Race Report-Ironman Louisville (LONG)

This is going to be really long, but it was one of the most incredible weekends of my life, I will try to best I can to recap the whole trip and race.

Left South Georgia 7:30 am on Thursday, it was just me and Joel, Loraine stayed behind with the girls and doggies, and I am glad, they would have been miserable at the race. We had an 11 hour drive ahead of us. Made it to our hotel in Louisville just before 7 pm. After getting the final weather report, I decided it was safe to wear a hat instead of a visor on race day, so I went to Great Clips and finally got my hair cut, I was on cloud 9, I was so happy to finally be rid of that ratty long hair, I felt like me again. We grabbed dinner, got some groceries, watched some TV and went to bed.

The next day we wanted to get to athlete check-in when it opened, our hotel was a 20 minute drive to the host hotel and the race site. Got checked in, and with the plastic bracelet on my wrist, and my bib number, swim cap, and timing chip in a bag, the nervousness about what I was going to do on Sunday was starting to sink in. Last month at the Muncie 70.3, I didn’t want to buy any items at the store until I finished the race, this turned out to be a mistake since after the race most of everything was sold out. So even though I had not finished ironman Louisville yet, I bought a few item. Bought an “Ironmom" shirt, a pint glass, magnet, poster, umbrella, running hat, auto emblem, and a cowbell for Joel to cheer on me and the other competitors during the race.  We locked the goodies in the car and headed down to the transition area to check things out.

I texted my friend Pennie to see if she was in town, her husband Bob was doing the race and she was there supporting him. I met her online months ago, like me, she had lost a dramatic amount of weight and started doing long-distance running events and triathlons, so over the months or corresponding online we developed a bond, and I was anxious to finally meet her in person. We met and hung out and chatted a bit, it was so nice to finally meet in person. I have noticed Joel coming out of his shell over the past few months meeting new people, so I was happy to see him joining in the conversation too. We all had thing to get done, so we headed up back toward downtown Louisville. On the way there, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Andrew for the first time. He was heading down to pick up his bike, so I told him we’d see him later at the welcome banquet.

We had a few hours to kill, so me and Joel headed back to the hotel to drop off our merchandise and my race packet. We headed back to the downtown area later in the afternoon to meet a bunch of people in the Beginner Triathlete  Ironman Louisville group. We were meeting at the Starbucks in the Convention Center about an hour before the athlete banquet. The meet-up was a hit, about 30 of us showed up and it was awesome putting faces to usernames and actually talking in person.

At the welcome banquet we caught up with Andrew and his family. He asked us where we were sitting, and of course we hadn’t put any thought into it, so he offered his table which was awesome because now me and Joel weren’t going to have to wander around looking for a place to sit. Ate some food and then Dan and his wife showed up. It was great being here with my 2 “buddies" from Obesity Help. When they got to the part about losing weight in preparation for the ironman, Andrew and I got to go up on stage in front of thousands of people and tell the crowd our magic numbers. Kinda cool, but also pretty embarrassing.

Dan and his wife were staying at the same hotel as us, and were even in the room next to us. So Saturday we rode with them for bike check-in and transition bag drop-off. After that we all meet Andrew and his family and had an awesome late lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory. My nerves were started to get calmed a little, but then they got bad again. Dan took us to drive the bike course and I went from nervous to really scared. Hills, hills, hills! So many hills! I had never ridden hills before, I quickly realized the “hill training" I had done on the trainer wasn’t going to be enough for what was to come. I knew getting to that finish line was going to be a fight.

Race morning woke up a 3:30 am, had coffee and breakfast, double checked to make sure I had everything, and left the hotel shortly before 5 am. Got down to transition, put nutrition bottles on my bike, and put my Garmin in my bike transition bag. Joined the line to have bike techs pump my tires, double checked the bike, and made the long walk with Joel to the swim start. Athletes only in line so gave Joel a kiss and made the long walk to the back of the line. I was way in the back of the line. Made small talk with the people around me, and finally it was 7am and time for the age groupers to start. The line stopped at some point because a competitor had a heart attack and drowned, condolences to his family.

I saw Joel one last time as I was walking down the dock about to jump in the water. I jumped in the water at 7:40 am and started my long journey to the finish line. The thing I didn’t like about this time trial start was because I was in the back of the line, I felt like I had to play catch-up all day. Anyway, back to the swim. It felt like it took a really long time to get around the first island, and it felt like a fight. Once I made the turn at the buoy after the island I could feel the current of the river and had a slightly easier time. Swimming is hard for me no matter what, I was huffing, puffing, swallowing water, fighting, but eventually I crossed under the 2 bridges and was on my way to the exit stairs. I grabbed a volunteer’s arm at the stairs and he pulled me to the stairs, I got out of the water and was relieved that what I thought to be the toughest part of my day was over. I was wrong about this, but still happy to be out of the water. Swim time was 1:28:46

T1 grabbed my bag and entered the changing tent. Took my time drying my feet so my sock wouldn’t be soggy. Was successful, put on my socks and cycling shoes, helmet, dried my face to put my sunglasses on, clipped on race belt, thanked the volunteers and headed out of the tent. Went to the sunscreen volunteers and got slathered up, went to my rack and grabbed my bike, made it to the mount line, got on, and rolled. T1 time 9:34

This was to be my longest bike ride ever, and my first time ever climbing hills. I knew there were hills on the course. I live in a pancake flat region, so to compensate I did “hill intervals" on the trainer, just hoping this would be enough to get through the race. I wanted this, I wanted to be an ironman, and I was planning on doing whatever it took. The first 10 miles was a nice tease, nice and flat and easy. Then the hills started. I did my usual grinding up the hills the first 2 hills, but it really hurt my legs and I quickly realized that wasn’t going to work for a ride this long. I started watching other competitors climbing, and paid attention to what they were doing, sort of giving myself a “crash course" in hill climbing. So, I did what they did, it was still hard, but not as hard as trying to grind up the hills. For every big hill there was a big downhill, and not living around any hills, this was new to me too. I will admit, I was terrified going down the hills, and was riding the brakes going down the hills. I know this was probably annoying to other competitors, but I was scared and in a panic, and didn’t know what else to do. This was all so new to me. Going through LaGrange at mile 38 I saw Joel and that brightened my spirits a little. Then at 40 mile I wa**** with excruciating pain in both my knees. NO NO NO! Not Now! Not Today! It had the reminiscent pain of ITBS I suffered through earlier this year. At the soft part of the outsides of my lower knee caps, it felt like little monsters were right under my skin pushing and fighting to break to the surface of my skin. It was excruciating. The pain was at its worst when I was climbing hills. I just wanted to stop but I wasn’t going to let the race end like this for me. So I pushed through the pain, with tears in my eyes going up some on the brutal hills, gritting my teeth and grunting. I had to do this. I stopped at the next aid station to go pee, since I don’t sweat much I had to go BAD. At mile 65 I stopped at special needs and chugged my Starbuck Espresso shot and refilled my bottles with Powerade. The espresso shot gave me the caffeine surge I needed, so I had energy but my knees hurt so badly.  I saw Joel in LaGrange again, this time he was standing on one of the hills encouraging me to get up it. I was just so ready for the bike to be over, and hope I had enough left to survive the marathon. So I went up and down many more hills, and after taking the pain, crying and grunting over the last of the hills, I was on the last flat 10 mile section back to transition. I was so sick of being on that bike. I made it to the dismount line, got off the bike, and gave it to the bike catcher, at that point not caring if I ever saw that bike again. Bike time was 7:14:31

T2 grabbed my run bag, went into changing tent. Took off my helmet, bike shoes, and sunglasses. Put on socks and running shoes, turned my race belt around, put on my running hat, stuffed my gels in my tri suit, thanked the volunteers and headed out. Got sunscreen again, went to the porta potty, and headed out for the marathon. T2 time was 10:48

I was actually happy to be out on the run, only 26.2 miles separated me and the finish of my first ironman. To my delight, all the knee pain from the bike went away. I ran most of the first mile, but I was hurting, and I knew then and there it was going to be a long day. I started a system with myself of running for 3 minutes, walking for 5 minutes.  This worked for the first few miles, but my legs were just so toasted that after mile 5 I just started running when I could, which wasn’t much at this point. I saw Dan for the first time; he was finishing up his first lap, gave him a smile and kept putting one foot in front of the other. I was having a hard time. I felt crappy, didn’t like the fact that I was reduced to a walk at this point, but I wanted to finish. All my time goals were out the window at this point and I just wanted to finish. I saw Dan again on the other side and he let me know Andrew was about 200 yards in front of me. So I picked up the pace and found Andrew. He looked like he was having as rough a day as me so I felt like I wasn’t alone. I felt a little pep in my step so I ran some more After I finished the first loop I got to run right next to the finish line, what a tease! I had about 12 more miles until it was my turn to get that glory. I saw Joel and told him it was going to be a long night. It was getting dark, and most of the run course was in a seedy neighborhood so I was kinda scared even with the numerous police around. I did a lot of walking and ran when I could, I was just tired, and the weight of the day was heavy on my legs. Around mile 22 I saw Andrew on the other side of the street, he gave me a high 5 and told me to “run to glory" that gave me the motivation to run until I felt like I was going to collapse. Once again I was running when I could, walking everything else. When I made it to mile 25 I knew it was almost over and I wanted to run so bad but I couldn’t get my legs to do it. I walked another half a mile, then I knew I had to take everything I possibly had in me to run to the finish line. I turned the corner that led to the finish line, and I ran into the bright lights. The crowd was cheering; I felt all the glory of what I had just done, I raised my arms in there air and kept them there. I had the biggest smile of my life on my face. YES! YES! This was happening! I am at the finish line! I had done it! I heard Mike Riley say my name, and then “YOU ARE AN IRONMAN! “ as I crossed the last timing mat. Run time was 5:13:21

TOTAL RACE TIME 14:17:00

A finish line volunteer put on my medal, and led me to get my finishers hat and shirt, gave me a mylar blanket, and asked my repeated if I felt ok. I was tired, but felt ok and just wanted to see Joel. He was waiting for me at the finish line exit. I practically fell into his arms and got teary eyed. He told me how proud he was of me. We found a place to sit and I told him all about the race. We headed to the convention center where I signed up for a free massage. I had about an hour to kill, so Joel went down to transition to grab my bike and transition bag, and I stayed at the convention center and ate some foods. Joel came back after putting my bike and gear in the car and it was time for my massage, which was absolutely awesome after the knee pain I had during the bike. At this point it was 11:51 so we headed back down to the finish line to watch the final finishers, which was an incredible thing to be a part of.

We left Louisville Monday morning. Went back to our normal lives yesterday, but something is different, I am an Ironman now. I got my M-Dot tattoo yesterday. Just a plain red M-Dot, but its special to me and it’s what I wanted.

I want to thanks everyone for all their love and support throughout my ironman journey. The love and support got me through the rough training days, and those tough times out on the race course. It meant so much to be knowing many of you were tracking me on race day. I won’t be doing an ironman next year, I am going to focus on getting faster at the half ironman distance, as well as spending time with my family. Joel is deploying to Afghanistan next summer, so we have a lot of family time ahead of us. The ironman was an awesome experience, I learned a lot about myself and about setting goals and attaining them. I am already looking to do Ironman Florida in 2013.

 

like Andrew's, your race report is inspiring, amazing, and giving me goosebumps! 

Congrats on such a HUGE accomplishment physically and emotionally.  No one can every take this away from you, IRONMAN!

 You are an Ironman!  Awesome Jillian!  Its an honor to be part of your experience.  Like I think Sue said somewhere, I feel cool just knowing you :)

I did say that, and it's totally true.  I feel cool knowing everyone on this board, but last weekend I felt super cool "knowing" you three especially.

I'm sorry I won't be meeting Dan and Jillian in Disney, but I'm very excited to meet some of the other cool kids!!

My eyes go****ery reading this! You are incredible to push through that!

I looked up awesome, incredible, and tough as nails on google, and your name came up! You are a rockstar!

Damn, Jillian...I thought I was ready to read this after reading the others'.  I still teared up and am sitting in my home by myself and pumping my fist in the air for you three.  Thanks for being such an inspiration!!!

 All I can say, is I have sooo much respect for you and our other friends who completed the IRONMAN. I have mentioned to my wife, the possibility of reaching that goal myself someday. There are trepedations though.

Enjoy being an IRONMAN forever.

Jay

Just incredible. I am in awe of your drive. To dream it and make it happen is awesome. Thanks for sharing and allowing us to be part of your journey.

WOW! Incredible! I get teary eyed just reading your report. I am so gosh darn happy and proud of you girl! You are a rock star! To have set the goal and become an Ironman. Just blows me away! Nothing in your life will faze you now because you are an Ironman and if you can do that, you can do anything!

Mazel Tov!
Jan