I am a Paralympian. There, got the hard part out, now maybe after a month of trying to find the words, I can finally sit down and write about one of the most unique and exclusive experiences in all of sport. You might be wondering how we made the team, Aaron* and I, especially if […]
Author Archives: Ben
Victory at Dublin Ironman 70.3
This weekend I won a half Ironman in Ireland. Yes, you heard correctly. I traveled all the way to Dublin for an Ironman 70.3. It was a long way to go, but after Aaron and I failed to qualify for Rio I took a peak at what races I could do the rest of the […]
Panasonic New York City Triathlon 2016
My favorite triathlon is still the New York City Triathlon. This year was my sixth time racing in the Big Apple and the experience of racing entirely in the river, highway and streets of Manhattan still thrills me. It’s thrilling to have the city shut down so that we can use the streets as our […]
Paralympic Cycling Trials with Aaron Scheidies
As Aaron and I headed out for the fourth and final lap of the Paralympic Trials TT course, the announcer was out of his seat practically yelling with enthusiasm into the mic, “Right now Aaron Scheidies and Ben Collins are continuing to post the fastest splits of the day for this course, but this lap […]
Ironman African Championships
I did my second full distance Ironman in Port Elizabeth South Africa on April 10th. Unlike my first Ironman, I actually trained for this one and came with the intent of being competitive in the race. Still, heat preparation proved lacking, and as the mercury rose in the second half of the race I dropped from […]
Life Is Good
In the past year I haven’t posted much outside of race reports. It is a combination of reasons, mainly that I have been extremely pressed for time, and that my attitude toward racing was pretty crappy (if you don’t have anything nice to say…). Both of those factors have changed this year, and now I […]
Motorola Ironman 70.3 Buenos Aires
I added Buenos Aires to my race schedule at the last minute. It fit into the “Ben Collins Race Criteria (v2016)†. The criteria are simple. This year I’m only doing races in places I want to travel to, and that sound like fun to me. I’m also putting a high weight on races I […]
Victory at Garmin Israman 113
Friday I won my second race of 2016, the Garmin Israman 113 Triathlon, with a time of 4:27:12. While I won with a substantial margin over Evert Scheltinga (4:36:38) and his brother Deiderik (4:41:10) of the Netherlands, I can say that without a doubt the course was the most challenging of any triathlon I’ve done. […]
Herbalife Ironman 70.3 Pucón
I decided to start the year off early in 2016. After flatting out of Austin 70.3, I didn’t feel like waiting very long before I gave it another shot. Ironman 70.3 Pucón, I was told, is one of the “can’t miss†races for any triathlon career, so I was excited to get racing again. While […]
Pietermaritzburg Para-Cycling World Cup
After Ironman 70.3 World Champs I stayed in Germany and spent a solid week riding my bike. I was nervous. After hearing Aaron’s stories from the summer’s world cups in Europe I wasn’t sure how I would handle road racing on a tandem. I was pretty confident in the time trial, but piloting a tandem […]