I was ambivalent about racing as I packed up the car and headed south to meet up with Tom Geldermann who lives across the river from Louisville. Heat has not been my friend in any of the races in which I’ve competed. Two years ago, I dnf’ed at the Racine Half Ironman due to temperatures that reached 103. As I tracked the conditions over the summer, it was looking bleak. Averages were in the high 90’s with several runs of consecutive days over 100 with ridiculous humidity readings. To make things worse, Polly had broken her collarbone and fractured her elbow. Oona was leaving for Paris the day after the race which would have meant that I would not be able to see her off. Both were very generous and insisted that I do the race. Thanks ladies I really appreciate your kindness and support....I think.
When I arrived at Tom’s on the Thursday before the race, the temperature was over 100, although the humidity was not as bad as it had been. Predictions for race day were also improving with a chance that the day might top out at 90. We went for a short ride, and I did not collapse. The next day was just as hot as we drove over the bridge to register for the race. We also went down to the transition area to take a swim in the Ohio River. We learned that the swim course had been changed due to faster than normal current as a result of the heavy rains up stream. Instead of the traditional Ironman start with 2400 swimmers leaving at once, we would now do a time trial start with three swimmers jumping in the water every second. Because everyone wears a timing chip, each athlete gets a true time from when he/she jumps in the water. However, you are not sure what your true position is. So if you pass someone in your age group, (ages are marked on the right calf) you don’t know if you have really passed that person. They might have started the swim way behind or way in front of you. Anyway, instead of swimming around a big rectangle, we were to swim a half mile up stream and then turn around an island and swim 1.9 miles downstream, back to the transition area. When I started my practice swim, it seemed as though I wasn’t moving as I swam up stream. Oh well. Tom and I spent the rest of the day relaxing.
On Saturday morning, we headed back into Louisville to move in to our hotel room at the Galt House. The room was quite nice, and had a great view of the swim course. I noticed that the course hugged the shore, and its curving contour. If, as I rounded the island I stayed out in the middle of the river, and sighted on the first bridge abutment, I could swim in a straight line to the swim exit. It was still hot, but Saturday did not cross the 100 degree barrier. Things were looking up.
Tom and I decided to have an early dinner at Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse, famous for asking O.J. Simpson to leave during this year’s Derby. I had the best steak I have ever had in my life, and that includes steaks from Smith and Wollensky’s, Peter Luger’s and Sparks’. For those of you who know triathletes, shortly after we sat down, Greg Welch former Ironman World Champion walked in alone. Tom asked him if he’d like to join us. He demurred, saying that he was expecting a large group. He had the staff assemble several tables and sat there alone for most of our time in the restaurant. Tom and I had a great time laughing at the effort Greg took to avoid sitting with us. Finally as we were about to leave, his group began to drift in.
I barely got to sleep before I had to wake up to start the Ensure routine. I drank 3 cans at 1:30 am, and then another at 4:30 am when I got up to leave for the race. We had about a half mile walk to transition, and then another 3/4 miles to the start of the swim. By the time we got to the swim start, the line to enter the water snaked all around the park. We waited for ages until the pros started. They got a 10 minute head start on the rest of the field. Finally, the age groupers jumped in, but It took over 15 minutes from then until I began swimming. I started with a pretty strong effort. It was against the current, and have I mentioned, wetsuits were banned due to the high temperature. It seemed to take forever as I worked my way up the channel between the main shore and that of the island. However, it was a much less violent swim than last year’s IM Wisconsin. The time trial start afforded us a lot of space. As I rounded the end of the island, I realized that I still had another 200 yards to the turn buoy. This was taking forever. I made the turn and started down stream with the current. What a change. My stroke was incredibly long, the stroke I have in my dreams. I stuck to my plan and sighted on the bridge support. I was way out in the middle of the river. Lifeguards in kayaks were moving back so that I could clear them. My plan must have worked since I completed the swim, beating my previous IM time by over 4 minutes. And that was without the aid of a wetsuit.
I felt strong in transition and was quickly out on the bike. I eased into the race for the first 20 minutes, slowly working up to a 200 watt average. The ride was beautiful, starting out along the Ohio, and then working up into horse country. It was a two loop course that had a spur on the way out to the loops. The spur consisted of a long climb up into a forest. The only dicy part of the ride was the decent from the top of the spur. The wind caught the deep rim on my rear wheel a bit and I felt an uncomfortable push at about 45 mph. I held pretty steady at 200 watts for most of the course. My right quad began to cramp around the 80 mile mark, and I had to back off a bit so it wouldn’t seize. I couldn’t stand in the pedals going up hill or really push on the flats. Thankfully, the ride back to transition was mostly downhill. I managed to finish at almost 19 mph, beating my time at Wisconsin by 30 minutes.
My bike to run transition went well. A long run with the bike to the point at which a volunteer took it from me. A quick change to running shoes, and then back up the exit ramp, and I was out on the run. Ouch! just as I started to run it felt like someone had driven a spike through the outside of my right foot. I also really felt the heat for the first time. All through the bike, I took 3 water bottles at every aid station. I drank a bottle of sport drink and a bottle of water every 20 miles, and dumped the rest of the water on my head. Thanks for the advice Adam. This kept me reasonably cool. I continued to dump water on my head for the rest of the day. But now I was worried. I had to stop and walk after trying to push through the foot pain for the first half mile. I walked for about a quarter of a mile and then tried to run again. Not good. The pain made me stop after a few hundred yards. By now, I had finished the first mile and was walking. It looked like a long day. I was not going to quit, and I could easily walk and finish well before the cut off. Perhaps I was imagining it, but the look of pity on the spectators faces was not encouraging even if their comments were. I was the only person walking at my position in the field. I tried to run again, but the pain increased and I had to walk. The guy that I had gone back and forth with during the bike strode past me. My hope of winning my age group disappeared down the rode. He must have taken a long time in transition because I let him go with about 5 miles left on the bike. At the two mile mark, I started to run again. The pain was always there, but increased tremendously when I started to run. Back to walking, but it was now about 50% run 50% walk. By mile three the pain was less, and not increasing too much as I started to run. Now, I was back on plan running the whole way between aid stations, walking while drinking, and then running to the next station. They’re a mile apart. At mile 7, I caught they guy who had run past me and started to dream about Hawaii. By now the sight of Gatorade made me ill. I was surviving on water, pretzels, chicken broth, and bananas. The dream continued until mile 21 when a guy with 55 on his right calf flew by me. Still, second place would be a huge improvement over 11th at Wisconsin. At mile 21, I also began to loose my pace, such as it was. I did’nt stop running if you could call my shuffling running, but I did slow down. I managed to sprint down the finnish chute, and finished in 12:13:14, 58 minutes and 30 seconds faster than at last year’s IM Wisconsin.
I gathered my morning clothes, went to transition, and made it back to the hotel to wait for Tom. I called Polly, and before I could say anything, she congratulated me on my time and my wonderful 6th place finnish. 6th PLACE...oh well it was a great fantasy out there in the lead. If I had been a year older, I would have finished first in my age group by 40 minutes, and been on my way to Hawaii. Wait till next year! All you folks that said you were going to come out there and watch me may have to keep track of my progress next year, although the guy who came in third in my age group at Louisville is also 59. If he decides to do Wisconsin or if any of the other good 59 year olds enter, I’ll have to make some big gains over the winter.
I was so pumped up by the Louisville experience that I made plans to watch the Wisconsin race, and stay over to register for 2008. Susan and Bob were kind enough to let me stay at their house. I still owe them a thank you note. I got up at 4 am the morning after the race, and went down to the Madison Convention Center only to find that people had camped out all night to register. I was about 20th in line, sitting in the rain on concrete next to woman who had driven up from St. Louis to sign up. That’s normal, right?
Today was the first day of training for next year. Three weeks of forced rest. Finally, special thanks to Polly. Without her patience, support, and especially her sense of humor at the old geezer, I could never do this. I would also like to thank Adam Zucco, my coach who has to put up with all my questions, and obsessive research. I guess I am an IRONMAN.
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