First
Ironman
Race report by Jim Rhodes
Race Week:
Got into Louisville late Thursday afternoon. Got into the room and
went through athlete check in pretty easy. I was staying at the Galt
House Hotel which is the official race hotel, ground zero for the
Ironman. There were triathletes looking fit in spandex all over the
place. Each was out for a run or wheeling their $5,000 bike around
the lobby getting ready to ride from the hotel. Lots of egos, lots
of testosterone, everyone eyeing each other trying to figure out who
was fast.
Felt decent during the short workouts leading up to the race. During
the downtime in between I felt like I was getting a cold: cough, congestion,
drainage, and my asthma was acting up. Great! Just what I need before
the race.
My whole family was there in attendance: Crystal, Reed, my mom and
dad, sister Laura and her husband Justin, Crystal’s mom and
dad. Family friend Ron Horton and his wife Wendy were there also.
Ron is a huge endurance racing fan. He has done 78 marathons and counting.
Not to mention he takes great pictures. And of course my sister Katie
was racing with me!
Race Morning:
Breakfast was down before 4:00 am. I had 4 bottles of ensure (250
calories each), half a bagel with peanut butter, and some banana.
I don’t like to eat too much solid stuff before the race, because
I don’t want to be visiting the porta-potties.
Got into transition around 5:00. I knew my transition prep had to
be fast because people were lining up down the road at the swim start,
first come first serve. People were already walking toward that direction
when I got into transition. I certainly didn’t want to be last
in line. So I pumped my tires up fast and put my nutrition on my bike,
gave it one more look over and I was off. Man a 3/4 mile walk to the
start is not a great way to save energy right before an Ironman. Oh
well, everyone else had to do it. I’m guessing my sister and
I were in the first 200 or 250 people in line.
Jim and Katie just before the start, walking toward the start line
on the pier
Jim dives in
Swim:
Dove in and started swimming toward the rising sun. The swim was close
to a mile up the river, then turning around and swimming the rest
of the way down river toward downtown. It was a pretty swim, not too
congested. Because I dove in my goggles began to fill with water.
I had to stop and empty these 2 or 3 times before they sealed correctly.
I felt decent, but was not swimming straight. Every time I breathed
over my left shoulder I would go a little off course. This prevented
me from being able to draft off of anyone for very long because I
would lose their feet. Coming back into town was pretty. Swimming
toward the skyline and swimming under bridges made the time go fast.
I think I swam too close to the shore; supposedly swimming in toward
the middle gave you a better current. I seemed to be getting an upset
stomach toward the end of the swim. I think I drank too much of the
Ohio River. Not something you really want to do.
Exited the water and ran toward the changing tent. Crystal yelled
to me 1:10. I was happy with that! Come to find out later it was 1:14:09
officially. I guess there was 4 minutes before I got into the water
and after I exited before I hit the timing mats.
Jim
out of the water, headed to T1
T1:
Put on HR strap, bike shorts, Tri top, helmet, glasses, and a load
of chamois cream!
Time: 3:59
Out
of T1 and on the bike
Bike:
The first 8 miles are flat. From there you begin to roll up the hills.
The plan was to keep the heart rate under 140, and keep the HR especially
low for the first couple miles to make sure the calories are getting
into the system. My pace wasn’t as high as I wanted it to be,
but I just stayed patient. Lots of people were hammering the early
part, even standing up and cranking the hills. I knew they would come
back to me. At about mile 20 or 25, on the out and back of the course,
there is a long winding downhill. It was fast and a little scary.
I looked down at one point and was going 42 mph. It was narrow, had
a rock ledge on the right and riders going the other way on the left.
Little tight. Hills were not too bad, I took them easy knowing it
would be a long day.
On
the bike course
My stomach still had not settled from the big glass of Ohio River
that I drank. I was sticking to my nutrition plan of 275 calories
an hour on the bike, but was worried it was not being absorbed because
of my stomach trouble. Around mile 45 I had to pee. If you don’t
know about IM athletes there are two kinds; those that stop to pee
and those that don’t stop. I am the latter. I don’t want
to waste minutes when I don’t have to. It wasn’t easy,
but it did make my stomach feel better.
From that point on I was a little worried about my speed. I was on
pace for a 6+ hour bike leg. I didn’t want a 6 hour bike leg.
I knew that if I pushed my HR that my marathon would suffer. But I
sure as heck didn’t want to see a 6 hour bike split. I had had
enough of being conservative and started to pick it up. The last 30
miles of the course is a negative net gain. So I really tried to push
down that section and easily averaged around 21 mph during that stretch.
Time: 5:50:49 averaged 19.16 mph
T2:
Wow it is hard to just run to the changing tent. Saw some guys in
the changing tent that were pretty destroyed. They didn’t move
an inch from the time I got in there to the time I got out. One guy
was totally naked, except his HR strap, sitting down peeing on himself!
Never even moved. Unfortunately that is an image I won’t soon
forget.
Time 5:39
Early
in the run - look at both feet flying off the ground!
Run:
Stated running well the first mile at about an 8:30 pace. Wanted to
go under 4 hours so I knew I needed to run under 9 minute splits.
Unfortunately my heart race was way up. I knew I couldn’t hold
that. Plus this was my first marathon! So I stopped and walked to
get it under control. Started running again once it was in the low
140’s. Felt pretty good for about 5 or 6 miles. Then my HR got
too high again. So I decided if my heart rate got into the 160’s
I would walk the next aid station, if I didn’t I would run through.
Well my heart rate wasn’t always in the 160’s but did
walk the rest of the aid stations. I just kept plugging along. As
long as I ran between aid stations I was doing better than 90% of
the people. I was taking everything at the aid stations…water,
Gatorade, cold sponges, ice for down my shirt, Coke starting at mile
10. I took a bite of a Powerbar and spit it out. I couldn’t
stomach anything solid at that point. Around mile 14 coming back into
town you come within 1 block of the finish line.
Making
the turn at Mile 14 - he's still flying
That was a rough moment.
I wanted to quit. I didn’t want to run all the way back out
there to the turn around. I had been praying for motivation for a
couple weeks and at that moment I asked God “Okay I need that
motivation now.” It was a bit emotional turning around and heading
back out the same direction I was going almost 2 hours ago. I did
see my family and got an inhaler handoff from my sister (I think that
may be illegal). Once I took my inhaler I did feel better. The cold/cough
thing had been affecting my breathing and the inhaler gave me some
more oxygen. I felt better running out the second time. Coming back
I could see the miles getting closer 24…25…I ran through
the last aid station. I was ready to finish. Started pushing about
half a mile out. Maybe a little soon since I was about to hyperventilate
coming across the finish line. Don’t remember hearing the “Jim
Rhodes you are an Ironman” or anything else. But I finished,
praise God!
Run time 4:22:19.
Overall 11:36:55.
In
the finishing chute - 50 yards to the finish line
Post race:
Felt bad for about an hour. Then things started to get back to normal.
Later that night I find out my little sister Katie won her age group
and qualified for the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii,
she was doing her first Ironman too. I got off the bike about 30 minutes
ahead of her and she almost ran me down, finishing 5 minutes behind
me. She is a great runner, when she ran her first marathon in Dallas
TX in December 2006 she qualified for Boston! I’m very jealous
and very proud of her. Hopefully I will be able to accompany her to
Hawaii and be on the support crew.
Katie
and Jim surrounded by their family support crew
Click
here for lots more pictures
Return to Playbook for Life Racing
Home Page
|
