Ironman Louisville - TriathlonFull Ironman

The biggest and toughest decision for me to make in this race was what to wear on the swim. Since I couldn't wear a wetsuit that ruled out my set up from my last IM (cycling shorts underneath wetsuit). I don’t have tri-shorts so I was thinking about doing a speedo or jammer, but then I would have to change into my cycling shorts. At the last minute I thought, "hey, my cycling shorts don't have a draw string but they are really tight fitting, I bet it would be fine to just swim in that." I had never swum in those shorts, but that is what I decided. I am an idiot. As soon as I jumped in the river my shorts opened up like a parachute and almost came off. Crap! Oh well, just deal with it, not letting it bring me down. The swim is the easiest and least important part for me. I just slowed down a little from my normal pace to make sure they didn't come all the way off and kept going. I tried to get pretty close to the front of the line for the time trial start because I am a good swimmer who likes to glide a lot and crowds really mess up my stroke. Getting there super early to get in the front of the line was not worth it. I was still stuck in a crowd for the first 10-15 minutes and thus wasted a lot of energy swimming with a shorter and less efficient stroke. I finally got out in front of the crowd and was able to open it up. Yay! But wait, what's this? A cramp!?!?! 15 minutes into my race, are you kidding me???!!!! My feet were completely seized up. I stopped for a second to rub it out and I'm glad I did, my timing chip had fallen off my foot! That's never happened before. Fortunately it was floating right behind me. Put it back on and try to swim through the cramps. Finally loosened up after a minute or two and got back into a rhythm and got back ahead of the crowds. Smooth sailing. Until I got another cramp a few minutes later! This is unbelievable, I never cramp when I race, and I have been so well hydrated for the past 2 weeks. What is going on? While doing breast stroke for a minute to help relieve the cramp, my timing chip came off again! At this point I am starting to get a little annoyed. My wife has now pulled away from me and I am having all kinds of problems. I strap the timing chip on really tight this time and get back to it. I decided if this is how it's gonna be then I am going to just have to deal with it, once I get to the bike everything will be fine. I cramp off and on for the rest of the swim. As I am approaching the finish I am thinking I definitely went over an hour on the swim. No big deal, I went 56 minutes last year but a couple minutes here won't kill me cause I know I am going to kill my run time from last year! As I get out of the water I bang my knee on the hand rail in the middle of the steps. Yeah, there is a rail there. That hurt, but what is this? I see my watch and I went 55 minutes? I just had the worst swimming race of my life and I am still a minute ahead of where I thought I would be! Great!

Wear tri shorts. I have never owned any, but now I know I need to. Also, figure out a way to handle the heat. I have never raced in water that warm and I am convinced the heat was the reason for my cramping in the swim and throughout the rest of the race. With the recent occurrence of a world class swimmer dying and several other being hospitalized during an open water race in similar conditions to Louisville, I am seriously re-evaluating how I will approach the swim in 2011.

Took my time, always do on long course races. If you haven't done this race before, be prepared for a HUGE tranisition area. I added 3 minutes onto my expected time at each transition because of how far you have to run. Volunteers were GREAT!!!

Nothing.

I started out on the road and was really excited to be onto my favorite part of the race. Swimming is my best leg of triathlon, but cycling is my favorite! The first 10 or so miles of this ride is pretty easy. I took this time to take care of some things I skipped in transition (sunscreen on, eat and hydrate some more). I also passed my wife at mile 5 or so and found out she went 53 minutes on her swim. Sweet! I had a few simple strategies for this race. First, go easy! Last year I probably pushed a little too hard on my bike ride, but I had a great split. I knew from my training that I was a little slower this year so I expected to go about 19 mph instead of the even 20 mph I split last year. I attribute my slower speeds to not doing any group rides this year where I did a hard group ride every week last year. Lesson learned: group rides make me fast. My second strategy I developed was to set my timer on my watch to beep every three minutes to remind me to hydrate. I have been guilty in training of not drinking anywhere near enough and wasn't able to finish some long rides due to dehydration. A friend suggested the timer thing so I thought it couldn't hurt... My last strategy was to focus more on the uphill portion of the race than the downhill. I live and train in central Indiana and it is really flat. I do 100 mile rides without ever seeing anything resembling a hill, so I knew I needed to be careful. I came and rode this course once before the race and I knew that, for my experience, the hills were relentless. Nonstop rollers the entire race with a few big ones. I decided that I needed make sure I didn't let myself lose all my speed by going too slowly up the hills. I tried to hold a consistent speed (14-15 mph instead of dropping to 10-12 mph) and effort with smooth pedal strokes on the uphill and then recover on the downhill when I could just cruise at a good speed. It sounded good in my head but didn't seem to be too effective in practice. I noticed that I would constantly pass people up the hills only to have them blaze past me on the downhill side. After a couple of hills they would be long gone ahead of me and I would still be plugging away. I probably should have changed my strategy when I realized that the other strategy seemed to be better, but I didn't want to change things mid-race. I made it through the tough out and back portion and started the first loop and, at the time, I was feeling great! I was really happy with my effort level, hydration level and my speed. I was holding over 20 mph due to the long downhill portions and a little tail wind. I rewarded myself with about 10 minutes of relaxing and taking it easy while I ate a power bar. I use Clif-Bloks for my nutrition but like to throw in a few power bars to give me something to actually eat. After my celebratory siesta, I got back to it. However, a short time later I noticed I was cramping in my quads pretty badly on just about every pedal stroke with each leg. Fortunately at this time the cramping was tolerable, so I stuck with my plan. I had been hydrating very consistently and much more than usual so I couldn't understand what was causing it. I was drinking a mix of Ironman Perform and water to balance out the electrolyte intake, and was drinking probably 75% of each bottle between aid stations. Aid stations were about every 10 miles apart so I was drinking between 40 and 60 ounces of fluids per hour. Hmm, hindsight says that may be too much. Despite the cramping I was still very confident and thoroughly enjoying myself. The cheering section in the town of LeGrange was AWESOME! I was alone the first time I went through there so everyone was cheering for me! I felt like an all-star, and I probably wasted a little energy as I let myself show off a bit by speeding up and zipping through the crowd. I made it through the first loop just fine and the cramping was there but tolerable. On the second loop I started to feel it a little bit. Not unexpected, it's an Ironman. The problem was the cramping was getting worse, my entire legs were cramping up now. I had been taking my salt tabs and drinking the Perform and water. What is going on? I just dealt with it and was still enjoying myself. On the second loop I was running into the crowds that started later and swam slower. No big deal, but it did make me have to speed up and slow down a lot as I worked around people while being careful to not draft. At some point in the second loop I encountered a heckler! Some dude in a white car drove up next to me and said the only thing that looked stupider than my helmet was my "gay" spandex. I really wanted to comment about what type of loser drives around the Ironman course heckling people who are accomplishing something he couldn't dream of doing, but I held back. I just said, "Cool man! Thanks!" He said something back that I couldn't hear, but judging by his body language I probably wouldn't be able to write it here even if I did hear it. I was actually worried that he was going to hit somebody as he drove through yelling at people and barely paying attention to the road. I amused myself by laughing at him for a while, but then the pain of the cramping came to the front of my mind again. I had to be careful and monitor my effort so I didn't lock up. At about mile 85ish, it happened. I was riding up a hill and my left leg completely seized up. I almost crashed my bike! I couldn't even bend the leg. I quickly stopped on the side of the road and awkwardly unclipped. I hobbled over to a horse fence and tried to stretch it out by lifting it up onto a rail, but when I did that my other leg seized up! Uh-oh. I have another salt tab and decide that I am never going to finish the race by sitting on the side of the road. I have to just get on the bike and make myself go, so I do just that. I had to pull way back to keep it from happening again. I just focused on smooth relaxed strokes. Every time I even twitched a muscle wrong in one of my legs it was full charlie-horse time. To make matters worse, the last 15 miles that everyone said was the easiest and fastest portion of the course had headwind. Not a horrible headwind, but considering my issues it was enough to bury me. I wasn't going let a little headwind ruin the rest of the race so I decided to sacrifice the rest of my ride for a chance at a better run. I shut it down and gave almost no effort for the last 10-15 miles in hopes it would gives my legs a chance to recover and allow for a good run. I used that time to mentally get excited for the run.

I don't know yet, I guess drink less fluids. After reviewing my symptoms I think I had hyponatremia more than dehydration. I also definitely need to train better in every way. I may have been able to prevent this problem if I had trained with proper hydration, apparently your body can become adjusted to your hydration, whether it is too much or too little, if you do it all the time. I will be doing more group rides, hopefully be training with a power meter, and will be traveling at least once a month to ride somewhere with hills. Oh, and also don’t rent wheels. I am guilty of renting a set of Zipp 808’s because everyone assured me they would make a noticeable difference. They did, they were noticeably heavier than my normal training wheels! I should have followed the advice I gave my wife and gone with lighter instead of more aero (I bought her a set of Mavic Krysium SLs a while back that are much lighter but not aero, she loved them).

Forgot to take my shoes off while riding. No biggie. Jumped off bike, handed it to a volunteer who conveniently racked it for me! Took off my shoes so I could run easier. Relaxed in transition and really took my time to get my legs back to feeling good. Had a few cold Powerbar Perform drinks and headed out. Unlike my first IM, it actually wasn't hard making myself get back onto the course. Actually, it was hard making myself relax and wait because I have significantly improved my running and I was ready to see what I could do!

Nothing.

I left the tent and was really excited for the run ahead of me. I have put more effort and focus into improving my run than anything else over the past year. In my first IM I really struggled on the run and went almost 5 hours in the marathon. I wanted to go closer to 4:15 this time. I did a lot of research and decided I needed to change my running style. I became a forefoot runner, which was hard to do. It took probably 4-5 months of constant effort to get it just right, but it finally paid off in my last race before Louisville. I did an Olympic Tri 1.5 months out and nailed it. I had my fastest tri swim, equaled my fastest tri bike ride, and set a PR by 3 minutes in my 10K and went 41 minutes! That wasn't just my tri split PR, my overall PR, and I felt comfortable doing it. I was ready to kick butt on the run. I felt good when I first started off and was soooo glad to be off the bike. Unfortunately it didn't take long before things started feeling bad, really bad. Just out of transition I realized that my legs were still cramping and, worse yet, I was having trouble breathing. It felt like someone was squeezing my diaphragm so I couldn't get air. There was a little hill and I thought I would walk it to try and work this out. After the hill I started running again and the problem came right back. Crap! I tried everything I could think of, changed my breathing, drank caffeinated soda, had more salt tabs, walked, stopped to stretch, nothing helped. Every time I tried to run I would start cramping almost immediately and the breathing problems would come within about 2 minutes. I tried so hard to tough it out for the first 4-5 miles as I did a walk/run combo, but it wasn't happening. I was in more pain than I have ever experienced in my life, and I have done Ironman before. It was so hot and sunny and my body was screaming at me. I knew my goal time was not possible anymore, and I knew a PR was not possible anymore. Heck, as my wife ran past me in the 4th mile I knew that beating her wasn't even going to happen (she almost beat my PR... almost). I cheered for her as she ran past me and it made me happy that she was having a good race, but that didn't help much, and at this point finishing seemed like a slim chance. So I reset my goal: finish. I decided that no matter how bad it gets I will not have a DNF on my record. If I wanted to finish I couldn't continue this run/walk torture I was putting myself through because it was getting more and more painful every time. I decided I was going to just walk until I felt good enough to run again, even if I had to walk the whole way. I will admit, the thought of walking the next 20 plus miles was disheartening, to say the least, especially since the course is not particularly beautiful. Fortunately for me I found someone else who was having the same problem. A guy named Ian walked up even with me and asked how I was doing. I told him I wasn't doing well but I am going to finish. He felt the same way and had completely bonked on the bike ride just like me. We decided to walk together and push each other to the finish. Together we walked as fast as we could without cramping, and we held about 13 minute mile pace except at the aid stations where we took on food and water in bulk. It is a point of pride for me that, despite having to walk, I still pushed myself the whole way and never let up. We actually were in good spirits too. We were interacting with the people cheering and cheering for other people on the course the whole way. When we rounded through the finish area the first time it was pretty quite because we were just walking, so we waved our arms and pumped up the crowd. When they started cheering a little I put my hand to my ear and said, "I can't hear you!" Then everybody started going crazy and getting loud and it was a lot of fun. That really got me motivated to do the last half of my run (or walk, as the case may be). Ian and I were taking two cupfuls of chicken broth at every aid station where it was offered, and I believe it finally started to help. With about 5 miles to go we were walking down a gentle slope (I wouldn't quite call it a hill) and I started to almost run a little. Ian started running too and I was amazed that I actually wasn't cramping. We tried to run at 10:30 - 11:00 mile pace, but we kept speeding up to like 9. We continued to run between aid stations, and then double fisting the chicken broth while we walked fast through the stations. After about 2 miles of this it started to really hurt again. Ian was obviously doing much better than me because he kept encouraging me and telling me not to stop. We still had a chance to finish without getting a glow stick. With 2 miles to go I was cramping pretty badly again and struggling with breathing. I really thought I was going to have to stop running and maybe sit down for a bit because I felt so bad, but Ian wouldn't let me. He kept yelling at me that I could do this and could still finish under 13 hours, so I pushed through it. I couldn't wait for the last aid station so I could have a chance to walk again, but Ian said we weren't allowed to stop unless they had chicken broth, then it could only be a quick chug and go. The station did have broth, so I chugged a quick cup and kept running. The last mile was torture! I was cramping so badly that I almost fell probably 10 times. My leg would seize up in mid step and I would almost trip over it. As we approached the finisher's chute I was in agony! I was on the verge of throwing up from the pain (and chicken broth) and to make it worse my leg seized up with a cramp again right at the start of the chute and I almost fell on my face right there in front of everybody. I had to run straight-legged because any bend would cause a cramp. I am not proud of what I did next, but I had no choice. There was a guy in front of me who was going a little slower and I wanted to let him have his finish alone, but I was going to throw up any second and I had to get to a trash can. Ian and I sprinted through the chute (me running straight-legged and Ian running like a pro) and passed this guy. If that guy is reading this, I'm sorry, I really am, but I ruined his finisher shot. I then immediately went to the trash can and puked my guts out for about 2 minutes. The medical staff checked on me and I told them I was fine (I lied). Ian waited around for me because he wanted to get his picture taken with me with our medals. Ian is the man! It was finally over; I finished and kept it under 13 hours.

Maybe have a friend to run/walk with from the beginning. As miserable as I could have been because of the circumstances, I ended up having a lot of fun on the run because I had a friend to talk to. As I looked around, the people who were hanging their heads and barely moving were the ones that were alone.

I saw my wife and her family outside of the finish area and found out she kicked butt and only missed my PR time by 4 minutes! We later found out she finished 4th in her age group and missed her Kona slot by less than 10 minutes. Of course she was all smiles and you would never have guessed she just finished her first Ironman. I hobbled my way over to the medical area because I realized I was not fine. I got an IV to relieve my legs that were still seized up. I weighed myself to see how much weight I lost and found out I lost 12 pounds from the race start! Doing the math I drank about 35-40 ounces of fluid per hour for 12 hours (didn't drink anything during the swim), didn't use the bathroom at all, and came out 12 pounds lighter = I lost upwards of 40 lbs of sweat during that race!!! Is that healthy? I ended up throwing up again and I got nauseas every time I stood up. I also couldn't eat anything because my throat hurt really badly. I have no idea why, but it hurt after my first one too. I had to have my in-laws come pick me up at the medical building because I couldn't walk more than about 15 feet without getting really light headed and nauseas. The only thing I was able to get down was a frosty from Wendy's, then I went to bed and my Ironman day was over. Looking back on it this race was 1,000 times harder than my first IM because everything went right on my first one and everything went wrong on this one. With that in mind, I am actually more proud of myself after this race because of the adversity I had to push through and the positive attitude I maintained throughout. If you haven't had a rough day on the Ironman course yet, I highly recommend it... ok, maybe I don't recommend it but it can be just as rewarding!


Just about everything. Mostly the heat though. My friend on the run pointed out that he believes so many people were struggling (15% DNF rate!) more from the heat on the swim than the air temp. Everyone started their day already well behind on hydration because of the bathwater conditions in the river, and there is no bouncing back from that. I am still trying to figure out how I am going to overcome that next year, but I have already signed up to get my revenge on the Louisville course! Sometimes you kick Ironman’s butt, and sometimes it kicks yours.


Well run, fun, great transitions/bike cheering section/finish line.