Short Report:
2440 participants.
451 participants in age group.
Swim: 1:10:53 – 703 overall – 113 in age group
Bike: 5:53:14 – 586 overall – 113 in age group
Run: 5:07:54 - 784 overall – 138 in age group
Finish time: 12:26:24
Long Report:
I went into Ironman Louisville under trained but it is better than going into the race over trained. Although I did get in all of my long swim/bike/runs, so that was a plus as I knew I could do the distance without any major problems.
My bible verses for this race were Phil 4:13 and Col 3:23. I had a constant reminder of those two verses on my hands. In addition, I had 141 names of loved ones who have battled cancer written on my arms.
We arrived in Louisville on Friday and we went straight to athlete check-in and it was good that I did as there was no line. Once I was checked in I was able to finally meet Trevor Stultz, a team mate on MultiSport Ministries. We ended up hanging out for most of the weekend. Then we walked around the expo for a while before heading to the hotel. Friday night we went to the welcome banquet and I am glad that we did, it was very uplifting atmosphere. After the welcome banquet and athlete race brief we attended the Iron Prayer which was led by Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). It was a great message. From the banquet we walked back to hotel and I took an ambien so I could get a good night sleep. I was out in almost no time.
Saturday morning I was up and pacing early as normal, so I went out for a short run down to the transition area to take some pictures and then up to the swim start and back to hotel for a total of 3 miles. Then we headed down for the practice swim; which was another electrifying environment. We met up with Trevor again and headed to the water. Just as I was about to enter the water my goggle strap came apart. I quickly put it back together and jumped in the water and off we went. I had nothing but problems with my goggles leaking and I couldn’t seem to get them to stop. It was definitely a blessing from God that I had these problems on the practice swim. I have never had problems with the goggles but it prompted me to use my spare goggles for the race. I had no issues race morning; Praise the Lord.
After the practice swim we went back to the hotel to rest and eat before meeting up with Trevor again to drop the bikes off at transition area and then driving the bike course. For some reason I was thinking the bike course was flat to rolling hills. Well, the only part of the course that was flat was the first and last 10 miles. The rest of the course was either up- or down-hill with a few pretty steep climbs although not long. After driving the course I decided I would stick to my plan of trying to ride right at 19 mph. Once we finished the drive Melissa and I went out to eat at IHOP, my normal place to eat the night before a race. I wanted to get to sleep early, but I couldn’t so I walked back to the transition area to take some photos of all the bikes. Finally I was able to get to sleep around 9, I had my alarm set for 3 so I could get some breakfast and give it time to digest before the race.
Race Day:
After eating breakfast at 3 I went back to sleep and up at 4:30 and by 5 we were heading out the door to the transition area. Put my bike bottles on my bike, put air in the tires and met up with Trevor to walk to the swim start. It was a beautiful cool morning and could ask for anything better for the end of August and the weather forecast for the day was mid 80’s. When we made it to the start we joked about getting an interview and lo and behold 10 minutes later a reporter asked if it was ok if he interviewed me live on channel 11 news. Too funny, I don’t know which was harder, getting interviewed before an Ironman or waiting to start the race. You can watch the interview here.
Swim: The race was a time trial start with athletes lined up and time would start as we crossed a timing mat and jumped into the water. It took us 36 minutes from the time the race started until I entered the water and started my adventure. Once we entered the water we started swimming upstream for something less than a mile. My goal, after I hit the water, was to swim to the turn around and I felt as though it took forever as I was getting kick and punched with all the swimmers in the water. All I kept telling myself was to keep moving you can make it to the turn. As I made it around the buoy I was relieved and decided I would take a break and do the breast stroke for a little. I felt as though I was working harder even though I was now swimming with the current, so I went back to swimming freestyle for the remainder of the swim. As I was swimming I was starting to get excited as I could see the bridges in the distance and knew once I reached them it was less than 400 meters to the exit of the water. Once I reached the exit and I crossed the timing mat I was ecstatic when I saw my time was 1:10 and some change. The official time was 1:10:53. My anticipated time was 1:15 and coming out of the water some 4 minutes faster was exciting.T1: I had planned for 10 minutes in transition. I wanted to make sure I didn’t rush myself and I wanted to eat a cliff bar and drink a bottle of fluid before getting on the bike. So when I made it through transition in less than 8 minutes I was happy. I even took the time to talk to people inside the changing tent and just enjoy the day.
Bike: The first 10 miles of the bike course is flat and fast and I had to work hard at not going out to fast. People were constantly passing me and I was riding between 19 and 20 which was faster than I wanted to ride. I just let them go, knowing I would pass them later on the course. I was taking bike splits every 10 miles to help me maintain my speed without over doing it. The first hill would be the test at 11 miles and up we went and I was passing everyone going up the hill. Climbing is a strength and I let it work for me. We hit the out and back which I thought would be the toughest part of the course which had some steep hills on it. It was kind of scary going down the hills at 45 mph passing people. The road was narrow and windy and not a lot of room for error with people climbing the other side of the road. We headed into the Lagrange Loop which we rode twice. It seemed as though we had a head wind the entire time. Every we turned I thought I would get some relief but it didn’t happen. The combination of winds and hills made most of this loop brutal with the exception of highway 42 which provide relief with a tailwind. On the second loop I was trying to compare my 10 mile splits. The surprising part I was my speed hadn’t slowed too much coming around the second loop. Once I hit highway 42 the second time I knew it was net downhill with the wind to my back. My fastest 10 mile splits of the day were 90-100 and 100-110, both being over 20 mph. During the last 15 – 20 minutes of the bike my stomach started to hurt. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I wasn’t stopping until I hit the transition area. The bad thing was I didn’t take in any more fluids the remainder of the ride. I finished the bike right on pace with my goal of 19 mph for an average speed. The hills in the Lagrange Loop were tough.T2: I dismounted the bike and handed off the bike to the catcher and headed down the chute to grab my run bag and into the changing tent. I was in agony as my stomach was cramping. I considered stopping but I looked at my arms and was reminded of the battle that the 141 names on my arms and knew I had to continue the fight. I changed my socks and put on my running shoes and grabbed my water bottle and went to the aid station inside the tent and filled the water bottle. From there I went straight to the porta-potty. No relief; Ugh!
Run: I headed out of transition and out to the road. Even though I wasn’t feeling the greatest I just kept moving one foot in front of the other. I saw Melissa as soon as I turned onto the street. I ran over to give her a kiss and tell her is was going to be a long run. I ran for as long as I could, which wasn’t very long. I was now just focusing on moving forward from one aid station to the next. I don’t know how many times I looked at the names on my arms and repeated Phil 4:13 and Col 3:23. It must have been bad, at mile 5 or so I started talking to a gentleman that prayed over me before he continued onto the finish; he was on his second lap. He was a great encouragement. The most aggravating thing was that my legs felt fine but my stomach just didn’t want to give me any relief. As I made my way back to start the second loop my stomach was beginning to feel better, so I tried to pick-up the pace a little bit. But by now my feet were starting to hurt with each step. I figured if I would run faster it would be over faster. It didn’t work! All it did was create more pain and I think I actually got slower. I remember talking to several people on the course and had a chance to pray with a couple of them. I know it helped me and I pray that it helped them. I am not sure if any of them finished. When I was approaching the turnaround for the last time I started calculating in my head the pace that I needed to make it back by 8 pm, which was 13 hours from 7 am. Since I didn’t know when I actually started I didn’t know what my actual time was. I really could have looked if I would have scrolled through my Garmin settings, but I don’t think my mind was all together at this point. Somehow I calculated 13 minute miles would work for the last 5 miles. I started to run much better and at one point I was back in the low 9 minute miles, but again it didn’t last long and I think I was doing more damage than good. Finally I was reaching the city and so glad when I passed the 25 mile marker and ran (using that term loosely here) the rest of the way to the finish. With tears in my eyes I could hear the announcer, but somehow I missed him call my names and say “You are an Ironman”. I can’t believe how slow I ran. My slowest marathon time prior to this was a 3:45 and that was carrying a 3x5 flag and now I just ran a 5:07 marathon. It just goes to show how tough it is to complete an Ironman. Next time maybe……
As I crossed the finish line, I heard a lady say “You are the Cancer Guy!” and then she went on to tell me about a family member that has cancer. It was a nice conversation and then I moved on to get my timing chip off and photo. Come to find out later, the recorded interview was played on the evening news and she saw that recorded. How cool is that?
Thank you to all of my supporters, especially to my lovely wife. I couldn’t have done it without you.
I also want to thank everyone that donated to the American Cancer Society. There is still time to donate if you would like. I will keep the website open for a few more weeks.
Here is the finish line video. I am almost immediately as the video starts.
