This past weekend was definitely the capstone to the 2010 triathlon season for me. I picked Ironman Louisville out of a few 140.6 options way back in early 2010 for a lot of reasons, perhaps the most important of which were that a) it was not the B2B in Wilmington that I had done for the last two years and b) it was an IronMan event and I remembered what a well run race Eagleman (70.3) had been.
Over the months I trained, groussed, ignored swimming, ran marathons and did some weight lifting but, despite all of that I had to admit that I felt a bit unprepared going into the weekend. My parents offered their services as race support and off to Louisville we went. We stayed in the Galt House hotel which turned out to be right downtown and close to the event start and finish.
Packet pickup was something else. I am used to doing races with 1000 people, this had 3X the number.
The pre-race meeting was very polished although from the looks of the buffet I might have been hungry afterwards. Instead of eating there Judy, Chux and I hit a local restaurant.
On Saturday, we got to do a practice swim in the Ohio river. It acutally was pretty nice. Very slight current and emerald green water 
We checked the bike and transition bags into the event around noon after a swim and short bike ride.
Following bike and transition bag check in we decided to do a driving tour of Louisville. We saw lots – from old Kentucky homes to fossil flats and a house that Thomas Edison stayed in when living in Louisville briefly (He was fired from his job according to the historical marker). I was dumbfounded when I saw people out running on the course in the heat of the afternoon. Mid 90s on Saturday left me wondering just how hot Sunday was going to be.
Sunday am early I got up and walked down to the transition zone to pump the tires, put the eyeglasses in the transition bag and get body marked. After that and a nice mile and a half walk to the back of the line I was ready to race! Over the next 13 hours as I swam-bike-ran I suspect that much of the parent’s day was spent walking around downtown Louisville.
Obviously no photos from the race, but here goes. . .
The swim was pretty nice. The time trial start meant that you got to run out onto a dock and jump into the water. This had the benefit of spreading people out but also meant that my race started around 7:30 and that I was one of the last few hundred people to go in. Swimming under the bridges on the Ohio was neat as was swimming alongside tied up barges that we saw going upstream the day before.
The bike segment was hilly – not too bad but almost never flat. The section through La Grange was lots of fun as the town was lining the streets and cheering. I took it easy on the bike, made sure I got plenty of water/food and was content with a 6+ hour ride. Coming off of the bike I felt pretty good and was glad that at the least I was going to get to run in mid/late afternoon.
The run course was a double loop with a few miles tacked onto the front that took us out onto one of the bridges over the ohio. The run course stops were terrific – lots of food, drink and cold sponges. I was determined to at least run the first 13 miles and as I plodded along I started seeing that the heat was working over lots of people on the course.
As the race hit hour 11 the ‘fast’ people started finishing. I had managed to keep the run going through about mile 20 but started hitting the wall pretty hard about the time I turned around at the far point in the second loop. Heading back in the blisters started and I knew that my 12 hour goal was going to be missed by a long time (only 1:45 hours late ) but I knew I could finish if I just moderated and I certainly did not want to become one of the people sitting or lying on the side of the road.
The finish line was something else and after a few slices of pizza, a cold drink, a few glasses of wine and a shower I called it a day!
