The sixth annual Wisconsin Ironman race took place Sunday as thousands of people lined Madison streets to cheer on more than 2,200 triathletes.
Madison is one of only seven cities in the United States to host the Ironman triathlon. Throughout the world, only 22 cities host such races.
The race is a grueling 140.6-mile trek and is spread out through three categories—a 2.4-mile swim in Lake Monona, a 112-mile bike ride through Madison and the surrounding communities and a 26.2 marathon that encompasses much of the campus.
Several roads downtown were rerouted or even closed due to the race, which started at 7 a.m. Sunday and did not finish until nearly midnight. The first person to finish the race was Maik Twelsiek, who did so in 8 hours, 52 minutes and 49 seconds. Twelsiek missed setting a course record by only 6 minutes.
The first woman to finish the race was Gina Ferguson. She set a new course record for females with a time of 9 hours, 37 minutes and three seconds, which was almost ten minutes faster than the previous record.
And while many people competed in the race, one of UW-Madison’s own nearly won.
Eric Bean, a second year UW-Madison medical student, finished sixth overall. Bean said he trained for the event by competing in a variety of other races both locally and nationally. Still, he said this was somewhat of a “last hurrah” before concentrating solely on medical school.
As for the race itself, Bean said he could have and should have done better.
“My swim felt easy, and I was in a pack that was relatively slow…I felt like I was making good progress on the bike,” Bean said, “but sixty miles into it I decided to pick the pace up. The way these things happen is you pick up the pace but really you just keep the same pace and it hurts a lot more.”
Bean said he never felt fatigued throughout the event and drew strength from all the supporters along the path. He said areas near the Capitol, especially Dayton Street, offered a morale boost because of all the screaming fans.
Most of those fans were UW-Madison students and Rena Pitlik, a UW-Madison senior, said she sat outside for most of the afternoon cheering on the competitors.
“It seems like they’re going through hell, so if we can make it a little bit better for them then great for us,” Pitlik said.
Still, Pitlik and Bean agreed that the Ironman has become synonymous to Madison, a city well known for its bike and running paths.
“I think it kind of puts Madison on the map as a sporting community,” Bean said, adding that outside of UW athletics it could be the single biggest event the city sees during the year.
