This was my third year at Ironman Wisconsin.  My goals this year were to improve all around with my personal life as well as with my Ironman performance.  The training leading up to the race was similar to last year, with the exception of the platform for the training program.  Although Squad was new with Purple Patch, I was very familiar with the Purple Patch pillars and general philosophy.  That made it a much easier transition and understanding of how to train this year.  The result was  more autonomy in determining my training, and executing with focus on the workouts when necessary.  My times during Ironman Wisconsin improved across the board, with the biggest gain on the bike (my favorite).  Overall, I was just over 40 minutes faster than 2018 with a total time of 11:47.

The other aspect of training was to balance training with personal life expectations of being a present father of two and a husband to a beautiful wife.  About 90% of the last six months of training were relatively stress free, allowing for quality time with the family as much as possible.  The truth is it wasn't always perfect and stress free, as there is room for improvement.

Finally, the most challenging part of this year was setting the goal of raising $10,000 to provide clean water for kids in Africa as part of Team World Vision (TWV), the fifth year running.  I love being part of the TWV team for Ironman Wisconsin, as everyone is so encouraging and kind.  World Vision is a great organization that executes the difficult work for all those in need, but it's difficult to continue to raise money year after year.  About two weeks out from the race I was no where near my fundraising goal for this year, and I was ready to just give up.  Encouraged and helped by my wife, we decided to go "all in" and ask everyone for a 2019 donation to TWV.  I am very proud to say that we have increased the fundraising amount from last year and are just over $11k for 2019!!!!  In total, that means that just over 220 kids will have clean water for life due to our efforts this year alone! 

Each year the goal is to be better than the last, and I was successful again this year!  I am certainly proud of getting faster, but my true passion is to continue to help those in need with a Team that shares the same goal.  Next year the goal will be to break 11 hours total time and to raise $15,000 for World Vision.