Ironman Louisville - TriathlonFull Ironman

Swim started off good, went out almost exactly at 7:30, so it would be easy to calculate my time the rest of the day. Swim upstream was a bit congested, coming up on a few people. It was difficult sometime to tell where a person was it you did not look up. You could feel you were getting a draft, but could not see much in the not so clear water. It took longer than expcted to get to the turnaround point, remembered looking at watch and seeing 26 minutes. The traffic cleared on the way downstream as I stayed just left of the bouy line. I found myself drifting left a few times, but not too bad. Swim down stream seemed much quicker as the bridges were nice landmarks to swim to. Finish was congested again, slipped getting up on stairs even with all the helpers.

Get in line a little sooner, more swimming...

OK transition, but took too long. Took a while to clean off feet in tent. Did not have towel, so grabbed whatever I could find in tent.

Put a towel and a water bottle in T1 bag. I do this at normal tri's not sure why I did not have with me this time???

Started out good on the bike, passed many people without too much effort during the first part of the ride, mostly due to the TT swim start. Once I hit the hills on the little out and back section i just kept a constant effort on the downhills and uphills. Making the downhills very fast. I managed to get thru traffic well on the downhills, no real problems at the high speeds except one guy who almost ran me into oncoming traffic when he drifted to the center with no one on his right side, but it only happened once in the entire ride, so very happy with that. The uphills were lsow just keeping a high cadence and watching hr and trying to not exceed 160. The loop had non stop ups and downs and I kept the same pace strategy one I hit all the rollers, keeping costant effort thru ups and downs, no power meter, jsut perceived efort and the trusty HR monitor. Stopped at special needs the first lap and grabbed a couple bottles, gels and a powrebar. Coming up to it I was thinking, man this is early for a SN stop, but I stopped anyway. I left a full bottle for the 2nd lap as all my bottles and cages were now full. Gogin thru the small town was nice with all the spectators and the announce, gave you a littel extra mental boost. Once we turned off onto the narrow road it got a bit more difficult. short fast dwonhills followed by long uphills, probably the hardest mentally on the course for me. The rest of the lap seemed to flattedn out a little with longer rolling hills up and dwonnothing to steep except maybe one or two spots. 2nd lap was similar to first, except the traffic thinned out and I was starting to get a little tired, slowing slightly. I knew I was slowing slightly, but didn't want to burn myself out for the run so I really watched the PE and HR to not hurt the legs. Once the 2nd loop was finished the rest of the way back seemed to take forever. once I hit the flat road again it was nice, able to push a littel harder and get the speed up again.

Work on leg strength a bit more, and of course, more endurance.

Changed socks, put on calf sleeves, which took a while. Put the first sleeve on and realized I had done it backwards., but wasn't about to take it back off, so I put the 2nd one on the same way. Looked a bit funny, but felt fine. Took my food bag and grabbed a bottle on the way out. When i got to the sunscreen tent I was the only racer there, so i got way more sun screen than I probably needed and looked like a ghost for a while, as several of the volunteers joined in. We were all laughing when I left.

Put calf sleeves on the right way... Change out of biking shorts

Run started out rough with my right hamstring cramping badly just out of transition almost sending me to the ground. Had to stop briefly and stretch it. After about 100 yds it freed itself up enough to run more normally. My footpod was acting up already, so I was running almost purely off HR, keeping it between 140 and 150. First 7 miles went ok. I got 2 sponges, water and poweraid at every aid station trying to stay cool and hydrated. I also took a gel every 40 minutes or so. ABout mile 8 my left hamstring started to cramp up, so I needed to stop briefly and stretch again, but not more than 10 sec. Both were feeling tight after that and starting taking some longer strides to keep them stretched. made it too the halfway point and saw the wife and the finish line with some conflicting emotions, one thinking home cruel it was being only 50 yards from the finish the other was seeing the wife and giving her a kiss as I ran by. I was still running at a consistant pace at this time not having neede to slow at all except for the hamstring issues, which happened again at mile 20, except both this time. Again a brief stretch and long strides after. At the final turn around decided to pick the pace up a bit and let my Hr get a little higher. I felt ok all the way back, although I don't think I was running much faster than before. I got to the finish line and slowed a bit letting the person I was catching go thru the line alone, then crossed the line. Not sure if I have ever felt so relieved.

Overall run was good, with 2nd half split time being only slighly slower than first half.

Walk to convention center for a massage and food.


First IM, not knowing how hard to push. Not changing out of my bike shorts for the run. Had used them for 1/2's without an issue, but the full created some very painful chafing issues during/after race, still hurting 5 days later.


Great race, well organized.