Ironman Louisville 2010
By Richard Davis
As some of you may have read, this was my first IM and I proved it in more ways than one! For those of you that will be attempting your first IM in the future….feel free to learn from my mistakes.
SWIM
I thought the swim was relatively uneventful by triathlon standards. In the first ½ mile or so, you are swimming in close proximity to a lot of swimmers until you make the turn around Towhead Island and make it out into the Ohio River. The swimmers that were paying attention made a hard left turn and stayed close to the Island. I drifted about 30 yards towards the center of the river until I realized I was on my way to Indiana! I finally corrected my course after losing quite a bit of time, but still managed to get out of the water in 1 hour 24 minutes.
BIKE
Biking 112 miles through the rolling hills of Kentucky was going to be a challenge from the start. Once you add in a temperature in the mid-90’s with a heat index of 100…you now have a recipe for disaster. To get things started, I took off on the bike so excited that I forgot my sunglasses, skull cap and sunscreen. I had pulled them out of bag and left them on the chair next in the changing tent. This was start of numerous unforeseen obstacles that would come my way. After 50 miles or so, the intense heat was taking its toll as the athletes were dropping out all over the place. I have never seen that many ambulances on a race course. I quickly realized the need to slow down and focus on my hydration more than ever before. At mile 80, I got a flat tire about 100 yards from an aid station. Unfortunately, this was a medical aid station so that were not able to assist. I started to pull out my spare tube to replace it myself only to realize that I didn’t have my tools with me. I had pulled my spare tubes out last week and pumped them up to make they were still ok…but managed not put the tools back in the bag. #$@! None of the 3 athelete’s laying on the ground under the tent had tools with them either and the medical team did not have any phone #’s for the bike support team. At that moment, I realized my day was likely done. Then, one of the athlete’s laying on the ground next to me said, “if all you need is a wheel, just take mine since I can’t continue the race” After putting on his tire, I used this random act of kindness as motivation to finish the bike which I did in just under 8 hours.
RUN
After 10 hours of swimming and biking, it was now time to run a marathon. The good news about running a marathon after the bike is that my legs had the opportunity to warm up. The bad news is that my legs got that opportunity about 105 miles ago and now they are fatigued to say the least. Overall, my legs were in fair condition except I strained my left Achilles around mile 75 on the bike which really impacted my ability to run more than a few hundred yards at a time. I continued this effort for the first 5 miles and then developed a severe blister on my left foot. HINT: Don’t squeeze the cold sponge of ice cold water over your head and assume that it won’t run down your legs into your shoes. Around mile 8, I got a few pebbles in my right shoe. The challenge was that I couldn’t sit down to untie my shoe because it would have been near impossible to get back up. I was not willing to take the chance since I had come this far. As I was trying to decide what to do with the pebble, I saw an athlete walk by carrying a 3 foot by 5 foot American Flag to pay tribute to the men and women serving in our military overseas. I stood there in awe as he held that flagpole with such pride. He carried the flag the entire 26.2 miles. Emotionally recharged and now 18 miles to go, I decided to leave the pebbles in my shoe to equalize the pain between both feet. Muhammad Ali (born and raised in Louisville) once said that in order to accomplish something great, “you need to have great skill and great will, but the will must be greater than the skill”. I was more determined than ever to finish the race.
The next 12 miles went fairly well, but the last 6 miles were going to test my determination once again as the emotional roller coaster of the day was definitely impacting me. I became so inspired by those athletes around me during the final stretch. After 16 hours, watching fellow athletes struggle to stand up or walk in a straight line was simply Courage personified. Their every step was a victory and yet there were still 2 miles to go. It’s 11PM, and window of finishing by the midnight cutoff was closing in quickly for so many athletes behind me. It was now or never. I was amazed by those that managed to keep going and heart-broken for those that could not walk another step after 138 miles. I know how hard they have trained and to get that close must have been devastating for those they could not finish.
After 16 hours and 23 minutes, I finally crossed the finish line and achieved a dream that I have had since I was teenager watching the IRONMAN event on TV. When the Public Address announcer screamed out my name, I became numb realizing what I had just accomplished and I am still trying to process it all today. I had planned to finish the race, take a shower and come for the finish at midnight….had no idea I was going to be part of the show!
While I’m extremely proud of becoming an IRONMAN, I am even more proud of the two titles that I already had…..Husband and Father. Without the love and support of my wife and kids, none of this would have been possible.
Richard