Ironman Louisville - TriathlonFull Ironman

I had not swam in OW other than the practice swim in over 1 year but I felt good heading to the dock. You were basically a full spring jumping in. I made sure I was not going to land on anyone and took my leap. I am not a fan of jumping into water and getting it up my nose but I did a good job of not sinking and took off. I did my best job to stay outside to avoid the congestion. I knew I was swimming farther than I needed to but figured I was safer doing this. Only had minimal bumping other than the guy who stop and got a fist of mine in the back of his head. Felt good to the turn but never really pushed. Noticed the sand bar near the turn around and alot of people walking. I just tried to keep my elbows up and kept swimming. Made the turn in around 27 minutes which seemed slow but I just kept swimming. Still kept to the outside but slowly drifted to the buoys. The rest of the swim seemed to take forever. I could see the changing tents but they seemed too be miles away and not fast approaching. Slowly though they got closer and closer. The crowd got a little more congested near the exit so I just took my time. No reason to get gased at the end of the swim. Hit the stairs and looked at my watch. 1:11 much better than I thought. After the turn I was thinking I would be in at 1:20-1:30.

Sleep on the great lawn. I could have same harder but really what would have been the point. Definately like the time trial start.

1327 fastest. Avg was just under 8'.

Did not swim with my tri top since it was pretty lose. I had to stick my nutrition in my pockets and put on more sun screen plus made a quick pit stop before grabbing my bike.

Find a tri top that was tight with big pocket and just pee on my bike.

Going into the race and seeing the elevation chart and seeing splits from last year I expected the first 25 or 30 miles to be slow and the last 25 or 30 to be the fast of the day. I was way off on this.

Left out of transition and just tried to keep my HR down. I kept waiting for there to be hills and there were none until the out and back section. This part of the course was a little dangerous since there was 2 way traffic and people hitting the down hills hard. Definately have to be careful here. The hills here were steep but short and my training definately helped me here. At the second aid station there was girl who had wrecked hard so people slowed down to avoid her. At each aid station I was filling my aero bottle up with Powerbar perform in one compartment and water in the other and in the middle eating Cliff Bars, PB Crackers and granola bars. Once My food dwindled down I started grabbing extra fluids. I also took salt tabs about every 20 minutes. I had 2 extra water bottles on my bike as well. One with Mountain Dew for a mile 80 pick-me-up and one with 2 extra tubes and CO2 (after last year's tack incident I was paranoid).

Got to the La Grange viewing area averaging over 19mph and definately did not expect this. La Grange was very cool, they had barracades up for viewers to stand behinds so I just soft pedaled and soaked it all in. I kept getting concerned on the bike loop that I messed up and was lost since you would pass the 2nd loop distance markers before the first loop but figured there was not way I could get lost with that many people. I just keep taking it easy and tried not to push to hard. I realized part way through the 1st loop that there were be a head wind heading back to town so my speed would not go up like I had hoped. I just kept riding and filling my aero bottles and tried to enjoy it all.

People were definately having a hard time out there though. You could not go half a mile without someone laying on the side of the road from the heat or fixing their bike. I am not sure why there were so many flats I thought the roads were in awesome shape and very smooth.

I never really notice the heat but I was trying to dump water on my head at aid stations to keep cool. I started feeling sluggish around mile 70 and thought about drinking my MD then but ended up holding off until 80. Granted it was nice and warm at this point but definately helped. Around mile 90 while heading home I notice some small cramping in my groin so I took extra salt tabs and started to take it easy. Major cramps never materialized though which is good.

Hit the road headed back to transition, got out of my shoes early and got mentally ready to run. It was nice to have the volunteers grab your bike and not have to rack it.

Drive the course before hand and not bring the extra bottle with tubes since I ended up not needing them.

565 fastest. Avg 9:32.

I was not changing clothes so I just had to put on my running shoes, grab my hat and hand held water bottle (best decision I made all day).

I had no idea what to expect with the run. I had done 5 centuries this summer with runs after and they all were under 9:30 pace so I thought I would be able to run at a decent pace at least for a while but I had not cramped at all this summer either. Also, I had been running with heavy clothes on trying to get used to the heat and this ended up being a good idea as well.

My initial goal was to try and run a few 9:00 miles (that quickly went away) and run around a 2' half-mary and then do what ever till the end. I knew quickly this would not happen.

I left transition and with all the people around I was running pretty good until I made the turn onto the bride. I started to cramp in my groin again, which fortunately seems to be easy to run though, so I walked up the little incline on the bridge to the first aid station. From this point I ran at around 9:30 pace as long as I could and then would walk when the cramping hit. At each aid station my goal was to dump ice water soaked sponges onto my head, grab some liquids and food, fill my water bottle with ice and water to squeeze on my body in between aid stations and then more ice sponges before leaving.

This plan worked great but I really could not sustain a run for a long time but knew I would finish so at this point I was not worried.

I kept chugging along and stayed under the trees for shade. There was actually more shade than I thought on the course which was nice.

Maybe change socks so I did not blister.

Don't know if I could have done anything differnet other than ride the bike slower but I think in the end my time would have been the same.

The only reason I say I had a good run is it was an IM Marathon. If I ever run a marathon at this pace it would be bad.

The last 6.5 miles of the run was my warm down.

Got my medal, shirt and hat and my finisher photo and then headed into the LICC to get some food and use the bathroom.

Wish I would have hung out here more after the race to soak it up but my cheering crew of two was getting tired.


Living in Western PA and having cooler temps and knees that I was afraid to hurt training.


This was a great race with a few exceptions. I can't say enough about the volunteers and spectators. The time trial swim start is great if you are not a fan of getting beat up while swimming but part of me wishes I would have done a mass start IM.

I highly recommend this race just be prepared to be warm.

One week later I feel great. The first few days were a little slow but not bad. I need to get back to training this weekend but just cut it down dramatically to please the family.

This was great experience that I would definately like to do again (I just don't want to train for one again).

I ended up with my goal time but placed higher than expected. % Below. I thought maybe top 1/2 definately not top 1/3. Probably top 1/4 when you thrown DNF's in the mix.

AG Overall
Swim 26% 23%
Bike 50% 39%
Run 44% 40%
Overall 41% 32%