Ironman Louisville - TriathlonFull Ironman

I saw Craig in the water and knew Heidi got in after me, but I couldn't find Brad. I started swimming and kept Heidi within sight. It was pretty easy since there weren't a lot of females and we had white caps versus the guy's red. As we swam in the channel, we were swimming at the sun. It was so weird..we'd swim through really warm pockets and then freezing pockets. And sometimes, the light would make the water really bright and other times, the water was nearly black. Heidi and I were still together. I hadn't seen Craig since the swim start and never saw Brad. As we got past the island, there were people standing. I wasn't sure if it was too shallow to swim and I stepped down. So gross! It was like jello pudding! I kept on swimming. We rounded the red bouy and turned down river with the current. I noticed the day before that there was more chop as we swam with the current. I took a dramamine to try to keep from feeling the small chop. Not sure why, but I am pretty sensitive to waves even if they're small. Heidi was not far behind me, but I was having a hard time seeing her since she was over my left shoulder and that was where the sun was. We passed the parked barges and then I started looking for Brad and Craig. Since this was a non-wetsuit swim, I figured I might be able to find one of them. Brad had on a black underarmor shirt and his goggle straps under his cap. I looked to my right and actually found him! I tried yelling his name as I worked my way over to him. He finally looked up and I said I was with Heidi. He looked at me and then kept swimming. I found out later on the run he didn't realize it was me. Not sure how since we stopped and talked, but he kept on swimming.
I regrouped with Heidi. I really wanted to stay together the entire swim, regardless of pace, so we could be in T1 together.
At one point, I really had to pee, but couldn't do it while swimming. I managed to stop and float around until I could start peeing. So much more comfortable!
We went under the two bridges and I knew from my swim from the day before that I should be ~10 minutes from the finish. I looked at my watch and knew this was a slower swim, but I felt relaxed the entire time and never felt like I was pushing it.
Somewhere under the bridges I lost Heidi and every female looked the same. I figured I'd wait for her in the T1 tent. I rounded the last red bouy and climbed up the stairs to the swim exit. As I ran and took off my cap and goggles, I heard them call my name.

Nothing. A comfortable swim. I went with the clear goggles versus tinted and I felt like that was a good decision.
I got out of the water feeling good and not exhausted. Just thirsty.

The transition run was interesting. You run up the sidewalk, over a bridge, down stairs, down a sidewalk, grab you bag and go into the tent.
I heard Sissy yelling for me as I was near the bridge. Since I wanted to wait for Heidi, I stopped to chat with Sissy. I had to pee again and did so on the bridge. Oh well. :)
Sissy said Brad was just a minute or two in front of me and she hadn't seen Heidi yet. We spotted Heidi's purple bikini and I joined her in the jog to our bags. We had one volunteer helping us both which was fine. She was really nice.
On with the bike jersey, bike shorts, etc and we left the tent together. I saw Brad on the side of the transition area talking to Sissy. We found our bikes and met at the mount line.

I guess hustle, but I wasn't too concerned.

We drove the course the day before and found a gas station at mile 3 where we'd meet. Brad, Heidi and I were together and we picked Craig up who was waiting for us. Our plan for the day was to stick together, leap frog and ride legally (no drafting).

The first part of the course is net uphill. I took it easy and tried to just spin up the hills. We hit the OAB and I could feel I was starting to get a headache. My stomach also felt off. I took two Excedrin and kept drinking water, but backed off of the GU20. Ernie passed me somewhere out there and it was good to see him out on the course. Brad, Heidi, Craig and I continued to leapfrog.

My stomach continued to feel off. It felt like I wasn't digesting anything. I kept on my nutrition and tried to eat bananas at every aid station for the calories. I would try to spin up the hills, but they made my stomach more upset, even with little effort. We rode through LaGrange and I heard Sissy yelling for us. It was a neat little festival similar to Verona at IM Wisconsin.

I was glad I drove the course the day before because it helped me visualize where I was out there. The first half of the bike went really slowly. We hit the half way mark and then turned left for the second loop. It felt better to know we were on the back half of the ride. We stopped for our special needs bags. I only had a tube and C02, but still took it. Around mile 50 I gave a guy a C02 who was on the side of the road with a flat. Reapplied chamois butter at the SN area and took some salt. I still had a headache and had taken tylenol with the salt.

We hit LaGrange again and heard Sissy yelling her head off. We stopped on the side of the road and chatted with her, Zeph, Amy and Ben for a few. Was definately a mental pick me up to see our spectators.

My headache was not getting worse. When we made the final left turn for long stretch home (net downhill), my legs were getting heavy. I sipped some GU20, but tried to continue to drink water. I was really warm and even though it was cool outside, I kept squirting water over my head.

Made the final turn onto River Road and enjoyed the cruise back to transition with Brad, Heidi and Craig. We passed our gas station and I knew we had 3 miles to go. We were chatting the final miles in and got our plan to ride in together and meet up at the start of the run.

Overall, a solid bike for me. Time includes stops. And even with that, it is around a :40-:45 minute PR for the IM bike for me. I feel like I should have drank more as my body temp was up. Didn't eat that much GU. I had a lot left over. I ate a ton of banans and GU chomps.

It was a fun bike and felt like a training ride. It was sometimes hard to stick as together as we would have liked. I would think they'd be behind me, but didn't want to take my eyes off the road to check. Still a good day, despite the minor stomach and headache.

I tried to thank every volunteer out there. They were so great! At rest stop #4, they would hold your bike, restock your liquids and they had kids offering "Restroom Refreshments" as you waited in line.

Given our goals for this race, I would have tried to stick together more. Overall, a good ride for me. Was an improvement over past IM bikes, but I still have some improvement in me.

Pulled into the transition area with Brad, Heidi and Craig. Heidi and I grabbed our bags and had volunteers help us with our stuff. They were awesome...rebagged our stuff, filled our water bottles, etc.
I did a full clothing change into tri shorts and my Zoot/GU tri top. I grabbed two chocolate chip cookies in the tent and they were SO GOOD! We met up with Brad and Craig near the port-o-potties and used them before starting the run.
We started an easy run in the chute to the run exit.

Hustle if I was concerned with my time. I was much slower than Heidi, but I wanted to make sure I had everything.

We started with the plan of doing an 8 run: 2 walk. Craig was having stomach issues and was having trouble getting his HR low. Brad's knee was hurting pretty badly right off the bat. We ran through town and nearly immediately saw Sissy and Zeph at the foot of the bridge. I felt good starting the run. We started our OAB on the bridge and dropped to a walk before mile 1 to get Craig's HR down. Nothing was really working so we ditched the 8:2 and ran wen we could and walked the rest.

We saw Amy and Ben with drums before mile 3. Such a great sight! We kept a balance of running and walking until the turn around. We were having a great time...telling rude and crude stories along the way...laughing our asses off and probably pissing some athletes off.

Around mile 8 or so, Craig took a GU which didn't agree with him and prompty puked it up. We were all OK with walking, but were on a mission to get to the first run cutoff...mile 14 by 9:30pm.

I kept sipping water and was taking some GU, but that would later prove to be not enough. At the aid stations, I would eat grapes and pretzels...calories, but not a whole lot.

We got to the inspiration station and laughed at the bizarre messages some random people put in for us.

We chugged along, enjoying the nice temps and the company. We got to Special Needs and Heidi was excited as she gave us all little presents in our bags. We all had crazy hats from when Craig and Amy were in France watching the Tour. Craig had an apple juice bottle of beer. Brad had condoms and a penis straw and I had a small bag of dirt with a small piece of fleece (representing a dirt nap). All very, very funny and inside jokes.

We saw Sissy and Amy with Ben on the beginning of our 2nd lap. We did some small segments of running, but mostly walked the 2nd lap. The sun was down and the temp was dropping, but I was still really warm. My stomach felt off for nearly the entire run. In the beginning, I was eating GU, but stopped that since my stomach wasn't feeling it. Around mile 16 or 17, I started to get dizzy/lightheaded. Most likely from not eating. I was actually walking on the yellow line in the middle of the road to walk straight. At one point, I told Brad I wanted to sit down. I knew mentally I couldn't, but physically, I wanted to sit.

Somewhere near Churchill Downs, I went into a port-o-potty and found an unopened pack of GU Chomps. I reached a whole new low and actually ate food I found in a port-o-potty. I drank some gatorade and later some chicken broth and a few miles down the road, I was feeling better again with no more dizziness. I was still really warm and gave Brad my long sleeved shirt that was tied around my waist. I also was eating ice to try to stay cool. The 4 of us kept a steady pace and picked up a few other athletes along the way.

The course was pretty empty...partly from the time of night, but also from the time trial start. We were ticking off the miles and were all looking forward to being back in town. Unlike the IMFL course, this run course had very few turns which made it feel like you were going on forever. We approached mile 25 and knew we were almost there. All along the run course there were cardboard signs attached to poles and trees that said, "No stopping Sunday". It was really there for car traffic, but we were entertained by the meaning behind the signs for the athletes on the run course. Brad grabbed a sign and carried it with us to the finish line. We picked up the walking pace and made the left and then right turn to be on 4th. You could see and hear the finish line. We saw some athletes running or walking in front of us and we stopped and moved to the side of the road to let one last guy pass us so we could have the finish chute to ourselves. While we had walked the last however many miles, the four of us ran our way down the chute. I was on the end and was high-5'ing people and had the biggest smile on my face. You really have tunnel vision in an IM finishers chute. Apparently Mike Reilly was in the chute waving a towel. I didn't even notice him. We crossed the finish line together...we had fun doing it and are all still friends after the experience.

For IM #1 and 2, I stopped eating on the run. I learned what worked for IM #3 and didn't stick to the same plan for part of this IM run. I need to continually eat on schedule...whether I am running or walking. Disappointed in myself for not sticking to a plan I know works, but I managed to get back on track by the end.

We hobbled to get our finisher's t-shirts. They ended up running out of hats and are going to be sending them to us.

We found Sissy and Zephyr and walked over to the convention center to get our clothes and food. They were nearly out of food by the time we got there and I only had a few sips of diet coke.

Craig went up to the hotel room and the rest of us went to the finish line to cheer on the last athletes coming in before midnight.

The finish line was a huge party and was a lot of fun, even though it was a small area (no real bleachers). Brad, Sissy, Zeph and I walked down to the Galt House to return Brad's GPS device. In the lobby a woman gave us a free pepperoni pizza since Papa John's messed up their order. Couldn't have worked out better!


Stomach issues on the bike for me and on the bike and run for Craig.


IM #4 for me is in the books. We started the race with the goals to finish together and that's what we did. There were highs and lows of the day for all of us (well, maybe not for Heidi), but we worked together and pushed through.

Pros: Doing an IM with 3 of your closest friends, scenic bike course, top notch volunteers, all of the perks that come with an IM

Cons: Time trial swim start (not a fan), ran out of post-race pizza along with hats, run course was scenic, but boring.

Louisville is a fun little town, but the next time I go back would be for the Kentucky Derby.