Ironman Louisville - TriathlonFull Ironman

Here We Go! Things started out fantastic. Jumped in the water and immediately my right goggle filled with water. Didn't want to look like a chump and have to stop right off the dock and try to fix it, so I swam a few hundred yards and then goofed around with it. Not much contact at all till I started nearing the turn around buoy. Started to stack up a bit and get crowded at that point. Some minor bumpage and got smacked in the junk by some chick. I'm a defensive swimmer and stay/move out of peoples way while swimming so I think it was an "accidental" shot to my junk. Not a "retaliation" shot, heh. Also at this point the goggles got bumped and started leaking again. I have some crappy old goggles I guess. The cheapest gear in triathlon and I don't buy new ones, uugghh. Swam out away from the buoy a few hundred yards and fiddle with my goggles again. All is well until half way to the swim exit and then my right foot starts cramping up. Pretty much quit kicking and just pulled since everytime I started even a small amount of kicking it would cramp. Finally, the longest swim of my life done and in the books.
Of note, I never really felt any current heading downstream, it seemed somewhat choppy to me. /shrug


Well honestly, this is the swim time I deserved considering how much I trained the swim, or lack thereof. I focused my time more on the bike and run. Was hoping for a 1:25-1:28 swim with no real swim training the last 2 months, so off a little.

Took my time as planned. Changed into biking gear, hit the porta potty, hugged the family, thanked volunteers. I wasn't gonna rush this. I'm going to enjoy this entire IM.

Nothing for this Ironman! Will speed it up in future ones.

The plan was to keep my HR 145-150, and take whatever that would give me. AVG HR ended up at 146 so I was pleased. No mechanicals so life was good. Stuck pretty much to my hydration/nutrition/electrolyte plan. Since it was cool, I drank a little less gatorade than I planned but figured I was OK since I wasn't sweating hardly at all. Going through LaGrange was totally awesome and such a boost. Sadly I missed my family both times going through :( Saw Melissa(Pegasus1731) around mile 50 and she was looking strong and totally stoked! Around mile 85, I was pulling close to a women rider and all of a sudden a bunch of fluid is flying back towards me. I thought to myself at first she was splashing herself with water to keep cool, before I realized she was peeing, and peeing, and peeing, for the longest time. Thankfully I got out of the way from the beginning and didn't get sprayed with urine. She just finished up as I was passing her and we just smiled and laughed. That was hysterical. Anyways, once I hit the river road heading back into town, I sat up out of aero position and just cruised it back into town. For one, my neck was tired from being in aero so much and bending to look up, and two, I wanted to stretch everything out and be ready to run. Legs and body were still feeling really good since I played a conservative bike. Finally, longest bike of my life in the books.
The hills on the course didn't bother me at all since the terrain I train on is almost exactly the same. In fact, I prefer courses that go up and down rather than constant aero, flat courses. May not be faster but I enjoy them more.

Nada for my first IM. Went as planned. Next race I may bump up AVG HR to 150-155 range, depending on weather conditions.

Took my time here again. Put on new socks and the running shoes. Forgot to lube up feet so off with everything and then lubbed up and back on with everything again. Hit porta potty again, hugged the family and ate some nuts,raisins. Looking at my time I must've taken a nap :)

Nothing for this Ironman! Will speed it up in future ones.

The idea was to keep HR around 150 for the first half of the run and if I felt good to bump it up to 160+ for the last half. I felt great right out of the gate and next thing I know I was at the turnaround headed back on my first lap(mile 8.5). Man, the run is flying by! Pretty soon I was at mile 14ish headed out for my 2nd lap. I was pretty much living on water, coke, pretzals and grapes for most of the run and I felt good. Seeing 4th St live didn't bother me a bit, I had prepared mentally for that moment and I felt great, heck I was on my way to finishing my first IM so I couldn't wait to do that 2nd lap!I had been pacing pretty much with Amy, a gal from San Fransisco, the whole time off the bike, and she was just awesome. It was her 1st ironman as well and she was racing in memory of a friends brother who had passed away at an early age and he had always tried talking her into doing a triathlon, so this was for him! She was starting to fade a bit on the 2nd lap, but we stuck it out together. I didn't take off and finish strong on the last 10 miles like I had planned, I went ahead and stayed with Amy the rest of the way. As we approached the finish line, I looked at Amy, gave her a hug and said go get your glory, Ironman. I slapped hands with everyone I could while running down the chute. After that I followed up and became an Ironman as well! What a feeling, just WOW.

In reality I could most certainly have finished with a faster run split, but so what. I made a friend out there and it was more enjoyable to run like that than race for 20-30 more minutes on the run.

My family and friends were waiting for me as I got shuttled through the finishers shoot. The volunteers were just awesome as they helped me with everything. Went and got a cheeseburger and fries after a bit and sat and recapped my entire day for everyone. Then, back to the hotel, had a warm shower and off to bed.
Huge thanks to my family for putting up with all my training and racing this past year, they are so awesome! Also, big thanks to my good friend Mason for helping mentor and inspire me for the past year and a half, oh, and for getting all my gear as well!


I was really conservative this race and that was on purpose. Now that I have done the distance and know what to expect, I will definately take it up a notch, run my HR a little higher on both bike and run. Maybe even try to swim some more :)


In hindsight this didn't even feel like a race for me. It was about managing my day, looking around, saying hi, and enjoying everything about the experience. I did't want to be too caught up in racing not to notice "stuff" and I accoplished my goals. Honestly, I wasn't even that tired after crossing the finish line. Next time, maybe i'll race :D