Bill Eckert's IM Louisville 2017 Race Report
WOW!! I AM AN IRONMAN!!!!
This being my first Ironman, I could stop right there and for most people that would be enough. All most people want to know is if you can still walk. If they only knew how much more there is to this experience. The problem is that you have to train for it and do it to really understand what it means and most people see this as being outside of their capabilities and will never even start with even a smaller event.
That is exactly where I was 7 years ago. In October 2010, I signed up to raft the Gauley River in West Virginia with some high school friends. I watched some videos online and thought I was going to die if I did not do something to at least get in some shape before I went, so I started walking every day. I found out that one of my friends had started doing triathlons. He was a lineman on the football team in high school and I thought man he must be super skinny. Well, when I got there he looked like himself. He was fit, but he was not super thin. I asked him about the triathlon thing he was doing and he told me about the sprint and Olympic distances. It was during that weekend that I said out loud (oooops) that when I got back I was going to find one of those sprint races and sign up for it and do it. I did that and my first race was scheduled for April 2011.
I started training using Beginner Triathlete. I got into what they call a Mentor Group and it was fantastic. I actually found EN back then but none of what they were saying made sense. I was focused on my sprint race and everything they had was directed towards something called long course. In the process of training and being in the mentor group, I read stories of people doing HIM races. I did not know what that was so I looked it up. I instantly thought those people are absolutely insane and I will never in my life do one of those much less a full. Well I completed that first sprint race and I was hooked.
From there, I did another sprint race, the Atlanta Half Marathon, and the Tough Mudder. I continued doing races but started losing my interest in things from 2013 through late 2014. I was still running a little and biking a little but just had not done many races. It was in September of 2014 that I decided I was going to do a Half Ironman. I decided on Augusta 70.3 as that was the race I had always looked at as being my best shot for a first HIM. Now I needed to train. I remembered that group that was all about the long course and I found them and signed up for my free month. I could see that there was a lot to this team and I knew I needed to go ahead and pull the trigger and join so I did.
Over the next year I trained for the race. I had thoughts of doing others again in the future and possibly one day doing an Ironman. After completing Augusta 70.3, I swore I would never do another one of those and definitely never an Ironman. Then with just a little time, I was itching to do another one. I signed up for Chattanooga 70.3 and Augusta 70.3 for 2016.
I ended up getting through Chattanooga with some injuries but was in a much better place for Augusta last year. Then Augusta showed up with some real heat and it was tough. I made it through it but I think that was mostly because I had a big plan for the end. Some of you may remember that I proposed to My fiancé, Tonya, at the end of the race.
I was planning to come back to Augusta in 2017 until a friend of mine told me that a group in our city was looking at doing B2B in 2017 and I should really consider doing it. I was nowhere near ready for a full but I decided I would. Then B2B got changed and we switched to Louisville.
LOUISVILLE 2017
So here we are. This past weekend was an awesome experience. I am so glad that I made the effort to connect with people from the team. It totally changed my experience in a good way. @Scott Dinhofer said it best in his race report, “If you don’t connect with team members during the race weekends, you are missing the biggest opportunity to capitalize on the EN experience.” I made some new friends and learned so much from everyone. It truly felt like a team.
My race was everything I expected and a little more thanks to the weather that came through during the race. I did the best I could given my fitness level and the course conditions on that day. I think that is all any of us can do.
RACE MORNING
Did the wake wake up early applesauce thing. Then while waiting on the swim drank bottle of GE and ate a nut butter filled Clif bar.
SWIM - 1:21:09
I found one of my friends from my home town before I found @Brian Smith in the corrals. I told Brian we were looking for the other guys from my home group to say hi to and that I was coming back. We never found any of the others so the three of us hung out and started the swim together. We did see @Francis Picard as he was moving through the crowd to find where he wanted to position himself.
The portion of the swim that was upstream definitely had more contact than after we made the turn around the buoy to head downstream. I swam through a patch of diesel about half way through the swim. Then my right hamstring cramped about 2/3 of the way through. Not sure why because I do not kick very much and it has never happened before. Just relaxed and started making sure I was belly breathing and completely exhaling and it went away.
As I was coming out of the water and headed toward T1, I heard my name and looked back and it was Brian Smith. Wow, we started at the same time and ended at the same time. That was incredible.
T1 - 13:04
Brian and I got our bags and sat down in transition together. I just wanted to move through the tent and get going. I think a lot of the time in transition comes from the long distance from swim exit to the tent and then from the tent to the mount line. I walked all of that as I knew I had a long day ahead of me.
BIKE - 7:38:24
I was projecting somewhere between 7:30 to 8:00 so I feel pretty good about the bike. I stayed in my box for the most part. I had some troubles as I came up on two of my friends from home just after the first time through La Grange. They ride completely opposite of EN and they thought they had caught me which really confused me when my average speed at that point was 15.4 mph and they have never ever ridden much more than 14 mph back home. I had to reconcile that and eventually did as I slowly kept pulling away from them. I finally just decided that where they were at just did not matter. Once I did that I got back in my box. The winds got bad from mile 40 through 55 but not unbearable. I was able to stay aero a good bit which really helped. I just kept trying to spin through the head wind. The second loop was pretty good until about mile 72 when it just seemed to get really cold. Looking at my data, the temperature dropped right there from 66 to 54 in about 20 minutes. Then too add to that it started pouring down rain at about mile 82 and did not stop until about mile 98. That was brutal. I will say that I was going to stop to pee at the next aid station before the rain started because I did not want to have to rinse off and get colder but once it started raining I just let it rip. I figured I was getting a bath anyway so why not. I did my best to stay in my box given the rain and wind but it was hard. I was getting passed by a lot of people going up the hills. Now this is my favorite part. The rain had pretty much stopped by the time we made the right turn out of Prospect but it was still really windy. I got on my aeros and just started pedaling. I passed all of those people that were passing me plus some because I still had legs and they were spent from hammering the hills. I was not working too hard so I was good. That was super fun. Got out of my shoes about a mile from dismount. I cannot do a flying dismount yet but I can pedal on top of my shoes. Just stopped at the dismount line, left the shoes on the bike and headed for T2.
Nutrition for the bike was really good. I had my Speedfil full plus one bottle of GE at the start. I grabbed two bottles of GE at each aid station until it got cold Then was grabbing only one bottle. I left two bottles of GE on the bike when I was finished. I ate 1/4 Power bar and 2 of the little blocks from the ClifBloks every hour. At special needs I ate 2/3 PB&J, about 1/2 bag of Lay's and a 20 oz coke. Never had any issues and felt good the whole time. I do think the cold and rain messed me up a little as I think I just did not drink enough during that time to make sure I was topped off for the run.
T2 - 14:24
I just walked to the bags and tent to let my legs and feet recover a little. I was cold and needed a shirt but thought I had only left a shirt in my special needs bag. I had made up my mind that I could get through until special needs. Then when I opened my run gear bag and there was a short sleeve running shirt in my bag. I guess I had put it in there just in case the temperature dropped a little faster than what they were predicting. It was exactly exactly what I needed. Made quick stop at the port a potties and got going. Started running slowly as I left the tent.
RUN - 6:42:08
I got through all of the trials of the day but it has taken the love and support of everyone around me to accomplish this goal. Most of all my fiance Tonya. She has encouraged me the whole way through the training when I would start to doubt myself and she was there the entire race day cheering me on. I think in some ways that the training and race day is harder on the people that are around you than it is on you. That was one of my top reasons to not quit on race day. If I quit then all of their sacrifices to help me were for nothing.
In the end it was a day that I will never forget. The feeling that I had when I turned that final corner for the last 0.2 miles towards the finish line was incredible. The streets were lined with people cheering you on, the motivational music playing loud at the finish line, and the announcer at the finish line announcing the arrival of those in front of you. In that moment you forget about all of your pains and struggles of the day and you remember that one reason why you would not quit. For me it was my Dad. He passed away unexpectedly earlier this year while on a cruise with my Mom. They were on a beach in Haiti when something happened while he was snorkeling and he drowned. It was a very tough time. He always told me after I started doing this triathlon thing how happy and proud he was of me for what I was doing. He was really excited about me attempting this Ironman and I know he would have been super happy to see me finish. I know he had a better view than if he was here but I sure wish he was here to share the stories with. I love him and miss him. He was my one reason all day long.
And then it was my turn to hear those words that I
had trained so hard for, BILL ECKERT, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!
Comments
I'm so sorry to hear about your Dad (my tears!) but you honored him so much taking him along with you on your journey. My parents never saw me attempt any athletic endeavors, so I "bring" them along with me to races even though my Dad would have thought my "fun hobby" was NUTZ! It's so special that your Dad told you how proud he was of you for taking on something new!
Again, congrats on becoming IRON, and recover hard, enjoy the glow and ouch! You earned it!
Your bike time was excellent! Most of us had much slower times than expected. It seems your long training rides paid dividends on race day, and that was an incredibly-difficult weather system to deal with.
Thanks for sharing the story of your dad with us. There was nothing that could have stopped you from finishing. Congrats my friend!
I'm glad we got to meet and share the race together!
Bill - Many congrats on a fantastic race....and doesn't it feel good to hear those words crossing the line! Thanks for the shout out on the run...it was great to see you on the day. Thanks for sharing your story above and great to meet last week.
Now onto wedding plans....enjoy the coming weeks on life's next gift...
Look forward to seeing what comes next for you.
Just one more thought, congratulations on be selected by your peers to bring home the the Game Ball! IMO, bringing home the game ball of a 4X world champion, Division I Tri-club, having been selected by your peers is more special than the IM medal you got when you crossed the finish line. It says a thousand words!
Keep Leading!
SS
Congratulations on the race and best of luck with the wedding!
@Jeff Kane Those were some tough conditions but it was sooo much fun. Just makes the story even better.
@Trish Marshall Thank you. My Dad did support me but he also thought I was NUTZ as you said.
@Paul Curtin Thank you. You contributed a lot to my questions during training about those long bikes. Your advice really helped me keep my focus in the right direction at the right times. Congrats to you! What an incredible day you had!!
@Dawn Cass Thank you. Really enjoyed meeting you and Julian at the team breakfast. Tonya is still talking about Julian. She really enjoyed talking to him. Tonya is happy this is done. At least now I can actually answer her questions about the wedding. Two more weeks. Feeling really excited!
@Shaughn Simmons Thank you. You have given me a lot of great advice and encouragement over the past few years. Getting the game ball was very huge to me. I never expected it and I am truly blown away.
@Sabra Gonzalez Thank you. You had an amazing first IM. I can't wait to see what you will do over the next years as you continue to hone your skills.
@Brian Hagan Thank you. It was a crazy day out there. Looking forward to the wedding. Hopefully things will not be so crazy on that day. I know, good luck with that, right.
@Derrek Sanks Thank you. It has been a fantastic journey. Funny that you say just getting started. I always said one and done for IM. However, now that I have completed one, I find myself wanting to see what I am really capable of.
@Al Truscott Thank you. You always have a way of saying things that really makes me reflect on things. You have been an inspiration and have always given great advice and encouragement.