I participated in this race last year and being my first Ironman I was very happy with my finish time. Coming in at 13:08 while fighting off some major stomach issues I really couldn't complain. After the race I promised my wife I wouldn't do another one for a while. I'm pretty sure my training is actually harder on her having to deal with 3 kids while I'm gone. But with all that said my brother signed up, started working on me, I landed an awesome sponsor with SoundAsthma.com and the next thing I knew I was signed up to do it again!
Training seemed to go quite well this year. I did most of it alone and followed a more challenging plan. I felt confident coming into the race that a 12 hour finish or better was not out of the question. Boy was I wrong! The year seemed to fly by and the next thing I knew it was race week.
The week started off with a MAJOR bummer when my brother came down with strep throat. He wasn't able to race and I felt terrible for him. But even though he didn't race he race he went through all the pre race stuff with me. Stayed in the hotel with me and was there all day again like last year. I have to admit though that during the hardest of times during the race I was REALLY cussing him! :)
Race day was here and the early wake up call had me up and ready to go. The nerves were kicking but all my plans were spot on. Got to transition early, took care of business and then off to the swim start I went. We got there in good time and got a decent spot in line. Hung out for a bit and my wife, mom and sister in law came down early to see us and headed to the docks to get a good viewing spot. Before I knew it, it was go time! Jumped in the water (without the belly flop of last year, much to my brothers disappointment) and was off. Swimming is my weakest event but I felt things were going well. At about 800 meters in my Garmin beeped. It had never done that in a swim before and I assumed I had hit the stop button. I'm a little anal about that stuff so I started treading water trying to figure out what happened and start it back up. That's when my day went in the crapper. Severe leg cramps set in. Both legs at times, one leg at others, from my feet to my hammys. It was so bad at times it took everything I had to not start screaming for help. At one point I went under and felt like I may not make it. That's when the emotions set it. I was praying as hard as you can pray. The thought of not making it out of the water was almost to much for me. I just kept trying to move forward and somehow I made it to the swim exit. And thankfully for the current it was 9 minutes faster than last year.
As I walked through T1 trying to gather myself I had pretty much lost my drive for the day. I wasn't going to quit but I wanted to SOOOO badly! Took my time in T1 and made my way out on the bike course.
The Louisville bike course is dead flat for the first and last 10 miles. You can really blow up your race if you go out like a crazy person. My plan for the day was to keep my heart rate under 160 and that helped me keep a reasonable 21 mph pace on those first 10 miles. After that its hills upon hills. Climbing the first big hill of the day I saw a man laying in the middle of the road that was coming back down that hill and he was hurt bad. That again shook me at the core. I tried not to think about it but its hard to get that out of your mind. Then around mile 40 I took my turn hitting the pavement. Got mixed up at an aid station and went right over the handlebars landing dead on my left shoulder. It hurt but the adrenaline had me back up and riding in no time. But again that tested my resolved even more. Halfway through the bike I was averaging 18.5 and keeping my heart rate way down. That made me feel good but again I had lost the desire to push the effort so my speed ended up slipping over the rest of the race. I climbed off the bike averaging 17.9 which was slightly better (but much easier) than last year. Actually had an average heart rate of 148 for the bike ride.
Coming through T2 was an odd feeling. After the day I was having I was still ahead of last years time. That got me sparked a little. Found a bit of motivation! I hit the run course watching my heart rate and working on pace. The first 3 miles were around a 9 minute mile which was faster than I should have run, but my effort was good. The next couple miles had a few short walk breaks and then the wheels fell off. Walking a lot running a little. My hips and quads were gone, every step was so painful and running just compounded it. After 13 or so miles walking was all I could handle. I was an emotional and physical wreck. My family and friends did an awesome job spacing out on the run course. Each time I saw one of them my spirits were lifted and even though I would get choked up trying to talk to them it was great seeing them. With about 5 miles to go I had a friend or family member within site almost the entire way. That really helped bring me to the finish with a smile on my face. I couldn't wait to see my wife, I didn't know if she had heard the news of my bike crash and swim struggles but I knew that if she had she would be crying with me at the finish. I saw them all and gave them a quick kiss in the finish shoot and across the line I went in a not so fun 13:52. I went straight for my wife and had the best hug of my life. We cried a little but I assured her I was okay and then we celebrated. I hugged everyone I could find and told them thanks for coming down. I had a big group of supporters and they all Rock! My wife, kids, mom, dad, Kyle, Sam, mother in law, father in law, Uncle Steve, Toby, Scott, Stan, Barbara, Kaylen, Julie, James, Tony, Courtney, Niall (and family), Keith, Scott (and family). I appreciate each of you and feel totally blessed to have such an awesome group of family and friends!
I was really down after this years race. The feeling of not meeting my goals and underachieving has been really hard to get over. I'm just now getting the sense that maybe this finish with all it's challenges was actually more impressive than last years. After swearing off Ironman distance during the swim, the bike and again on the run this year I'm already coming around to do another. It won't be next year or even the year after that, but I would like to race another one. Somewhere different from Louisville, make it a vacation race. Already looking forward to next season. Gonna work harder at the short course stuff and try to see what I can do.
Thanks for following along on my spotty blog this year. Hope you all enjoyed it!
