Ironman Louisville - TriathlonFull Ironman

My best part of the swim was the first half hour. I rarely encountered anyone to slow me down until I was close to the turn around. From there though, it was one obstacle after another. The water was not clear at all, so there was no way to see the traffic in front other than sighting -- which I was mainly doing for bouyies. It got frustrating after awhile swimming on top of people, but that is all part of it. My ham strings cramped up on me with about 100 yards to go, but that subsided until I got to the steps. I walked most of the swim exit up to transition to make sure my legs were not cramping anymore. The swim time reflects that long walk to transition.

Two choices to avoid the log jam of swimmers at Louisville: 1) get to the swim line sooner so there are less people in front of me, or 2.) swim further out from everyone else???

OK, so I had this plan for the race whereby I was going to take it easy through transitions...also, when I started doing the long training sessions on the bike and run, it became clear that wearing tri shorts throughout the race wasn't going to work for me. So, I trained with bike shorts and run shorts. I wore my tri shorts for the swim. This meant that I would completely change in both T1 and T2. And I did. Grass was wet in the tent, so we decided the day before to leave the bike shoes in with our bike clothes as opposed to clipping them into the bike as usual.

8:16 sounds like a long time, but the transitions were not my concern, and overall, I would probably do them the same.

As I mentioned above, I had this plan... When my wife, Kristina, and I decided that we would do Ironman Louisville, I made a plan along with the help of one of my ironman buddies. The plan was not only the 27 weeks of training, but also how I would go about race day, etc. In training, all of my 100+ mile bike rides were consistant with intensity, hydration, nutrition, and overall average speed. I averaged 17.5 MPH in each of the 5 100 plus mile bike sessions. At Louisville I did slightly better than that.

However, I started to get bad leg cramps at about mile 75 or so. The cramps started in my hamstrings, so I popped up on the pedals to stretch the backs of my legs. Immediately, the quads went into spasm. Then I went back to aero position and both muscles were cramping. (To this point I had been following to a T my practiced plan: GU gels, salt tabs, Gatorade, water, etc.) I had to find a solution and quickly to get the muscles to function. I found that at some point with the cramping it was better to spin, but at other points they would stop cramping if I used a harder gear. So here I am in my longest race ever -- on my quest to become an ironman, and 3/4 into my bike race -- and I have to get through the 112 miles as I try to get the legs to work. This was a tough course for my syptoms because the rolling hills were continuous, so if I wanted to give my legs a break during a speedy downhill, I had to keep some kind of pedaling going to hold off the cramps. Any hesitation or rest, and they would go into spasm again. I kept telling myself to push through the pain, push through the pain...by the end of the bike race, my legs were completely shot. As I handed the bike off to the bike catcher, I had to limp past all the cheering fans and volunteers as if I had two-by-fours for legs. It was painful, and my ego was definitely hurting as well, but by now I had convinced myself that no matter what I was going to be an ironman by the end of the day!

This is the big question. Everyone says electrolytes, hydration, salt, potassium, etc. I did all that and then some. I raced exactly how I trained. Not sure what I need to do, but I need to find out why this happened.

As I mentioned earlier, the T2 was going to be a bit longer b/c I was going to completely change into my run gear. I had to walk-limp from the bike dismount line to the gear bag line to the mens tent. Once in there, I struggled to sit since the legs were cramping front and back. The GREAT volunteers were asking me if I needed help. One grabbed me a Gatorade, and two others were right there trying to help. It took me a while to get changed and regain my composure, but all in all I think I had a peace about me knowing that I was not going to consider giving into to my legs wanting out of this race.

I had little choice in the way things were going.

If you read this far, you know what my legs were doing -- cramping up to the point that I had to move (walk) to keep them from seizing up, but I wasn't able to do much running at all. I did a limp-jog-walk combo for the first section onto and back on the bridge, but before long into the marathon, it was all walking. I kept at it hoping that sooner or later I'd be able to get something from the legs, but 25-50 yards of slow painful jogging every so often was all I could muster. It was frustrating especially since my run training had been very good.

My goal was to start the marathon at 8 hours in (8 hours for the swim, bike, T1 and T2), and I was right on schedule even with the legs issues. To walk most of the 26.2 was very difficult mentally, but I just focused on the end result = I was going to be an Ironman at the end of the day!

I expected to be full of emotion when I heard my name announced as an ironman, but it was just a happy moment, and even now -- a few days later -- I don't think I feel the full scope fo the accomplishment.

My wife did great -- 12:19, and had just returned to the finish line from getting an IV when I crossed. That was some good timing!

Normally, if I do not meet my expectations in a race, I will be pretty hard on myself. But I firmly believe that I had a great training plan, and a great game plan for race day. I can't beat myself up for this performance because I gave everything I had.

I plan on getting some blood work done to help in figuring out just why my legs did what they did. If I am not getting enough out of my normal diet, I will certainly make the adjustments. If I had my legs, I know I could of cut an hour or more off my time. Maybe next time?? :)

My wife wanted me to get an IV to help with the cramping, but I was cooked mentally by this point. We got some pizza and some more Gatorade and headed back to the Galt House. Got some room service and hung out with our friend Scott who made the trip from Philly to cheer us on. Passed out at 1:00 AM.


Leg cramping.


This was our first Ironman. We have done Ironman half distance races, but this one was far superior in every aspect. It was an excellent experience, and I can't imagine a better race to become an Ironman for the first time. If I ever do another Ironman, I would definitely consider Louisville.

The race organizers, the people of Louisville, and the thousands of volunteers were tremendous.