2010 Ironman Louisville Race Report

We arrived on Wednesday about 4:30pm and checked into the Downtown Marriott without any problems. Later that night after we settled in we took a trip to Walmart to stock up on groceries as we had a full kitchen in our hotel suite.

Arriving on Wednesday gave me the luxury of a 15 minute, painless, line up free, registration process. On Friday the line to register was huge and I’m sure some people were standing in line for over an hour. The process includes getting weighed in and your hydration level checked on a Tanita scale. Mine was 62%, they are looking for a minimum of 60%. Filling out all the insurance and emergency contact forms, picking up the race packet which includes swim cap, 5 transition gear bags, wrist identification band, timing chip and bike and race bib numbers, and finally a bag that didn’t contain anything but advertising flyers.



I decided to take a walk down to the practice swim on Saturday morning and decide if I wanted to jump into the Ohio once I got down there. As soon as I got there I decided to go for a swim. Once in the water my right side goggle kept filling up with water, I stopped a few times to reposition it and it kept filling up. After the swim I took at look at it and saw that the entire gasket on that side was coming off. Oh well, off to the expo to get a new pair of goggles, just one of the million things hat can go wrong at Ironman!

Later in the afternoon, we walked down and dropped off the bike and the gear bags. Everything has to be checked in and left overnight. It was very hot and the forecast was for even hotter weather on Sunday.



On Saturday night I had a reasonably good sleep after 8pm and we were up at 4am. As I changed into my race gear, put on my heart rate strap and timing chip, I forced down a bagel and a banana. I never feel much like eating the morning of an Ironman, and I prefer to start on the lighter side, but you really have to get some calories down and get the nutrition plan kicked off.

We left the hotel at 4:30am. You know it’s going to be a hot day when you step outside the front door of the hotel and it feels as hot as it did the night before. It really didn’t feel like it had cooled off much at all. From out hotel it was a 5min walk to the transition area where the bikes are kept and a 15min walk up the river to the swim start venue. I headed off to check and stock up the bike and Steph headed off to the swim start.

The transition area opens at 5am and because of the huge number of people there, they had opened it up early and I was able to get right in. A lot of people don’t have anyone to stand in the swim line for them, so they have to get into and out of the transition area as quickly as possible to get into the swim line. I went down to the gear bags, found my on the grass (in the right numerical order) and added my Garmin 405 and flask of GU gel to the run bag. It was still 2 hours before sunrise and the entire area with lit up with huge flood lights.

Checking that off my list, I headed over to find my bike. The P3 was there and I filled the aero bottle halfway with water and put the half empty bottle in the down tube cage, checked that the tires were still inflated and hadn’t blow up in yesterday’s heat and made sure I was in the right gear to get mounted and going. The transition area was packed with people doing the same thing and I heard the dreaded tire pop as I was leaving. I never pump up my tires on race morning. I did once and I buggered up the valve and had to replace it. I really don’t think much pressure is lost overnight and I prefer the peace of mind of not screwing around with it on race morning.

I knew I had a few minutes to spare, it was only 5:20am and I knew my spot was saved in the swim line so I took a few minutes and just took in the atmosphere. I stopped at the Bike Tech Tent and watched the growing line up of people with their bikes. I’m always amazed at how many people have left things to, literally, the last minute and now need something fixed or adjusted on their bike. They bike tech guys are awesome, there was three of them and they were all working on at least 2 or 3 bikes each.

Swim

Once again this year I was very fortunate to have Steph save a spot in the swim line for me. Unlike all other Ironman races, Louisville is a time trial start. Everyone lines up single file and jumps off one of two entry points into the river. Each person’s timing chip is activated as you pass over a timing mat on the edge of the dock and that is the start of your day.

I joined the line of people walking down the sidewalk on River Road from the transition area to the swim start. It’s a long, mostly dark walk and people are mostly keeping to themselves. Once at the swim start, there were at least 100 body markers so I stopped and got my race number sharpied on to my arms and my age onto my calf and headed off to the line up to find Steph. Fortunately I found her right away and sat down to wait for 7am to roll around. It didn’t seem like a long wait, and soon enough they were asking all support people to remove themselves from the line and it as a result we all started moving forward. The pro’s went off at 6:50am and we watched them start their day, still in the dark. The sun wouldn’t rise for another 15 minutes. As we continued moving forward, I suited up in my speed suit and made sure I had my cap and goggles in hand. By the time they played the Star Spangled Banner and My Old Kentucky Home, I was very close to the dock and the jump off point. Once the cannon went off, I was in the water in 3 minutes.

I decided that after going way too far out into the river last year, this year I would stick much more closely to the buoy line and avoid making that mistake again. I felt strong on the swim and tried to concentrate on my stroke. The was a bit of current against us and the river was a little choppy once we rounded the Island and got right out into the river. The water was very warm, maybe 85 or 86 and the few spots of cooler water were a welcome relief. I wondered how many people would be starting their day already overheated at the end of swim because of the high temperature.

The water quality is not great in the Ohio, I guess the best thing I could say is that it hadn’t rained for a long time, so there was no sewage in the river, but it was cloudy and I couldn’t see past my elbows as my arms went through their strokes. With the time trial start, people are very spread out and other than the fact that you can’t see anyone when you come up behind them, there was almost no contact with the other swimmers. Once we rounded the turn around and started heading back down the river, I noticed the current a bit more and it was nice to know that we were getting a bit of a push down the river. Once at the swim exit volunteers, all the way down the exit steps and some of them up to their chests in the water, helped pull us out of the water and push us up the steps.

Bike

This was, without question, the best 180k bike ride I’ve ever done and I really enjoyed it. During the first hour or so, it was relatively cool as the sun wasn’t high over head yet. It was very peaceful, riding along and listening to the tree frogs and crickets. After all the training and the taper, the first couple of hours seemed like almost no effort whatsoever. The first 16k is flat and runs right along the river before hitting the first of many hills. Even the first few hills were effortless and I really felt good at this point. Before long we were at the out and back, a section that has a flat entry for a few km’s and then a sharp downhill and then a steep uphill. At the top is the turn around and then we go back down and up the other side again. I’m always really careful on this stretch. At the lowest point of the valley, you have cyclists hurtling down toward each other at high speeds and people cut it really close to the centre line of the road. I think this was the first time I haven’t seen an accident where someone had gone over the centre line and collided with an oncoming cyclist. I read later that there were a couple of crashed there.

As we made our way through the double loop course, I was passing a lot of people and my average was creeping up to 30kph. I knew that a 30kph average was a possibility for this race and once I saw it, I wasn’t going to let it get away. I was riding every hill properly and making really good use of my downhill momentum and gearing to get up the next hill quickly and efficiently. I was amazed at how poorly so many people were riding. I’d spin past them while they grinded away in the wrong gear, wasting away their legs. As it turned out, when I saw the results, I passed over 400 people during the bike. I saw at least 25 people with flat tires or broken bikes and at least one person every mile or so, just sitting of lying down under a shade tree on the side of the road. My Garmin recorded 97 to 98 degress for the last 2 hours on the bike.

At every aid station I was taking a bottle of Perform and a bottle of water. It was hot, but I never felt over heated, as it turns out and I found out later on the run, I should have been drinking more, much more. But I never felt that I was over doing it and felt good for the entire ride, right to the end. Usually I can’t wait to get to get a chance to pee but I never felt that I had to go, a signal from my body that I ignored. There is an old saying that if you don’t have to pee by the 80mi marker, you day is done and that was exactly where I was headed.

I was even able to add .4kph to my average once we got onto the flat stretch at the end of the ride. I was thrilled with a sub 6hr bike split and didn’t think I had over extended myself to get it.

Run

Once I reached the 4mi mark it was like someone hit my off switch. I had felt ok up until that point but I went downhill fast. I think it was right then that my mind caught up with my body and realized what was actually going on. Without the cheering crowds and noise of the transition area and first few miles downtown, to keep me distracted, the reality of the situation became very apparent. As I struggled on I felt really dizzy and my vision was tunneling, I had to stop running. I had pushed myself as far as I could. I felt certain that if I continued running, I would have passed out and hit the ground. As that would result in medical attention, I would be DQ’d. The sun was beating down relentlessly and the heat coming up off the asphalt made my skin feel like there was a million ants crawling on it. I was drenched in salt and sweat.

OK, it was time for plan B and I started doing the familiar Ironman repetitive walk/run routine and mentally fixed myself on reaching the 8mi turn around point. I was becoming more and more nauseous I made it to the turn around, just a set of timing mats and a bunch of orange cones in the middle of the road, made sure it beeped my chip and then went straight over to a storm sewer grate at let it all come up.

Just then the runner right behind me did exactly the same thing, right in the same place, as I did and sat down with me. When I saw you, I couldn’t help it, I’ve been feeling sick for two hours, he said. We sat there for a few minutes commiserating and then decided we’d better get up and get moving. From that point on it was pretty much a long walk for me to the finish line. I jogged a few hundred meters whenever I could, but no matter how much I could get down at each 1mi aid station, the damage from the dehydration was done. I think the only thing that would have helped would have been an IV or two, but once the stick you, you’re done and I wanted to finish above all.

Finally the home stretch came. As I rounded the corner onto 4th Street, the crowd was crazy, there were thousands of people screaming and banging on the barricades. Once you round that corner and the flood lights hit you, there’s no choice, you have to run to the finish line! I was glad this one was over. Mom and the Girls were there and saw me come over. I saw Katie first and she was crying, I think because I was an hour late and I probably didn’t look so great. I gave her a big hug and told her I was OK.

There were hundreds of people being given IV’s and oxygen and a lineup of people waiting to get in. I took a look over the buffet and decided the only thing that looked good was a huge bowl of potato chips. I grabbed a container of chips and headed back out to where the Girls were. We sat for 30mins or so until I felt good enough to make it back to the hotel.

Overall , I’m pleased with my swim time and really happy with my bike time, but overall disappointed with my run performance, or should I say lack of performance.I’ll be back next year, I will execute a better race and I will finish in under 12:30! There were 3000 people registered, 500 no shows, 2500 starters, 488 didn’t finish, 1200 treated in the medical tent. I finished in 13:20 something. Which all things considered isn’t too bad.