I took off SPRINTING for the bike start. I had no idea how fast he would get out on his bike and I wanted to make sure I saw him out the bike chute. Apparently I didn't need to sprint, he took more time than I thought he would in transition ;) Finally saw him riding down the chute. I yelled something about nutrition (since he tends to forget to eat) and he yelled "How's that for a long transition?!"
I then walked about a block away and stood in line to take a shuttle bus to LaGrange, Kentucky. LaGrange is a small town just north of Louisville that has the pleasure of having all of these triathletes ride through their town at miles 40 and 70 of the race. I stood in line for a long time and was starting to get nervous that I was going to miss Josh's first loop in LaGrange. Luckily I made it on a bus just in time. LaGrange was set up in a town festival kind of atmosphere. Food, vendors, loud music, you name it. And then there is the main drag in LaGrange... lined with people on both sides of the street for probably a mile long screaming at all the bikers as they come through! It was awesome! I tried to strategically place myself (for the best pictures and so Josh would see me) along the street. He came barreling through, looking calm and laidback, right on pace! I had enough time to grab a bite to eat and then headed back to the same spot (figuring he would look for me there again) and got to cheer for him yet again for mile 70!!! Every time I saw him on the race course it was like a burst of adrenaline! So good to see him and know he was doing alright.
Josh's first loop through LaGrange
Second loop through LaGrange
I took the shuttle bus back to Louisville and actually had about 45 minutes to hang out in my hotel room until he was due to finish the bike. I then situated myself just outside the entrance to the bike chute and saw a not-so-happy Josh finishing on the bike. His pace was awesome... right around 19 mph for the entire ride. He paced around 20 mph for the first 3/4 of the race and then fell off after that.
Josh headed toward the bike finish
According to Josh, the first part of the bike went well. Lots of hills. He heard over and over "this course is consistently inconsistent." Meaning he was continuously changing gears. I could tell via the athlete tracker that things were going well for him on this stage of the race since he was riding at exactly the pace he wanted to be at.
The main story from the bike starts at the mile 80 aid station. Typically what happens as you get to an aid station on the bike is the biker pitches an old water just as they get to the aid station (to make room for the new water bottle) and then a volunteer hands them a new cold water bottle on the other side as they're leaving. Josh pitched a 3/4 full water bottle that was warm in hopes of getting cold water. He soon learned that was a bad decision as the volunteers start yelling that they are out of water. BAD NEWS. You can not be out of water for an endurance event with 3000 athletes on a day that is 95 degrees with 90% humidity. That just spells disaster. From here on out Josh saw amazing things... local Kentuckians that lived along the race route bringing their hoses out to the road and letting bikers fill up their bottles and some actually bringing their own water bottles out of their houses and giving them to the racers. But obviously that wasn't enough. Josh didn't have enough water to sustain him from 80-112 miles on the bike and thus started getting stomach cramps. This would then set the tone for the rest of his race that day (and hundreds of other athletes as well we found out later).
All in all, Josh is happy with his bike performance. He still finished with a great time despite not having adequate fluid on the last 30 miles. He said he saw one guy with a flat tire just 3 miles into the course... how would you like that start to the day? He said he couldn't count the number of bikers he saw just sitting on the road, with mechanical difficulties or just plain exhausted. And there were more bike crashes than you'd like to know about. We heard an amazing story of one guy that had FOUR flat tires over the course of the race and after he exhausted his own supplies, other generous racers gave him their spare CO2 cartridge and tires so he could continue. But probably my favorite story from the bike course... a guy ended up somehow breaking his pedal at one point during the race. Tech services arrived and tried to help him, but it was unfixable. He sat in despair on the side of the road knowing his year of training and his dream of being an Ironman was going up in smoke due to a stinking mechanical deficiency in his bike. Low and behold, another triathlete that was a complete stranger, rode past him and saw him on the side of the road with a broken bike. The racer was struggling already in the race and knew he wouldn't finish. He turned around and went and GAVE his bike to the racer sitting on the ground so that guy would have a chance to finish when he knew he wouldn't!!! It just gives me chills!
If you want to know why Josh and I are so crazy about triathlons, this is one of the number one reasons. The people that do these races are amazing. It is a tight knit community where everyone is welcome and everyone wants to help. It doesn't matter how slow or fast you are, if this is your 100th race or your 1st race, everyone wants to talk to you and hear your story! I love it!
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