Ironman Louisville - Triathlon

The swim was slower than I thought. I was expecting to get out in one hour or less....more on the less side. I know it was close, but still, should have been under. The time trial start really breaks up the chaos of an IM swim. Very little contact with the exception of when I would swim up on someone, and then there was plenty of room to navigate around them.

Great part of an IM swim, and starting in the back, is that it makes you feel like a super swimmer. There are so many poor swimmers in an IM (which is saying a lot, since I suck at swimming), and I was blowing past them. If I swam up on an individual and/or a group, with three or four strokes/acceleration I was well clear of them. That made the swim "feel" fast.

Everyone cries about how dirty the water is, which it is, but it is not that bad. I guess everyone wants to swim in bottled water, and at some point we all need to HTFU and get'it done.

speed up and swim faster.

Looooooong run to the bags, changing area. I nailed the counting to my bag line, and was seamless getting to my bag. The awesome volunteers had my bag in and waiting.

Nothing

I think the bike is where I got behind the preverbal 8-ball that effected my run. The morning was cold, which means I am slow on my in-take of nutrition. I would guess that it put me an hour to 1.5 hours behind where I should have been. Nonetheless, I had also forgotten to pack my T1 Stealth top which would have provided additional aerodynamics and warmth. It was cold enough that I was “searching” for sun light in the early portions of the bike. There was a big difference from the sun to shade….cold enough my face was a bit frozen in the shade.

The bike is a solid course. I had no issues with the rollers/hills, but more issue with the wind on the top side of lap one and lap two/return. I did enough research on the course to know to take lap one easy in preparation for lap two. Lolli-pop type course with an additional out and back on the “stick”. Two loops around the lolli, and then return not repeating the out & back on the return.

It is a fast out to the out & back along with 3,000 other bikers. Position correctly, and you are good. The out & back has the longest/steepest hills. Downhill, flat, uphill, flat, 180 turn, repeat the other way. You have to be careful during this section because there are some sh*tty bike handlers, everyone is jammed together on a narrow road and the downhills are 40mph+. I just about saw tragedy strike on the climb out where a guy just about lost control and took out the guys climbing. Be careful here.

After the out & back, it is rollers non-stop. Nothing that was over the top, but several times there are momentum killers with downhill turns into climbs so you lose all of that momentum. If you keep it easy, you should have no issues whatsoever.

Highlights had to be the town you roll through at mile 40 & 70. People line the streets, and I think they had a loud speaker calling out racers/where they are from/etc.

Nasty headwind the last 30 miles on the return. Key was to keep tucked and plow ahead. Lots of smaller groups riding together during this section.


Needed to drink more early and set up proper hydration. Got behind the 8-ball unknowinglyand that expresses itself during the run.

Again, it was a long run from bike dismount to bike hand-off. Down and around to bag collection and into the tent. High light of T2 is that I saw D00D (Ron Hicks) in the tent. A quick "hey, what's up" and he was out the door.

Hit the rest room and sunscreen as I exited.

pee faster, since it seemed like I peed forever.

Hardest part of this run was the headwind on the out. Good news was that you had a tail wind on the return. You have a slight hill to get up to the main road, but basically the course is flat. Not pancake flat, but it is flat. IMO I think that makes a more difficult run. Nothing to change up the muscles being used etc. There are a couple of very small up/downs which I could definitely tell the body was changing gears (positive), but not enough to get me out of the slump I was in.

I decided to try a different pair of shoes for this IM Marathon. That was a mistake. They are a little bit heavier than my Newtons, and I could not get them to turn over. I guess my theory is you need super light shoes to make it easier to turn over during the marathon on tired legs. The increased weight just felt like lead weights. Should have gone with the Newtons.

Nonetheless, I basically just slow slogged my way through this marathon. Legs were dead, so I just slowed down and marched out. I saw Ron out this a couple of times, Scott and Joe Dollar (for racers). Saw so many friends that were there to cheer everyone on.


Needed to drink more on the bike, but didn't due to the cold start. Focus on hydration more at the next one.

Post Finish, I felt fine at first but by the time I got to the end of the finishing chute something was off. Apparently, I was sheet white and slightly slurring my words. Long-story-short, I was taken to medical for an IV bag for de-hydration.


- Low on hydration/nutrition on the bike due to the cold start. I do not take in my normal amount when it is cold, and that set me back about an 1.5 to 2 hours on the bike hydration/nutrition-wise. (see post finish)
-I used a different set of shoes on the run, which are a little bit heavier than the Newtons but provide more support for my feet later in the race. Problem is that when my legs were tired after the bike, I could not get them (my legs) to turn over. Instead, it was like running in cider blocks. Oh well, live and learn.



Great race. I would definitely go back. Course is solid and keeps you honest. As always, the volunteers make the day.