Warning: Longest race report EVER

Ironman Louisville Race Report

Pre-Race
I got down there on Thursday afternoon. I went to registration and got myself weighed in, disgusting. This year, they also took your body fat and your percentage of hydration. I really liked it when the volunteer said, “Wow…I wouldn’t think that was your body fat by looking at you.” Thank you lady. That night I had dinner with Team KY and then Matt saved my ass for the millionth time by completely cleaning my bike and chain. I spent Friday eating, the entire day (and I swam a little). Mexican, pasta, ice cream, a frosty. I took FULL advantage. It was sort of disgusting. The ice cream deserves a mention though. I convinced Andrew that we should drive across town in horrible traffic to get it and it was worth it. Probably, the best ice cream I’ve ever had in my life.

On Saturday, I swam again and got all my bags together and did all the usual annoying Ironman errands. My last minute search for my Pink Tab didn’t work out so I got a couple Red Bulls for my special needs bags. I ran into Joe, Nathan and Kristoph on my way to dinner and talked to them for a while. Then waited a ridiculously long time for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory where I stuffed my face with pasta. And then got a solid 6 hours of sleep.

Sunday
I got up at 4 to leave the hotel at 4:50 to walk down to transition. Pumped up my tires, changed up some ghetto rigged Gus on my bike and dropped off my special needs bags. Then started on the 30 MINUTE WALK in the pitch black to the swim start, insanity.

Swim
The swim start was my biggest gripe with the race. I understand that the channel where you jump in is small, but why start it there? We got to the end of the line around 6 am and sat down on the ground. And then waited an hour and forty minutes to get in. The start was definitely lacking that epic Ironman feeling when they sing the National Anthem (I never heard it) and it’s silent and then the gun goes off and 2,000 people start together. Ironman is unique because it’s an even playing field. You pass someone, you beat them. You don’t know when anyone started, so there was no telling if it mattered to pass that next person in your AG.

Anyway, the swim was ok. I like the point to the point and not having to do 2 loops. Supposedly you swam against the current on the way out and then turned and swam with it. Not so much. The buoys were pretty close together which I like. Swimming with no wetsuit was not that big of a deal and the water temperature was perfect. I wanted to swim around a 1:25. I knew I was doing ok but the current got a little hairy going under the bridges and I was sort of all over the place.
1:31:08

T1
I have a thing with transitioning. I do not fuck around. I had my bathing suit off before the volunteer even had my bag open. It took 2 people to pull my bike shorts on. Those girls were on it! I turned around and one was holding up my jersey for me to put my arms in. I was putting on my helmet and another lady was spraying me down with sunscreen. In and out.
4:53

Bike
I really didn’t know what to expect on the bike. I had heard so many varying accounts of the bike course. Flat, easy, good for first timers, hilly, rolling, comparable to Wisconsin…I trained on the hills at Harriman all summer so I knew I was ready for hills if it was bad.

The first 15 miles or so are flat and I was trying to suck down some water and get some calories. I was hungry when I got of out the water. I heard that the out and back section was going to have some hills. There were some fast down hill sections and it would have been way better if someone hadn’t crashed bad on the bike and I pretty much had to stop and go through a teeny space at the bottom of the hill. Hairpin turn around a cone at the end (hate it!) and back up. It wasn’t too bad.

Then I started on the 2 loops around La Grange. Then it started to get really hot. Lots of people (crybaby men) were lying on the ground under trees. What happened, guys? Your special bottles of accelerade, protein powder, baby tears and sheep’s balls didn’t stand up to the 100 degree heat???? There were a couple little hills that really didn’t look like much but if you didn’t stand up, you fell over. I saw 4 people just tip right over! At one point, I looked down and my shorts were crusted with salt and I got the worst cramp in my thigh that I’ve ever felt. I took 2 Electrolytes, downed half a bottle of Endurance and stepped up my salt to every 30 minutes. I stopped at Special Needs for about a minute, opened up my boiling hot Red Bull, took a huge sip, looked at my Snickers and thought, “oh hell no,” took my potato chips and left.

At around mile 75, my toes started to hurt really bad in my shoes. Then it moved up to my feet, then it moved up to my shins. I really had to talk myself out of hysteria because all I could think about was how bad my feet were hurting. I rode the last 20 downhill miles with my shoes barely on and sitting up straight like I was riding a Huffy, going 20 mph. I just kept telling myself (and maybe crying a little) that the pain would stop when I got the bike shoes off. It was really important to me to do the bike in under 7. I didn’t want another shameful bike time.
6:55:52 (zing!)

T2
I threw my bike at twelve year old girl and tore off my bike shoes and ran in my socks to T2. I had 2 more extremely helpful women putting my shorts on and getting everything together. One even ran to the medical tent when I was whimpering, Tyenlol pleassssssssssseeeee. My compression socks took more time to get on than I would have liked but they were worth it in the run.
6:41

Run
I didn’t see my Mom when I came in on the bike so I was really looking for her on the run out. I saw her and screamed, “SUB SEVEN!!!!!!!!!!!” and then kept running. You run out and immediately run across a bridge. I wasn’t scared of the bridge hill because the Brooklyn Bridge is my favorite running route in the city and I do it all the time. This bridge was nothing compared to it. I saw MJ on her way back down and then Gary. I think everyone’s first thought was “hottttttttttttttttttttttt” It was so hot. The sun was beating down, my skin felt like it was boiling. People just looked bad. There was one man literally stumbling. Luckily, I have a black heart and ice runs through my veins so I was doing ok…I stuck to my plan: run 4, walk 1, don’t talk to strangers. I can’t get sucked into someone’s life story while I’m trying to take care of business!

The run was flat, 2 loops on an out and back and some it was shaded. There was one little hill to go under an overpass. The crowd support was pretty good. It wasn’t a silent death march. I knew that I needed to keep my head together on the run. It was so hot, it’s your first instinct to suck down as much cold liquid as you could at the aid stations. The volunteers are great but they offer a full buffet to everyone who comes up! I forced myself to take a quick sip of Coke, throw down the cup, a couple sips of Gatorade and then dump 2 cups of ice water on my head and grab a cup of ice to go. I was still eating gross Power Gels and taking the salt pills. I didn’t have any time frame or method to the madness at that point; it was really whenever I realized that I needed something. At about mile 8, after seeing many broken people, lots of barfing, random triage units set up on the side of the road with EMT’s and IV’s and mass carnage, I made a decision to just keep pushing until I couldn’t anymore. I just tried to be very aware of how I was feeling and try to keep a strong pace.

I stopped at Special Needs, took a sip of my second hot Red Bull, tossed it, grabbed my Reese’s PB cups and my potato chips. I opened the Reese’s and thought, “nope!” and threw it down. But the potato chips saved my life. I came around to the turn around, saw my Mom and a bunch of Team KY spectators and Joe and his crew. I was still on my 4 and 1’s and feeling ok. The finish line was amazing. Right when I made the turn to get on to 4 St to finish fireworks were going off. I was so excited to be done. I heard the guy say, Erin Harden, You are an Ironman! It was awesome.
4:37:16

Overall: 13:15:48

My goal was 13:30. But my real goal was 13:15. I’m still shocked that I made it. First and foremost, I have to thank my Mom who is my mother first, but she’s also my coach, my mentor, my best friend, I could go on… I’d be dead in a ditch somewhere with out her. Jeremy and Dan, who push me everyday to not suck and peer pressure me into riding when I don’t feel like it. I think I would be lost in New York City trying to train for IM without you two. To all my Team KY team mates, everyone did awesome; it was a brutal day out there. And especially to Matt who was the unofficial team captain…you get shit done, bottom line. I don’t like to count on people for stuff, but I know I can always call you when I've screwed something up.

IM KY ruled. Now I’m stoked for some fall ultra marathon training and IMLP 2009!!!!!!