Spectator Info

Okay- so i'm going to do my best to give you as much information as possible....

but please remember- this is Hallie and I's first ironman- so there are definitely things that we don't know!!

Things I do know...
Hallie and Mom are coming over to Louisville Thursday evening after mom gets done with work.  I plan on working a 1/2 day on Friday since I'll only be 15 minutes from Lousiville!!! :-)
Thursday evening Hallie and I have plans to meet up with people from IAMTRI for a bit.

I'm assuming mom and Hallie will spend quality time together on Friday morning before I meet up with them.  Friday evening as well as saturday Louisville IM have events planned for those racing- so i'm sure we will attend some if not all of the events to really take in the IM experience.

We have rooms at the Courtyard Marriott on second street downtown.  As far as I know- we have one room Thursday and Friday nights.  Saturday night we each have our own room- because mom and Halllie snore! Not that I will be able to sleep anyways- but hopefully we can all get a little sleep because sunday will be LONG day for everyone!!!

Sunday - Hallie and I will be up by 3am to eat and hopefully lay back down for an hour.  The transition area opens at 4:45- so knowing Hallie she is going to make sure we are there at 4:40! hahahaha.  We have to stand in line for the swim- so the earlier we get there the earlier we get to jump in the water.  We hope to be in line by 5:30 -6  not sure yet.  The professionals will jump in the river at 6:50-and everyone else will follow.  Last year everyone was in the water by 7:45.  So we are hoping to be in the water by 7:30.  The swim should take both of us about 1hr and 30 minutes.  So that would be running out of the river at 9am.  Which would be starting the bike by 9:30am.  The bike should take me between 6 hrs and 20 minutes - 7 hours if all goes well.  Hallie should be between 7 and 7hrs and 30minutes.  That would mean- if all goes well I could be back at the transition area at 4pm -5pm, and if all goes well Hallie will be back betwn 5-6pm. Then we will start the marathon!! I honestly have no idea how long it will take myself or Hallie to do the complete marathon.  I can't tell you how my body will feel after swimming 2.4 and biking 112- in a perfect world- I would feel great - and run a 10 minute pace which would be around 5 hrs- putting me at the finish line at 9-10pm....and Hallie around 10-11.  But again - this is all just guesstimating!! For those of you that hvae done races in the past - you know how funny the body is- some days you feel great and could go all day long- and some days your body is just saying NO!  So that is just some times.  

Things to keep in mind:  They are an hour ahead if you are coming from Evansville.
It is going to be HOT!!   There is a lot of walking because streets will be closed - so wear comfortable shoes!

I am going to attach the swim course, bike course, and run course.  We start at Tumbleweed on the Ohio River- the transition area is about .5 miles from there.
 We bike out river road to lagrande.  We bike around Lagrande twice.  I was told this past weekend that there is a trolle that goes back and forth-but again I don't know how often it comes and goes.  I do know that river road will be closed so you would have to take 71 to get out there.  As far as the run route- we do the loop twice and finish on 4th street!!!

I really don't have any good information about where to stay- i would just say stay somewhere that is cheep!!!!  Jeffersonville is right accross the river, and new albany is right there.  However I will tell you they were working on the bridge this past weekend when we went over and traffic was awful.  THey are supposed t obe done at the end of July- but you know how construnction can be.

I am attaching the louisville ironman website.
http://ironmanlouisville.com/

swim course: http://ironmanlouisville.com/course/swim
bike course: http://ironmanlouisville.com/course/bike
run course: http://ironmanlouisville.com/course/run/

They haven't posted the road closures yet - but it is to come.  This is just some basic information - hopefully that helps.