Ironman Louisville - TriathlonFull Ironman

Swim overall felt pretty good. Liftfoil worked very well and really no problems in the water. I liked the TT start, though I still had some decent contact in the water.

Felt particularly strong after the turnaround from the island and wonder if there might have been a mild current on the downstream leg.

No real issues. River wasn't as nasty as advertised, and overall things went very smoothly. Came out of the water feeling very good.

Felt good coming out of swim and tried to concentrate on a good transition. Changed from the suit into shorts, which slowed things down considerably. Overall moved through fairly well, but I can still take some significant time out here.

Started off feeling very strong- this was my first race using power (was on the Endurance Nation plan) and tried to keep it under control per the plan.

This was working pretty well until Mile 54, when I heard a bang underneath me and the bike started to slow down. Thought it was just a flat, but when I inspected the wheel, I found a broken spoke. First time this ever happened to me in training or a race, and I did not have the tools to deal with it. Stood there on the side of the road for a few minutes scratching my head and watching many people go by. As I finally started to walk my bike towards the next aid station, one of the race support motorcycles came up behind me.. he couldn't fix the spoke but gave me a new wheel.. just terrific support.

Back on my way, but the wheel he took had my PowerTap, so lost the ability to pace with power. Tried to do it with RPE, but it was tough. Still, things went OK until mile 90, when I got a flat on the same wheel. First time I've ever flatted in a race, as well. As I was taking the wheel off to fix the flat, the same tech came up behind me and offered to change it for me. Again, awesome.

By this time I was very ready to get off the bike and limped it in to 112.

Figure I probably spent 20-30 minutes off the bike due to the two mechanicals so could have been a very decent ride for me had that not happened.

Nutrition worked pretty well- I used 2 concentrated bottles of 875 calorie Infinit with water in the aerobottle. I didn't need any solid food and for the first time didn't need to stop at special needs.

Try to spend more time outdoors in the aerobars during training.. toward the end of the ride I was having a hard time staying down.

Sad. Very sad. I tell myself every time I need to practice this more, and yet I don't.

Such high hopes starting out. Unfortunately, I didn't have a great nutrition strategy set up for the run. My goal was to take in 200ish calories per hour with a mix of on-course drink, coke, chicken broth, and gels, depending on time in the race.

I think I took in too much early on, though (and even a sip of that nasty Perform stuff was too much). By mile 10 I was starting to have stomach issues. In other IMs, tums have come to the rescue, but whatever I did was too much even for that approach. Between mile 13-14 I had to slow to a walk, and for a couple of miles I couldn't run for more than about 50 yards without feeling extremely nauseous.

About the time I had resigned myself to a VERY long day, I started feeling better. By mile 18-19, I was basically running (or something approximating running) again and walking the aid stations. About 30 min slower than I had hoped for, but could have been much, much worse.

The finish line on Fourth St. was very awesome- got there just before the sun went down and Mike R. was doing his thing. Had a great volunteer catcher who took good care of me down the chute. I had a fight with achilles tendonitis and a late bout with hip bursitis on the way to the start line, so I was very thankful to finish this one, even if I didn't meet my time goals.

Run with Infinit in the fuel belt. Nutrition was really the issue with the run.

Limped to hotel room, took a shower, and limped back to Fourth St. to have dinner and watch later finishers.


I didn't go into this race with super-high expectations, but I had a really good experience. Louisville is a very cool town with good stuff to do for the family and some excellent food.

The bike course was absolutely beautiful, and the TT start is great. Volunteers were tremendous. I know WTC gets a hard time from some folks because of a perception they are excessively profit-driven, but man, they put on a great event.

I want to try some other venues so may not return to Louisville, but I would certainly recommend it to anyone who wants a challenging but fair course in a great, family-friendly venue.