1. Ironman Louisville was extremely organized and well supported. There was never a time when I felt out of sorts or had to wait.
2. I hated that Saturday’s practice swim gave the river a “huge current” label. There’s no question is was strong, but the fastest swim time (46 minutes) was not out of line with previous years. In fact, two years had faster times (2009 and 2010) and two others had the same fastest swim time (2007 and 2023).
3. The swim channel was very congested and full of contact. It’s also longer than I thought after watching for two years. I clocked it on my bike the day before and it’s at least a half mile just to get to the main river channel.
4. Despite multiple warnings, I still underestimated the distance to the first turn buoy. I’m guessing it’s around .7 miles or close to 1/3 of the course that is virtually upstream.
5. The roads on the bike course were actually very nice. I’d heard how rough they were but I didn’t experience that (except for a few times when I tangled with the rumble strips and coming back on River Road).
6. I didn’t think there were any really hard climbs on the bike course. It was all rolling stuff that I mostly covered with downhill momentum. That’s not to say it isn’t difficult. There were more hills than I expected and the heat makes a big difference. The out and back is dicey, but the road wasn’t as narrow as what I expected from the horror stories.
7. They moved the bike dismount this year and (by my fault, I’m sure) I missed that information. That was a brutally long run in bike shoes (I stopped halfway to take them off). I was fully planning to leave my shoes on the bike, but by the time I realized we wouldn’t take that corner there was no time. For the life of me, I do not understand why the city or Ironman doesn’t pay a handyman a couple hundred bucks to fix that lip coming off the sidewalk onto the road. It’s been like that since I started watching 3 years ago.
8. When your friends tell you there is no shade on the run, believe them. It’s really quite comical when you see a 10 foot patch of shade from an overhanging tree and you think it is heaven.
9. The finish line is great. The proximity of everything to downtown is awesome. Loved ambling about in Louisville.
10. Conditions were very difficult, not only by Louisville standards, but for any Ironman. Consider this post on SlowTwitch by 3rd place pro, Patrick Evoe: 