A Father's Day Triathlon

Racing with Dave Scott and my Brothers!

It was the final 100 meters of the 13.1 mile run and my 12 year old son Brent was running at my side and the Legendary Dave Scott was at least a few minutes behind. We had one more stop before we crossed the finish line. My wife Sara was holding my 5 month old son; I took him into my arms and then Brent, Kyle and I crossed the finish-line together on Fathers Day.

When I heard there was going to be a ½ Ironman just 30minutes south of my hometown of Green Bay Wisconsin, I was ecstatic! I have always wanted to participate in the sport I love in my hometown. To make things even better I learned that Dave Scott the 6-time Ironman Champion would be competing in this inaugural event.

Just when I thought their couldn’t be a finer reason to head back home for a race, my two brothers and my best friend all decided they would also race. Preparing properly and getting me to the starting line was no big deal. I train consistently and compete frequently. However, for my brothers it would be a different story. Although my younger brother Joe, at age 26, exercises daily and has competed in many triathlons just a couple of years ago, he was and still is in the middle of a very intense MBA program at the University of Denver. This makes it extremely difficult for Joe to find the proper amount of time to train for a ½ Ironman. My older brother Matt had even more of an obstacle to overcome. He was far out of shape. Matt used to swim for a division 3 college program but ten years later at age 33 he had fallen out of shape and it was lack of exercise was beginning to jeopardize his health. He was 20 lbs overweight and his cholesterol was ski-rocketing. He approached me in November of 2003 with his ambitions to compete in an Ironman event in 2004 and asked me to coach him. Knowing that Matt had a chronic history of shin splints and was pretty far out of shape I persuaded him to prep for a ½ Ironman instead. By the time I saw my brother Matt in February he had lost 20lbs and progressed from 5 minutes of running up to 50 minutes with little shin pain.

The day before the race arrived and I could really feel how nervous my older brother Matt was. My younger brother Joe was just happy that he got himself to the race weekend in half way descent shape and was counting on the higher elevation of Denver to give him an edge. I was just feeling a little bit older because it was my 30^th birthday. The Green Bay Press Gazette showed up at our house that afternoon in order do a story on the three Berg Brothers competing in the ½ Ironman. After finishing all the race day preparations we sat down to enjoy my mom’s famous spaghetti which was worth the trip in itself.

Race day arrived and the wind was blowing! The waves on the large and shallow Lake Winnebago were at 3 feet high and were coming in fast! Considering safety, the race director made an appropriate decision to cut the swim down to about 600meters.

It was a rough swim and I came out of the water about 50 seconds behind Dave Scott. I made up about 20 seconds in T1 and started on to course. Starting out on the bike my legs were not feeling to sharp and by mile Dave Scott was still about 20 seconds out in front of me. At 50 years old Dave can still ride at an amazing pace. I knew this because he had my HR up to up in the mid 160’s, which is a little higher than I like to have it during a bike of a ½ Ironman. I finally passed Dave about mile 5 or 6 on the bike. The way out on the bike followed the shore of Lake Winnebago for 18 miles. The wind was coming directly off the lake and gave for a strong crosswind with a slight head wind. For the next 20 miles I looked back every few miles and would see Dave hanging about 50 meters back not letting me break free. Knowing how strong of a runner he was I was a bit worried that he would feed off my pace on the bike and stomp me on the run. However, somewhere around mile 30 I looked back and realized that I was finally putting some time the Ironman Legend. A little relieved, I focused, relaxed and road really strong for the last 25 miles on in. My HR dropped into the low 150’s which allowed me to consume my target 250-300 calories per hour.

Although I did not know it at the time, I dismounted my bike about 4 minutes up on Dave. The run started out with a steep ¾ mile hill that climbed about 250 feet. I ran this hill very strong because I knew the hill would equalize any advantage a better runner would have on me. Through years of racing I have found that strong cyclists are just as good, if not better, at running up hills than strong runners. I came through mile one very pleased at 7 minutes and went on through a much flatter mile 2 at 13:20. I warded off a few cramps with the proper formula of sports beverage, salt and Gensan carbogels kept a strong pace between 6:10 and 6:20 min/miles for the remainder of the run with the exception of a 4:30min/mile when we had to run back down the big hill. This was probably the most fun and beautiful ½ Ironman run I ever competed on. Most of the course was on trails which had us running along a limestone cliff overlooking Lake Winnebago, through dark forest canopied trails, on tricky footed grass trails with a little bit of residential streets mixed in. At about mile 11 I looked back and saw that Dave was nowhere in sight and finally figured I had the race won. I came across the finish line in 3:57:46. Dave came in at 4:03:50. When adding a full swim back in I would project about a 4hr 11min ½ IM performances for myself.

Enough about me, my brothers had great races. My older brother Matt finished his first ever 1/2 Ironman in in Just under 6 hours. He was super excited about his accomplishment and is ready for more racing along with his new healthy endurance way of life. After beating me out of the water my younger brother Joe proved that he still had it after a taking a year break - he finished the race in 4 hrs and 23 minutes which made him the 6th fastest on the day.

To top an already fantastic day off; my best friend and collage romate Jason Tischer finished 7th overall, the top female long course finisher was Becky Burdick a TriEndurance athlete, and the first place in the Men's Sprint was Jeff Fleigh another TriEndurance athlete.

How wonderful to share my passion with my children, parents, friends and my TriEndurance athletes on father's day!