Ironman Louisville : Official Thread (Page 68)

CONGRATS to everyone is was an awesomely painful day lol

My first ironman and i'm still in shock that I finished.

It was quite an overwhelming weekend . . . I met Kevin Mackinnon, managing editor for ironman.com and he asked why I choose to do an Ironman so I told him my story and he wrote a column on me Friday and it was the featured story . . . between that and the race itself - it was an AMAZING weekend!!!

The swim was solid and better than I expected - I some how got in line towards the front and was in the water around 7:05 . . . the bike felt good until I got sick, i threw up 7 times and the second loop really got to me. The run was a struggle but I had a neg. split marathon lol. I got a really bad blister on the bottom of my left foot and both feet went numb. I was in soooo much pain by mile 14 I didn't think I would actually finish the race. One of my team members caught up with me though and we got through the second loop of the run together.

I broke 15 14:55 WHAAA WHOOO

After I crossed the finish line I was so out of it - it was entertaining some of the things I was saying lol and at one point I didn't even realize I finished and told the volunteer I still had to make it to the end ha!!!

GREAT RACE regardless

I can't wait to do another one but it will be a year before that happens. Time to focus on getting me back to normal (or well what is normal for me) Kona 5 years!!!

CONGRATS AGAIN TO EVERYONE!!!!

Dude, all I can say is you are amazing.  I am proud just to have raced in the same race as you.  Congratulations.  Amazing story.

Hi Turtlegirl,

Thanks for the kind comment.  I have no idea if I was one of the guys Mike Reilly talked about....did he mention something during the post-race events? We missed those as my wife completed an IronDriver with 13+ hours on the road back to Minnesota on Monday.

All I could think of when I was on the stretcher was I wanted to keep racing. 

If you read my earlier post, sporty girl585 was one of the people I was talking about meeting and being touched by.  Amazing story.  Oh yea, we met at the rest area south of Louisville on Thursday.

Edited by elcaminobill 2010-09-01 12:42 PM

HRLiles,

Sometime during or after the race, I talked to a guy who said the following:

"I lost a tooth during the race."

then I asked, "crash your bike?"

he said, "I wish I had a cool story like that... nope, ate a tootsie roll."

Obviously it was you, as I'm sure you're the only one to lose a tooth eating a tootsie roll, but I can't remember when this conversation was or what you looked like. Did we do any of the marathon together or was this conversation the next morning at the Expo around 8:30 or 9?

1462 here.  I was very pleased about my first ironman experience and will do one again.  I really didn't know what time to expect.  I was hoping lower 10hr mark but ended up just under 11hrs.  That run was just brutal.  I couldn't hold anything down.  I don;t know who said there was shade.  I kept looking up in the sky waiting for a cloud to pass or something.  anyway I finished and i only walked through the aid stations.  At times it was hard to run after I finished passing one but I was doing and Ironman.   I loved the bike course.  Besides a few run ins with slow moving cars (no shoulder on the road) it was fast and challenging.  The swim was just ok for me.  I think nerves and the 84 degree water made it a bit tough on my stomach. 

I can't say enough about the volunteers.  They were awesome.  At the run nutri bag i stopped to change my socks and they actually took off my sneaks, took off my disgusting socks and then put my shoes back on.  All this while I was standing.  They rocked!  The community in all the towns we crossed were also great.  Congrats to all that finished and congrats to the few that made it to Kona on a day like that.   

Anyone ready to comitt to IMKY 2011?

Guys-

Its been really great reading everyone's posts!  Some of you have had some really amazing stories.  I shared some of them with friends at work today.

I had a great time Sunday in spite of how dang hard it was!  That was hot and humid.  I've never experienced cramping before but certainly had my fair share of it between miles 90 and 105 on the bike!

I had a good swim (1:15), a good bike (went sub 6 hours), and then about what I expected on the run (5:22).  In the end I came in at 13:06.  My A goal was 13 hours so I am not complaining about anything!  My buddy looked at the stats and said for our age group, our run time was actually respectable.  Running is by far my weakest area. 

I loved the "Chuck Norris never did an IM" sign!  That one had me belly laughing!  The town of Louisville was absolutely awesome!  The town of La Grange was awesome!  I said to cyclists around me each time we passed through, "that was like being in the Olympics, wasn't it?  That was awesome! Let's do that again!"  The volunteers were all so amazing. At Bike Special Needs I stopped and straddled the bike (decided against getting off). I asked the lady to hold the bag for me so we could go through it.  I found my yogurt covered pretzels had turned into a hot, white, creamy, pretzel yogurt soup.  I almost cried!  She felt bad and said, "Its ok. I'll open it for you and I'll put them in your mouth so you don't have to touch them!"  isn't that amazing?  I assured her it was ok, and that wasn't necessary.  I had some peanut butter filled pretzels that I called my "power pelets" that I took with me.  But she was so empathetic and caring to me in trying to help.  I was very touched by it.  All of the volunteers on the bike course worked hard to get me what I needed when I needed it.  On the run, when my body was clearly failing, they were right there in my face to help me out.  Giving me anything I needed.  At the run special needs bag the volunteers helped me get my clean socks on and sort through my food options.  I was very grateful.

And the crowd at the finish line!  That was amazing!  I told everyone at work that I truly felt what it must feel like when you are winning something in the olympics!  Those people were amazing!  After I got through the photo and was walking towards the KICC, I had this GIANT grin on my face that I couldn't wipe off!  I felt like my cheeks were going to cramp!  Spectators passing me looked at me and then got these giant smiles surely looking at how GOOFY my big smile looked!

Unfortunately I wound up with a short visit in medical for the "hook-a-brother-up-IV" for some instant rehydration and then I was off to my hotel.  Couldnt sleep Sun night or Mon night.  Finally slept well last night.  Had a good massage today and am thinking I'll get in the pool and on the bike a bit later this week.

My buddy and I have our annual "grudge match" coming up Sep 19th.  Its a Sprint race outside of Austin. It was the first race we ever did together and we've been joking that IMKY is our warmup for the main race of the season on Sep 19th!  So, that should be a relaxing good time to just go out, relax, go fast, and be done before it even starts!  can't wait.

Thanks for all that each of you have shared with us here in this forum.  Your stories through training, leading up to the race, and after have all been helpful. And that goes for athletes, volunteers who posted just prior to the race, past participants who wished us well, and our brothers and sisters who were injured along the way and had to drop.

God bless you all-

Brian

I am in!!

This experience is what I thought it would be and so muh more but the one variable that is exponential is the people.  What an amazing group of athletes and what stories that have.

Friends, I am truely honored to have shared the road with you.

I am ready, but I think I better let this one sit for a few days before I pass it by my wife.  I will keep an eye out as the registration fills up.

Photos are up!

www.asiorders.com type in your bib #

Also, want to give a BIG endorsement for trackmyathlete.com!  Had numerous friends (and some quite unexpected) report that they tracked my race in detail Sunday. I had many of them asking specific questions like, "What happened at mile ten on the run?  We noticed you slowed down a lot!  At one point it looked like you were stopped."  And others mentioning they were tracking both me and my friend and watching our gap when he would be pulling away or I'd be closing on him.

This was all VERY surprising feedback to hear!  I think if other athletes knew that people would actually watch it that closely they would likely rent the GPS tracker.  I am very glad I did, and encourage others to do so in the future!  BTW, I am not a paid endorser, just an average schmo that had a good experience with their product. ;-)

I'm still alive.  Yesterday was all travel, and today at work I found that they just saved all my work for me instead of covering it.  Hopefully I'll be able to read some of your reports tomorrow and write one up for myself.  

Congratulations to everyone. I had a great time and an experience of a lifetime and one that I am seriously considering repeating back at Louisville. 
The last couple of days have been tough during the recovery process specially at night
sleeping.  For now, I am just going to take it easy for the next couple of weeks and see what happens.

thomas 

Man, it has been AWESOME sleeping in and not working out this week. I have found out what it is like to have a life outside of training again

Once again, congratulations to all my finishers!

I second this whole heartedly!

Sorry -- I second THIS whole heartedly. The Chuck Norris sign stayed in my head all day and I think seeing the number of people layed out on the side of the road was the most shocking experience of the day.

If one exists - is there a place to download this?

Sounds like poor distribution of water during the bike. Talked to a coworker and was told they brought back like 12 pallets of 20 oz. bottles, that's something like over 13000 bottles, out of about 50000 for the bike alone. I'm not sure why they are so stingy with it. We sponsor the water so it's totally free to them, we just ask that they return what they don't use so we can use for other community event's.

Stuff like this really ticks me off about IM, you pay a premium to enter, ton's of free labor, free water, and they run out. I could see well we just ran out of jels or whatever, but water come on. I feel bad for the volunteer's having to refill used bottles from melted ice, I bet they felt less than comfortable doing that. Before I turn the rant machine off, I have worked the awards luncheon 3 of 4 years, I don't care if their family, or friends don't have a wristband for the lunch, they throw out half of the food out anyway. So please come through my line, your friends and family eat free.

I still want to do an IM, I just scratch my head sometimes!

Edited by timdude 2010-09-02 11:54 AM

Tim, your sign was awesome.  I was proud to be a BTer.

I was just looking at the IM pictures online.  There are pics of the hot air balloons inflating on the great lawn/transition area.  They were there for us.  How cool.  I just thought it was a coincidence, I'm slow like that.