Ironman Louisville - TriathlonFull Ironman

Got in the water and went to work. The water is murky and dirty. Of all the river swims I have done this was really the dirtiest. I hoped to be out of the water by 1:10. A lot of people claim the course was long, but I will just blame it on not swimming a straight line. I got out of the water feeling great.

Get as close to the front as possible, this is more for the bike than the swim. DO NOT wear anything with White, it will forever be stained and demoted to practice gear.

Made up for the long swim with my transition time. I allocated 8:00 mintues for T1 so I was one minute behind of where I wanted to be for my secondary goal.

Nothing

Here is where getting to the front of the swim start would pay off. The out and back portion of the course is too narrow for the speed you get on the downhill (I hit 46mph) and the amount of bikers there are on both sides of the road. The sooner you can get that behind you the better. Lots of blocking on this portion (sometimes three riders wide) Very few riders seemed to carry speed up the hills and severe log jams were being created. Very frustrating.

Just after the third water stop on the first loop I dropped a chain for the first time ever. As I made my way to the shoulder of the road I was clipped by another rider. I landed in the ditch and he tumbled in the road. Still not sure whose fault this was but there was no finger pointing after it happened. We were both just surprised our bodies and bikes were unscathed. Jumped back on the bike and went back to work.

Fortunately, I did not hit any tacks, but on the first lap you could tell something was not right with amount of people on the side of the road. I saw several flats on the second lap but not nearly the as many as on the first.

I was really looking forward to the last 24 miles back to town and was hoping to up the avg MPH on this portion but a slight head wind took care of that notion pretty quickly. So I just settled in and finished five minutes ahead of my target of six hours.



Not crash. I saw the race flash before my eyes. After five months of training a DNF due to a broken bike would have crushed me. We were very lucky the race gods were smiling down on us at that moment.

I allotted 8 minutes so I was pretty happy.

Stretch a little better.

This is where it got rough. I was hoping for a 4:15 run. As I settled in I shifted my goal to hold a 10 minute mile which felt really good. Started having a spasm/cramp in left abdominal muscle towards my groin and could not shake it. I forced myself to go to the bathroom around mile 5-6 which seemed to alleviate the pain. By mile 8 it was back with a vengeance and I saw my sub 12 beginning to slip. I started living off coke, water and chicken broth. This concoction would become my elixir of life. By mile 22 the pain in my left side began to subside and my run was back. I ended the last 1.2 with a sub 9 minute mile.

I believe I should have taken in more sodium (Salt tabs) towards the end of the bike/ start of the run. I think this would have eliminated the spasm issue in my left side. I ran/walked a couple miles beside Pro Jared Woodward who finished with a 4:40 run. I am by no means comparing skill sets with Mr. Woodward, but it was interesting to see that everyone copes with similar struggles. This really helped me to deal with my 4:51.

Just happy to sit down until I had to stand up.


Salt.


The finish line is awesome. I finished with a 12:12 so at least I was in the ballpark of my expectation. The heat really challenges your nutrition plan and course management skills. First IM in the bag and ready to ride some MTB for a little while.