Featured Race Reports


Featured Race Reports
Wisconsin Ironman 2007 - Susan Maccall WOW, what an incredible day!! I was expecting to be emotional, feel proud, be in pain, yada, yada, yada. What I hadn't anticipated was how much absolute fun I would have. I don't remember ever having another day this much fun (outside of my wedding, which is of course quite different & with much better food & alcohol). I smiled, laughed at spectators & crazy signs, high-fived kids, chatted w/other athletes and simply had a great time motoring along all day. SWIM - 2.4 miles - 2400 athletes. 40,000 spectators. Rockin' music. A few bumps here & there (OK, a lot). Fast & fun. T1 - Ignored logic and ran all the way up the 4-level parking ramp helix into the transition area waving at friends & family the whole way. Exhausting, but worth it. Kim was helping in the changing room, & I saw Mindy & Shana on the helix headed out onto the bike course. BIKE - 112 miles - The fans on Tour de France hill were amazing. A woman dressed as the Ironman M-Dot wearing a cheese hat. Hippies beating drums. "Holy F*%#!, You're Doing the Ironman" signs. Cross-dressing men with crazy wigs. Dancing cowgirls. And my father-in-law even attempted to run up the hill with me. Hit my target time & pace like clockwork. And no flat tires, to boot. I saw Amanda on Stagecoach, a whole gang of screaming CVCers on Timber, Jessica on Midtown, Renee C riding along Whalen, Amber at the Mt Horeb aid station, the other Renee out on Syene, & Linda on John Nolen. I'm so proud that CVC is so visible & supports events like this! RUN - 26.2 miles - I was so afraid of feeling bad & getting sick that I just kept running. Only stopped to walk at aid stations and anything that resembled a hill. Bananas & chicken broth never tasted so good. My run time was only 1 hour slower than my last marathon time -- so I guess I need to start training to improve my next marathon! I saw Sarah B & Amanda at the State Street Mall aid station. I saw both Heather & Colleen looking strong out on the run course. The best part was seeing so many friends and family scattered around the course the entire day. You all made such a huge difference & kept me smiling. Of course, a key reason I had such a great day is my awesome coach, Scott. I let him learn all the hard stuff over the past 3 years so he could tell me how to do it right. The entire year of training leading up to this was really fun. Being able to do long rides & swims together with Juli was a huge help. The 2nd best part was running through the grandstands at the finish line, with "I Love Rock `N Roll" playing in the background, & hearing the Voice of Ironman shout "Susan MacCall, You Are an Ironman" at the end. Great finish to a long year. I finished at 14:43:24 - 40 minutes ahead of my expected time. I absolutely see myself doing another Ironman one day. Just not sure how I could possibly improve on such an awesome, fun day. Thanks for all of your support & good wishes! back to top Mud Slogging at CamRock/Whitewater – Samantha Kaplan, Cat1/2 Cyclocross Yes, I'm sure I will be cleaning mud out of everything for the foreseeable future. I definitely spent more time cleaning my bike this weekend than riding it. I may have even spent as much time carrying my bike and running as I did riding it. Saturday was a killer for me, both physically and emotionally. I got to the race much later than intended because of traffic on I90 (so did a lot of people). After seeing all of the mud on the racer, I decided to take off my racing slicks and put on knobbies. A good plan in theory, but ended up being my downfall. I could not get my new Continental tires on the rims. I think it eventually took three of us to get them on (a big thanks to Renee Bach of the FORCs and Jen Jones of the FORCs and CVC as well as Scott from the Brazen Dropouts) with just a few minutes to spare. Everything was going well enough for the first lap or so, or as well as possible without a warm-up and six inches of peanut-butter-like mud. In the middle of the second lap my wheels weren't turning very well, so I decided to undo my brakes. I think Renee and some of the others un-hooked their brakes before the start of the race, but I was too chicken. This seemed to work pretty well, but I still felt like my rear wheel was bogging down more than necessary (hmmmm - maybe time to cut out the desserts), and found it was faster for me to run and just push my bike through the really deep stuff. I was getting pretty discouraged because a lot of the other women were able to ride these sections and were getting farther and farther ahead. I started to curse my bike gearing, thinking I really need to lose some weight, or get a granny gear or a smaller chainring. With a few laps to go I decided I would chance re-attaching my rear brake so I could ride the downhill section where I felt I was losing the most time running. I squeezed my water bottle over the brakes and rear wheel to clean it off a bit and discovered that my rear tire had popped of the rim. I had just ridden two laps that way!!!!!! No wonder I felt I was bogging down. The amazing part was the tube was not flat. The mud was so soft and I was running so much that it didn't pinch the tube - pretty miraculous. I managed to get the tire back on the rim, I re-attached my brake, and decided to make my attack and get back in the game. I cranked it up and picked off a few people, but my come-back lasted about half a lap. All of a sudden my bike came to a complete standstill. Luckily I didn't go over the bars, but realized that my rear tire had popped off again and this time became firmly lodged between the brake pad and the rim. It wouldn't budge! It was so jammed in there that with all my might, I couldn't dislodge it or undo the brake either. At this point I had no choice, I either had to DNF or pick up my bike and run the rest of the race. I could no longer push my bike as I ran because the wheel wouldn't spin. I knew if I finished I would still get WCA series points, so huff it I did. Needless to say everybody passed me, and I felt emotionally defeated, but I did finish. On the positive side, I got in a good trail running workout, and feel if I survived that, I could survive any race! Sunday was a breeze compared to Saturday. Muddy, yes, but mostly rideable. I was apprehensive about my tires for the first lap, but they seemed to stay on, so I cranked it up a bit for the rest of the race. I was too tired from Saturday to really go hard so just rode my own race and had fun. It felt good to be able to ride versus run the whole thing and restored my enjoyment of the sport. The only bummer was getting home and having to wash everything again - including my car. When I tried to leave CamRock it almost sunk in the mud and it took Natallia and three of her friends to help push me out! A huge thanks. At least the tires stayed on :-) When I got home I turned on the hose and ice chunks flew out! I did eventually get things washed up, so I'll be at it again next week. Samantha (2006)
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Wisconsin Ironman 2007 - Susan Maccall

WOW, what an incredible day!! I was expecting to be emotional, feel proud, be in pain, yada, yada, yada. What I hadn't anticipated was how much absolute fun I would have. I don't remember ever having another day this much fun (outside of my wedding, which is of course quite different & with much better food & alcohol). I smiled, laughed at spectators & crazy signs, high-fived kids, chatted w/other athletes and simply had a great time motoring along all day.

SWIM - 2.4 miles - 2400 athletes. 40,000 spectators. Rockin' music. A few bumps here & there (OK, a lot). Fast & fun.

T1 - Ignored logic and ran all the way up the 4-level parking ramp helix into the transition area waving at friends & family the whole way. Exhausting, but worth it. Kim was helping in the changing room, & I saw Mindy & Shana on the helix headed out onto the bike course.

BIKE - 112 miles - The fans on Tour de France hill were amazing. A woman dressed as the Ironman M-Dot wearing a cheese hat. Hippies beating drums. "Holy F*%#!, You're Doing the Ironman" signs. Cross-dressing men with crazy wigs. Dancing cowgirls. And my father-in-law even attempted to run up the hill with me. Hit my target time & pace like clockwork. And no flat tires, to boot. I saw Amanda on Stagecoach, a whole gang of screaming CVCers on Timber, Jessica on Midtown, Renee C riding along Whalen, Amber at the Mt Horeb aid station, the other Renee out on Syene, & Linda on John Nolen. I'm so proud that CVC is so visible & supports events like this!

RUN - 26.2 miles - I was so afraid of feeling bad & getting sick that I just kept running. Only stopped to walk at aid stations and anything that resembled a hill. Bananas & chicken broth never tasted so good. My run time was only 1 hour slower than my last marathon time -- so I guess I need to start training to improve my next marathon! I saw Sarah B & Amanda at the State Street Mall aid station. I saw both Heather & Colleen looking strong out on the run course.

The best part was seeing so many friends and family scattered around the course the entire day. You all made such a huge difference & kept me smiling. Of course, a key reason I had such a great day is my awesome coach, Scott. I let him learn all the hard stuff over the past 3 years so he could tell me how to do it right. The entire year of training leading up to this was really fun. Being able to do long rides & swims together with Juli was a huge help.
The 2nd best part was running through the grandstands at the finish line, with "I Love Rock `N Roll" playing in the background, & hearing the Voice of Ironman shout "Susan MacCall, You Are an Ironman" at the end. Great finish to a long year.

I finished at 14:43:24 - 40 minutes ahead of my expected time. I absolutely see myself doing another Ironman one day. Just not sure how I could possibly improve on such an awesome, fun day.

Thanks for all of your support & good wishes!

Mud Slogging at CamRock/Whitewater – Samantha Kaplan, Cat1/2 Cyclocross

Yes, I'm sure I will be cleaning mud out of everything for the foreseeable future. I definitely spent more time cleaning my bike this weekend than riding it. I may have even spent as much time carrying my bike and running as I did riding it. Saturday was a killer for me, both physically and emotionally. I got to the race much later than intended because of traffic on I90 (so did a lot of people). After seeing all of the mud on the racer, I decided to take off my racing slicks and put on knobbies. A good plan in theory, but ended up being my downfall. I could not get my new Continental tires on the rims. I think it eventually took three of us to get them on (a big thanks to Renee Bach of the FORCs and Jen Jones of the FORCs and CVC as well as Scott from the Brazen Dropouts) with just a few minutes to spare.

Everything was going well enough for the first lap or so, or as well as possible without a warm-up and six inches of peanut-butter-like mud. In the middle of the second lap my wheels weren't turning very well, so I decided to undo my brakes. I think Renee and some of the others un-hooked their brakes before the start of the race, but I was too chicken. This seemed to work pretty well, but I still felt like my rear wheel was bogging down more than necessary (hmmmm - maybe time to cut out the desserts), and found it was faster for me to run and just push my bike through the really deep stuff. I was getting pretty discouraged because a lot of the other women were able to ride these sections and were getting farther and farther ahead. I started to curse my bike gearing, thinking I really need to lose some weight, or get a granny gear or a smaller chainring. With a few laps to go I decided I would chance re-attaching my rear brake so I could ride the downhill section where I felt I was losing the most time running. I squeezed my water bottle over the brakes and rear wheel to clean it off a bit and discovered that my rear tire had popped of the rim. I had just ridden two laps that way!!!!!! No wonder I felt I was bogging down. The amazing part was the tube was not flat. The mud was so soft and I was running so much that it didn't pinch the tube - pretty miraculous. I managed to get the tire back on the rim, I re-attached my brake, and decided to make my attack and get back in the game. I cranked it up and picked off a few people, but my come-back lasted about half a lap. All of a sudden my bike came to a complete standstill. Luckily I didn't go over the bars, but realized that my rear tire had popped off again and this time became firmly lodged between the brake pad and the rim. It wouldn't budge! It was so jammed in there that with all my might, I couldn't dislodge it or undo the brake either. At this point I had no choice, I either had to DNF or pick up my bike and run the rest of the race. I could no longer push my bike as I ran because the wheel wouldn't spin. I knew if I finished I would still get WCA series points, so huff it I did. Needless to say everybody passed me, and I felt emotionally defeated, but I did finish. On the positive side, I got in a good trail running workout, and feel if I survived that, I could survive any race!

Sunday was a breeze compared to Saturday. Muddy, yes, but mostly rideable. I was apprehensive about my tires for the first lap, but they seemed to stay on, so I cranked it up a bit for the rest of the race. I was too tired from Saturday to really go hard so just rode my own race and had fun. It felt good to be able to ride versus run the whole thing and restored my enjoyment of the sport. The only bummer was getting home and having to wash everything again - including my car. When I tried to leave CamRock it almost sunk in the mud and it took Natallia and three of her friends to help push me out! A huge thanks. At least the tires stayed on :-) When I got home I turned on the hose and ice chunks flew out! I did eventually get things washed up, so I'll be at it again next week.

Samantha (2006)