensued after Keri found that out, I do remember two very specific things — the first being her graciously inviting me to their ParaTriathlon camp in May 2015 (Pleasant Prairie, WI) and the second being that she would not take no for an answer about me showing up. 🙂
So I showed up in Pleasant Prairie, and the rest is history… Ten years later, the Holiday Classic Triathlon was my 100th Triathlon. That number includes both sanctioned and unsanctioned races and indoor, outdoor, and hybrid (pool swim, bike trainer, outdoor run OR pool sim, outdoor bike, outdoor run) races. While there have been some bumps along the way (see the blogs for Leaning Tower, the near drowning at Pleasant Prairie, the 2022 Leon’s T1 breakdown, and the The Woodlands crash blogs for a few examples), there have also been a lot of successes. And ten years in, I’m still learning; I’m still working to improve; and I’m still refusing to give up. But I would not have gotten to 100 races without a LOT of help and support from so many. While I have tried to remember everyone who’s been a part of this journey since 2015, I apologize if I’ve forgotten someone. It is not intentional — I have a good memory, but it’s not photographic. 😀 Also this is solely on the Triathlon side. There are many others that have helped me in other athletic endeavors; I’m just focusing on the Triathlon side (overall or in its core parts as swim, bike, and run — without obstacles :))
-> Dare2Tri: For so many things too numerous to list. But a few include the initial opportunity that helped to change my life, all the different training and race opportunities, and a long list of ways they’ve supported me over the years (including helping with a grant for my tandem).
-> Naperville Noon Lions Club – For providing continual support of my athletic endeavors. They helped to support the very first Dare2Tri camp, and have helped immensely since that point.
-> Oswego Cyclery (now The Bike Rack Oswego) – For providing the tandem so that we could practice and I could race during the firs two years.
-> Coach Joe LoPresto (Experience Triathlon) – For being willing to say yes when Terri asked him about guiding me for that first race, for continuing to help in so many other ways, for helping with swim training, and for keeping the ET Indoor Tri Series going (watch for the 2026 race announcements) while other RDs were still uncertain about what they’d do in 2021.
-> Terri Jacob (Artistic Creations Salon) – For embracing my “crazy” and saying yes when I asked her to be my first triathlon guide, sticking with me during some of the early hard times on the tandem (including the session where in roughly 2 hours I couldn’t get a mount and was ready to just give up), all of the guiding help, and other support.
-> Naperville Running Company – For providing support in so many ways and so many different running opportunities over the years.
-> Team Red, White, and Blue (Team RWB) Chicago – For providing training opportunities in so many different training opportunities. Also on the Triathlon side (Team RWB Triathlon) providing help at the beginning when I was so uncertain about guides, rules as a VI, and other items.
-> Achilles Chicago – For providing many different run training opportunities and standalone running race support.
-> The Bike Rack – For helping to get the CoMotion bike fits done, building the tandem (Erik) and for continually being there as I’ve needed help with the tandem over the years.
-> Hammer Nutrition – For being my first nutrition sponsor, and surprisingly saying yes so early on in my Triathlon career. The support they provided truly helped in those early years.
-> Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) – For providing travel grants for so many years. Not being able to drive, this support has helped immensely with all the traveling I do / need to do — for practices, camps, training opportunities, and races. Also for providing the underlying support that has allowed other organizations to support me.
-> Amy Dixon USA (Amy Dixon) – For providing the camps and training opportunities in the San Diego area and an opportunity to be at the USOPTC there (I believe it’s been renamed at this point).
-> USA Triathlon – For providing the opportunities in and around the USOPTC in Colorado Springs and all of the support in general over the years. Also from the Foundation side, providing funding support for a VI-friendly treadmill so that I can train.
-> Catapult – For providing so many training and racing opportunities, continued grants to support swim training, for continually providing opportunities to push the “comfortably uncomfortable” boundary, and so many other things. As I’ve said in prior blogs, the TIR experience (running down a two-lane country road in the dark in “Nowhere”, Texas) and the literal “blind platform diving” (when I couldn’t see the water in the dark) were just two of the key moments related to pushing that boundary.
-> U.S. Association of Blind Athletes (USABA) – For providing support and so many training opportunities — namely, what is officially called the USABA Cycling Camp (which was led by Pam at USOC Colorado Springs) 😉
-> Skratch Labs – For providing support and product to help when I switched over.
-> ParaGuide (Paul Harrold) for guiding and providing training and other support.
-> Chicago Tri Club (CTC) for providing so many different training opportunities over the years.
-> Foreseeable Future Foundation – For providing individual grants and also providing general support for all VIs at different camps and races.
-> HOKA – For partnering with Catapult and generously providing gear at the Welcome2Running camps. I made the switch to HOKAs after that camp for all my shoes and have been tremendously happy that I did. 🙂
-> EliptiGO – For providing equipment that’s helped with my training.
-> All of the coaches – Not just my personal coach (Stacee), but all the different coaches that have helped me to improve, have taught me new things, and have been with me throughout the journey. Even when that journey included doing transition practice in a hail storm… 😀
-> All of the guides – I am truly grateful to a long list of people who have not only shared their time and talents, but have also given up their individual race to be part of helping me. And for being with me during the good, the bad, and the ugly, regardless of what that looked like.
-> My parents – For all of their support over the years in so many ways (including numerous airport runs).
-> A long, long, long list of RDs – For essentially saying “yes, we’d love to have you there. Tell us what you need.” when I did my initial reachout.
-> A long list of fellow athletes – For their support, knowledge, and ideas that have helped me grow both athletically and personally.
-> All of the sponsors behind the camps and races – Triathlon is an expensive sport. None of the camps, races, or training opportunities would have been possible without these companies and organizations providing their support to the events.
-> The volunteers – It truly takes a village to make any of these events happen. Like the sponsors, none of these opportunities would have been possible without so many generously giving their time and volunteering. So PLEASE, as you race, as you’re at a training, as you’re at a camp, say thank you to the volunteers. I know it’s sometimes hard while you’re focused on racing, but even doing it post-race can make a difference to them. Some are helping to keep you going, others are helping to keep you safe, and so many others are behind the scenes.
As one final point on the volunteers, I do want to specifically recognize Ryan Jarvis, who is a Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) somewhere in eastern Indiana. He was part of the “sweeper” crew that kept us safe when the thunderstorms rolled in at Muncie 70.3. I’m truly grateful to him and the rest of the “sweeper” crew, as things could have gone dramatically worse without it. (I was told there was thunder and lightning — I felt the winds and torrential rain).
As the first race was Ten years later, the goal is still to race until a USAT official has to physically pull me off the course in my 80s… That point was inspired by seeing one of the AG Nationals broadcasts where the 80 – 85 AG guys were still crushing it. We’ll see if I make it to 500 before that point does occur. 🙂
