Ok the Ironman Louisville race report…
Part 1: The Pre-Race
With now being in a better room in the hotel (see previous post), I was actually able to get a pretty decent night sleep on Saturday night. I felt rested and ready to go when the alarm went off at 4:45. There really wasn’t much need for the alarm as I was awake at 4:00 listening to showers kicking on all around us as other athletes began their days.
So 4:45 the girls and I are up and dressed with a plan of leaving at 5:15 to head to transition to put the nutrition on the bike and meet Jared and Troy for the walk up to the swim start. After a quick bagel with PB and some Gatorade we are out the door.
The walk to transition is about 10 minutes and there is a steady stream of athletes and families. Lots of nervous energy now as it’s getting real. We arrive at transition and it’s packed with bikes and bright overhead lights as the sun isn’t nearly up yet. I quickly find my bike and load up all the nutrition I’ll need: 2 power bars, 2 Gatorade’s, 4 GU gels, 1 flask with Hammer Gel and a zip lock of Enduralite salt tabs. I clip my Garmin on and power it up to sync then power it back off. Pump up tires and I’m ready to go.
Lots and lots of bikes ready to roll... I'm in there somewhere!
I’d planned to walk up to the swim start with Troy and Jared but they still had some setup to do and I was just too fired up to stand still so I told them we were going to get going and I’d see them at the start. That was the last time I saw either until the marathon…
The swim start in Louisville is about 9/10 of a mile from transition so Andrea and Kelsey and I headed on up again still dark and actually a bit chilly. The entrance to the parking lot for the swim start is full of volunteers all holding up magic markers ready to mark our arms with our bib number and our calf with our age. Body marked, we continue over to the entrance to the swim and put on the speed suit and the timing chip around the ankle. Give the morning cloths bag to a volunteer and wait around for Jared and Troy.
Part 2: The Swim
Ironman Louisville is different than all the other Ironman races in that it is a time trial swim start. One swimmer at a time goes in the water a second a part as opposed to 2400 people all treading water and starting together. We waited around to see if we’d see Jared and Troy but there were so many people milling around it was impossible to find them. I decided to go ahead and get in line and get this thing going. Gave a kiss and hug to the family and started down the ramp to the dock. I was pretty close the start of the line with maybe only 100 athletes or so ahead of me. This year the race organizers decided to split the line into two separate lines once we got to the dock. I got in the left line and got all set for the age group start. The canon went off and the pros started their race. 10 minutes later the horn sounded and everyone in line began jogging down the dock and jumping off one by one. The crowds on the hill looking down on the start were just screaming and yelling as we went by and it was quite the rush. I plunged into the Ohio about a minute after the horn and quickly found my form. I felt great passing quite a few swimmers before the left turn out into the main channel.
That blur under the clock is me getting ready to jump in.
I’ll have to say I really prefer this swim start compared to the mass swim start at the other Ironman races. I hardly got touched the entire swim. It might have been different being further back in line. That was the very reason I wanted to get into the water towards the front to avoid having to swim over people in front of me. Or worse, get swam over by faster swimmers coming up from behind. I felt like I was sighting well and thought I’d come out with a decent swim time. The only issue I had during the entire swim was a girl swimming along side me about halfway through. We kept swimming into each other and finally I stopped and let her go past then ducked to the right as she crossed in front of me. I think she was the one swimming crooked! At any rate, when I kicked to get going again my left hamstring caught and pain shot all the way down my leg. Luckily it didn’t cause me any problems during the swim but I wondered how it would feel once on the bike.
The rest of the swim was uneventful and I exited and took a quick look at my watch… 1:12 and change?!?! Not at all happy with that as I really worked hard on my swim all year and was sure I’d go under 1:05. Oh well no time to worry about it I hurried up the stairs and then up the hill and around the corner to transition from the swim to the bike.
Transition has to be the most exciting part of these races. People are lining the route to the tents and it’s just constant screaming. It’s very cool. Then a volunteer yells out your number as you enter so another volunteer can grab your swim to bike gear bag. It’s my job to find the right row to run down and grab my bag and head into the changing tent. Inside I strip off the speed suit as yet another volunteer dumps out the bag on the ground and starts handing me my stuff. Heart rate strap, socks, shoes, jersey, bib number belt, helmet… Done! Let’s go! It didn’t go quite as smoothly as it did in Wisconsin but not terrible. I was able to keep T1 under 5 minutes from entry to bike exit so not too bad.
I see Andrea and Kelsey as I cross the bike mount line and jump on the bike and get a quick “let’s go!” or something. I also see Jason and Brian from KC who came down to cheer us on. They are also there yelling. Again not quite sure what was being yelled as it’s all a blur at that point. It is very motivating though to see family and also guys you’ve done some racing and training with over the summer yelling for you.
Off on the bike... see you in 5 hours and 36 minutes!
Part 3: The Bike
My plan for the day was to just cruise along for the first 40 miles and then try to keep a steady cadence and pace. I wanted to be able to run a good marathon and the only way that was going to happen was to be conservative on the bike. And based on my initial thoughts of the bike course re-con we did I didn’t want to blow up in the first 20 miles. Funny thing is, the first hill we hit about 10 miles in looked brutal in the car but I just flew right up it and kept my heart rate completely in check. The goal was to stay sub 145 as much as possible and for the most part I did.
The Louisville bike course is similar to Wisconsin in that you ride out about 24 miles and do two 30 mile loops then come back 24 miles to the finish. There is also a short out and back section you ride once about 18 miles into the ride. It’s a big long downhill then uphill to the turnaround then back up that first hill to the highway. Hang a right and head out to La Grange for the loop. 112 miles is a long way so you really have to break it up into segments. In the case of Louisville, segment one is to complete the out and back hills. Again flew down the first hill and then up hill to the turn around then nice and easy coming back up the longer steeper hill back to the main highway. Segment two is to get to La Grange. There would be massive crowds there cheering us on and that is always a great boost.
The weather was almost perfect… Mostly sunny and cool with a bit of a north east wind. I was a bit concerned with my hydration as I wasn’t sweating a bit. Although other bodily functions were telling me I had plenty of fluids. I noticed nobody else was sweating either so I continued to stick with my schedule of 6-8 ounces of Gatorade every 20 minutes and a gel every 45.
Made it to La Grange and my average pace was continuing to climb towards 20 mph. I was staying in control so was feeling good about my pace and not worrying too much about blowing up on the run. La Grange was pretty cool with huge crowds lining a good mile of the course through town. Again saw Jason and Brian yelling and screaming as I passed. We had been climbing slowly and steadily out to this point and now the rollers really started. Just up and down. Nothing really terrible but just constant shifting. Beautiful country though with all the thoroughbred race horse “estates” all along this stretch.
Okay, next segment, finish loop one and get back to La Grange… I’m still feeling good and this section goes by pretty fast. Actually the whole bike leg went by pretty fast. Still big crowds in La Grange on the second loop. Next segment is to get back around to the turn for La Grange, except I get to head for the finish this time!!
I start to notice several athletes changing tires now between mile 75 and 80. I’m thinking maybe pinch flats from hitting some of the little pot holes along the course so I keep a sharp eye out for those. I found out later some nice person had scattered tacks along the road as to otherwise ruin someone’s bike split and perhaps chance to get to Kona after a year of training. Nice. All because of traffic delays for one day? A day that brings in who knows how much money to their city? At any rate the last 24 miles are slightly downhill with just a couple climbs. The last 8 miles or so are completely flat and really fast.
I pass a guy that I’d been going back and forth with for the last 10 miles and I ask him “are you ready to run?” He say’s running is not his strength but he’s ready to get off the bike. Yeah a very common desire after 112 miles. I’ve continued to watch my average and I’m up over 19.8 now so I’m thinking I may be about 20 since my Garmin took a couple miles to sync up. I’m still feeling good as I stayed on top of my nutrition the whole time…
- 6-8 ounces of Gatorade every 20 minutes
- 1 Gel every 45 minutes
- 1 Power Bar at 2 hours and another at 4 hours
- Water at each aid station, as much as I could drink then toss the bottle
Ah yes the end of the bike...
Same protocol as T1, I start taking stuff off as the volunteer dumps out the bag. This time I change into tri shorts for the run, new socks and running shoes. Attach the Garmin to the wrist strap, grab the running hat, different sunglasses, 3 GU’s and my Hammer Gel flask and I’m out the door. I’m feeling good as I run around the tents and out the run exit. Again lots of people yelling encouragement as we head out onto the run course.
Part 4: The Run
The Louisville marathon course is a VERY flat 2 loop out and back with one short segment that goes out on a bridge over the river and back in the first mile. This bridge is the only hill on the whole course. Historically this is where my hamstrings cramp up, the first downhill early in the run. No problems at all this time and I felt smooth. I saw Jason and Brian again here and they said Jared was just ahead of me. Andrea and Kelsey said the same thing that I had about 20 minutes to make up. Unless Jared cracked or I had a great day there was no way I was going to catch him.
Leaving T2 and the beginning of the marathon
My goal for the first 10 miles of the marathon was sub 150 heart rate which would hopefully be sub 9 minute pace. And it was. I was able to hold about 8:45 through the first several miles and felt pretty good. I saw Jared coming back from the turn around but had no idea how far behind I was at that point. He was pretty shocked to see me I think at that point. Neither one of us knew the time gap between our starts so we had no clue how the other was doing. Other than being 8 hours in and already well into the marathon.
Mentally this was a tough course being so flat and zero turns to speak of. Plus the finish of loop one is a block from the finish and you can actually see the finish line!! But no, you make a quick right turn a block from the finish and then another right and head back out to the turn around. Ouch!!
There it is! The Finish Line!
The marathon didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped. I didn’t kill it on the bike so thought I’d have plenty for the run. I think I made a tactical error in trying to slow myself down the first 10 miles and ran so inefficiently that I just wore out my quads and hip flexors. By the time I needed to pick up the pace, it was becoming difficult just to pick up my feet! I also wore the wrong shoes taking my Asics Speed Star shoes and not the Kayano’s I normally wore for long runs. My feet were killing me as well. Hey, I’m not making any excuses here if that’s how it sounds. I made some errors on the run is all and it cost me the sub 4 hour marathon I was shooting for. All marathons have the wall to get through usually around mile 18. In the Ironman for me it turned out to be about 16. From 16 to about 21 it was basically run as much as possible and walk the aid stations. I segment the marathon just like the bike and stay in the current mile and not look too far ahead. Just get to the next mile is all I’m looking for. So that was my focus from 16 on, just get 17, get 17, get 17 and so on.
Once I got to 24 I really thought I’d be able to pick it up but my legs just wouldn’t go. I ran it in but it was painful and slow. I was disappointed I wouldn’t break 4 hours, but I’d still break 4:10 and be a good 15 minutes faster than my marathon time in Wisconsin.
This time through downtown though there will be no right turn. But instead two blocks straight down the finish shoot with crowds cheering loudly. As I near the finish line I hold up 2 fingers as in Ironman finish number 2. I see Andrea and Kelsey hanging over the fence about 20 feet from the finish line (NICE SPOT!!) and give a high five as I pass by. Now I’m really pumped up that I made it through all the pain in the last 10 miles to finish this thing and I hold up both hands in the number 2 salute as Mike Reilly calls out my name chuckling that I’m throwing out the double peace sign to everyone… yeah I made Mike Reilly laugh.. Classic!
That's Ironman Finish Number Two!!
I cross the finish line arms raised and yell “THAT’S NUMBER TWO!!!” Then my legs realize we are finished and they have had enough. Thankfully there’s a volunteer there to steady my balance and I’m done!
Swim Time: 1:12:35
Bike Time: 5:36:29
Run Time: 4:07:18
Total Time: 11:06:53
46 / 397 M40-44 age group
328 / 2345 Overall
Part 5: Post Race
The volunteers where awesome the entire day and the guy at the finish walked with us a couple blocks down to the post race area for food, medical if needed and our dry cloths bags from that morning. I had heard they had so many volunteers there was one for every athlete in the race. That’s pretty awesome support.
So great race and I really enjoyed the city and the race venue. Not sure when we’ll be back but I’m sure at some point we will return especially since it’s within 8 hours of KC.
Next up is Coeur d’Alene in 2010 and I’m already planning what I’ll do different there!
