Ironman Louisville Race Report

The Ironman Louisville swim is in the Ohio River, and swimmers file into the water first come, first served. The swim start was 7:30 am, and when I got to the line at 6:30, it was already a mile long, and clearly people at the front had camped out for their spot.  We were lucky to swim at all; for the weeks leading up to race day “algae bloom” threatened to keep us out of the water, but someone finally decided we wouldn’t start glowing green and sprouting mystery appendages if we jumped in.  The water temp was perfect, at 69 degrees, and I jumped in at 8 am.  The first part was against the current, but it was a protected inlet, so it wasn’t bad at all.  The parts with the current did include some cross current, so not as easy as it sounded. 

 

I’m a weak swimmer, and I usually seed myself out of the fray.  Because of the way the swim was structured, there was no “out of the fray” in this event.  Three quarters swim/one quarter MMA.  I discovered that even though my kick is not good enough to propel me forward, it is sufficient to let the guy holding on to my feet for a tow know that I’m not having it. 

 

Yet again in a tri, as if I needed more evidence that my body is not designed for swimming, my swim cap popped off, necessitating a trip to the kayak to put it and the goggles I knocked off trying to fix the cap back in place.   It tried to peel off again, but I forced my way to the finish before it dislodged.  My head is now actually physically rejecting this swimming habit. 

 

Transition to the bike was long, because there was a quarter mile from bike out to the timing mat/mount line, all on concrete, and since I haven’t figured out how to get into shoes on the bike I had to do this on cleats.  I had driven the bike course on Friday, and I was really intimidated by the hills, which are my biggest bike weakness.  About 20 miles into the ride, there was a turn onto a road with 3 miles out, 3 miles back, all twisty hills on a narrow road with no shoulder.  This is where the late swim start and the slow swim and transition times actually helped me.  As I was climbing on the out, I saw how congested the back part was, and I passed four crashes, two of them apparently major, in just that 6-mile stretch. 

 

The perfect weather helped on the ride, and while the hills weren’t easy, I handled them well and had a blast on the descents.  The course was beautiful, and everyone was incredibly friendly.  The only real issue was that the roads were not closed to traffic, and they were single lane roads with no shoulder.  At one point, an F350 tried to take me out because he wanted to get away from the traffic, but since I commute on a bike, I’m used to cars trying to kill me and I managed a quick adjustment and an appropriate hand gesture. On the way back, I got stuck a couple of times behind cars that could only move as fast as the slowest cyclist of front of them, which was super frustrating.   The last 10 miles of the course were flat, and I time trialed them back to the finish (a couple mph slower than my TT pace, but I don’t typically warm up for TTs with a hilly 100-mile ride).  I passed lots and lots of people on the second half of this ride, which always gives me a bump, especially considering how many riders cheered me on as I overtook them.

 

I felt really good coming off the bike.  My legs felt heavy starting the run, but they always feel that way until I get going a bit.  I was confident that once I got underway, and more importantly once it started cooling off outside, I would feel stronger on the run.  Unfortunately, my right Achilles tendon was really painful right from the start, despite all the ibuprofen.  I kept moving, and was hanging on ok until about mile 13, then I started fading.  At mile 15, I started feeling really dizzy and shaky, and I was started to wobble as I walked.  I made my way to the mile 17 aid station.  I used the portajohn, and had fun trying to pull my sweaty trisuit back up in this condition.  When I left the john, I felt like I was going to pass out, so I sat on the curb, shivering and sweating at the same time, and put my head in my hands.  All I could think about was how much I didn’t want to DNF.  A volunteer noticed me, and he kept bringing me different food items and fluids until I started to feel better.   The solid non-GU type foods helped, and I was able to get up and start moving again.  I started with a slow walk and settled into a brisk walk to get through the rest of the race. 

 

My final time was significantly slower than my objective, but given the mile-17 issue, I’m thrilled that I finished.   Most importantly, while I definitely suffered, I really enjoyed and had fun at this event.  I hurt, and there was a time when I felt like I was dying (and still was more concerned about a DNF), but I was reminded throughout the day of how much I love this sport and the people who participate in it and support it. 

USAT Age Group Nationals!

Below is the report I am sending to the super-talented members of my tri team, Philly Pro Tri:

Most of you guys don’t know me, or if you do, know me well.  A bit about me.  I did nothing athletic growing up.  I was the chubby awkward kid who was hopeless in gym class, and was always picked last for every sport.  My biggest sports accomplishment through high school was helping the water polo team pass math.  I started running in my early 30s and did a bunch of road races, including marathons.  I did not start getting serious about getting faster until about 2008-2009, and then after that I slowly stumbled on to a couple of age-group podiums in small 5ks.  Podiums are a super nice bonus for me, because they would have been unthinkable to my young self, but I mostly race against myself, aiming for improvement and PRs.  I work hard, and I’ve been fortunate to get a lot of both in the past few years. 

 

I picked up triathlons starting in 2011.  I was terrified of the swim, because I was never good in the water and I’m afraid of fish and drowning.  I do, however, love riding my bike, and that is definitely my strength.  Since I started, I’ve had steady improvement in the sport, thanks to great coaching, a support system of awesome tri friends and stupid amounts of money spent on equipment. 

 

Qualifying for Nationals was a really big deal for me, especially since I’ve been struggling a lot with my running this past year (injuries and lots of new female-over-45 issues).  I was really excited to go and thrilled to be able to share the experience with my friends Ashley, Mark and Denise.  The race organization was spectacular and the venue was perfect (except for the water temp).  I have a bunch of thoughts on both the trip (I drove with Denise and met Ashley and Mark in set spots along the way) and race, listed below in no particular order.

 

Most Memorable:

 

Touring Ashley’s Aunt Sharon’s absolutely beautiful historic home in Illinois, and then promptly dumping a cranberry iced tea all over the impeccable dining room table on which she was serving us a lovely brunch.

 

Cheese.  Cheese!  Visting Mars Cheese Castle.  Delicious cheese giveaways at the Wisconsin welcome center rest stop (and bunnies to pet!). 

 

Watching two 78-year-old men in Team USA kits battle each other to the finish in the sprint tri for a chance to go to next year’s world race. 

 

Getting chicked on the bike.  I am not used to this.  I can live with guys passing me (well, the right guys), but I am no longer accustomed to girls passing unless they are clearly elite/pros.  I had to remind myself that this was a different crowd. I am using this experience as inspiration to up my bike game and see how close I can get to hanging with these top women. 

 

Luanne.  Luanne was a triathlete in the 60-64 female age group in the sprint tri.  The course for the sprint swim was just under a half mile in cold water (65 degrees), and the swimmers had to go under an overpass about a third of the way into it.  There was a current at the overpass pushing the swimmers back toward the start, but that current would break in the swimmers favor as soon as they made it through.  Luanne was struggling, and got seriously stuck in the current.  She was getting pushed from side to side and backwards at certain points, and she wasn’t making progress.   And then as she was struggling, she got swum over by the wave of men behind her.  The lifeguard on the kayak was poised to pull her at any moment, but she wasn’t giving up.  Everyone on the bridge joined together in shouting encouragement to Luanne to fight to the other side.  Finally, she found a backstroke and starting making progress.  She went under the bridge and all the spectators ran over to the other side to see her pass through.  We all broke into massive cheers and got to see a huge smile on her face before she flipped over into a freestyle stroke and made her way forward.  We found out later that she did finish the triathlon, earning lots of people in her corner along the way. 

 

One of the best Italian dinners I’ve had in my life, and I spent a summer in Italy and live in South Philly. 

 

Ashley, standing at the board looking at the results, “Denise knows Lori Beck.”  Woman standing next to Ashley, “I am Lori Beck.”

 

Swag!  So much good stuff.  We got a USAT AGNT half-zip jacket, tech hat, compression sleeves and a shoe bag. 

 

Not finishing in the bottom 10% of my age group.  When I first started triathlon a few years ago, I was consistently bottom 10% of my group in every event, even the little local newbie-friendly tris.  2015 was the first year I managed a triathlon podium in any event, and while I had placed in running events, I never had a first-place finish in anything.  I was ecstatic when I won my age group at the Hammonton Sprint Tri in May – both my first “first” and my first tri podium.  The email inviting me to Nationals was a shock and something I never would have believed I could accomplish before.  Just being at Nationals is amazing for me, so I would have been ok even if I was dead last, especially when I saw that all of the race participants looked like they should be auditioning for a super hero movie.  My previous Olympic PR put me in the bottom 5% of finishers in the 2014 field for my age group.  That clearing the bottom 10% goal may seem arbitrary, but it was my hope going into this race.  I also wanted very much to be in the top half of my age group on bike, which is my strong leg and how I qualified for the race.   Of the 151 women in my age group, I finished at 124, and was number 57 on the bike, so I met both goals easily.  Might have even been top third on the bike if I could get on and off of the thing in less than 4 years (a recently identified weak spot in dire need of practice). 

 

Sub-3 hours.  My Olympic PR before this race, achieved at Philly Tri last year, was 3:06:19.   I wanted to break 3 hours on that race, but fell apart on the run in the heat.  I also wanted to break 3 hours at Rock Hall earlier this year, but swimming off course so badly that I ended up doing 1.3 miles instead of .9, and then walking the run in the blistering un-shaded heat turned that wish to dust.  The course conditions in Milwaukee were favorable.  Swim was cold, which definitely slowed me down in the beginning, but easy to sight and wetsuit legal.  Bike was flat and fast, with roads closed to traffic making passing a lot easier.  Run was in cool temps for August (70s) on flat roads with overcast conditions.  Transitions were long (my transition spot was not in a good location, and the run from swim to bike was not short).  I was doing well through the bike, but then fell apart on the run (pretty sure it was a nutrition screw-up on my part).  I was only holding an average pace of about 10:20.  At the six mile marker, I looked at my watch and realized I had less than 2 minutes to cover the last .2 or I wouldn’t get my sub-3.  So I started my sprint.  I saw Ashley and Denise right before the line, but only growl-yelled rather than nicely acknowledge my friends and charged across the line.  Final time was 2:59:37, which means I was going at a good clip for that last .2 and I got both my sub-3 and a nice PR.

 

Mark confidently walking into one of the diciest beer stores I have ever seen for some Miller High Life (yes, really). 

 

Touchdown Jesus.  This was after the brick ride on a trail so narrow that I thought Ashley might have to dive into the drink alongside the trail to rescue me.   Brick and bike handling clinic all in one. 

 

Finally, and most important of all, having the opportunity and ability be part of such an incredible event in a great venue with friends I love.  It was so great to relax and hang out with Denise, Ashley and Mark, and then each of us had great race experiences.  This is a reminder that I am truly blessed to be able to do this and to have such fantastic people in my life to do it with.