Ironman Louisville - Triathlon

I was so close to the start that I lined up right a way on the dock and jumped in the water from the 2nd dock about 7:02 (perfect). I could see Stephanie, Ken and Cassie before I got in the water (awesome).

The first 1400 yards is behind towhead island and very narrow at points. The water was pretty rough from the other athletes; however, not as bad as last year because I was so much closer to the front. I had one guy grab my arm by my watch and pull me backwards at one point. About 1-2 buoys from the turnaround I see a women next to me stand up, so I did as well just long enough to get a good view of where I was headed then I started swimming again. Made the turn with one of the disabled athletes and realized how hard that must be to swim on your back the entire time without the use of your legs (then to bike/run with your arms…amazing).

There must have been some current on the downstream side of the swim (I could not feel it but my time showed it). I was swimming well and continued to swim without taking any breaststrokes unless I got clogged up with people and could not see. I got kicked (brushed) in the face by someone doing a weird stroke so I decided to move to the outside and swim on my own. This worked great for me. I was able to swim about 1.5 miles without anyone really around. I could not believe how quickly I made it to the first bridge and then I was past the second bridge. At this point, I made my way back towards the crowd to merge in line with the last buoy so I could exit the water. As I closed in there was not much of a swim crowd so I was able to swim right to the step and a guy grabbed my arm and helped me to stand.

First thing I noticed was that I was not dizzy, then I saw my watch and could not believe it said 1:17!!! I was expecting to see about 1:25-30 and would have been happy. Woo Hoo. I grabbed two cups of water and drank them on the way to transition.


Nothing!!! Best swim ever.

Got my bag and went into the tent. I wore my tri shorts under my Xterra speed suit in the swim so I really just had to put on shoes, socks and a shirt. I had another glass of water and two advil while getting ready. I used my hand towel to clean my feet. I had put gold bond powder in my socks before checking my bags so this went smooth. Getting on the shirt was hard...but a volunteer helped me pull it down. (Volunteers were great). I added more cream to my neither regions then left and got sunscreen applied. Ran to bike. Walked/jogged to mount line and got on bike. No issues.

Not much. I was 4 min faster this year than last in transition and was under control the entire time.

I planned my bike race carefully and am glad to say I “raced my plan”. This is my race mantra…You planned the race….NOW Race the Plan!!!

I rode the first 10 miles at a comfortably fast pace in the large chain ring (averaged about 21mph). At the first major hill, I downshifted to the little chain ring for the first time. The biggest difference from 2012 to 2013 is that I was in the big chain ring for most of the race this year and last year I spent 90 miles in the little ring. I only went to the small chain on the big hills. I also peddled down all but the biggest downhills and reached much higher speeds going down than last year, which allowed me to upshift on the way up the hills while maintaining my speed and staying in the big chain ring. I stood at the top of most hills and took about 5 big power spins and then sat down and kept my cadence about 93 for most of the race.

The out and back portion of the ride went very well, better than expected. I was in a smaller crowd this year on this section, which made the steep hills much better. I went down fast but in control and spun up passing people on the way up and not feeling too bad.

Left the out and back and rode to mile 30 to start the first loop. So far all is good. I threw away one bottle of my EFS drink at this point (empty) and got a fresh cold bottle of water. From this point on, I got a fresh bottle of COLD water at every aid station and drank some and poured some over my head and back of my neck. Felt great. I had forgotten how rough the hills are from mile 30 to about 38 before LaGrange. About mile 35, I saw Coach Barry for the first time which was wonderful because I knew he would tell Stephanie and Coach Val I was doing OK and off the out and back.

I made it to the flat section of LaGrange. Going through LaGrange both times was awesome. I felt like I was part of the TOUR. I heard, but could not see, Stephanie, Ken and Cassie for the first time on the bike here as I was going over 30mph and fairly focused on the road. After LaGrange, it is flat for a while with some downhills but then you hit the country roads and Old Silgo Road. There are about 7 short but very steep hills in this section that can zap your energy and are emotionally draining. Somewhere in here I took 3 more Advil.

Got to Pendelton Road (the last of these steep hills) and saw Steph, Ken and Cassie. I felt really good here compared to last year and was cruising along. Within one mile of leaving my family, I noticed my bike seat did not feel right. I moved some and felt the seat move. I pushed down on the nose and the whole seat tilted down. This had me very worried. With the 40 ounces of weight on the back of the seat and a loose bolt the seat wanted to fall backwards. I had to ride for 6 miles with a seat that was raising up in the front the entire time and I had to ride with my hand on the nose of the seat pushing down to hold it in place. Luckily, There was little wind and I got to an aid station at about mile 56 and yelled for a mechanic. I stopped and one ran right up to me and grabbed my bike asking what I needed. I told him my seat was loose and I needed an allen wrench. He grabbed one and while I held the seat in place (as best I could do by sight) he tightened the seat down…Thank GOD!!! I had all but reserved myself to having a DNF….

I got back on my back (got another water, since I was there) and took off. Looking at my watch my average pace dropped from 19 to 18.7MPH during this pit stop (happy to say I held this pace the rest of the course). Although somewhat frustrated, I was ecstatic that it was fixed and I had not lost much time…whew…

I made it to the second loop in great spirits and refreshed. Saw Coach Barry at about mile 65 and actually gave him a high five while riding my bike…felt great. Went through LaGrange again this time I was screaming at the top of my lungs….felt awesome. I stopped two more times during lap 2 once at the special needs bag and last when I dropped my chain. For shifting as much as I did, I was amazed I only dropped my chain the one time. Got back to see Steph, Ken and Cassie at about mile 80…I was tired, my back was killing me and my calves had hurt since mile 40 but I did not care. Ken asked how I was feeling and I told him Awesome in my most pain ridden voice. ☺

The ride back from mile 80 to the finish is mostly down hill. I was tired my calves and back were toast so I alternated from being in aero position to up on the hoods the entire time. I must have been doing pretty well because this guy kept drafting me. I peed for the first time during this section also, which was good because I was somewhat concerned I was not hydrating well enough. This was also the first time I got really…really hot…It hit me like a wave and I almost passed out for 2 seconds. My feet started to burn badly and I had to wash them down with water, which helped quite a bit. I took my last advil during this section somewhere and headed to T2. I was very happy to see those darn railroad tracks that signified about 1.5 miles to T2. I took my feet out of my shoes in the last .3 miles and saw Ken/Cassie at the turn into transition and heard Stephanie as I went by getting ready to dismount.


Make sure all bolts/screws are tight the night before the race. Otherwise nothing. Get a professional bike fit…

Great Volunteers again. I felt good this year, no stomach issues. No issues with socks and shoes etc. Applied more lube then I left the tent and got sunscreen applied. I was able to walk/jog out of transition.

They only put sunscreen on my upper body…I should have had it on my legs as well. Luckily I was not sunburned badly.

Time to Race the PLAN!!! Now the Race actually starts for me…

I came out of T2 very tired and with only a rough idea of my bike time. I knew I was close to 6 hours. I asked Stephanie and Ken yelled I was under 6 hours. Honestly this concerned me as I knew how bad my calves felt and I thought I may have over cooked the bike. Oh well, time to test the race plan. I set my watch to run and took off for my first 14 min run/1 min walk combo. Except I forgot to hit start….Damn!!! After about 3-4 minutes I noticed and “restarted” my watch. It was still not working….Oh yeah, hit start stupid!!! It was hot, I was brain fried. When I got to mile 1, I knew it was at about an 8 min pace = too fast. I thought my family and Coach Barry would be at around mile 6. At mile 3, I had massive pain in my left long toe (my purple toe nail from training). I had to stop and sit on the curb and take off my shoe/sock. Once I put pressure on the purple toe (the nail had popped up some), it stopped hurting so I put shoe/sock back on (loosened the lace on my right (other) shoe since my foot was numb) and took off again. Never had pain in that toe again…weird. I got my first cup of chicken broth about mile 3..best stuff ever. I expected and kept looking for my family and Coach Barry on the way out. I never saw the street sign where they were or his tent. This had me somewhat concerned but figured that they must have changed plans and stayed downtown.

Miles 2-8 was strange as I was pretty much all-alone. There was no crowd or music at all, just aid stations that weren’t that busy. It was odd for me until I realized I was one of the first to jump in the water and was having an amazing race. As I came back on loop one, the crowd support started to show up…which makes a big difference. Seeing mile 20 when you are mile 8 can be a bit deflating, but I said out loud to the sign (no one was around) see you in 2 hours then peed for the 2nd time of the day. About mile 10, I did the little out and back to Churchill Downs so I can say I finally saw it (never saw it at all last year) or at least the back of the stands. At about mile 13, I finally saw my family and Coach Barry…this was pretty awesome. Ken and Cassie were on the right and Steph was on the left taking pics. Ken asked how I was feeling and I gave him the so so hand gesture. I ran by them and then a few minutes later took a 1 min walk break. I found out later that I was going so quickly on the run that I beat them to the spot on the run on my first lap out faster than they could get there in the CAR!! ☺

I made it to mile 14 and the turnaround spot and no one was on my left going to finish…whew…I did not have to hear YOU ARE an IRONMAN as I turned around for lap 2….when I got back to mile 15 and saw Coach Barry on the other side of the road and my family on the side by me. Steph had her back to me and no one knew I was coming. I had to yell Lena 3 times for Steph to turn around and she yelled Mark in a very surprised voice as I got back much faster then she anticipated. Again, this made me feel awesome!!

I focused on just keeping my legs spinning (90 rpm) as they would on the bike and nothing else. All I focused on during the first 14 miles was my leg turnover and the run walk combo I was doing I did not even have the watch set so I could see my pace or amount of time I was taking. I ran in little windows for 14,9 or 5 minutes. I told myself to forget the calves and run walk at either a 14/1 or 9/1 ratio through mile 14. I actually did this through mile 15…YES.

At mile 15, I did not know exactly how long I had been running but I was pretty sure that if I held a 5/1 run walk ratio I would beat 12 hours overall. Every time I started to run again my calves felt like they were going to EXPLOAD. I ignored and kept up my run/walk ratio…sometimes running further to get to an aid station, turnaround or downhill section. I peed the last time at about mile 22. This is where I saw a sign that said “if an ironman were easy it would be called your mom”…totally wrong but funny. With about 1.5 miles left, I decided it was time to finish so I started running and told myself not to stop until I hit the end…I was not sure if I walked again if I could start running again. At mile 25, I passed Coach Barry and yelled to him to tell Stephanie I was coming and Coach Val that I was on the edge but under control. He took a pic and texted them that I was running like a “scalded dog” ☺…Steph had to ask Ken if that was good or bad…he said good. I kept looking for the first left turn off of 3rd street and it would not come soon enough. The crowd here was thick and really cheering me on which was great. I finally made the left and ran one block to make my final right turn. Just as I got to the turn a woman and her son (about12) decided to cross the corner on their bikes slowly right in front of me. I yelled at them (no words more of a loud growl combined with hey)….the crowd then yelled at them and they moved…I could not move left or right at this point so they either moved or I was taking them down.

As I was coming to the finish, I still had no idea of my overall time. I was pretty sure I was under 12 but in the fog like mind you get in during an Ironman, math was not a strength. I saw that there were about 20 people to my right getting ready to start their 2nd lap and I could only see 2 people up ahead going into the corral. No one was behind so I knew I was finishing on my own and Steph could actually see me finish. I was about 2/3 of the way down the shoot when I saw the time was about 11:39 on the board…I could not believe it…At this point I started high fiving both sides of the finishers shoot. I was on the far right side when I finally saw Steph, Ken and Cassie so I swung back to the left to high five them before heading to the line and pointing at my finishing time. Just an AMAZING DAY.


Nothing. Unbelievable run…Cannot believe I ran a 4:07 Marathon after 112 miles on the bike…CRAZY!!!

I must have fueled right on the bike because I did not need a lot of fuel on the run. Drank lots of water, ate ice chips, poured lots of ice down my back and front of my shirt…Loved how the race belt held the ice on my lower back while I ran…I had no back pain on the run. Had about 3 cups PowerAde but it tasted terrible (really about 3 swallows not cups), lots of cold Sponges on the head, 2 fig newtons, 3 roctain gu (tasted terrible..some wild berry flavor), 3-4 cups chicken broth, 3 cups of soda (2 had ice which was wonderful).

Drank 2 chocolate milks, bottle of water, soda and a cookie. Got a quick massage. Changed clothes (used wet wipes to get some salt off). Ken and Cassie went to get my bike/bags and took them back to my room for me (AWESOME). I stayed inside with Steph for about an hour and just talked about the day. Got two pieces of pizza, more water. Called and talked to Coach Val. We were both amazed at my race. It was good to hear her excitement. Stephanie showed me all the people that were following me on-line (Aaron, Vicki, Tina, Ann and many others). This did make me feel great that others were interested in my race…It was just like having them there all day. T3 is a special group to belong to as I could feel their support all day. Only ate about 1.5 pieces of pizza then went out to watch others finish. Stood up on the overpass on 4th street live and watched people finish for about another hour (amazing…could watch all night) then went to the homemade fudge place to get ice cream. This is when I realized my throat was dehydrated as it burned so bad I could not eat my chocolate, coffee, almond ice cream…damn. But no worries Steph finished it off for me.

Called Ken and Cassie and they picked us up two blocks from the finish line..perfect.



Heat, sun, bike mechanical problem …not much


This was my second IRONMAN and I had the goal to beat last years race of 12:53 and to at best break 12 hours, which was a big stretch goal. Beating all my goals in each phase of the race including transitions means I “Raced my Plan” to perfection. I could not believe I was faster in every aspect, destroyed my bike-estimated time and still beat my best case run scenario!!!! 11:36 was not something I considered possible. GREAT DAY!