Ironman Louisville Race Report Part 1 and 2

Part 1: Checking In

Okay, Ironman Louisville, this was after all the A race on the schedule and every workout; swim, bike, run, strength training, yoga, race, you name it, was geared towards finishing the second Ironman with the best time possible. And yet somehow still enjoy the day even though pain and suffering were guaranteed!

I travelled to Louisville by myself on Thursday of race weekend and got settled into the host hotel that afternoon. Andrea and Kelsey were flying down on Friday night as to avoid two extra days of missed school for Kelsey. This worked out well and I actually made such good time driving down that I was able to make it to athlete check in before it closed down for the day. At each of these events they weigh you to get a baseline should you have issues on race day. This time they even checked your body fat and percentage of hydration. How they get all this from the fancy scale you stand on I don’t know. But I’m sure it comes in handy should you need medical assistance after or during the race.

Next stop is the line to verify your info and sign all the waivers saying that if you keel over it’s your own fault. Then on to the actual check in where they put an Ironman wrist band on you that you wear all weekend. This band gets you into the transition areas and the welcome dinner on Friday night. They also give you your race packet with all the bib numbers, a swim cap and gear bag stickers. The last stop is the goody bag pickup. Here you get a nice canvas bag with the race logo on it and all your gear bags are inside.

By now the hotel is just bursting with athletes checking in, rolling $5000.00 bikes (or more!) with them waiting to get into the elevators and haul all their gear to their rooms. Pretty amazing that all of these people have gone through the same summer of training I have all with the same goal in mind. Finish an Ironman. Honestly it gives you a great sense of pride when you look at some of these super fit people and think I’ve gone through just as much as they have to get to this point. Man I’m ready to race NOW!!

So I’m all set and waiting for Jared and his family to arrive and possibly get in a short bike/run workout. Well turns out Jared’s van broke down about 15 miles outside of Louisville and had to be towed into town. Not the way you want to start your Ironman weekend. So I decided to skip the workout and just go grab some dinner and come back and relax.

All was good until I turned out the light Thursday night to get some sleep. Without going into great detail lets just say there was a bit of room changing needed due to the room being next to a construction site. Noise all night and sleep don’t mix. Friday morning I decided that I’d check with the front desk and see if I could get moved across the hall to a quieter room. But first I walked down to the swim finish to meet Jared and Troy at the Gatorade practice swim and test out swimming in the Ohio River. Actually swimming in the river was more like being in a big lake. The Ohio wasn’t really too dirty but still felt a little grimy after climbing out. There was a bit of a current that would be with us during the race so I thought I should have a pretty decent swim time.

After the swim I went back to the room and cleaned up and checked on moving rooms. The hotel staff was awesome and really made a great effort to move me across the hall into a much quieter room and actually a little bigger suite. It turned out to be a great move to get that room switched.

Part 2: Getting my $%&# Together

Saturday morning I met Jared and Troy again for a 15 minute swim in the river then Jared and I jogged up to find the swim start and get an idea of where to be for race morning… less then 24 hours away now!! Then off to breakfast with Andrea and Kelsey before coming back and organizing all the gear for the race. And of course we had to visit the Ironman store and expo and buy some M-Dot stuff from the event!

So Kelsey and I are lining out all the gear and placing it on top of each gear bag to get ready to take down to transition when there is a knock on the door. Seems the lock on the room next to us has broken and the maid is stuck inside the room. There are a couple maintenance guys, the house keeping manager, a security guy or two all trying to figure out how to get this maid out of the room next door. Well to make a long story short, they cut a 2 foot hole in the coat closet wall in our room into the next room to get a guy in there to take the lock apart. They end up taking a saws-all and cut the whole lock off the door. The maid crawled through the hole back into our room to get out.

And while all this is going on in the living room of our room I’m trying to make sure I don’t forget something in my gear bags! I must have checked the bags and my list 3 or 4 times. Thankfully this wasn’t my first time and I’d made a good list and was able to get everything in the correct bags! It all worked out and we even got a free nights stay out of the deal.

In most sprint or olympic distance triathlons, each athlete has a transition area next to their bike where all the gear is set out ready for the next section. So you'll have your bike on the rack and under the bike will be your helmet, bike shoes, etc for the bike leg. Then running shoes and whatever else you want for the run when you come in from the bike. Even with a half-ironman or 70.3 distance race everything you need is by your bike.

At the Ironman events the only thing you can have on the rack is your bike. You then have a gear bag that has all your bike gear in it. And another gear bag with your running gear. Each bag is labeled with your number and name so when you come into transition a volunteer will yell out your number as you come through and another volunteer will grab your bag and hand it to you as you head for the changing tent. It's all very well organized and the volunteers are simply awesome. When you see gear bags for over 2300 athletes layed out on the ground in neat rows all in order, it's pretty amazing nothing gets lost!

Gear all packed up, the three of us head down to the swim finish and the transition area to check in the bike and both the "swim to bike" gear bag and "bike to run" gear bag. One of the volunteers walks me to my bike rack space and I rack the bike and get a general idea of where I'm at in relation to the changing tent. With over 2000 bikes here on race day it gets pretty crazy trying to find you bike. We then go backwards through the transition area through the changing tents and over to where the gear bags will be. We place the gear bags on the ground in the row I'll be in so I can find my gear the next day. It always helps to have an idea of a few things before the race such as where the swim exit is and where it comes into transition. Also where the bike exit is and the bike in and run out is. Otherwise you’ll lose tons of time trying to find your way out of transition on race day.

Gear all checked in, I head back to the room to put my feet up and rest a bit while the girls go check out some local attractions like the Louisville Slugger factory. Later Jared, Troy and I drive the bike course and discover that it looks really hilly. Even hillier than we thought it would be. A 6 hour bike might be a tall order come Sunday. I get back to the hotel a little stressed about the whole event now and just hoping to make it through the bike and get to the marathon.

We made a great decision Saturday night to not even think about going out for dinner and just ordered room service so we could avoid all the stress of getting into a place to eat. Next to switching rooms this was the best choice we made all weekend. Now it was just a matter of getting a decent nights sleep and be ready to roll Sunday morning.

Part 3: The Race…

Coming Soon