On To Louisville!

So I should be an Ironman now, right?

Well, not so fast. I just got another curve ball on the road to Ironman. Last week we made the trek to Chattanooga for the race that was on Sept 30. As we rolled into town last Thursday we were about 1 mile from the hotel when we hear on the radio that the swim portion of Ironman Chattanooga was cancelled due to flooding, strong currents and a dangerously high level of e coli in the river. The event was just going to be a bike/run. I couldn't believe after all the training that I would not be able to try a full, legit Ironman.

On Friday we went down to the Ironman Village for registration and the mandatory athlete briefing even though my heart wasn't really into it. I got registered even though for the past 12 hours I was not feeling like putting in a grueling 13 hour day on Sunday to not accomplish what I set out to do. At the athlete briefing they were very apologetic to everyone for having to cancel the swim, and especially to the 441 first timers. They over-emphasized that even though it wasn't a standard Ironman, that it would be considered one and that everyone that finished would still be called an Ironman. This didn't fly with me. No matter how much they tried to sell that, I wasn't buying. It wasn't even a triathlon anymore, so in no way was it an Ironman in my eyes.

So after we left Mandy and I went over my options. I started to look to see if there was another one coming up that I could transfer into. There are 3 left this year, Florida, Louisville and Arizona. Florida and Arizona are sold out, but Louisville was still open for registration. It is Oct 14th. Perfect. Even though I was unable to transfer my registration since I was not able to give Chattanooga a 45 day notice, I could still register and jump ship and try it again in 2 weeks. So that is what I did. Signed up for Louisville, backed out of Chattanooga, and reset my training back 2 weeks. It definitely felt like I was quitting when I was not getting ready to race like everyone else there, but the more I thought it through, there is no way I could have done Chattanooga and felt like I accomplished my goal. I would have had to do it all again next year with the 6 months of training, etc. And since I'm already in shape and would have to sign up for another race either way, I figured I may as well change plans and knock out the real thing in Louisville.

Having made the decision to skip the race, I realized I needed to get a workout in over the weekend. I had thought about just doing the bike portion of the race since I was registered and bail out on the run, but I didn't want to put in a full 116 mile training ride. I needed to go about 70 miles. Mandy said that I should do 1 loop of the 2 loop course and cut the route short. I told her that if I did that, I would be heading back to transition just ahead of the pros that did both loops and so it would look like I was in the lead! She didn't see the problem, but that would have been a hilarious to see me leading these 160 lb pro endurance athletes back into town. So instead of doing that, I opted to hit the track at a local high school .5 miles from our hotel for a run. Turns out it was the high school of the late, great Reggie White. The field is named after him, and so it was pretty cool to knock out 10 miles around Reggie White field.

Now we're back home. Did a 70 mile bike with a 2 mile run today to get back on track for another 2 week taper. We'll see if the double taper if an effective training strategy. Whether it is or not, I'm glad it worked out that Louisville in 2 weeks was still an option.

I'm ready to go dominate Louisville!