Ironman Louisville - TriathlonFull Ironman

I am near the end of the line of the swim. The line moves slowly but I am in no hurry. Just as I get close to the end of the fence, we are told to stop and back up. They need to get a medic into the swim. They let people go ahead, but I am not allowed to pass. I can hear the ambulance coming in the background. I am right by a ramp and they open a gate in the fence and now wheel up a person in a stretcher. The stretcher stops no more than 4-5 feet from me as they wait for ambulance. I am the first person in line as the stretcher comes up in front of us. This is not good. They are performing CPR on this poor person, but it is quite obvious that this is not going to end well. After the stretcher passes by, they let us move forward. Not the way, I wanted to start my day. I don't think I will ever get that image out of my head.

For some reason, and it seems selfish now, knowing how that story ended, the image drifts to the back of my mind. I jump in the water and for the first time in any of my triathlons, I am relaxed. I don't get the usually anxiety/panic attack that comes with most of my initial forays into the open water. I found the swimming relatively easy with a lot of space and plenty of room to move. My goal was 1:20 and was figuring around 1:30. I am stoked to see 1:19 on my watch.

Nothing. I guess I would make sure I say I love you to my family as I was reminded that life if precious and can end at an instant.

I took as much time as I could as I know that the next 6-7 hours will determine if my legs are going to make it. It is more fear and dread that is keeping me from hustling at this point.

As I start to pedal, my legs feel pretty good. Absolutely no pain in my calf and my hamstring feels fine. I catch a break as well, as my bike computer is working. However, it is only showing metric units. If my math is correct-10 km/hr equal about 6 mph. I will try to ride around 30 for as long as I can and as long as my hr and leg are doing fine. I stop at the first aid station to pump my tires. They are very helpful and won't let me do it myself. I am doing everything I can to keep my HR down and not push it. I have to save my legs for the run. However, I am feeling surprisingly great. Right around mile marker 20-I feel a slight tightening of my left hamstring. It seemed to occur just as I started to crank it up a bit. Also, I have been in aero position since the start.

I stop at the next aid station as I have to pee badly. I get off the bike, pee and stretch out my hamstring. As I get back on my bike, my leg feels great again. Now, I am on the back of the out and back, everytime I really start to push it hard, up hills or pound on the flats, my leg picks up a notch. I also realize it hurts less when I am not in the aero position. This actually makes biomechanical sense as my hamstring would be more stretched out in this position. I also had to lower my seat abit prior to the race to take the stress of my leg.

The same pattern emerges as I start the loop going into LaGrange. It has now become very obvious to me what I will need to do. This has now become a series of 4-5 smaller rides with a break to stretch. I also will not be able to push it at all. This may be a good thing as my heart rate is staying in the low end of Zone 2 and only peaking up a bit on the hills. I have come to grips with the fact that my bike time is going to be poor. As long as my leg can make it through to the end with a decent amount of time, I think I will be all right. This pattern holds throughout the race-I can ride for about 20-25 miles before I start to feel my leg and I definitely need to sit up much more than I would like. Also, I have no idea how fast I am going as my computer stopped working a long time ago. I had hoped for a 6:30 bike-but it looks like 7:00 which at this pace seems doable

The last 25 miles after the last aid station are the longest in my life. I am just praying that my hammy doesn't blow now. I essentially stopped pedaling with my left leg and pounded out the last 10 or so miles one legged. This was done out of fear not out of pain.

Check my computer prior to shipping my bike and replace the battery. I don't think anything. I guess I could have thrown caution to the wind and pushed it, however, I would not have been able to live with myself blowing out my leg at this point.

Getting off the bike and jogging to transition tent, my legs feel ok. They should I held back quite a bit. I am relieved as my hamstring made it. Again, I am dreadfully slow. More out of fear than anything else. I have only done 1 run over 15 miles since July 20th and I have only run 9 miles since August 5th.

Nothing-my transitions are comically slow.

Gulp, here we go. I am petrified that I don't have the fitness to finish this race. I am worried about my calf, my hamstring and how much gas I have in the tank. However, I am not going to walk this course. I am going to try to run it-even if it's a lot slower than I had hoped. My nutrition seems pretty good-I am a little hungry but no nauseau. I head out on the bridge and so far so good. Both legs feel pretty good. However,as I head out to the out and back-I get a slight episode of light-headedness. My heart rate is only 148 so that is reassuring. I stop and walk a few steps, drink some water and decide that my electrolytes are probably a little screwed up at this point. No more salt tablets for me-just water, Perform and Ironman gels. Slowing down and getting some water in me-helps out a lot. Thus, I am back to slow running. The rest seemed pretty uneventful. My rate is pretty stable at around 145-150. I run-slow as molasses to each aid station and fill up with water and Perform. I am running about 10 min miles but with the walking at the aid stations it's coming out to around 11 mins per mile. I actually feel pretty good as a lot of people are walking but I am still running. I make to mile 18 and at this point realize this is about where my tank is starting to empty. I have been eating food at the stations but I can tell it's just an endurance issue not a gi issue. I decide to walk my first mile-mistake. Once you stop it's hard to get going. After 19, I go run 8 mins walk 2. At mile 21, I around mostly walkers and I thinking of calling it quits for running. I realize I am going to finish and what's an extra 30 mins or so. I decide that's not the last image I want to have and suck it up start running again. The end is near and my last mile is my fastest of the day. I realize as I am about to cross that I am ending with a bit of gas left in the tank. My legs made it and I am feeling pretty strong as I cross and enter the finish.

Nothing. my injury never gave me the mental confidence that I could have completed the distance. Even though, a bunch of people told that I shouldn't worry-I was worried.

I should have come with someone. My family couldn't make it and I was here solo. This is not a local 5k. I am glad I finished strong as I would have been in a world of hurt by myself if I had felt bad.


I will always say it was my injuries. However, they may have been a blessing in disguise as they forced me to go a bit slower than I think I could have. Who knows, I may felt overly cocky and crashed and burned. They didn't give me a smaller medal for finishing 1 hour slower than I was training for before I got hurt.


While not perfect, I made a plan and stuck with it to a tee. I would have loved to come home with a flashier time but I am coming home a finisher. Even as late as the Friday night dinner, I was not sure I was going to make it. I always said I was going to do this only once, but I still wonder what it would have been like to line up on the start healthy. Maybe just maybe that will cause me to sign up for one of these again.