The Ironman Louisville bike course is 112 miles of "rolling hills" that takes riders out into Oldham and Henry counties through horse country. I put the term "rolling hills" in quotation marks because one could argue that some of the rollers were actually climbs, but that's just me and my love/hate relationship with the bike talking. Since biking is my weakest link in the triathlon chain, I decided the drive the course the day before the race to ease my fear of the unknown. There were lots of hills and several sharp turns that I wanted to be familiar with before going through the ride on race day. I tried not to let the difficulty of the course weigh on me as I attempted to relax before the ride, but I think everyone is a bit nervous before their first Ironman!
The ride itself was beautiful and many people came out to cheer us on. The temperature was about 85 degrees, which is much better than the 100+ degree temperatures experienced by participants in 2010. I had been warned repeatedly to make sure I had enough of my own fluids since one of the rest stops ran out of water in 2010. I was pretty sure the race officials wouldn't let something like that happen two years in a row, and I'm happy to report there was plenty of water and Perform product out there for everyone in 2011.
The bike course (much like the run course) features an out and back section followed by a double loop before heading back to the transition area. The double loop goes through the town of LaGrange, Kentucky, where a viewing area was set up for spectators to catch a glimpse of their cyclists as the they zoomed by. The viewing area was much larger than I had anticipated. There were tons of people on the streets, loud music being played and an announcer shouting out the athletes' names as they passed by. Overall, it was a really cool thing to experience twice!
But I'm getting ahead of myself...
After a quick transition from the swim to the bike, I was heading out onto the course when something went wrong. I was mounting onto my bike and got my right foot clipped into my pedal, but my left foot just refused to clip in. I tried over and over again to get my foot into the pedal, but nothing seemed to work. After a couple of miles of failure, I pulled over to see what the issue was. It turns out I must have stepped into some mud while running from the changing tents to my bike in the transition area (some parts of the lawn areas were soggy). I kept trying to get the clumps of mud out of my shoe and pedal, but I think the repeated attempts to clip in caused the mud to get firmly imbedded into my clips and my pedal. Had I had access to a faucet and scrub brush, I probably could have gotten the toe clip clean, but with limited resources, I decided I just had to just tough it out.
Most races aren't perfect and tend to throw something at you that you don't expect. Sometimes, this is half the challenge getting through the race. Of all things, this clippage issue constituted my challenge for this race. If you've ever ridden an extended period of time without your shoe clipped in, you will know that the experience is incredible painful. My left foot is the foot that had been giving me trouble during the last few weeks of training (I thought it was a potential stress fracture), so it was extra sensitive to any discomfort. The pain would eventually give way to numbness before returning again. This cycle continued for 112 miles and throughout all the climbing I did during the race. My foot only slipped out of place a couple of times during the race, but it was still difficult to maintain my form. I knew right away my bike time was going to be slower than I had hoped for, but that's the way it goes sometimes.
The out and back portion of the bike course is in the beginning (around miles 15 to 20) and is the most dangerous part of the race. I spoke with some people at the information booth at the expo who warned me about the hills on the out and back portion of the ride. There are two huge, twisting "hills" (aka. mini mountains) that riders have to go down and then up again while crossing over a bumpy bridge in between. There are always crashes at this spot, so I was advised to stay to the right and use caution. I played this part safe and took my time; it was better than getting hurt.
The remainder of the course was hill after hill with only a few miles of flatness around LaGrange. The wind was particularly strong for the race, too, which wasn't very pleasant. I had heard some people discussing their concerns about the wind before the race began, and they were certainly justified in their worries. Several times the gusts of winds were so strong that I was blown to the side of the road. It is very scary to feel like you aren't in control of your bike -- and this happened several times. Yikes!
The last 20 miles of the course were fast and mostly downhill, which was a relief. I was so happy to get off the bike and end the pain in my foot. If my left foot could talk, I'm sure it would have been singing "Hallelujah!" when I dismounted the bike. Even though the conditions were tough, my time wasn't as slow as I thought it was going to be. This portion of the course definitely pushed me to the limit mentally and showed that sometimes the only thing that gets you through difficulty is a "mind over matter" attitude.
Overall assessment of the bike -- Ok, considering the circumstances.
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