First, and MOST importantly, please wear your ET shirts, jackets and hats. The ET Cheer Crew is world famous and our athletes love to see everyone flying the ET colors! Go Team Experience Triathlon!!

Special notes on race day contact and remote athlete tracking…

1. ET race day contact is Drew Repoza, not Coach Joe. Drew can be reached at 630-697-4439 in case of questions/issues or directions. THANK YOU, Drew!!
2. Remote online Athlete Tracking methods: You can track our athletes during the day at Ironman.com. Look for the Live Coverage link and Wisconsin and the Athlete Tracker page. Enter their name or bib number. You can also use one of the third party tracking phone apps such as… IMtrackr, IronTrac or IronMobile.

Parking option before race start: With the streets of Madison open prior to race start and ample parking ramps available, we prefer to drive and park within a few blocks of the race start instead of parking at the Alliant Center and taking the shuttle bus. Click here for information and location of the closet parking to the start.

We start our day around 6:00am on the parking ramp of the Monona Terrace helix that the athletes walk down to start their race. We stand on the side closest to the lake, about 50-100 yards up the ramp from its base but before the ramp starts to curve into a helix. We are on the athlete’s left as they run up the ramp following their swim. The race starts at 7:00am, and we’ll be there until our last athlete is out of the water, so probably until 8:45’ish.

We then load into our cars and head to Panera, 3416 University Ave., to pick up some sandwiches to bring out to the bike course.

bike cheering location for 2017:

Due to the change in the Ironman bike course made in 2016 and kept in place for this years race, we are NOT going to our pre-2016 viewing location on Timber Lane! Our designated spot on the bike course this year is going to be on Mid Town Road very close to (just past) what’s traditionally referred to as the 3rd of the 3 major hills (aka the 3 B’s).

We will set up our large ET flags on Mid Town Rd near the end of Mound View Rd.  Due to Mid Town Rd being the actual race course, we suggest you drive into that area via Mound View Rd instead of Mid Town Rd.  Parking is available along Mound View road but please be aware that it could be a mile of walking to get to our cheering point on Mid Town Rd.  Some of us will drive to the end of Mound View, then park along the shoulder of Mid Town Rd.

Click here for a google map to BIKE viewing location

The athletes come by this spot twice since it’s a 2 loop bike course. Needless to say, we’ll be there for the better part of the afternoon (until approximately 3:00pm). Please make sure you have enough nutrition and hydration for the day out there! Some will bring a folding camp chair and/or a small cooler to keep beverages and food cool. Sunscreen (there is not much shade at this intersection) and bug spray are also a good thing to bring along. 🙂

Once we finish seeing our athletes on their second bike loop, we’ll then head back into Madison and park ourselves in one of the many ramps near State St. somewhere around the Wisconsin Brewing Tap Haus in the 100 block of State St.

Click here for google map to RUN viewing location

We’ll be able to see the athletes several times on the run from this spot since it’s also a 2 loop run course. We’ll have dinner at the Wisconsin Brewing Tap Haus or somewhere on State St.

At some point after our athletes have headed back out for the their second loop on the run course, we’ll head down to the finish line area and spend the rest of the night re-connecting with our athletes behind the finish line area where they exit with their medals. We basically hangout, celebrate, take pictures and have fun with the ET Family until our final athlete finishes. It’s an emotional end to an epic day. There is no place on earth like Athlete Exit on an Ironman day! 🙂

Click here to download and print a pdf version of this guide.