My Inside View Of IRONMAN LOUISVILLE

 I put out my Ironman Louisville Race Report several weeks ago, but I wanted to include these "Inside View" pictures of my Ironman.  It's probably way too much information and details - but I feel like it's all a part of my Ironman experience :)  (above - my suitcase of "clothes" for the weekend! --- usually I can fit 5 people's clothes in this suitcase for a weekend!)

 my food supplies - I brought my breadmaker to make pizza dough and my waffle maker to make fuel for my bike ride.

 the bags required for each transition

 

 pre-race meeting

 probably too much information here --- but it's the women's changing tent the day before the race.  many people have asked me how I changed my clothes and transitioned from one event to the next.  These chairs were filled with women changing, resting, fueling, etc. 

 number 479 - there's my bags! :)

 lots of bags!  some people mark their bags with fancy tape and strings --- they are in numerical order, so I think that helps.

 my bike row

 lots of bikes

 the support area - lots of supplies needed.

 my sister in law and I took a little tour of Louisville on Saturday afternoon

 I thought these "hearts" hanging on the tree were really cool next to a church

 homemade pizza!

 transition on race morning

 waiting in the LONG line to get in the water

 I've gone where no Sara Randolph has gone before ---- 112 miles on my bike!!! 

 I AM AN IRONMAN!!

I AM EXHAUSTED!! 

not the best picture of me, but you can see how sunburned my legs are and the phone felt like it weighed 10 pounds :)  but the best part--- I was talking to my family and they were telling me that they had just watched the live feed of me finishing my Ironman.  The excitement in their voices made me proud.

I can't believe it's been a little over a month since I became an Ironman.  There are days that I still can't believe it!  Over the last month, I feel like I've gone through a bit of withdraw from the 3 hour weekday workouts and the 4-8 hour weekend workouts.  I've managed to keep up my pool workouts at least 3 times a week and thrown in some biking at least 2 times a week.   I've got my final race of the season coming up - the NYC Marathon and I'm really excited to see what I can do there for pace. 

There are days where ideas swirl through my head about what I could have done differently in Louisville.  I know I'll get that chance next summer in Boulder...... and Madison.  Yes, I'm signed up for 2 Ironman races next year!    I'm definitely going to work on my endurance for the run - I thought it would be so easy to do the run... I've done 15 marathons... I thought that I just needed to get through the bike part and the marathon would be my comfort zone - but I was so exhausted and it was 92 degrees almost all day.  I'm going to continue with my race nutrition that seemed to work for me and my legs felt great all day so I'll continue to do my brick workouts (bike to run transitioning)

I'm reading a book right now called Racing Wisely by Sage Roundtree.  I've got to work on my mental running.  I can do it! - I'm stronger than I think!  It's my new motto.  I've recently had some really great tempo runs - last Sunday I ran 18 miles at a sub-8min pace.