Ironman Louisville - TriathlonFull Ironman

As my race began, I felt great. My swim stroke had been feeling awesome during my last two weeks of my training and today was no different. I was cruising – actually gliding effortlessly. I would occasionally sight forward to not run into anybody, but for the most part, I had clear water as we made it through the channel. As we made it the turn into the main part of the Ohio River, I took a quick look at my watch and it said 24 minutes. I knew it was a little slower than I had hoped, but I was going again the current and now I was going the rest of the swim with the current. I picked a large building in the distance to sight off. After a couple minutes in the main part of river, my mind started wandering and I started thinking about everything – all of my training, my wife, my friends at BT, and my trip to Tortola earlier this year. All good thoughts - I was in a good place. After a few minutes, I remembered I needed to sight, and I am glad I did. Not because I was off line, but because I noticed a bunch of hot air balloons in the air over the riverbanks. How cool was that! As far as the swim, I was right on, swimming dead straight. I started to sight about every five minutes. As we approached the swim finish, the entire Louisville side of the river was lined with people screaming, cheering and yelling. The next thing I know, the volunteer grabs my arms and pulls me up the steps. My ironman swim was done! As I am running to transition, I feel like a million bucks! There are people four and five deep lining both sides of the gates. They are awesome. What energy!

Nothing

Transition was pretty uneventful. I grabbed my bag, headed into the change tent and threw some Body Glide on my feet, put on my sunglasses, helmet and shoes and I was off. As I was running out, I saw Jeanne and Bill, but unfortunately missed Sara.

Nothing

It’s time to start the part that was my biggest fear – the bike. Sara and I rode the course
the day before and it was hilly. When people say big, endless rollers, with a few hills, they aren’t kidding. My Garmin registered just over 4100 feet of climbing. As I head out, again the crowd is amazing! People everywhere. Yelling, screaming, cheering holding up encouraging signs. It was so invigorating. I started on the only flat part of the course – River Road. It should have been a good time to let my heart rate come down, but it stayed in the 150’s and wouldn’t come down. I think it was just from the adrenaline flowing. I felt like I was barely pedaling, but was averaging around 20-21 mph. River Road lasted for about 10 miles, and then intersected with Hwy 42. I made a left on 42 and enjoyed the last few sections of flats before the first hill. It didn’t feel too bad. I just put it in a low gear and spun up it. After a few miles of constant rollers, I made the left onto 1694 where the real “hill” was. The fun part was that the first section is flat, and then goes into a screaming downhill, I tucked in my aerobars and hit 48 mph. That was scary, but so much fun. What a rush. Once we hit the bottom, we had our first sustained climb. It was steep and about a mile and half until we reached the turn around before doing it in reverse. As I was climbing, I saw some guys coming down the other side who were still pedaling in a full tuck. I bet they hit close to 60 mph. The downhill section was white knuckle scary, but so much fun. As I climbed out, I was still feeling good. My heart rate only went up about 8 bpm on the climb. I was just sitting and spinning. Once we finished up 1694, we made a right hand turn onto 42, which took us to 393 where the loop began. Again, it was just endless rollers – big rolling hills. Nothing major happened here. At this point, we were about 30 miles into the ride and my legs felt great. After another turn onto 146, we made the ride into LaGrange. They have an “Ironman Festival” during the race. They entire downtown area was lined with people three and four deep screaming, yelling and cheering as you went flying by. As I was going by, I heard the announcer say “And here comes Chris Dill from South Carolina. Let’s hear it for him!!” The crowd went nuts!! What an experience!! The good thing was that I got to do it again on the second loop! The next turn took us to Old Ballard School Road. It was a narrow road that was barely wide enough to fit one car on, never mind two. It was a shallow grade climb which lead to a steeper climb near the end. During this entire time, I have been right on schedule with my nutrition. I was taking Infinit, which has all I need (calories, carbs, electrolytes, etc.) and chasing it with water. I was consuming about one full bottle of water every ten miles. I was feeling great. OBS Road eventually ran into Old Sligo where there was a nice hill. I actually had to get out of my saddle for this one and climb. Of course, that’s where the Ironman film crew was set up – right where everyone was struggling. No big deal. The rest of first loop was uneventful. There was a pretty significant headwind on 42 on the way back in that made things tough. The second loop began great. I was feeling awesome. I flew through LaGrange – same crazy crowd. Again, they were very invigorating. All things were great until I reached the aid station around mile 75. I passed the people handing out Perform and Powerbars looking for water. Then I hear a volunteer say they were out of water. What???? It’s almost 100 degrees and you are out of water???? On the second loop, I probably saw at least 50 people sitting on the side of the road. I assume because of the heat. At the last table, I grabbed a PB Perform, which I can’t stand. It doesn’t sit well in my stomach to begin with and I was already at my maximum calorie limit with my Infinit. Oh boy. This could be trouble, but I needed fluids. After a few sips of the Perform, I could tell things were not working out and by mile 80, I felt like somebody just grabbed my stomach and was twisting it like a wet towel. Then, to top things off, my left knee began to hurt. This was the same pain that caused my to stop running for five weeks back at the beginning of my IM training. It hurt so much I had a hard time pressing the pedal down. I was praying this would just go away, but it would not. If this hurt now, how in the world am I going to run a marathon? After about three miles of this, I began to have thoughts of not finishing the bike. I actually began to get tears in my eyes. Other than my knee and my stomach, I felt like a rock star. The doc said it could come back at any time and it did – at the worst possible time. After a few minutes someone named Chris riding the same bike I was riding pulled up beside me and asked how I was doing. I told him not well. We chatted for a few minutes and he told me to keep pushing and I did. I did my best to just put the pain out of my mind. Eventually it went away. As I make my way past 1694, on my way back into town, my I feel my left groin muscle begin to cramp. Luckily there was one aid station left which had water. I took two bottles, hoping to get them both down before the end of the bike. I tried taking in more Infinit. It wasn’t working. As I hit mile 101, my leg is cramping even worse and at mile 110, it locks up. My leg is stiff as a board and I can’t even bend it. I pull over to try the rest of my water. I just had two miles left until I can hit up my electrolyte pills. As I am sitting there, on the side of road, I had about five guys ask if I was ok. I told them yes. I knew I only had two miles left so I decided to try to pedal with just my right leg and my left leg just hanging. I did this for a mile then my leg relaxed. I slipped my feet out of my shoes and cruised into transition.


Don't know. I can't plan for the course to be out of water.

Once in transition, I took my time. The first thing I did was pop three electrolyte pills with water and waited a few minutes for them to kick in. I finally made it out and felt a little better. I didn’t have any more cramps, but my stomach was getting worse.

Nothing. I had to take my time. That's what I did to not miss anything.

As I made it out on to the run course, I was able to jog. Just as every other part of the day, the crowd was so supportive. During the run, your number is facing forward and in an IM, your name is printed on your bib. I probably had one hundred people say “Good job Chris. Keep it up.” It felt good to have people say your name after 8 long hours. The first part of the run took you out then over a bridge and back. I walk / ran most of this section. I was doing ok. I was making it. Not fast, but I was going forward. At the second aid station, I had a strange feeling. I actually had to use the bathroom. Holy cow! How great was that! The run / walk continued for the first four miles, then it turned to mostly walking. My stomach was hurting, but I knew I was not as bad as others. From this point on, I heard ambulances about every five minutes. At each aid station, I tried everything from chicken broth, coke, water, pretzels and gels. At mile six, I started walking with a guy named Matt. He and I chatted for a while discussing the race. This was his third IM and he said it was by far the hardest. As we made the turn at mile 8, we decided to run between the aid stations and had some success. At mile 13, I told him to go ahead. I could not keep and did not want to stop him from reaching his goal of sub 13. As we made our way back into town, the crowd was crazy and really got me motivated. I started to run again, but once I started my way back out, my stomach had enough. I stopped at the aid station and asked the volunteer if it was okay if I could use her trashcan. I had to throw up. She said, “Do whatever you need and let me know if you need anything.” There it goes. After about five minutes, I started to feel better and the lead volunteer for that aid station asked if I was okay. I told her, “Yes. I will be fine. I’ll make it,” She said, “I know you will. You are a true inspiration. My name is Jen. Let me know if you need anything” Man did that make me feel good. As I approached mile 15, I came upon one of the scariest scenes I have ever witnessed. The paramedics had just arrived to a guy who had a full seizure and collapsed, hitting his face on the road. There was blood everywhere. It really put things into perspective. At mile 16, I noticed some people walking, but they were walking faster than I. So I dug down and tried to pick up the walking pace. Immediately I felt nauseous. By the next aid station, I was vomiting again. After all this, I could tell I was getting very dehydrated, so I tried everything – coke – nope. Chicken broth – nope. Water – nope. All caused nausea with one sip. Finally I tried just sucking on some ice cubes. It worked the best of all, but then at mile 21 the ice stopped working. I vomited again. I still had five miles to go and it was going to be a long five miles. During my training, I used to think “Good, only five miles to go”. Now, it’s “my gosh, another five miles of walking is going to take me another two hours. How am going to finish this?” Then, at mile 22 I heard something. I heard my name. It was my dad. He knew I should have been finished over an hour ago and walked four miles until he found me. I can’t even begin to tell you how good that was to hear his voice and see him. He immediately called everyone to let them know I was in rough shape, but was okay. We walked and chatted. I was so out of it, once I reached the motivational mile, I almost missed the mat to pull up the message my wife left for me. Luckily I crossed it and read her message, which brought a smile to my face. As I made it to mile 25, I came to the final aid station where I saw Jen, the volunteer who helped me earlier. She said “Hey! I remember you” She gave me a hug and told me to go cross that finish line because I earned the title of Ironman. Right before I made the turn on to Fourth Street, I saw my friend Ann. She was laying on the ground with the three other guys from Greenville’s cell phones wait to report to their families, but she had not seen them yet. Walking down Fourth St, a guy told me to try and run. I told him I would vomit on everybody and that was not the way I want to remember my race. He said just try. I did and I was able to run down the shoot through the finish line to the song “Running on Empty” by Jackson Browne. How ironic.

I don't think there was much I could do.

After the race, they took me straight the medical area where I received 3 IV bags, was able to get some chicken broth in my system and able to keep it down. The doc who was with me said she estimated approximately 1200 people had gone through there today. She said that she loved fitness and is an avid runner, but didn’t know why we do this to ourselves and our body was not made to do those types of things. At that time, I didn’t have an answer, but told her I might see her at the same time and same place next year.


Lack of water on the bike started a chain reaction that I could not overcome.


Overall this was such an amazing experience. It is one I will never forget for as long as I live. With the exception of the water issue, I thought everything was awesome. In the pre race meeting, Mike Reilly mentioned that there were over 3,000 volunteers for this weekend. This race would not exist without them. I tried to thank every single one I saw that day. Also, the people of Louisville were incredible. What a great city. There were all different people everywhere during the entire race. There were people who lived in big mansion size houses to smaller mobile homes sitting out in front cheering and holding motivational signs for the entire race.