Ironman Louisville - quick course question

Dave Tallo

For those that have course familiarity - particularly during the times of day that the bike and run take place - what percentage of the bike course, SWAG, is shaded vs exposed to the sun?   And same question for the run? 

Alan Brown

I'd say close to zero shaded on bike and run.

Jeff Kane

Bike = zero and on the run you might catch a few shady spots from the movement of the sun setting. Something to think about - being that it is a week later this year sunset is scheduled for 7:05pm so you might get a few more long shadows than in previous years. 

Paul Curtin

That would be a cool challenge to solve using geospatial analysis.  Not sure about data on tree locations - maybe glean it from Google map images

If I had to SWAG a percentage, I'd say eight and four.  There are a few spots on the bike for shade: along River Rd.; on KY-393 going north; and some on Ballard School Rd.  On the run there are the downtown buildings, and a section near the turn-around that has a lot of trees, although I didn't remember sun or shade at that point in the race.

It wasn't overly hot last year; in fact it was cold starting the bike.  I'm curious why you're asking this ... do you have some kind of solar-powered suit? 

Dave Tallo

Ha! two reasons:
1. I was riding yesterday / today in full sun and a clear sky, so I wore the super dark lenses (and not the lighter filter) that came with my pivlocks.  Except I can't see crap on my powermeter when I'm wearing the super dark lenses.  Essentially asking to inform which to bring along.
2. I was yesterday / today, and was reminded just what a big difference in rpe that running in the shade vs sun made.  Not that this is a new observation (or that I can do anything about it), but just one of those course intel kinda things.  (It will also influence if I pack my cooling jersey/crop to instead of giong with the 1 piece M-2.   

Al Truscott

Dave Tallo said:

Ha! two reasons:
1. I was riding yesterday / today in full sun and a clear sky, so I wore the super dark lenses (and not the lighter filter) that came with my pivlocks.  Except I can't see crap on my powermeter when I'm wearing the super dark lenses.  Essentially asking to inform which to bring along.
2. I was yesterday / today, and was reminded just what a big difference in rpe that running in the shade vs sun made.  Not that this is a new observation (or that I can do anything about it), but just one of those course intel kinda things.  (It will also influence if I pack my cooling jersey/crop to instead of giong with the 1 piece M-2.   

1. You will of course take all your lenses with you, and gain some on site intel on what works best on the bike, no?
2. @Paul Curtin is right - I used Google Maps prior to recent race in Penticton to assess whether there was any possibility of shade by looking for trees. We were running in downtown, with 3 times thru a Y-shaped set of 3 out n backs each about 1.6 km long, so it was easy to do. It told me not to expect any help from the trees, and was right.
3. I found putting the ice bag under my shirt right over my heart worked great to keep my blood as cool as possible in the 30C sun. But my suit zipped in the back, so that was easy to do.

Dave Tallo

Yeah, I'll bring all the lenses.   Grudgingly.  I want just one ironman where I travel light!

scott dinhofer

I recall something close to zero on the bike, but on the run, i remember the far end of the course perhaps a mile or two before the turnaround being in a pretty well shaded neighborhood (as opposed to a shady neighborhood  )
 hopefully it's a cool october day by the time the shadows start to grow

Joseph Lombardi

I concurr with Scott; Relatively zero on the bike...but on the run you can run on the side of tree covered streets....so some shade available...