Ironman Louisville - TriathlonFull Ironman

Jumping off the dock was fun! Off I go!! Woo-Hoo!! This was a pretty uneventful swim. My third IM swim and by far the easiest. Very little contact, nice smooth strokes. I did stop on a sand bar (toward the end of Towhead Island) and use the bathroom...lol. I cannot imagine that I was the only one! I had to pee so bad while in line, but did not want to get out of line and wait in the even longer porta potty line, so I just decided to take my first pee break in the River! The swim out in the river was cool, just so much open space....weeeee! I sighted off the Red Roof of the Galt house and the PNC bank building and the next thing you know.....red finish buoy ahead! The current was a little rougher here than I expected, I had to swim hard to stay in line for the exit. A volunteer reached out and grabbed my arm and whoop, up I went. I checked my watch...omg, under 1:10! Nice! My goal was 1:10 - 1:15.

Nothing.

I saw my friends Bob & Susan while running toward T1. Yay! I'm gald they made it in. Walked to get my bag, just tried to adjust to being upright again. Not much to report here, I did not change between swim and bike this year, just dried off a little, applied some chamois butter, helmet, bike shoes, sunglasses.....off to bike 112 miles! Goal time was under 10:00. So far, so good.

Nothing.

I had ridden this course twice in training and am so, so glad that I did. I felt very prepared for the course, knew exactly what was coming and executed pretty close to my plan. The course can be pretty fast at the beginning, but I held back knowing what was to come. Started sipping water immediately and consistantly. Started my nutrition about 45 minutes in. Beautiful, sunny day; big, white, fluffy clouds in the sky (for the sun to hide behind a little!). Gonna be a great ride....I can feel it!

Ok, so we hit the out and back. Fun! Be careful, though, very careful. People are everywhere here. I move to the right and stay there (I'm a decent swimmer and a weaker biker ~ I know where I belong!). I find my groove and just ride, spin up the hills, cruise down the other side. There is a water stop at the turn-around of the out and back....really? I know we need one, but just does not seem like a good place. There is a wreck there, a couple people in the ditch I think....don't want to look too much and make things worse. Plenty of volunteers there to help, I hope everyone is ok. Woosh, turn around, water, banana, out the other side. Bike aid stations make me nervous, always happy to get through them. On the way out, a guy asked me "how many times do we have to do this part?" "just once" I was happy to report and he was equally as happy to hear!

Ok, next thing you know, time for the 1st loop. Nice, little patch of rollers here at the beginning, and just as soon as you get sick of them....bam, they are over...whew! Into LaGrange...so fun here, lots of people everywhere! Hey, I heard my name announced! Then screams and hollers.....there's my crew....Brian, Bob & Susan! Yay...I pump my arm and give the thumbs up! Off to Ballard School Road, couple big hills here and some more rollers on Old Sligo and Lesprit Parkway.....Hey, theres the Running Spot tent (that's the big Running group here in Cincy, I do some of my run training with them). They give me some big cheers and off I go!

I kept up with my nutrition very well. I took my honey stingers as planned (5 of them overall), had a banana at almost every aid station, sipped water constantly. I had my liquid fuel (EFS powder) broken down into three containers (one I picked up at SN) and they were to be consumed one bottle to each 2 hours and 20 minutes. I stuck with that exactly. Off to ride the second loop.

I stopped to pee at the last aid station before SN (was afraid there would be a long line there), hopped off my bike, a volunteer held it for me, did my thing (oops! I forgot to grab my little packet of chamois butter from my bento box....oh well) and back on the bike I went. A few miles later, I stopped at SN, refilled my fuel, munched on a couple cheez-its, wiped down with a power shower wipe and took off. Saw my friends/family again in LaGrange....so awesome to see them again! Running spot tent again, too! This course is full of people. There are spectators everywhere! There were people dressed like devils coaxing you up hills, grim reapers roaming around....locals out on their driveways, kids cheering, bells ringing, music sounding....it was amazing!!

Next thing you know, I'm done with the 2nd loop and heading back in! Oooowwwww....what was that!?! CRaaaaMp....ouch. what the? My inner quad....ugh, I almost had to unclip and pull over. Slowed way down, massaged it with my hand a little, drink, drink, drink...took a honey stinger. That came out of nowhere! The last 20 miles of this course are pretty fast and flat.....I originally was going to make up a little time here, but just decided to ride nice and easy to the end. The quad cramp scared me a little and I wasn't going to anger it anymore! I had an awesome day on the bike....a little slower than my goal, but I felt really good!! My goal time was 7:00.

Nothing, really. I felt prepared, enjoyed the course, nailed my nutrition. Not sure about the cramp, it hurt really bad, but never bothered me again!

Although I enjoyed the bike, I was really happy to get off and leave it behind! I saw Bob & Susan on the way in and then Brian & Tracy (yay...Trac is here!) on the way out! I did a full change in T2. I took my time, wiped down with a power shower wipe, dried off, glide, glide, glide everywhere! My volunteer was awesome, she filled my water bottle with ice water, got me some coke and water to drink, helped me get my sports bra on, put my things away for me...she was great!

Remember that spot on my foot from my sandal early this morning? It was red and swollen now, not too bad, but I made sure to put some glide on it, too. I stopped to use the porta potty before leaving T2. I felt great, clean (well as clean as you can be at this point!) dry and comfortable. It was gonna be a great run, slow and steady was my mantra for the run, slow and steady. Saw my group coming out of T2, high fives all around, feeling great!

Nothing. Goal time was under 10:00 (but really 20:00 for BOTH T1 & T2 combined, so I had some extra time here!). Plus, comfort is always more important to me, especially in T2.

Well, things started off fine. I felt really good getting started on the run, saw my group, told them I felt good, hit the bridge out and back, took it nice and slow from the beginning. My plan was to run nice and slow and walk every aid station (about 30 seconds) taking in a honey stinger chew or two at every aid station.

I felt pretty good for a while (9 or 10 miles), talked a little, but mostly stayed in my plan, enjoyed my surroundings and hoped for a good night.......Nope, not gonna happen...uh, oh...somewhere around mile 11, yep 11 I started having waves of nausea that never went away the rest of the night.

My plan included taking some cola at every other aid station or so and taking chicken broth as soon as it was offered (I LOVED the chicken broth at IMFL last year, so this seemed like a good idea). I was able to get broth somewhere along the first loop, not sure what mile (7 or 8?), but it was before the turn around. Not every station had it yet, but I took a little when I could. I don't think it went over very well this time. I'm not sure, it can be so hard to tell what causes it. By mile 11, I was already starting to walk and felt really bad....oh no, not yet, please not this early.

Ok, so I decided to get to SN and re-evaluate my plan from there. It was just a couple miles away and it felt like eternity. Omg...what am I going to do? Don't panic, just keep moving, always keep moving. I get to SN (finally!) and I just start to cry.....tears just pouring down my face. Oh no, I feel terrible, just terrible. How in the world am I gonna make it another 13.1 miles? That loop was SO long. It just seemed to take forever, even the first time around......A really nice volunteer said "You hang in there girl, we girls here just wish we had the courage that you girls do, you just hang in there." Ok, I wiped my face down with a power shower wipe, grabbed my cheez-its (will try to eat one later) and started to move again. Ugh, this was not going to be easy.

Ok, if I can just get to see my friends/family again then I will feel better. I'm still running a little bit at this point, not alot, but some (and VERY slowly). I get close to the turn around, you run SO close to the finish line, so close that I thought I missed my turn and started to panic a little.....nope, didn't miss it, there is the sign....wow, that was mean. You get close in Florida, too ~ but not THAT close, dang. Ok, family? friends? where the hell are you? I NEED to see them, bad. Oh, there they are....Bob & Susan, hi guys.....where is Brian (my hubby)....there he is. I ran over and laid my head on his shoulder. They were all there now; Brian, Bob, Susan, Tracy & Seth. Omg...I feel like shit. I'm not even really enjoying anything anymore. Trac tells me to eat some cheez-its that I am holding, so I take a couple ~ oh crap, I either have power shower wipe all over my hands or they got mixed in my SN bags....yuck, they tasted like wipes....eeew, thats not gonna help at all!

I tell everyone that I'm gonna finish ~ they KNOW I'm gonna finish, but it's gonna be a LONG night and I apologize in advance for making them wait so long...lol. They all give me words of encouragement and I take a deep breath, think to myself 'ok, I CAN do this, run if I can, walk if I have to, just keep moving, ALWAYS keep moving....and NEVER sit down....NEVER sit down'.

Off I go, knowing this is going to be one of the hardest things I have ever done, but it will be SO worth it in the end. I can honestly not recount those final 12 miles in much detail. The nausea was bad, then would lighten up a bit, I would take a grape here, a pretzel there, not much was going in....always afraid to make things worse. At one point, the nausea got so bad that just tipping my cup up to my mouth gave me motion sickness. Then, it would fade away a little. I walked most of those last 12 miles.

I tried to run a little about mile 16 or 17, I "ran" for two or three minutes and suffered the next three miles because of it. Nope, not gonna happen. I walked to the final turn around, 10K to go. Only 6.2 miles and I would finish this race. I had plenty of time. I dropped my time goal a long, long time ago. There were people laying on the side of the road.....ambulances were everywhere.....just keep moving, just keep moving. I wanted to stop, I wanted to sit down just for a minute...NO! NO! just keep moving, just keep moving.

I decided to try some orange slices at this point, I was barely chewing on ice and I needed something else. Ok, that tasted ok. Keep moving, oh, I perked up a little, just a little. Ok, orange slices it is then! I had one or two now at every aid station, they helped. I even picked up a little "run" a couple of times here and there. VERY, VERY slow, do NOT screw this up now. Oh, my feet hurt so bad and my neck...ouch. I was hunched over quite a bit for a while, it just felt better.

Oh....my....this was THE longest few miles.....my garmin died, I had no idea what mile I was on, keep moving girl just keep moving. Mile 25!?! was that the sign for mile 25, oh goodness, I'm SO close, yet SO far away. I really wanted to stop now. My body just ached, my feet hurt so bad and I just felt SO sick to my stomach. It took me 23:58 to get from mile 25.04 to the finish.....What the hell was I doing!?!

I got to the turn onto Chestnut and could hear the finish line but couldn't really pick up the pace, just keep going, SO close, almost there! People were congratulating me...."you did it, you are right there, a little more, congratulations" A spectator said "Run to the light, run to the light" ha, ha, that made me smile a little.....I turned the corner onto 4th street and about broke down, the street turns into bricks and was very hard to manage at this point.....then, There it was.....the lights, the people, the screaming, I could hear so much! I didn't look around too much, just straight ahead....the motion sickness was bad, straight ahead, the finish....the lights, the screaming....oh, I made it, I made it!! I was "running" just a little bit, just a little bit......the lights were SO bright, the people just amazing!! I made it!! Arms up, smile, smile! I made it!! WOO-HOO! STACIE TUMLIN....you ARE an IRONMAN!

I don't know what caused the nausea. I felt great on the bike, did not push too hard, managed my nutrition well. I just don't know what happened or what to do to fix it! I was recently diagnosed with IBS and I'm sure this was a factor, just haven't had a lot of opportunity to work with it. My goal time was 5:00 - 5:30. Oh well, just SO glad to finish!

My catchers name was "Gary" ~ super nice guy....thanks Gary! He walked me through the chute, got my stuff for me, helped me get my picture taken, made sure I was ok and then released me to my group.

Remember that "spot" on my foot this morning? When I took off my shoe, it was red and swollen and VERY painful! Funny how something so small can turn into something SO big after 140.6 miles!!

Talked with my friends/family! Tracy & Seth went and got my bike and gear bags ~ Thank guys! No WAY I could have gone down there to get them!


Severe nausea!


This was an amazing race! The volunteers are WONDERFUL!! I cannot believe how awesome everyone is....the ENTIRE time! It is such a long day for people to be out there and stay positive. I was met with happy, perky, positive people at EVERY aid station, EVERY time! THANK YOU.....we could NOT do this without YOU!!