Ironman Louisville - TriathlonFull Ironman

As I waited I sipped fluids. I took two Salt-Stick caps about 30 minutes before the start and a Gatorade pre-race drink about 5 minutes out. We started within the first minute because we (wife and I) didn't want any crowds. I pushed hard for the first 10-15 minutes, and was in the clear away from everyone else within 2 minutes. I then settled in and found my rhythm. I hit a log once in the middle of the course, but that only slowed me down for a couple seconds and didn't hurt too bad. I got a toe cramp in the last 200-300 yards of the swim and had to roll over on my back to stretch it out for a bit, but otherwise it was perfect, 3 minutes faster than last year.

Maybe start sighting every 4th stroke right from the beginning. I took a bad line a couple times early on because I was only sighting once every 14-16 strokes. I finally just made myself do every 4 and I kept in line. I think the current must have been pushing me around because I never have sighting issues.

I didn't rush this, the volunteer helped me get my suit over my heels and I took a few seconds to spray my own clear sunscreen on (last year they caked me with it and I felt nasty for the entire ride). This was about the same as last year but I was more relaxed I think.

Nothing, smooth and fairly quick considering.

Since I always die, go really slow and feel terrible for the last 20 miles of the 112 mile bike ride, I decided before the race that the best solution for this would be to shorten the bike ride to a more manageable 80-90 miles. To accomplish this I would go really easy for the first 20-30 miles, then I would ride at my planned IM effort for the remaining distance, hoping to stay strong through the finish and have plenty of energy left over for a good marathon. I stuck to this really well until 23 miles and exerted very little effort, but then I got bored and decided it was time to go. I have been having a lot of trouble with my right calf and hamstring for the past couple weeks and it was really hurting early in the ride, so I popped a couple Ibuprofen I had hidden in my bento-box and that seemed to help a little. I kept a fairly comfortable pace as much as I could (easy spinning up hills, push it over the top and down the hill, then carry my momentum halfway up the next hill), but I found myself in a lot of crowds and was forced to get out of my rhythm frequently so I wouldn't incur any illegal drafting violations (there were motorbikes everywhere). The most common problem was rolling up beside someone as my momentum carried me halfway up a hill only to have them pull away from me before I could complete the pass. I found myself either pushing too hard up the hill to get around them or putting on the brakes slightly while going uphill so I didn't enter the drafting zone. Both are bad choices but I hate breaking the rules (even if nobody is looking). It was frustrating at times but probably didn't affect me too much overall. I thought I felt pretty crappy for a lot of the middle portion of the ride, but whenever I would take the time to actually think about it I realized that my energy levels were still pretty good and I was pretty comfortable. Turns out the crappy feeling was pretty much all mental and most likely caused by thinking too much about what I had remaining rather than what I was doing at the time. As the day went on the wind picked up and was actually slowing me down by a couple mph for much of the second loop. My average speed dipped down pretty low and I was starting to get discouraged. When I finally turned onto 42 for the last ~30 miles I finally got the other side of the wind and things started looking up. From then until the bike finish I felt great (again, probably all in my head because I knew I was almost finished), and my average mph increased by .5 over the last 20 miles! Thank you tailwinds! I honestly was staring to enjoy the ride over the last 10 miles and my spirits were increasing by the minute as I entered T2. At the 56 mile mark I had been pace to go a couple minutes slower than last year, but after holding 21-22 mph for most of the last 20 miles I ended up going 4 minutes faster than last year and felt 1,000 times better! It was overall a really good ride for me on this course, definitely the smartest I have ever ridden the IM ride.

I need to really try to think positive in the middle of the ride, it is a very long event and easy to get discouraged if things aren't perfect. I also should have put extra Ibuprofen in my bento-box, I could have used some more by the middle of that ride.

Again, took it easy, I had a long run ahead of me. Downed a couple extra salt pills in the transition tent, then hit the porta-potties for some much needed relief before hitting the course.

Nothing, it was almost 4 minutes faster than T2 last year without a porta-potty break.

At first I felt kinda crappy and was thinking that this might be a bit rough, but I had a 5-hour energy in my hand that I was carrying from T2 so I decided now would be a good time to feel good for a while:). I chugged it down and almost instantly felt better! Running through the first aid station at about this time and dousing myself with several cups of ice-cold water and sponges probably helped a lot too, but either way I felt great until mile 9. I was passing people, chatting, and (most importantly) smiling! I had been executing my plan of taking 4 oz of IM Perform every mile along with about 6-8 oz of water, and adding a salt pill on the even miles. However, when mile 9 rolled around the wheels started to fall off a bit and could tell that I had slowed down. On mile 10 I found myself feeling very dizzy and light-headed and was fighting a powerful urge to walk. I knew a moment of panic as I flashed back to last year when I had to walk 19 miles of the run... surely I wasn't doomed to a similar fate again! Not after working so hard for 9 months and improving my run so dramatically this year! However, thanks to my conversations with Heather Fink at NIFS I knew that this meant I needed to slow down get some carbs ASAP. I gathered myself and decided it would be prudent to walk the remaining .5 mile to the next aid station. There I took some grapes, an orange slice, a chocolate chip cookie, and officially switched from IM Perform to Coke for the remainder of the race (and good riddance IM Perform, YUCK). I walked a little further while the food settled, then as I gradually felt better I began to run again at a more conservative pace than I started with. Miles 10 and 11 were about 12:30 pace, wow. My new nutrition strategy worked for a few miles until about 16 when my stomach started to get a little upset. I slowed down again for a couple miles until, at mile 18, I decided to stop at a porta-potty so I could have a good finish instead of fighting stomach issues the entire way. I spent about 3-4 minutes taking care of that and got back to work. I had seen Ellie a couple times on the course after some of the turns and could tell that she had been steadily gaining on me up until that point. I thought she might have passed me while I was using the bathroom so I started to push myself to catch up. I started passing lots of people again and started seeing good splits again on my watch. When I made the last turn at the 20.1 mile I saw that Ellie was only a couple minutes behind. It seemed inevitable that she was going to pass me, but I didn't know if we were ever going to do another IM and I didn't want to have to tell everyone for the rest of my life that my wife was faster than me, so I pushed harder. As I pushed I felt stronger and stronger! My smile returned to my face as I realized that I was on the home stretch and was speeding up instead of slowing down. For the last 10K I was interacting with as many spectators as possible and just having a great time. The only concern I had was that pesky right leg, the calf was hurting and really trying to cramp on me (I had already taken 6 Ibuprofen on this run), but I remembered last year when I was cramping everywhere for the last 60 miles of the race and still finished, so I decided one little calf cramp wouldn't even slow me down. I just took a salt pill every mile instead of every other mile, and that seemed to help. At the message board where family can post motivational messages the volunteers were playing music and trying to pump people up, I decided to dance a jig as I ran past. Unfortunately the jig caused my calf to cramp briefly, so I decided to forget the dance and just get back to running. It was fun anyway! I breezed through the last few aid stations, only taking what I could without slowing down (pretty much just dumping water on myself) and focused on that finish line. My miles were all down around 8:10-8:30 and I felt like I could go 100 more miles! As I approached to finisher's chute I was pumping up the crowd and high-fiving everyone! I absolutely had a blast and was able to enjoy the finish more than last year where my legs were completely cramped and I was puking my guts out. I also enjoyed going 1 hour 40 minutes faster than last year on the run! After I crossed the finish line I waited around the finisher area for Ellie and found that I put about 10 more minutes between us over the last 10K. I ended up with almost a perfectly even split for the first and second half (4 second difference)... that has to be some sort of record or something!

I don't know, it was pretty awesome for me, though I could have gotten under 4 hours if I didn't stop for a bathroom break.

Eat pizza, got a massage.


Not being better.


It was awesome and lots of fun for me. I don't know if I will ever compete on this course again, but I hope to come back and volunteer as often as possible.