Chris's story: Ironman 70.3 New York

BaseCamp athlete Chris Wengert shared his experience at the 2023 IRONMAN 70.3 New York triathlon relay.

A few years ago I tore my Achilles at school (I'm a teacher), on the last day of school in front of the entire 6th grade. It was awesome and not embarrassing at all.

It took me a full year of rehab and cycling was a big part of that recovery. Getting back to racing was a huge motivating factor for me, but I was scared of injuring myself again. If you've ever had a long recovery from injury, you know. This is when I switched over from a crit focus to time trialing. Got myself a fancy TT bike as a present to myself at the year mark and started time trialing.

That's when I found Ironman. Kinda.

A friend of mine who is an actual Ironman mentioned doing a relay. It sounded fun because there's no vibe like being at an Iron event (Tadej who?). This year's Ironman 70.3 New York edition was my A event. A couple days before, I came down with a head cold (perfect timing). I was really frustrated, especially because I've felt this year has, overall, been my best year of training by far (thanks, Roy and Ev). My leg started out strong, and my focus was to stay patient and control power. "Stay in low Tempo and high Z2," I told myself. I wanted to keep that aero position.

This course is a two-lap course, which helps a bit with pacing. I was feeling good at the turn and was looking forward to ramping it up at mile 45-50ish. But if you've ever done a long time trial, you know that the one thing you can't really completely prepare for is being aero (Remco who?) and keeping your feet literally moving for 2+ hours with no stopping.

At about mile 46 (I think), I felt some small cramping starting. I wasn't planning to grab a bottle from the aid stations, but I luckily was coming up on one when the cramping started. I pounded some mortal hydration, and it saved me.

With about 5 miles left, my front wheel caught a groove, and I almost lost the bike. I barely saved it and stopped briefly to check the front tire. All was well, but I def lost some time there.

All in all, the day ended really well. I ended up 5/86 in the relay bike and 191/2,250 overall. I'm proud of the effort and proud to be a part of this community.

Huge shout to my wife, Lauren, who is my favorite person and biggest fan. Love you.