Race Coverage

Happy & Hopeful...

Thursday, 26 June 2025 00:10

Photo - Rising Wisconsin triathlon star Tyler Tanko, who won Ironman 70.3 Des Moines last Sunday, and his coach David Koppel.

By David Koppel

Ironman 70.3 Des Moines Notes:  10th overall, 4th AG - 

Swim: A bit rusty in open water but felt like I didn’t swim hard enough until turning it up the last 750yds and still had a PR swim by :25 seconds at 29:15. Happy with that, can easily knock off :30. 33rd overall swim.

Bike: Windy and rolling hills. Rode to my power goal with a few notable events. 1. Rear bottle cage broke on the transition rack and lost half of my carbs for the bike at mile 3…supplemented with aid stations (which I never use on the bike) and 4 Maurten gels and some mortal hydration. Know your carb goals for when you lose a bottle so you can piece it together!!! 2. I thought I flatted at mile 50 on train tracks and actually stopped but found just a soft front that was fine to ride in. Lost some time but glad the race wasn’t over! 11th overall bike....

Run: This is taking the longest to return, by far. A sure positive was that I ran pretty well through 8 miles. The wheels came off big time for the last 3 miles and my HR was through the roof so I felt like barfing or had to slow down. 34th overall run.

Happy to be competing and hopeful to keep making small improvements and race my fastest yet pushing 40! Slow and steady with @yoderperformance. Loved seeing friends and coached athletes on the course and before and after the race!

Big highlight was watching coached athlete and friend @ttanko21 patiently work his way to the front of the race in the second half of the run and break his first Ironman tape. Really motivating!