Ironman #8 Ironman Louisville 2010

We arrived in Cincinnati on Thursday. Mike’s mom joined us for breakfast and then she took the kids up to Dayton for the weekend. Louisville was another hour and fifteen minutes drive. We stayed at the Gault Hotel. Things are pretty spread out in Louisville. It was nice to have registration and the expo on site, but the transition area was half a mile away & the race start was another .75 miles or so from there.   Even the race finish was a few blocks away from the hotel.  This would really only be a problem AFTER the race.  I had been on and off having a sore throat and a bronchial cough for a full 3 weeks prior to the race.  On Saturday night it was finally gone!  Forecast was for 91 degrees and 60% humidity.   At home (near San Francisco) it had been a really cool summer (with the exception of race week) & so Mike and I had not had a chance to acclimate while training.  Usually there are a couple weeks during the summer that get up over 90 and we’re able to do at least some of our long workouts in the heat.  This year, the warmest long ride we went on only topped out at 80 degrees (with no humidity). 

On race morning, there was no need for a jacket.  It was already near 80 degrees at 4:20am with a good dose of humidity that had been absent until today.  We got to the transition area at around 4:30 and waited near the entrance hoping they’d open early.  They did open it up at 4:50.  We pumped up our tires, put our drinks on our bikes & then I used my inhaler (it was in my swim to bike bag) and then we walked to the swim start.   We were walking at a pretty good clip as we both wanted to get in line for the swim start as far up as possible.  By the time we reached the swim start we were both covered in sweat.  I stopped to get some water and a volunteer noticed that I was already sweating.  He said “you aren’t from around here, are you?”.  No, I wasn’t.  He told me to be careful about keeping hydrated and to “take it easy out there”.  I decided to heed his advice.  The heat is normally an advantage for me – that is, when I’m acclimated to it.  Hawaii is the first experience that I’ve had where I overheated and crumbled.  Probably because working full time at a start up made it impossible to get any workouts in during the day (or anything longer than a half hour anyways).  For this race, it wouldn’t have made any difference since it wasn’t hot during the day anyways.  I did get out on Monday of race week (it was near 100 degrees outside), but it was too little too late.  Obviously, from my profuse sweat rate pre-race, I was going to have to take my effort down a notch to survive the heat.  We were probably 500 people back for the start of the race.  Some crazies literally camped at the front of the line & others had family members waiting in line for them starting at around 3am (I asked).  Those are some freakin’ supportive family members.  I’ve only had any family present at one race – my first one (upon which I was told never to do one of these things again).  Ironman generally draws two types of reactions: awe or indifference.  If you are in the first camp there’s at least some small part of you that is thinking “wow that’s crazy – I wonder if I could do that?” and you get drawn in to the possibility.   If you’re in the indifferent camp, you just dismiss the whole thing as insane without giving it another thought.  I’m sure my parents are still wondering when Mike and I are going to stop this “nonsense”.  Never, if I can help it.  I hope I am lucky like Harriet Anderson and still doing triathlons when I am 75-80 years old. Ironman is now a permanent part of my lifestyle, one that makes me feel like I am getting the most out of life.  That I am not just on the sidelines living vicariously through some professional athlete, or pretending that I matter in the outcome of some game I am just watching.  I am out there on the course giving 100% of myself, finding out what I am made of and well, I am being an athlete – not just watching athletes.  No, I am not going to win any money (quite the opposite) or finish out in front (I am not IMO a gifted athlete – my results are from honest hard work), but I get the most out of life on this one day – Ironman race day.  Only non-athletes will ask me “did you win”.  On the contrary, others who are still out there running 5ks, or participating in master’s swim meets will ask “did you have fun?” or “how did it go?” or possibly “did you PR?”.  Ironman is not about winning (not for most amateurs, hammerheads being the exception)– it’s about discovering yourself on that day, about pushing yourself & being proud of whatever you were able to do on that day.  It’s about learning what you need to do to reach the next level of your own potential.  It’s about conquering “the impossible”.  Be assured that Ironman is not impossible even if you are currently a self proclaimed couch potato.  I try to apply this same attitude towards my work, and to be an example to my children – so that they know that there are no limits to what they want to achieve. 

Alright, the diatribe is over.  Back to the race.  While waiting in line, I decided that I would ride at an average heart rate 5 beats lower than I have for all my other Ironman races.  I would keep it in the low 130s, give up around 15-20 minutes, but then this should keep me from overheating and blowing up gloriously on the run.  Great chunks of time can be lost on the run.  Jogging 10 minute miles vs. walking 20 minute miles is a huge difference.  I’ve been there, walking 20 minute miles, and I assure you it’s not much fun.  It’s much more fun to be jogging past everyone during the last few miles of the race.  About 20 minutes before the pros started the volunteers booted out all the non-athletes out of line.   The volunteers were also collecting morning bags.  One was announcing (with a severe Kentucky drawl), “make sure ya keep yer skull caps and goggles out of yer bag”.  Skull caps?  Too funny.  We moved down to the water pretty quickly.  I think it just took around 14 minutes to start. Race organizers claim that it’s the same distance jumping off of either dock (you jump off the middle of the first one, or the end of the second).  Don’t believe them.  Stay to the right and jump off the first one.  My training theme song was blasting over the loudspeaker as I jumped in – so that was cool. This was the least combative Ironman swim I’ve ever had.  I would liken it to a shorter tri where you start in waves.  It was just like I had caught up to a slower wave & was swimming past (and over) the slower swimmers.  You do have to site often, though, as the river is muddy & you can’t see your own hand in front of your face.  All of a sudden you can find yourself on top of someone that wasn’t there a second ago.  I will say that although the water is muddy, it doesn’t stink.  Arizona’s water quality is much worse (although currently there is no water in Tempe Towne Lake – it’ll either be a festering swamp and be worse this year or maybe everything will dry up and die before they fill it back up).   After you get around the island, sighting is a piece of cake.  Just look for the green roof – you can’t miss it!  Swim as straight of a line to the roof as you can.  This was some excellent advice from a past qualifier at Louisville.  All was going well in the swim, I even caught someone to draft off of for 10 minutes or so.  That is, until I thought my timing chip was coming off.  In reality, the extra strap end just slipped down without the Velcro closure being compromised, but I couldn’t tell in the muddy water.  I must’ve stopped 5 times tucking the stupid thing back in & was contemplating ripping it off and just swimming with a closed fist over my timing chip.  This would be the only thing that went wrong all day that could have been prevented - next time I will secure the dang thing with a safety pin.  I was expecting my swim to be slower – there was a slight head wind against the current &  I had only swum 2 days a week in training.  Swimming is my biggest challenge to fit into my work/workout schedule.  I figure if one of the 3 legs has to suffer, swimming is it.  If I skip a day or two of swimming I lose 5 minutes, if I miss a day or two of biking it’ll be a whole lot more.  Same goes with running.  So, the swim suffers by design.  That’s OK – it’s still the easiest leg of the three.

Swim Time 2.4 miles 1:07:55;  6th in my age group

T1 was a new experience for me – no volunteer!!!  This has happened multiple times to Mike, but this was my first go of having no help.  It actually made me really think through what I needed, but then I wasn’t sure what to do with my bag since no one was there to take it!  Duh, just leave it on a chair! OK, running to my bike now.  I had a really sweet spot, just 5 meters or so to the bike start, second bike on the rack.  Grabbed my bike and started off on a really nice ride.  I immensely enjoyed the first 20 miles or so.  Throughout the summer I had done a 4.5 to 5hr bike ride out on the road & then a few hours later I would get back on to the trainer in my garage and ride the first 20 miles of this course on the trainer.  My best was a little over 20mph average.  I was hoping to hit that today but figured I wouldn’t with my lower heart rate.  I just missed it.  Still really happy with my 19 or so mph average.  I was warned that the out and back section was evil hilly and technical, but it wasn’t so bad. The worst part was the sheer number of riders on the course as the entire road was taken up with bikers, there was no where to get around slower riders on the descents.  These are the worst two hills on the course as far as length goes, but it was a lot easier on the bike then it looked in the car, and definitely easier than the same hills on the Computrainer.  My only issue was with a 20 something-yr- old that passed me going down the steepest section & then sat up inches away to get a drink on the steep downhill.  Also worth mentioning, the bridge in between the two hills is really craggy.  The middle might be slightly less bumpy, but there’s really no “good” place to cross on and off of it.  There was a guy in a devil costume on one of the hills – he was helping someone change a flat when I went by.  What does it mean when the devil is helping you change your tire?  Near the end of the out and back I saw Mike – he looked like he was having fun & that helped put a smile on my face.  There were also hundreds of butterflies out on this course.  Some as large as birds – I am not exaggerating here! I had noticed them all week & they were out in force on the course.  One benefit of hot weather – more butterflies!  There were also a plethora of dead butterflies on the road (boo), but this served as a reminder not to go too fast.  Cardiac drift was taking my heart rate up and my average speed down, but I didn’t want to overheat on the bike, so I stuck with my altered plan.  The rest of the course was similar to the Vineman course in Sonoma.  Lots of rollers, nothing too difficult.  Absolutely gorgeous horse farm countryside.  Everything was going well.  I even had a lengthy conversation (albeit technically illegal since we were riding next to each other) with another woman.  First she wanted to know if my swim was slower than usual (yes, but I was expecting it to be) and then she wanted to know how all that tape on me holds up over the race.  Just fine, thank you, and it was currently saving my butt.  Everywhere that was threatening to cramp was covered, and never actually cramped (all the way to the end of the race).  My son had given me extra protection for this race.  He drew a nice selection of plants on my tape from the video game “Plants vs. Zombies” (which is addictive, BTW) just in case I ran into any zombies out on the course.  I was sure to encounter them out on the run J. I was also trading places with the “green girl” out on the bike course and then again out on the run until mile 20 or so.  She had a green bike, green wheels, a green star tattoo on her calf, a green tri outfit, and she had also dyed her hair green.  I also spotted her family (must’ve been) out on the course, also with spray-painted green hair.  Love it.  Going through La Grange was great!  Tons of spectators even in the heat – it gave me a boost both times I went through.   I was being proactive with my hot foot.  Pouring water on it at every aid station & whenever either of my feet felt like they were headed towards blow torch land.  That was going well until an aid station ran out of water (they announced that water “was on its way”, but I was not about to stop and wait – I was racing for Chrissake).  Crap.  Now I had to drink that Powerbar sugar water.  I had started out the bike with lemonade and red bull (yum) and then switched to zym (I carried tablets in my jersey – just plopped them into water).  This also meant no water to cool down with.  Ugh.  My feet were on fire for the next 15 miles or so.   The course isn’t too bumpy with the exception of the bridges and also Route 42, all the seams in this road are really annoying.  I didn’t notice them so much on the first loop, but I did on the second.  At the start of the next aid station I begged, “please tell me you still have water!”.  Yes!  I was saved.  I knew that the last aid station had a gap of 20 miles or so, so I took extra water on board.  I had been looking forward to the tail wind people spoke about that had been prevalent on the home stretch for the past 3 years.  Not this year!  I signed up for the race, so wouldn’t you know there was a slight headwind.  Nothing mind-numbing.  Not more than 10mph, but enough to slow me down & I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed.  No wonder I was close to 20mph for the first 20miles even at my low heart rate!!!  I had a freakin’ tail wind and was just oblivious enough not to notice it.  Oh well.  I wasn’t going to get in under 6hrs.   I reminded myself that everyone out there had the same conditions, so it was no skin off my nose.  I just wanted to get back to T2 already.   My quads were crazy sore (uh-oh) so I was not going to attempt my fancy “throw my leg over the back of the bike running dismount” trick.  I guess skipping those late night trainer sessions was coming back to haunt me.  On the good news front, I could jog to the transition tent!  My hamstrings were fresh & somehow my glutes were firing (this is a first – thank you, Dr. Caplan) and my hips weren’t knotted up. Excellent.

112 mile bike 6:04, 6th off the bike in my age group (albeit a different 5 people in front of me)

In T2 I got myself a volunteer!  Hooray!  She dumped out my bag and I methodically went through what I needed/didn’t need.  Oh how I wish I had taken the extra tube of ZYM!!!!  I ended up running out half way through the marathon, but never dreamed that I would take in more than 200oz of water by the first half of the marathon.  Well, that’s what one has to do when you have a maniacal sweat rate.  A quick stop at the porto and then I was off and running (almost went the wrong direction, but was redirected quickly by a volunteer – thank you!!!). 

The run, or should I call it the jog.  Seriously, my running legs felt pretty fresh, but whenever I tried to speed up, I would start to overheat & had to tone it back down.  I’ve done this enough that I know what sort of pain level I can hold over 26 miles, and what sort of pain level that I can’t hold for 26 miles.  I was floating into “can’t hold” territory, so I dialed it down & decided to “save it” for the last 10K.  A jog would have to do.  The best decision I made all day was to carry a water bottle on the run.  I had decided this back at Vineman 70.3 in July, as it’s so great to drink constantly & the ice in the water bottle (there was ice at every aid station) also helps cool my hands down & my whole body with it. Really, without it I probably would’ve been walking with most of the rest of the field.  Rebekkah Keat came flying by me around mile 4 or so (and I do mean flying – she was on her second lap), she would go on to win the women’s race.  I do so love how us mortals are out on the course at the same time as the pros.  There is no other sport like it.  So, I am checking my watch now, and I am far off my 9 minute per mile goal.  It’s looking more like 10+.  Ugh.  Most likely no Kona spot for me, but you never know, so I forged on as fast as I could handle.  I am drinking a ton, so now I start to run into the problem of needing to pee every 15-20 minutes.  I decided that since I wasn’t on pace to qualify and I certainly wasn’t going to PR, that I would treat myself to actually using the porta potties!  What luxury. It’s during this time that green girl and I were changing places.  I’d be sure she was way up in front of me & next thing you know she comes running up beside me.  “Hey how’d you get behind me – I was sure you had dropped me!” “Oh, I had to stop back there”.  And so it continued until around mile 20 when she disappeared for good.  I forgot to mention that Mike had drawn bacon (quite well, I might add) on my rock tape.  It was just so appropriate.  I was fried, was frying, craving bacon, and all I could do was laugh at the fake bacon on my leg.  He had also left a message (you get while crossing a timing mat twice on the run) of “bacon bacon bacon”.  Ha ha.  I got to see him a couple times on the run.  Once while he was at mile 6 or so & I was at mile 13 and then again when he was at mile 11 and I was at mile 18.  He was 4 miles up the road from me (IMKY is a double loop).  That was roughly 40 minutes.  Unless he was doing 20 minute miles, I wouldn’t catch up to him before I finished, but I tried. I was walking most of the aid stations, trying to get lots of ice & sponges.  It was also something to look forward to – I just made sure that as soon as I had what I needed, it was back to jogging.  I felt a surge of energy with 4 miles to go, but as soon as I picked up my pace, my head would get too hot, and I had to pull back.  I decided to skip the last two aid stations (I still had water in my water bottle) and run through them.  I was slowing now, though.  I didn’t have the kick I usually do at the very end. The finish line was a blast.  I high-fived everyone I could, and ran through with a giant smile.  I was still coherent enough to hear “Jeanette Mucha from San Carlos California, you are an Ironman!” Yay!!

26.2 mile run 4:31:17, Finish time 11:52:25, still 6th in my age group

 Turns out the weather peaked at 96 degrees and 85% humidity.  I don’t think I could’ve paced myself any better in the heat.  Too bad I wasn’t acclimated, but I was a good 50 minutes off of qualifying, so I don’t think it would’ve made a difference even if I had been acclimated (as far as qualifying goes).  I got my picture taken and then somehow limped over to the convention center.  I didn’t want to eat , but forced myself to eat one piece of pizza.  Blech.  I sat there for a long time hoping to stop feeling nauseas.  This was the first race that I didn’t feel nauseas during the race, but I sure felt it after.  It was as if my body was saying, “It’s wayyyyy too hot in here.  Don’t make me digest anything.  You are never eating again”.  I should’ve shown up 5 pounds lighter, but this is wayyy easier said than done . I then had the unenviable task of retrieving our bikes and transition bags.  Tribike closes at 10, and I didn’t think that Mike would finish before then.  I stopped in the hotel first & showered.  I soooo wanted to lay down on the bed and never move again.  Alas, I had to walk half a mile, turn in our bikes (thank you Tribike for having pity on me and letting me keep my shoes/drinks on the bikes until morning), and then drag our bags back to the hotel room.  Thank God this was a non-wetsuit race.  That fact alone made those bags an easy 10 lbs lighter.  I dropped the bags off in our room after punishing myself by walking 4 flights of stairs (for not qualifying ).  Once again the bed magnet was pulling, but I had promised Mike I would meet him at the finish.  I was muttering to myself all the way back to the finish, but my crabbies dissolved as I watched other athletes finish.  The finish line at an Ironman is an amazing place.  I got to relive my moment over the finish line with every person I watched.  I would’ve been happy to stand there for a full two hours (until midnight).  After what seemed like an eternity (I was getting worried here) I spotted Mike running down the chute!  Yay!!  He had a big smile on his face & I was so happy to see his finish.  I ran down to meet him.  Somehow I finagled an entire pepperoni pizza from the food tent volunteer and walked back to the hotel with my best bud.  Another successful race!  IMAZ is next – only 10 weeks away from this Sunday.  Kinda glad I don’t have two more ironmans to do in the next 10 weeks.  Although, I do want to get back to Kona.  I will do it again, hopefully soon.  Until then I will enjoy the road back!  I am thinking about doing Ironman St. George – if I can get someone else to sign up then I am totally in.  Looks like a double Wildflower, although the bike doesn’t look quite as difficult.  Essentially, it’s a longer Ironman & right up my alley.  However, I am leaning a little farther towards Ironman Canada, though, since a friend from college is pushing me in that direction – convince me, Christina!J   Until IMAZ, happy training everyone!