Our 14th year, 13 Athletes, 100% Finishers: Team OutPace at Ironman Wisconsin
Fourteen years ago, OutPace Coaching showed up in Madison with a handful of athletes and a lot of ambition. Each year since then, we’ve had a number of athletes race Ironman Wisconsin weekend, sometimes more athletes than other years, as our Ironman “team races” vary each year. Last year, we had more than a dozen athletes race at Ironman Chattanooga. This September, we came back for the 14th time to Madison, Wisconsin with 13 athletes, 45 spectators lining the course, and one goal shared by everyone: get every single teammate to the finish line. Each athlete has their “A”, “B”, and “C” goals for the race, but ultimately, finishing the race and staying present in the journey are typically part of everyone’s goals on that starting line.
Across two days of racing and spectating, 100% of our team finished.
Here's what that weekend looked like:
13 OPC athletes racing across the 70.3 and full Ironman distances
45 teammates, family members, coaches, and friends cheering on course
An overall women's Ironman 70.3 champion, the fourth year in a row an OutPace athlete has won the women's 70.3
First-time 70.3 finishers and first-time Ironman finishers
A 100% team finish rate across both race days
A jump into the top 2% of triathlon clubs in our division
Women’s Overall Champion, Paige Schulz
Paige won Ironman 70.3 Wisconsin for the third time, with her husband and 4 kids waiting at the finish line for her. Paige is racing the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii in October after qualifying last September at our Ironman Chattanooga team race.
Day one: a four-peat OutPace overall champion in the 70.3
The weekend opened with the Ironman 70.3, and we had athletes who finished their first 70.3, athletes who PR’d and podiumed, and another year of the overall champion. Paige Schulz crossed the line as the overall women's champion, extending a streak for Team OutPace: for the fourth straight year, an OutPace athlete has won the women's 70.3 race in Madison (2023: Paige, 2024: Caryn Wikman, 2025 & 2026: Paige).
Last year Paige joined us at Ironman Chattanooga for our team race, where she qualified for the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii taking place this month, and she said something that we all feel when we have teammates out there on course: “I realized my favorite part of the weekend was this: Seconds before I jumped in, I turned around and looked at all the OutPace Coaching athletes starting with me, and I just felt so happy and calm.” “Having a deep field of support on course was amazing.”
The podium wasn't the only story on Saturday. We also had athletes racing their first-ever 70.3. For them, the win was finishing strong at a distance that felt out of reach when they started training. Watching a first-timer come down the finishing chute is one of our favorite parts of race weekend, and Saturday delivered.
Day two: 140.6 miles and new Ironman finishers
On Sunday, our full-distance athletes took on 2.4 miles of swimming in Lake Monona, 112 miles of biking over the rolling hills of Verona, and finished with a marathon run through campus and Capitol Square. Ironman Wisconsin is known as one of the tougher courses on the circuit, and every OPC athlete on the start line earned their finish.
For several of them, it was their first full Ironman and hearing "you are an Ironman" at the finish line for the first time.
By Sunday night, every OutPace athlete who started the weekend had finished it. Four starters and finishers, three of which were first time Ironman athletes, and one who had more than a 2.5 hour PR from their previous race just one year prior, at Ironman Wisconsin. She hired an OPC coach, put in the work, and dropped hours off her time in one year — amazing!
45 people who made the course feel like home
Ironman is an individual race, but nobody at OutPace races alone. Forty-five teammates, family members, coaches, and friends spread out across the course throughout the weekend, cheering at the swim exit, on the climbs, and on the run.
That's the part of OutPace that's hard to explain until you experience it. Coaching gets you to the start line prepared. Community gets you through the pre-race nerves, and the low points mentally and physically.
Shoutout to all the support crews — we know the day can be just as tiring!
Small club, big results: top 2% in Division V
Ironman ranks triathlon clubs by division based on size, and OutPace competes in Division V, the division for the smallest clubs. After Ironman Wisconsin weekend, our club moved into the top 2% overall in that division. For the past five years, our team has ended the year in the top 1-2% of our division.
We're proud of that number because of how we get there. We cap our roster on purpose so every athlete gets real, individual attention from their coach. We don't win club points by being the biggest team on the course. We earn them because a small group of athletes shows up prepared, races smart, and finishes together.
What's next: Ironman Florida
Fourteen years in, Madison still feels like a homecoming. Thank you to every athlete who raced, every spectator who cheered, and every coach who helped get this team to the finish line.
Next up we have more team races across running, Hyrox, skiing, and triathlon, and next year our team Ironman will be another destination race: Ironman Florida. It will include an off-summer training block when kids are back in school, a beach-town race weekend, and the same team atmosphere that made Wisconsin special. We'll be building toward it together with a triathlon simulation, a training camp, and group workouts along the way.
Thinking about your first 70.3, your first full, or chasing a new goal with a team behind you? Book a free intro call with an OutPace coach. We'd love to have you on the course with us.
Team dinner with some of the OutPace athletes, family, friends, teammates, and coaches