Before the race:
Since I raced this Ironman last year, I figured that leaving Thursday would be good enough to make the trip to Louisville. Thanks to Aubrey (my athlete, and friend) and his wife, I had a home stay at their grandparents just 30 minutes away from the race site. On Friday we went to a short run, just to loosen up our legs, and that was it for the day - very productive! Saturday's program was to do a short swim in the AM, a short bike spin - just to make sure that everything worked well, and then off to check in our bikes and our gear.
Race:
The race started at 6:50; first was the PRO wave, and then the amateurs started in a TT start at 1 second intervals. We woke up at 4:00 (unfortunately thanks to Louisville's county fair being outside of my window, I didn't get much sleep) to consume a few calories before the race. It's always great trying to force yourself to eat at that early hour. We filled up our water bottles and off we went to the transition area. After checking if the bikes were still OK and fiddling with a few things, we started our 1mi walk up the bank of the famous Ohio river.
As I lined-up in my PRO wave, everybody was actually friendly and in a happy mood. We were allowed in the water for a warm up about 5 minutes before the start.
Swim:
The race started at dawn - and as always the first 250-300 meters were pretty much all-out effort. I was able to find a bigger group this time (6 swimmers), and just swam comfortably with rest of them for the entire time. Swim pace was very comfortable, about 70-75%, until I tried to pass them and swim next to them. It was way too hard so I just got back into the group and drafted the rest of the way. Water temp was about 84-85F - pretty hot for an Ironman race. After seeing the time when we exited the water, I figured that the swim was longer (or slower than last year), and everybody confirmed the same.
Bike:
The bike course in Louisville is pretty hilly, but coming from the upstate of South Carolina - it felt like riding at home. I took it easy for the first 25mi - just wanted to make sure that my legs were loose and my stomach didn’t protest after swimming in such "clean" water. Rest of the bike was as usual - some ups and downs for the next 45mi. Even though the temperatures were nearing 90F by the end of the bike, I was able to consume all of my nutrition, and pickup the pace for the last 40mi.
Run:
This time the first 8mi felt surprisingly easy, even thought the temp was in the mid 90's by now. After training on my mental "imagination state" with Greg, my legs felt great and really the first 1hr went by without noticing it. Well after the first turn-around; at my 8.25mi; it was a totally different story. No energy in my legs, my stomach wasn't happy, and the usually self-pity stuff. One of the motivations was the fact that 2 of my athletes were 1/2 into the run course, so to DNF was out of the question, even it was very tempting. Also by the ½ point of the run course I had moved to 10th place (first paying place) so definitely no choice to DNF! Rest of the run was just about survival, forcing the nutrition down, and thinking that the heat had to bother other athletes more than somebody who likes the heat and comes from SC. The temp at this point (1 meter off the road surface) was about 105-110F. Then came the last turn-around, and only 6mi to go. Unfortunately one of the PRO was very persistent in chasing me so there was no way to enjoy (plus there was no way in hell that I'll give race $ away) rest of the run. In the last 5miles, I was able to use Greg Spindler's suggestions from Matrix Energetics to "energy zone transfer" as I sucked into somebody’s energy field (he was running his first loop and was pretty fast). After 2miles this person stopped at a water station so it was up to me and fooling myself every mile (only one more hard mile and then I can slow down, and of course you tell it to yourself every mile).......and then there was the finish line = 9th place!
Overall:
Happy to be back in top 10 after few years of struggling. Learned some valuable lessons, and hope to keep improving. Thanks to all of my Sponsors: Beyond Fabrications; Blue Seventy; Rudy Project; Greg Spindler; Run-In; all of my athletes, and friends
....until the next one
PK
