The Main Event

Well...here is what I and maybe you have been waiting for. After 8 months of training that began with cold runs in January, hot bike rides in August, and ended with running across the 4th Street Live finish line a little after 11:00 PM Sunday night August 31, with a total elapsed time of 15 hours 39 minutes 14 seconds the 2008 Ironman Louisville is complete. Now for the details

The day began at 2:00 AM with a wake up alarm to get up and drink two Ensure drinks, then back to bed. A second alarm at 3:40 AM to get up for good, shower, dress, eat breakfast, pack all the food and drinks and leave the house by 4:30 AM. Parking at Floyd and Witherspoon, walked to the bike transition area, loaded the bike with drink and food, aired up the tires and then started the 1/2 mile walk to the start line located at the dock beside Tumbleweed. At 5:30 I am standing in a very long lines of competitors waiting to start the swim at 7:00 AM. After a long wait, the trumpeter sounded "Call To The Post", the cannon sounded and the race was on. Jumping in 2 or 3 at a time, we each ran off the end of the dock and into the waters of the Ohio River. I entered the water right at 7:30 AM and swimming upstream about 8/10th of a mile then round a buoy and downstream all the way to the Great Lawn and exiting the water a Joe's Crab Shack. The swim was somewhat uneventful. I only had three people try to swim up my back and one person grab my feet. For the most part, the swimmers were spread out and I liked the fact of a "time trial" start instead of a mass start. I remembered getting out of water a being dizzy and it took me 15 to 20 seconds to get my balance and move on the the transition area. Out of the water in 1 hour 36 minutes.

When I got my bike bag I headed to the changing tent and it must have been 15 degrees hotter inside and smelled like a diary barn. I said no thanks, went back outside and keeping my swim shorts on, I had a volunteer help me put on my bike jersey than ran to my bike. I had attached my shoes to the clips in the bike so now I am holding my socks in my hand until I can reach the sidewalk, then put on my socks and then put on my shoes. I ran out to the mounting area, went over to a spectator and grabbing his hand, said, "I need your hand to hold my bike while I put on my shoes". I took him quite by surprise, but amazing he did exactly what I need while I got my shoes on and then mounting my bike on the course we went. The goal was to calm down the first 5 to 6 miles, get into my rhythm and relax, get in some nutrition and get ready for the hills of Oldham County. As the day wore on, the hotter it got. I drank over 140 oz of fluid on the bike (128 oz in a gallon) and must have poured 2 or 3 gallons over my head to try to stay cool. My thermometer read 97 degrees during the second half of the bike ride. I was hoping to get the ride done is 7 hours, it actually when about 7:23 which still wasn't too bad considering the heat. I seen a lot of people "under a bush" as Coach Rich would say or broken down on the side of the road (flat tires, broken chains, etc) but a lot of folks wouldn't hack the heat. Along about 80 miles into the ride, I started to get some gastric distress and really couldn't eat anymore. For the last 30 miles I just stayed with water and some Gatorade. My stomach really never recovered for the rest of the day. I rolled back into the Great Lawn area about 4:30 ready to transition to the run.

The first 5 miles of the run was pretty good. I was running a 11 minute mile and walking the aid stations, getting either water or Gatorade to drink and constantly keeping ice under my hat. Between mile 5 and 6, I was starting to feel the effects of not getting enough to eat during the bike and suffering some gastric distress. I attempted to try some chicken broth but it disagreed with my stomach. So I pretty much did the run on water, Coke, and some Gatorade with a few jells thrown in. The best way to keep from getting sick is to stay as cool as possible, so ice under the hat and a cup of ice down your race shirt at every aid station really helps. My ride buddy Richard Berry met me at the turnaround point on Southern Parkway on my first loop and rode along with me for about a mile giving me words of encouragement. Thanks Richard, that meant more than you realized at the time. Then at the corner of 4th Street and Central Ave is my wife Paula, and friends, Walt and Nancy Reeves, clapping, and ringing the cow bell, giving me more words of encouragement, which propelled me another 2 or 3 miles. The second toughest part of the day was approaching 4th Street Live finish line and making that right hand turn for that second loop back out to Southern Parkway knowing that you had another 13 miles to go. During the second loop, I just keep repeating to myself "Don't Give Up", my motto for the next 2-1/2 hours. The toughest part of the day was just getting to the next aid station while running the second loop. My goal was to just get to the next aid station, load up on ice and Coke or water and move on. At mile 18, I starting counting the people who I passed and the the ones who passed me. At this point, I am running 3 blocks and walking 1/2 block, then running 3 cones and walking 1 cone. I ended up passing about 50 people the last 8 miles and 9 people passed me. After I made the turn around at the end of Southern Parkway, as I was running toward 4th Street Live, I watched the faces closely of the people stilling going out and the picture wasn't pretty. Of course, I can only imagine what I looked like. At the aid station in front of UL on 3rd street (3 miles to go), I remember thinking, it seems like we swam about 3 days ago, and I will be glad when this is done. After the last aid station, just south of Broadway, my sprints picked up cause I knew that there was only about 6 blocks left, so I just kept moving forward and kept thinking "Don't Give Up". All of the hard work and training had paid it's dividends. It was one of the most unique feeling to run across the finish line of a Ironman event and it had special significance to do it in my hometown and in front of family and friends. All in all, a very, very long day but very worth the effort. Thanks to all of my family and friends for their support and for putting up with the talk and the training. The pain is temporary but the bragging rights last forever.